Five Million Voices

Should Parliament confirm the listed secondary legislation so it remains in force rather than being automatically revoked?

A routine annual bill that confirms secondary legislation made between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2025 under seven Acts, preventing it from being revoked at the time those Acts otherwise require.

MPs’ arguments for and against the bill

Why support it
  • Supporters said most of the confirmations are necessary and technical in nature, keeping the listed regulations in force.
  • Supporters noted that without passing the bill, measures such as the commodity levies for kiwifruit, mussels, oysters, and salmon would be revoked.
Why oppose it
  • The Green Party said one of the confirmed social security changes indexes benefits to the Consumers Price Index rather than wages, which it argued would produce lower increases to income support.
  • The Green Party said that while many changes were technical, certain components were objectionable enough that it could not support the bill as a whole.

These are claims MPs made in Parliament’s debate — not verified facts.

Full bill summary & link to official bill page

This is a routine annual bill that “confirms” certain pieces of secondary legislation — rules, regulations, levies, and orders made by ministers or officials under existing Acts rather than by Parliament directly. Some parent Acts require that this delegated legislation be confirmed by Parliament within a set time, or it automatically lapses (is revoked). The bill lists such instruments made under several different Acts and keeps them legally in force. It mainly affects the sectors those rules regulate — for example fees, levies, and quotas — and does not create new policy of its own.

The confirmation mechanism is a deliberate check built into certain Acts: because these instruments impose ongoing obligations like charges or levies, Parliament reserves the right to periodically re-endorse them. The argument for is democratic oversight — it forces regular parliamentary sign-off on rules that would otherwise sit outside direct scrutiny. The argument against is that in practice these bills bundle many instruments together and are largely formal, offering limited real examination of each one.

See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.

Oppose (No) Support (Yes)

Secondary Legislation Confirmation Bill · Third Reading, 18 Dec 2024
Parliament voted 102–15 — it passed.