Catholic organisations worried about Regulatory Standards Bill

The Wellington Archdiocesan Commission for Ecology, Justice and Peace has questioned the framing of the Bill around the concept of the autonomous individual, while the Nathaniel Centre for Bioethics said the Bill rests on inadequate legal or conceptual foundations and should be rejected.

Radio New Zealand reported that the Bill proposes a set of regulatory principles that lawmakers, agencies and ministries would have to consider in regulation design. Those principles cover the rule of law, personal liberties, taking of property, taxes, fees and levies and the role of courts. Makers of legislation would be required to assess proposed and existing legislation against the principles.

The Bill would set up a Regulatory Standards Board to consider how legislation measures up to the principles.

The Archdiocesan Commission for Ecology, Justice and Peace said it believes that “the Bill is framed around an ideal of the autonomous individual (individuals include entities with legal personality, such as companies). It implies a default position of absolute rights to property. Catholic Social Teaching has different emphases. It approaches persons in relation to each other, that is, in community.

“While recognising the rights of individuals, we are also all connected to each other,” the Commission continues. “Nor does Catholic Social Teaching regard private property as an absolute right. Private property may be held to the extent compatible with the common good, and that common good is more than an accumulation of individual goods. These considerations apply, as Pope Francis emphasised, also across the generations, especially in terms of environmental sustainability.”

In a submission on the Bill to Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee, the Nathaniel Centre strongly critiqued “the lack of meaningful local and indigenous consultation that the Bill envisages”.

The submission reiterated the Waitangi Tribunal’s statement that “if the Regulatory Standards Act were enacted without meaningful consultation with Māori, it would constitute a breach of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, specifically the principles of partnership and active protection”.

The Nathaniel Centre also analysed the “right to property”, which “the proposed Bill clearly prioritises”.

“It should be recalled here that property is not an absolute or inherent right. Rather, as taught by political and legal philosophers from Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century to John Locke in the 17th century, a person’s property should be owned and used in consideration of not only others’ rights, but also their needs.

“In today’s context, moreover, we submit that the needs of others to which the ‘right to property’ remains conditioned includes the need for all to live in a healthy and sustainable environment.”

Submissions on the Bill closed on June 23. The Finance and Expenditure Committee has allocated a maximum of 30 hours for public submissions on the legislation, Te Ao Māori News reported.

FULL STORY

Regulatory Standards Bill: Ecology, Justice and Peace Commission Guidance | Archdiocese of Wellington (Archdiocesan Commission for Ecology, Justice and Peace)

Nathaniel Centre for Bioethics submission on Regulatory Standards Bill (Nathaniel Centre)

Time slashed for public to have say on controversial Regulatory Standards Bill – Te Ao Māori News (Te Ao Māori News)

Regulatory Standards Bill: What is It and What Comes Next (Radio New Zealand)