General policy statement
This Bill is 1 of a package of 3 omnibus Bills that contains amendments to legislation administered by the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (the Ministry). The policy objective of the Bill is to improve regulatory systems by ensuring that they are effective and efficient and accord with best regulatory practice. The amendments will achieve this objective by—
clarifying and updating statutory provisions to give effect to the purpose of various Acts and their provisions:
addressing regulatory duplication, gaps, errors, and inconsistencies within and between different pieces of legislation:
keeping the regulatory system up to date and relevant:
removing unnecessary compliance costs and costs of doing business.
The amendments were identified as part of the Ministry’s regulatory systems work programme, which arises from the chief executive’s responsibility to relevant Ministers for the stewardship of the legislation administered by the Ministry under section 32 of the State Sector Act 1988.
The Bill responds to the New Zealand Productivity Commission’s June 2014 report, Regulatory Institutions and Practices. The New Zealand Productivity Commission found that it can be difficult to find time on the Parliamentary calendar for “repairs and maintenance”
of existing legislation. As a result, regulatory agencies often have to work with legislation that is out of date or not fit for purpose. This creates unnecessary costs for regulators and regulated parties and means that regimes may not keep up with public or political expectations.
This Bill, the Regulatory Systems (Housing) Amendment Bill, is a vehicle for these smaller regulatory fixes to be progressed in a timely and cost-effective fashion in order to deliver the flow-on benefits to business and the wider economy. It includes the following amendments:
Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Act 1992
The amendments to the Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Act 1992 simplify the role of the Community Housing Regulatory Authority and reduce the administrative burden on registered community housing providers (CHPs) by removing the requirement for CHPs to provide information that is not relevant to their ability to meet the performance standards for registration.
Retirement Villages Act 2003
The amendments to the Retirement Villages Act 2003 clarify the penalty for contravening section 92(2) of that Act.