Making a submission on the Regulatory Standards Bill

The nastier and meaner anti-Māori, anti-Treaty, anti-wellbeing Bill

Alongside the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill, Seymour has directed his Ministry of Regulation to create a Regulatory Standards Bill (RSB).

This Bill seeks to embed ACT, New Zealand Initiative, and Atlas Network’s libertarian ideologies of individual liberty, property rights, limited government, and free markets. It also seeks to strip out legal recognition of the Treaty/Te Tiriti, remove wellbeing markers, and reduce work towards achieving equitable outcomes for Māori.

If implemented, the RSB will require that new legislation and regulation (and all existing legislation within 10 years) adhere to a very specific set of libertarian values. These include selected elements of the rule of law, equality before the law, individual freedoms, property rights, restrictions on government, and constraints on taxes and charges. For those interested, the key principles the RSB seeks to embed in every single piece of legislation can be found on pages 21-22 of its discussion document.

Melanie Nelson, from Disinterpreted, has several excellent Substack posts from wise and clever minds on the RSB. They are all worth reading - you can find them here:

Melanie has also written a FABULOUS template/explainer, which is amazing, super easy to read and use, and well worth using if it all seems a bit much.

As you might imagine, Seymour will be chomping at the bit to release his Ministry of Regulation officials into every single Minsterial department and action in order to ensure that they adhere to his particular set of principles.

The RSB specifically allows (see pages 31-33 of its discussion document) the Ministry of Regulation to poke around and target those Ministers and Ministries it deems are insufficiently implementing their libertarian ideals. It is a sneaky and underhand attempt to influence the direction of our country for the next decade (or more).

As someone who has worked in the community, alongside marginalized persons, and who has a deep understanding of the impacts of legislation on the disenfranchised, it is clear that creating the conditions for human flourishing for all people requires far more than individual approaches to law and rights. It is also clear that limited government in conjunction with neoliberal ideologies creates conditions for abuse and exploitation - of both land and people. Wealth flows upwards, where it is hoarded in the hands of a few.

Resistance: An Indigenous response to neoliberalism. Edited by Maria Bargh. Well worth reading for a more in-depth discussion on neoliberalism.

You can submit on the RSB until the 13 January - link to the consultation survey here. And link to Melanie Nelson’s explainer and template here.

You can write a submission and either

• email it to RSBconsultation@regulation.govt.nz

• or post it to Ministry for Regulation, PO Box 577, Wellington 6140.

The information provided in submissions will be used by the Ministry of Regulation to shape a Bill that will be introduced into the House next year in the first half of 2025.

If you don’t have capacity right now to make a submission, there will be opportunity again in a few months when it is introduced to Parliament and if it goes to Select Committee.