National Party finance spokesman Paul Goldsmith says there are so many regulations that officials can't count them or know where to find them all. Photo / Nick Winter
National Party finance spokesman Paul Goldsmith says there are so many regulations that officials can't count them or know where to find them all. Photo / Nick Winter
As it happens, it's 35 years since New Zealand's then Attorney General Sir Geoffrey Palmer embarked on the Great Quango Hunt.
Bristling with enthusiasm, Palmer declared open season on what he perceived to be a plague of "quasi-autonomous national government organisations" or Quangos.
According to political reporter Jane Clifton at the time, "Geoffrey got so excited about this, it was all staff could do to persuade him not to wear a pith helmet and safari suit to the press conference. Geoffrey had counted up hundreds, nay thousands of quangos – rabbit boards being among the most emblematic – wasting money. He was going to grub them out, root and branch. He was positively kittenish in his excitement. And what happened? The little buggers multiplied."
Sir Geoffrey Palmer charts a course for his Great Quango Hunt. File photo / Michael Bradley, Fotopress
National this week avowed, if elected in September, it "will light a regulations bonfire" and remove two regulations for every new one introduced, according to the party's finance spokesman Paul Goldsmith.
"There are tens of thousands of regulations in New Zealand. There are so many that officials don't know how many there are or where to find them all.
"National recognises many of these regulations have built up over the years and are no longer fit for purpose. Some of them protect and preserve the interests of industries or highly risk-averse government or council officials."
As examples, National cited regulations on how much warmth a heater is required to output in the Healthy Homes Act, as well as the locations of heaters in tenanted homes. Also an existing ban on refreshments being served while hair is being cut.
National has also been here before. In 2014, then Local Government Minister Paula Bennett launched the Rules Reduction Taskforce, jointly chaired by Jacqui Dean MP, Parliamentary Private Secretary for Local Government, and Michael Barnett ONZM, chief executive of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce.
Out of the taskforce came the Rules Reduction Initiative, which invited the public to submit example of "loopy rules" which the initiative could battle to the death in the House.
However, many of the "loopiest" of rules submitted were urban myths - lolly scrambles hadn't been banned; it wasn't illegal to use saw horses; farmers were not liable for damages if a visitor tripped over a tree root; and retirement village occupants could, in fact, serve alcohol to guests.
A member of the public speaks to the Rules Reduction Taskforce in Whanganui on May 11, 2015. File photo / Stuart Munro
No doubt, some truly loopy laws were identified and consigned to the waste basket. But plenty of time was spent chasing non-existent offences as well. And therein lies why bureaucracy remains a popular and perennial target. It's very elusiveness engenders myths, suspicion and popular approbrium.
Decommissioning obsolete regulations may be a worthy pursuit, as perhaps may be another Great Quango Hunt. History proves however, they are notoriously difficult to execute - and, even in the unlikely event of success, no measure of an effective Government.
