Parliament can grant powers to certain authorities to make new rules without having to go through the normal lengthy legislative process.
Parliament can grant powers to certain authorities to make new rules without having to go through the normal lengthy legislative process. It's especially useful when things need to happen fast.
We saw it during early stages of the pandemic, when lawmakers delegated powers to health officials and others in order for them to be able to make rules on the fly as they responded to the unfolding Covid-19 disaster. These powers are called secondary legislation (since they are enabled by legislation).
This week, a new piece of legislation being considered under urgency is set to grant such powers. The Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Bill follows the recent devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle and the severe flooding that preceded it.
The Bill is not to be confused with the similarly named Severe Weather Emergency Legislation Bill which went through its entirety earlier this month. That was an omnibus bill which - as the Government's Leader of the House Grant Robertson explained - was geared towards implementing very immediate changes to several different acts in the wake of the extreme weather disaster.
"So for example there was a need for local government to be able to complete some of their meetings on Zoom, because people literally couldn't get where they needed to go to; some changes to the Resource Management Act which were about making sure that people who were doing emergency work weren't acting illegally. So they are very, very immediate things," Robertson said.
"This second piece of legislation is one which creates a process for acts of Parliament to be amended by Order in Council. This was done after the Canterbury earthquakes and after the Kaikoura earthquake as well. And it's really about the fact that there going to be a need to make some fairly important changes to allow building to happen or that allow other important works to happen, where a full process under law would cause significant damage and hardship."
As the explanatory note on the proposed Bill explains, "the single broad policy for this legislation is to ensure that Government agencies and Crown entities, and affected local authorities and communities, can appropriately respond to or recover from the recent severe weather events, or both, including by providing the Government with flexibility to facilitate, enable, and expedite the recovery"…