Waatea News: Māori Radio Station

Minister for Regulation and ACT Party Leader David Seymour has downplayed the quality of submissions on the Regulatory Standards Bill, claiming that the vast majority lacked substance.

Speaking to Dale Husband on Radio Waatea, Seymour said, he has data that proves of the 130,000 submissions, fewer than 1,000 were more than a sentence or two.

“That means over 99 percent were essentially one-liners. The rest are, Greenpeace or Toitū te Tiriti or Tania Waikato or someone who’s basically doing it as a marketing campaign on other people’s behalf.

“Then you’ve got people submitting on behalf of others. That might be technically legal, but it’s not really in the spirit of the Select Committee process.”

Seymour defended the Committee’s time limit for oral submissions, arguing that 30 hours is plenty of time if used properly. The Bill only has about 30 clauses. You can easily discuss every aspect of it in that timeframe.

Today is the final day of submissions on the Regulatory Standards Bill.