Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
TANGI UTIKERE (Labour—Palmerston North): Kia orana, good morning, Madam Chair. And it’s great to see you in the Chair given you were there at midnight when we left off.
Look I firstly want to thank the Minister for his response at the late hour last night—going through each of those suggestions—
Hon Simeon Brown: Very happy to.
TANGI UTIKERE: Very happy to do that—it’s unfortunate he didn’t do it earlier because then I wouldn’t have had to go through that list but appreciate that got the answer in the end there. Still not quite clear—perhaps the benefit of some sleep overnight, the Minister may have thought about that Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s response and we’ll work with that. But I’m satisfied with the responses around my Amendment Papers—other members may not be—but I take the point around the broad nature but it being specific.
There is one point that I do want to raise because I think this is important. The information that has been made available and had been tabled that we’ve been able to access and have a look at, I draw the Minister’s attention to what is the regulatory impact analysis, and if we turn to page 6, there are two points that I want to tease out with the Minister, and I’m doing it at this early stage because it does set the tone for what might follow. One is in relation to the availability of appropriate information before the committee so that we are able to consider things appropriately. Now when we’re looking at the table that’s referred to as “Table 2”, just above it, there is effectively what says “Error! Reference source not found”.
Hon Dr Megan Woods: I found that; I had that highlighted.
TANGI UTIKERE: Well, thank you, Dr Woods, and I think it’s actually really important. This is a Budget-sensitive document, as is indicated. It has effectively referred to levels of information that relate to the average of 3,000 vehicles that are imported and the potential cost recovery that’s associated with that. Now we’ll come to that later in clause 5, I think it is. But this is a fundamental issue in terms of where this information comes from and the basis on which this document has been provided to the committee.
So my question to the Minister, and he may need to seek advice around this, is what specific reference is being able to be provided there? Because if there wasn’t anything, then OK, fine. But the fact is that there clearly is a reference that basically looks as though it’s just not there or it has been redacted, which would be very unusual—
Hon Dr Megan Woods: Or removed.
TANGI UTIKERE: Or—yes—or may actually exist somewhere else. So that’s the first one.
The second one is at the top of that page. It talks about the calculation rates. And this is important because my colleague Mrs Williams and I both have Amendment Papers that relate to Budget measures. And so this talks about the calculation being in depth via consultation with the sector and with Waka Kotahi. So my two questions are: what is the reference, if he’s able to provide that? And the second one is still around the consultation, which we have yet to hear from the Minister around that, so that the title of this bill is adequate based on the very limited consultation that he’s had.
