Outdated Regulations Binned

Minister for Regulatory Reform Rodney Hide and Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Phil Heatley today announced the removal of 176 unnecessary regulations from the law books.

Minister for Regulatory Reform Rodney Hide says previous Governments did not pay enough attention to the quality of the stock of regulations.

“Many unnecessary regulations were allowed to remain on the law books and legislation has not been updated to keep up with the times,” Mr Hide said.

“The Regulatory Reform (Revocations) Order, gazetted today, revokes 156 regulations that no longer serve any purpose.

“The Order, along with my Regulatory Reform (Repeals) Bill, will remove unneeded rules and laws. In addition, the Regulatory Reform Bill will modernise 13 different laws, cutting compliance costs for businesses.”

Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Phil Heatley says he is pleased that two sets of outdated fisheries regulations – the 1995-96 Jack Mackerel Quota, and the Fisheries (Transitional Provisions) Regulations (No.2) 2001 – are now gone.

“Clarity of legislation is critical. Maintaining sets of old, outdated and sometimes contrary regulations helps nobody,” Mr Heatley said.

"In addition to the work carried out under the Regulatory Reform (Revocations) Order, the Ministry of Fisheries has also revoked a further 20 regulations under the Fisheries Regulations (Revocations ) Order 2011.

“These regulations had ceased to have effect or were simply no longer required."

“This Government has committed itself to identifying and removing unnecessary, ineffective or excessively costly regulation. We are pleased to be delivering on that promise,” the Ministers said.

The Regulatory Reform (Revocations) Order and the Fisheries Regulations (Revocations) Order 2011 come into effect in May 2011.