This govt. legislation will change our country like never before – learn about it like your country depends on it – because it does

Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, December 21st, 2024 - 12 comments
Categories: Abuse of power, accountability, act, capitalism, david seymour, Dirty Politics, national/act government - Tags: , , , ,

In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:

David Seymour’s Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater Risks

Why Seymour’s exorbitant waste of taxpayers’ money could be the least of concern

The money for Seymour (~$230mn) is a rub, but there’s something more jarring hidden in the Ministry of Regulation remit

Seymour —

“In some ways, this (Ministry) is a giant exercise in allowing voters to identify bad regulation so we can stop making it, so we can delete it, so we can get rid of it, so people can spend more time doing transformational activity.”

I wasn’t far off with the warnings.

Melanie Nelson recently wrote an excellent summation about the rather boringly named “Regulatory Standards Bill” (RSB) – a piece of legislation invoked by Seymour as the partner to the Treaty Principles Bill.

She warns that while the pre-law bill has largely flown under the radar, its implications – and risks – are profound.

Jane Kelsey, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Auckland has also highlighted its history, meaning and risks.

To summarise the impact of the RSB in my very simplistic layman terms:

It basically gives the Minister of Regulation extraordinary powers to decide which laws are “good”, which bills (laws) should be killed off or re-shaped before they even get off the ground, what principles all laws need to adhere to, and it also opens up our law-making process to significant manipulation and public pressure campaigns – the ones that ACT affiliates like multi-million dollar cashed up Taxpayers Union and Hobsons Pledge are most adept at.

In her article, Nelson highlights the creation of an effective “legal strait jacket” around our lawmakers and courts:

One made in the image of Atlas Network ideals – which are to my simplistic mind – free market is king, trickle down economics works and corporations & the wealthiest are supreme ideals – consistently hidden under the guise of “personal freedom”, “property rights” and “equality”.

Melanie already covered most of it in her article, but I want to highlight 5 significant points:

  • The Regulatory Standards Bill (RSB) will establish a regulatory standards board to keep the courts out of law-making That goes against the way our democratic systems are set up to balance power between our three branches of government: the Courts (Judiciary), the Executive, and the legislature (MPs) i.e. it’s a power grab that tears at our constitutional framework.
  • His law will allow libertarian ideals to be entrenched into law e.g. free market, pro-property, and those demonstrated by this Coalition government in practice i.e. anti-environmentalism, anti-Te-Tiriti, pro-property rights, pro-ownership rights, laws can not impose obligations retrospectively4 etc.
  • The power he gives himself is extraordinary in its scope and potential. For example, the Minister can direct a Board to investigate regulations (laws) that do not comply with Seymour’s defined criteria. Alternatively, the public – and pressure groups such as Taxpayers Union – can lobby for it.
  • The “regulation” he’s talking about is not simply second-tier regulations; the bill would impose its discipline on the drafting of statutes by ministers and MPs. i.e. drafting of bills to become law
  • It will penalise NZ for any future legislation that aims to roll back e.g. fast track detrimental impacts….i.e it binds NZ to the neoliberal, trickle down, pro-corporate model

Newsroom’s Jonathan Milne reported last month that a prior version of the Bill provided a role for the Courts.

That no longer exists.

This speaks to the brazenness of this government – as well as how weak we as the public are in the absence of significant public interest journalism and mouthpieces.

In Wellington last month, Seymour made the farcical, non-evidentiary claim that:

“New Zealand’s low wages can be blamed on low productivity, and low productivity can be blamed on poor regulation.”

No mention of how productivity genuinely improves – science, investment, technology, education, happiness, infrastructure, environment.

Finally, Seymour’s bill and his success relies on the opaque nature of the concepts he uses, an intellectually weak and morally vacuous PM and government Cabinet, and a weak and complicit media.

Seymour will be betting that through couching his legislation with positive words and claims, he can win the public relations battle on it e.g. Seymour claims his RSB will help promote “higher productivity, and higher wages” in NZ. Non-evidence and fact based claims are Seymour’s forte.

Without resources, money and mouthpieces, it’s hard to battle:

One ring to rule them all; Lord of the Rings.

One law to rule them all; Aotearoa New Zealand.

Written submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill close on 7 January, with consultation on the Regulatory Standards Bill ending on 13 January.

Submission link: https://consultation.regulation.govt.nz/rsb/have-your-say-on-regulatory-standards-bill/

Original article: https://mountaintui.substack.com/p/8-act-party-creates-one-ring-to-rule/comments

REMEMBER TREATY PRINCIPLES BILL too – 7 January

12 comments on “This govt. legislation will change our country like never before – learn about it like your country depends on it – because it does ”

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  1. Mike the Lefty 1
    21 December 2024 at 8:55 am

    Exactly what I have argued for weeks.

    Seymour has set himself up a "Mini-truth" (Orwell) and indifference from Luxon gives him unprecedented powers.

    The true governor of the CoC. The lazy dog Luxon and Krusty the aged clown Peters have been well and truly jumped over by Seymour the quick brown fox.

  2. SPC 2
    21 December 2024 at 10:25 am

    Gone on day one of the next government.

    But if it goes through, that shows that National and NZF are prepared to accept ideological leadership from ACT and that makes them unelectable.

    • Incognito 2.1
      21 December 2024 at 12:35 pm

      Gone on day one of the next government.

      There’s risk of entrenchment before a next government can do anything – prevention is better than cure.

