Regulatory Standards Bill – WTF?
So you’ve done your submission on the Treaty Principles Bill (TPB) and you’re feeling a little bit proud because you’ve done your bit? Sorry, but there’s bad news. It turns out the Treaty Principles Bill was just a bone that the government threw at us to keep us busy. The bill is probably never going to become law anyway. The bill that will become law (because all coalition parties support it) is the Regulatory Standards Bill (RSB) – and it is probably even more fundamental than the Treaty Principles one. While the TPB attempts to redefine what the Te Tiriti means, the RSB essentially says that Te Tiriti doesn’t matter anyway. The RSB is not at the committee stage (like the TPB), it is in the consultation phase, which means there is no actual wording of it yet. But there is a draft paper, and feedback on that paper closes on 13 January. After it is drafted it will then go through the Select Committee process (unless it is passed under urgency, which this government has done over 100 t...