During the debate over ACT's hated Regulatory Standards Bill, many professional submitters (such as the law Society) have pointed at the existing Part 4 of the Legislation Act 2019 as an alternative. While it has not been brought into force, this would replace the existing grace-and-favour Departmental Disclosure Statement system with a statutory scheme, requiring all government bills to be accompanied by a report on their unusual features and departures from accepted - as opposed to propertarian weirdo - legislative and constitutional norms.
So naturally, the government is repealing it. The Legislation Amendment Bill, which began its first reading yesterday, includes a section repealing all of part 4, which will come into force the day after it is passed. Why? The bill's explanatory note is for once crystal clear:
The Bill proposes to repeal Part 4 of the Act before it comes into force. Part 4 would impose disclosure requirements for Government-initiated legislation, which would duplicate key elements of the Regulatory Standards Bill being progressed separately by the Government. Existing Cabinet-mandated provisions for disclosure requirements for Bills will continue to apply in the meantime.So, it's being killed just to ensure there is no alternative to ACT's weirdo Libertarian fetish bill. Which I guess just means additional work when the RSB is repealed by the next government.
