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March 30, 2023 11:00am by David Farrar

A submission that speaks for itself

Submission-on-the-Severe-Weather-Emergency-Recovery-Legislation-Bill Download

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Comment25

NZ Politics
NZ Initiative
urgency

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Comments (25)

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Colville

We do not request an opportunity to provide an oral submission; the process is a disgrace.

🙂
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March 30, 2023 11:04am
freedom101

Another opportunity for Act and National to declare they would immediately repeal a piece of legislation.
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March 30, 2023 11:41am
greenjacket

National voted for this totalitarian BS. ACT voted Hell No.
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March 30, 2023 11:44am
- Loddenthinks
  
  That’s all we should need to know in order to make an informed decision come October. Vote ACT if you want something more than LabourLite.
  
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  March 30, 2023 11:56am
- ISeeRed
  
  G from Dunedin, National is still our only hope, right? RIGHT?
  
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  March 30, 2023 3:54pm
jp_1983

Considering that the Nats voted for the 1st reading I don’t think repeal is on the horizion.

https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20230328_20230328_28
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March 30, 2023 11:51am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  “…. for the reasons that I’ve said, we do support this bill at its first reading, ….”
  
  Wonder if you just “accidentally” missed Chris Penk’s comment about a “first reading”…. and other points of concern within the Bill raised by the National speakers ?
  
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  March 30, 2023 1:34pm
Widogast Corwin

I think Eric Crampton was removed from the Government’s Christmas Card list a long time ago 🙂

His criticism of the EV subsidies is withering 🙂

https://www.nzinitiative.org.nz/reports-and-media/opinion/new-opinion-27/

“The branch of economics that has studied how best to assess whether a policy might improve people’s experienced wellbeing is welfare economics. People’s own assessment of their wellbeing is at the heart of that analysis. That makes it inherently non-elitist.

The contrast is with paternalistic policies that treat people’s preferences as the problem rather than something to be respected. People who have choices will make the ‘wrong’ choices. Instinctively, paternalists wish to reduce the public’s scope for choice. They may want to prohibit what is not mandated. The Commission comes close to both on petrol versus electric cars. The government may have the same instincts.”
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March 30, 2023 12:07pm
Swifty

“Open and transparent….”

Liars.

The slave has become the master.
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March 30, 2023 12:15pm
70andstilllearning

“severe weather event means any of the following weather events:
(a)
Cyclone Hale, which crossed the North Island during the period commencing on 8 January 2023 and ending on 12 January 2023:”
https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2023/0242/latest/LMS825637.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022%E2%80%9323_South_Pacific_cyclone_season#:~:text=Tropical%20Cyclone%20Hale,-Category%201%20tropical&text=On%20January%207%2C%20Tropical%20Low,FMS%20naming%20it%20as%20Hale.

“The FMS issued their last advisory on Hale by the next day as it moved east-southeast towards the TCWC Wellington’s area of responsibility,[29] where they reclassified it as an extratropical low six hours later.[30]”

So NZ ‘s legislative drafters are now into the business of changing history by formalising media/govt bs into legislation!
Hale was never classified as a Cyclone while in TCWC Wellington’s area.
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March 30, 2023 1:06pm
- Mike
  
  That would have been a valuable submission. Perhaps the select committee members will read your comment though over the weekend, so that when they report on the bill on Wednesday they will propose an amendment to clause 4(1) to strike out the words ‘Cyclone Hale’ and replace them with the words ‘ex-Cyclone Hale’.
  
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  March 30, 2023 4:17pm
Lucia Maria

The submission doesn’t speak for itself, as it assumes the reader knows what is going on. Also, the format of a little document in a window is makes it more difficult to engage with. That aside, I’ve seen the text of the submission on Twitter, but it didn’t make any sense to me as to what the actual problem was, so I looked at it, shrugged and moved on. And I’m politically engaged.

There is so much happening right now, a summary would be appreciated.
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March 30, 2023 1:25pm
- Widogast Corwin
  
  “…it assumes the reader knows what is going on.”
  
  Fair comment. However it looks like they wrote this late at night under crazy time pressure. In this case, you are not the target audience. It is the drafters of the Bill.
  
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  March 30, 2023 1:31pm
  - Lucia Maria
    
    I’m not the target of the bill, true. However, DPF said that it was a “submission that speaks for itself”. For a blog audience, it does not speak for itself.
    
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    March 30, 2023 1:34pm
    - Widogast Corwin
      
      I just read it again carefully. It seems quite clear.
      
