Keep going with the pressure

ACT are struggling under the critique

There has been solid and consistent pushback against the Regulatory Standards Bill. From crashing the submission portal/site to a range of opinion pieces, New Zealanders have been carefully and thoughtfully analysing the potential impacts of this piece of legislation. (My podcast and post is coming soon, promise!).

Associate Professor George Laking, a medical oncologist (cancer specialist) who is well across a range of public health issues, has noted that the real intent seems to be to centre economic factors as the only measure that lawmakers need to consider. He had this to say about the Bill in a piece for RNZ:

"We already have transparency around lawmaking - that's why we have regulatory impact reports," he said. "This seems more like an attempt to narrow the frame for what's considered to count as being relevant in that type of decision."

He joined other public health and legal experts, who have criticised the bill (in its current form) as allowing tobacco, alcohol industries or environmental polluters to seek compensation, if future legislation costs them profit.

The response from ACT was not to engage with any of the issues raised, but rather to target Laking, make fun of him, repeat previous spin, and sneer at his concerns:

image credit: @mountaintui.bsky.social‬

This is an approach right out of the American right (Trump derangement syndrome anyone?!) and it seeks to dismiss, denigrate, and belittle legitimate concerns people are raising in the public sphere.

It also smacks of desperation.

ACT know they are losing the battle for hearts and minds on this piece of legislation. New Zealanders aren’t particularly interested in having a very narrow set of libertarian ideals enmeshed across our legislative endeavours. Our communities are often strongly connected. A great deal of us understand that we are deeply connected with each other and that our wellbeing is bound up together. A significant amount of us donate to charities and engage in volunteer work. Even more of us provide unpaid care to the young, the elderly, and the unwell. We grasp, at some level, that prioritising profit alone means we all lose out in the end.

a colourful quilt just to break up the text and bring joy

National and NZ First have been coy on whether or not they will support the passing of the RSB in Parliament.

The best thing we can all do, aside from making a submission, is to email our local electorate MP’s, let them know what we have said, and ask them not to support the Bill pass this reading.

If you’re finding it tricky to express your thoughts or write a submission, here are some great tools and resources to help:

• Koekoea has some awesome online workshops coming up

• Tina Ngata and Tania Waikato both have some very cool and useful resources on their respective pages and social media.

• Melanie Nelson
  has a great line up of speakers on her podcast, Coherent

• This handy sector-specific tool has questions for different sectors to consider, which can be useful to focus your thoughts