Abstract
The Regulatory Standards Bill aims to establish "a benchmark for good legislation through a set of principles of responsible regulation", thereby enhancing governmental accountability and regulatory stewardship. It contains a variety of mechanisms, outlined below, that seek to ensure both new and existing legislation conform to these principles. Similar Bills, promoted since the 2000s by the ACT party, have been consistently rejected by previous governments—for good reasons.
The Regulatory Standards Bill raises fundamental concerns—constitutional, legal, administrative, philosophical, and ethical. In essence, it seeks to impose a quasi-libertarian conception of 'good legislation' and a 'good society', one demonstrably antithetical to many core values underpinning modern welfare states. The proposed principles, for instance, exclude any reference to promoting public health or human wellbeing or protecting the environment. If implemented, they would also enable commercial interests to claim public compensation for any detrimental impact of public health regulations, thereby undermining public health measures.