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      March 30, 2023 1:49pm
- Mike
  
  It’s very straightforward.
  The usual legislative process is for a bill to be introduced and debated in the house of representatives before it is sent to a select committee for considered scrutiny. The committee will usually call for submissions, with time for interested parties to prepare submissions and sometimes present them in person. The committee discusses the bill and refers it back to the house with recommendations for changes, etc. The house debates the bill again and when all is agreed it is passed to the governor-general to approve and becomes law.
  The process can be drawn out for years, or severely truncated as desired by the government. Bills can be passed under urgency, bypassing much of the usual scrutiny. Geoffrey Palmer described NZ’s legislative process as ‘the fastest law in the west’.
  This can be a strength, when emergencies require immediate law changes, a but a weakness when proper consideration is needed.
  The unusual feature in this case is the pretense of seeking submissions, but without any time for interested parties to make submission, or for the select committee to consider any such submissions.
  
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  March 30, 2023 1:38pm
  - SteveEEE
    
    Mike while I take your point, the government has been remiss. Where I live – Buller on the West Coast of the South Island – it has been getting on to *two years* since one catastrophic event, and just over one year since another. A formal request for government to come up with some cash was made many months ago. Initially a response was promised in October.
    
    The local report that framed the request for support was a highly political document forged via very competing world views. Given these it was a miracle. But what is needed here is actually to move the town of Westport. Initially there was no constituency for this but as time as gone on and on, and on, more voices in favour are beginning to be heard.
    
    The cyclone has now perhaps upended all the logic underneath anything to do with natural disasters. The bill lets government do anything. In spite ofmy own distaste for much of what is produced by the “initiative” I think Robbo and co should pull their heads in and do this properly. They’ve had nearly to years to do something in Buller and they haven’t. Rush? Sigh.
    
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    March 30, 2023 6:33pm
- Matt Long
  
  I haven’t read thebill and don’t intend to, however I understand the purpose of the bill is temporarily suspend aspects of the RMA so that emergency repairs to roading, infrastructure and land can take place.
  If that is the case a convoluted process wouldn’t be helpful.
  
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  March 30, 2023 5:38pm
  - greenjacket
    
    Matt. You are flat out wrong.
    The Act allows a Minister to set aside or modify a huge range of laws (not just the RMA – there is an entire schedule of laws that can be modified) in the entire North Island except Wellington and Taranaki until 2028. It can be for any reason – including social, economic and cultural development or resilience.
    I read the Bill.
    
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    March 30, 2023 9:58pm
Mike

FFS. If a government needs emergency legislation with no time for a submissions process or select committee review – just do it as has been done dozens of times before.
Don’t make it farcical by adding the pretense of normal process.
Or just act immediately and legislate retrospectively.
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March 30, 2023 1:26pm
Widogast Corwin

The NZI is bang on correct. It is insane that New Zealand needs to pass specific legislation every time there is a major earthquake or extreme weather event. Surely there can be fit for purpose legislation with graduated responses triggered according to the severity of the event and the size of the area affected?

You would have thought that in the decade following the Christchurch earthquakes all this could have been attended to.
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March 30, 2023 1:28pm
- Mike
  
  Until the mid-80s, there was the Public Safety Conservation Act, which gave the government very broad powers to declare states of emergency and regulate to meet them immediately.
  
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  March 30, 2023 1:44pm
Nostradamus

I haven’t looked at the Bill and explanatory memorandum, but a question that comes to mind is why would the Government do this now? What matter of public urgency needs to be addressed today that didn’t need to be addressed yesterday? And what political mileage does the government think will come from rushing this Bill into legislation under urgency, compared to following the usual considered process? I’m not suggesting anyone here at Kiwiblog could answer these questions on behalf of the Government, but I’m genuinely baffled.
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March 30, 2023 2:53pm
- Mike
  
  This story didn’t made it a bit, but not much, clearer:
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/131491641/cylcone-recovery-bill-to-cut-red-tape-introduced-by-government
  
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  March 30, 2023 3:53pm
- Mike
  
  I got a bit more curious. the bill permits regulations (made by the executive) to amend a whole lot of acts (made by the whole parliament). I think these are called Henry VIII clauses.
  The acts that can be summarily amended include
  the Building Act, Climate Change Response Act, Conservation Act, Freedom Camping Act, Immigration Act, Land Transport Act, Local Government Act, Public Works Act, Resource Management Act, Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act
  and a few more.
  
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  March 30, 2023 4:04pm

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