The Regulations Review Committee has examined the Secondary Legislation Confirmation Bill and recommends that it be passed. We recommend all amendments unanimously.

The purpose of this bill is to confirm certain secondary legislation that would be revoked if not confirmed by an Act of Parliament by a specified date. The bill relates to secondary legislation made in the year ending 30 June 2022.

In passing this bill, the House would confirm the instruments set out in the bill, allowing them to continue in force.

As part of our consideration of the bill, we have examined its consistency with principles of legislative quality. We have no issues regarding the legislation’s design to bring to the attention of the House.

As introduced, the bill includes 26 instruments for confirmation. (Below, we propose adding one further instrument.)

Matters covered in the instruments include:

• reducing the size of security levies for domestic and international air travellers

• prohibiting the importation of motor vehicles with inaccurate odometers without the consent of the Minister of Customs

• altering fees and levies charged to the dairy industry

• establishing a new levy for wineries, payable to the Fruit Wine & Cider Makers Association of New Zealand Incorporated

• amending various fees and levies for animal products, such as increasing the annual levy for the export of processed honey products

• broadening the definition of “assistance dogs”

• establishing new railway track user charges for rail freight operators

• imposing carbon dioxide charges on new registrations of certain light vehicles.

We asked the Ministers and government departments responsible for administering the instruments to explain why each instrument should be confirmed. We wrote to the following Ministers:

• the Minister for Food Safety

• the Minister for Biosecurity

• the Minister of Customs

• the Minister of Transport

• the Minister of Agriculture.

After considering the responses, we found no reason why the orders and regulations should not be confirmed. We thank the Ministers for their responses and their cooperation with our processes for the bill.

Due to an oversight, the Forests (Regulation of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Regulations 2022 was not included in the bill as introduced.

The regulations result from amendments made in 2020 to the Forests Act 1949. They established a new regulatory system for log traders and forestry advisers, including the establishment of the Forestry Authority.

The regulatory system includes obligations on log traders and forestry advisers to be registered on the forestry register, and provides for a process to resolve complaints and disputes relating to registered persons.

We recommend inserting clause 17A into Part 3 of the bill. These regulations would otherwise be revoked on 30 June 2023.