      • Wynston 2.1.1
        21 December 2024 at 1:08 pm

        "There’s risk of entrenchment before a next government can do anything"

        Is there?

        Entrenchment requires a 75% vote in the House or more than 50% of voters at a referendum. https://teara.govt.nz/en/constitution/page-3

        Also it is now prohibited for any proposals for entrenchment being considered in a committee of the whole House without first being considered by a select committee, which must call for submissions and report on the proposal. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-house/audio/2018904975/parliament-tightens-procedures-around-entrenchment-of-laws

        I can't see them getting the 75% in the House and I doubt if they would get more than 50% in a referendum in the rest of this term.

        • Incognito 2.1.1.1
          21 December 2024 at 8:16 pm

          They play the long game; the first version of the Regulatory Standards Bill was introduced in 2006 (see https://thestandard.org.nz/the-real-purpose-of-the-ministry-for-regulation/).

          I really don’t see why they wouldn’t hold a referendum this term or at the next General Election, presumably in 2026, if they really want to entrench this Bill, and the Treaty Principles Bill, for that matter.

          And then there’s something like ‘quasi-entrenchment’. For example, it could generate a wave of reviews of legislation through the proposed complaints process.

          Proposed approach

          The proposed approach would aim to complement current mechanisms for hearing complaints about regulation.

          It differs from the 2021 Bill in that it no longer provides a role for the courts. Instead, it proposes that a Regulatory Standards Board be established to consider the consistency of regulation with the principles in response to complaints.

          The proposed Board would aim to offer a relatively low-cost, agile way to consider and respond to complaints quickly. It would focus on the consistency of existing regulation with the principles.

          https://www.regulation.govt.nz/assets/Publication-Documents/Have-your-say-on-the-proposed-Regulatory-Standards-Bill-final.pdf [pg. 31]

          This has been discussed in a recent interview with Melanie Nelson:

          I think the other difficulty for future governments in overturning it, even if it's not entrenched, You know, it's like we think with the Treaty Principles Bill. Well, if this is, and we'll get to this in a minute, if this is a libertarian set of principles being introduced,

          what the first thing that each government does when they come in, they change the treaty principles and that automatically changes how all legislation is interpreted. So the Greens come in and make them all about equity in the environment. So that creates huge uncertainty. And the flow-on effects of the Regulatory Standards Bill are absolutely extreme.

          So there would be a mechanism created through the bill, and presumably that would get underway under this term, which would be a Regulatory Standards Board. And so any person can take a complaint to that board about existing legislation being non-compliant with the principles in the RSB. And so it's a little bit like a Waitangi Tribunal for libertarianism.

          Only everyone can make a complaint, their non-binding recommendations, but they can actually focus on legislation, whereas the Waitangi Tribunal is not allowed to do that. So there would presumably be a very strong flow of people who back this approach and have the resources to do so, making complaints.

          that would then trigger review processes and potentially changes to legislation. I don't know if it's still being proposed in the current bill, but the 2021 bill also had a provision that all legislation should be interpreted through these values. And there's also a role for David Seymour's Ministry for Regulation, a significant increase in power for them,

          and that would include doing sector by sector reviews. And some of the commentary I've seen suggested that they would then put omnibus bills through for each sector. So they might say, look at conservation, find all the ways conservation, our 20 plus bits of legislation is non-compliant with the RSB principles.

          And bang all those changes through in one big bill. So by the time a new government gets in, it could be that there's been all of these flow on effects from the RSB getting into place and, you know, landing on the ground running. So it could be extremely hard to unravel even everything that happens in a couple

          of years, let alone if it's another term of this government.

          https://open.substack.com/pub/bryanbruce/p/episode-29-head-2-head-with-melanie?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web [transcript from 18:01 to 20:47 time points]

          So, I’m not at all re-assured that the risk doesn’t exist or can be safely ignored.

    • georgecom 2.2
      23 December 2024 at 7:14 pm

      yup, most things Seymour had a hand in gone by lunchtime. His bloated regulation bureaucracy, charter schools and it's expensive implementation unit, anything nicole mckee does to weaken gun laws, any ideological labour laws from van velden……

    • Michael 2.3
      23 December 2024 at 7:15 pm

      That is a logical interpretation, thank you.

  3. Incognito 3
    21 December 2024 at 12:33 pm

    Thanks Tui.

    While watching in fear and with some fascination how distant burn-offs turn into wild raging all-destroying bushfires and looking in awe at pseudo-meteor showers up in the sky, the house directly behind is burning down to the ground.

  4. Hunter Thompson II 4
    21 December 2024 at 12:55 pm

    From the headline, I thought you were talking about the Fast-track Approvals Act.

    That legislation will change our country, but not "like never before". In fact, we've already seen it with Muldoon and Birch's Think Big plan, the Clutha Development (Clyde Dam) Empowering Act 1982 etc.

  5. adam 5
    21 December 2024 at 10:31 pm

    Switch out, switch off to the mammonite scum who run our country. The lovers of greed. Those who hear dark whispers. Just a wee reminder, the gospels is about finding solutions without greed involved.

    Ill-informed coupled with feelings rule community, is always the best. Best if you want fear. Glad your doing the good work against it Mountain Tui.

  6. Patricia Bremner 6
    23 December 2024 at 6:22 am

    Thanks for your research Mountain Tui. I am a proud supporter of you work.

    I have long believed in this 3 ring circus, Seymore is the dangerous performer.

    His passive aggression is read as harmless, when he is the most calculating member there, who plays a long game of “Death by a thousand cuts.”