Submission on the Regulatory Standards Bill- June 2025

19th June 2025

Committee Secretariat

Finance and Expenditure Committee

Parliament Buildings

Wellington

Via e-mail: RegulatoryStandardsBill@parliament.govt.nz

Tēnā koutou katoa

Re: Submission on the Regulatory Standards Bill

The Federation of Business and Professional Women New Zealand (BPW NZ) promotes the rights of vulnerable members of our communities, particularly women. We believe that parliamentary processes and legislation should empower women by removing barriers to that empowerment. We also believe that all legislation, regulations and government policy should include a gender impact analysis.

Our recommendation is that the Bill be abandoned.

1. Comments

1.1. Te Tiriti

1.1.1. We are concerned that the Bill makes no reference to Te Tiriti as our founding document.

1.1.2. Our concern with this is the potential for the outcome of this legislation to block any incorporation of Te Tīriti into the regulatory discussion, ie: it would exclude Te Tīriti from our law making & regulatory systems.

1.1.3. As the Waitangi Tribunal has recently reported this bill violates Te Tīriti principles of partnership and active protection, both because of the lack of meaningful consultation with Māori and because it seeks to influence the way that Parliament makes law in a manner that may adversely impact Parliament’s ability to enact legislation designed to address disparities faced by Māori.

1.2. Regulation

1.2.1. We are further concerned that this bill will remove any role of the courts to provide regulatory oversight or interpretation

1.2.2. All proposed legislation or regulations would be subject to an inquiry by the new regulatory board who would not be obligated to consider broader societal impacts, and will likely have a narrow focus on putting corporate interests above public good given the lack of any requirement for diverse representation on the board.

1.2.3. We are further concerned that this regulatory board will be selected by the Minister of Regulation, who will have full discretion to appoint board members as he sees fit, with no obligation to ensure the board is made up of people who are representative of Aotearoa.

1.2.4. The regulatory standards board will report to the Minister of Regulation leading to a further centralisation of powers.

1.2.5. Our concern with this is that it could undermine the ability of current and future governments to regulate harmful business practices or corporate exploitation, even if such regulations are in the public interest

1.2.6. We are further concerned that such a board is in danger of not being transparent, nor accessible to all and might not, potentially, operate with normal legal principles such as precedent and the participation of affected parties.

1.2.7. This would make it very difficult for the government to create laws or regulation that limit property rights for a public or environmental good, e.g. swimmable rivers or slowing climate change.

1.3. Climate Change

1.3.1. Climate change protections might be blocked because they “interfere” with business profits. For example, stopping development in flood zones could spawn cases by property developers to claim loss of business by such a move

1.3.2. Our concern also is that there will be no obligations to consider climate change in regard to business practice and processes.

1.3.3. Governments & local communities alike will see their abilities to hold corporations accountable for environmental effects undermined.

1.4. International Practice

1.4.1. This Bill over-rides good international practice

1.4.2. New Zealand stopped agreeing to dispute resolution clauses in international free trade agreements because they placed private good over public good or proper government action.

1.5. Evidence and history

1.5.1. The Minister for Regulation claims that 'most of New Zealand's problems can be traced to poor productivity, and poor productivity can be traced to poor regulations'. However, this ignores important evidence-based issues such as income equality gaps, housing security and equity of opportunity and outcomes in health, education, etc.

1.5.2. We are further concerned that past lessons from de-regulatory failures will be (intentionally or otherwise) forgotten. For example, leaky buildings and the Pike river mine disaster to name just two. Upon investigation, the root cause of these two disasters were traced back to repealing of certain regulations which aimed to keep work practices and safety measures in check.

1.5.3. We are concerned that this bill will ensure that when our country suffers future disasters or adverse events, there will be little to no ability to hold powers to account or even regulate and/or change laws to improve safety and work practices.

2. We do not believe this bill empowers women and we ask that a gender impact analysis be carried out to ensure that this bill does not adversely affect women.

3. We consider it ironic and troubling that the Pay Equity Amendment Act 2025 which was recently rushed through Parliament under urgency by the Government, would not have met the principles set out in this bill. It is highly hypocritical of the Government to be proposing a bill which expressly states that the law should not adversely affect a person’s rights retrospectively, when it has recently extinguished the rights of 33 claimant groups to pay equity by the enactment of retrospective legislation.

4. Our Organisation

4.1. BPW New Zealand speaks strongly for women in international forums and works hard in relation to the advancement of the status of women. Our organisation’s aims are to link professional and business women throughout the world, to provide support, to lobby for change and to promote the ongoing advancement of women. We work for equal opportunities and status for all women in economic, civil and political life and the removal of discrimination in all countries. We promote our aims and organise our operating structure without distinction as to race, language or religion.

4.2. BPW NZ is an affiliate of BPW International. BPW International is one of the most influential international networks of business and professional women with affiliates in over 120 countries in five continents. BPW International has General Consultative Status at the United Nations through the UN Economic & Social Council (ECOSOC). This enables BPW International to appoint official representatives to UN agencies worldwide and to accredit members to attend specific UN meetings.

4.3. Our submission is informed by our governments commitments to United Nations mechanisms, including the:

● Beijing Platform for Action

● Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

● Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

● Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

● ILO Violence and Harassment Convention 190

● UN Women’s Women’s Empowerment Principles

● Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

4.4. Thank you for the opportunity to provide our submission and we hope that our comments are of use. BPW NZ would be interested in further discussing our submission with you and being involved in more consultation engagements should they occur. We would appreciate the opportunity to continue to offer a voice for all women in your work. We ask that as much notice as possible is provided for invitations, this gives us time to engage with our membership and provide more informed input.

Ngā mihi

Janet Gibb, President