Personal choice should be protected at all cost - Richard Prebble

David Seymour's Act Party has campaigned for the basic rights needed for a free democracy to be included in legislation. Photo / Mark Mitchell

THREE KEY FACTS:

• The Regulatory Standards Bill aims to improve the quality of regulation in New Zealand so regulatory decisions are based on principles of “good law-making and economic efficiency”.
• The Ministry for Regulation received almost 23,000 submissions on the bill - about 80% of them in the final four days of the consultation period this week.
• The bill, yet to be introduced into Parliament, is part of National and Act’s coalition agreement.

A majority of MPs could at any time wipe away freedoms. We know because they have. In 1948 the first Labour government passed the Economic Stabilisation Act that enabled the government to pass regulations to centrally control the economy.

The temporary measure lasted 39 years. Sir Robert Muldoon used the law to fix interest rates and implement a wage and price freeze.

The centrally controlled economy failed. Inflation was over 15%.

The Act Party has campaigned for the basic rights needed for a free democracy to be included in legislation.

MPs considering a bill by David Seymour for such a law asked the Key Government to set up a taskforce of distinguished experts to examine the issue.

In 2009 the Regulatory Responsibility Taskforce drafted legislation it recommended Parliament pass. The taskforce said in a free democratic country all laws should meet six tests:

• The rule of law that includes equality before the law.
• Law should only reduce liberty to protect the liberty of others.
• Property should not be taken without compensation.
• Taxes and charges should not be imposed except by Parliament.
• Only courts should interpret laws.
• The benefit of a law should outweigh the cost.

The Ardern Government ignored the recommendation and instead on March 25, 2020, adjourned Parliament and issued orders that the High Court later found to be unlawful.

Our freedoms are fragile.

Our bureaucrats claim that they are in favour of all six tests. The Cabinet Manual has been written to include them, but the civil servants are against making the tests law.

It is no wonder. Bryce Wilkinson, a member of the taskforce, has observed that many regulations passed by the executive are rushed, badly written, hard to understand, sometimes contradictory and cost more than any benefit.

The OECD says badly drafted laws are one reason our productivity is so poor.

My own experience in Government leads me to the belief that perhaps half of all laws cost more than any benefit.

Here’s an example. The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009. Despite being greeted by name and having banked with the same bank for half a century I am repeatedly asked to prove who I am and produce a letter, which is getting harder, proving where I live. An estimated 16,000 beneficiaries cannot prove where they live and are unbanked. Does anyone believe the homeless are funding terrorism?

For an alternative viewpoint: Why the Regulatory Standards Bill undermines Māori equity - Tureiti Moxon

As part of Act’s coalition agreement, there is a commitment to legislate a basic law along the lines of the taskforce recommendations through a Regulatory Standards Bill.

Seymour called for submissions on the law and has received 23,000.

It is the result of an online campaign against the proposal.

Most of the comments I have observed are personal abuse directed at Seymour.

The socialists, who do not believe citizens should own private property, are opposed.

Those who think it’s the function of Government to redistribute wealth are opposed.

Then there are people one would expect to be in favour of a liberal democracy who think that their issue is so important that the test of good law-making should not apply.

These objectors believe protecting the environment, or promoting safety or banning smoking, or limiting alcohol or whatever is their issue, is more important than any freedom.

I think the more important the issue is, the more important it is for us to protect the basic freedoms of a democracy.

I am sympathetic to those who think “the Government should do something”.

I used to think: “If I was the Minister of Railways, I could get the trains to run on time”. I now know the Government cannot even buy a ferry.

Reti was one of our better Ministers of Health. No matter what powers the minister is given, no one can efficiently run a Soviet-style health system. No system beats taking personal responsibility.

Freedom Indexes demonstrate countries that protect freedom are wealthier.

But even if the basic freedoms did not result in a more prosperous country I would still be in favour. No civil servant knows as much about your life as you do. A bureaucrat may think your behaviour should be banned but maybe it gives you pleasure. Provided our choices are not harming others and we accept responsibility for our actions, we should be free to make our choices.

Those who seek power over us for their agenda need to remember that the same power will allow others to impose their agenda on them. Labour passed the Economic Stabilisation Act to implement the unions’ economic priorities. Muldoon used the power to target unions.

My suggestion to Seymour is that his bill is so important it should be called the New Zealand Magna Carta.