David Seymour: Regulatory standards bill author on The Waitangi Tribunal's call to halt the bill

The Waitangi Tribunal is urging the Government to “immediately halt” the Act Party-promoted Regulatory Standards Bill set to be introduced to Parliament on Monday.

In a report, released today, the tribunal condemned the Government not consulting with Māori when developing the legislation, thus violating its Treaty obligation.

Author of the bill David Seymour talks to Heather du Plessis-Allan.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The White Thongy Tribunal has just released its urgent report
into the Regulatory Standards Bill. It wants this bill thrown
out until more Marty consultation is done. It's supposed to
be introduced to the House on Monday. David Seymour is
the author of the bill and with us. Now, Hey, David, hey,
is this bill the threat that these guys think it is?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
No, the White Tongi Tribunal has every right to do
what it would like to do. That's subject to a
review by this governance. And I won't say anything more
about that. What I will say is that they've made
two basic claims in their report. One is that the
Regulatory Standards Bill was not properly consulted with Maui, and

(00:39):
two is that promoting the quality before the law is
somehow bad from New Zealand. On the first one, it's
actually untrue. There were twenty three thousand submissions on the bill,
one hundred and fourteen of them from ely organizations. So
first of all, there was consultation with Marty. But second
of all, this legislation in some form has been debated

(01:03):
for twenty years. The idea that we as a government
are obliged to be more accountable to some of our
fimisms than others because of their race is anathema to me.
Their second objection is because the regulatory standard SPILL actually
requires politicians to explain if and why discriminating against people

(01:24):
based on their race and actually be held accountable for that,
so the voters can make up their mind they think
that's a bad thing. I think the rule of law
and equalates before that. The law is a good thing.
And if there's people who are disadvantaged, we can help
them based on need, not race. We don't need to
discriminate by that race.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
What did Nichola Will say to you to make you
come around to the idea of film subsidies.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Nothing at all. We believed that some subsidies is something
that we need a solution to that doesn't involve shutting
down the industry. Now there's no new money that is
continuing what's already been done. If there was a way
to get the other countries around the world to call
the film industries bluff so that we didn't all have

(02:09):
to subsidize them, that would be great. Nonetheless, the policy continues.
Maybe one day when we have a government that reaches
out to others and shuts this kind of subsidence for
billionaires down. It will be in a better place. So
our position hasn't changed. We just don't have a government
that's ready to do the necessary thing to stop subsidies.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Brilliant, David. It's good to talk to you. Thank you,
David Seymour, AX Party Leader.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
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