ACT leader and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
The Regulatory Standards Bill is up for its third day of hearings at select committee.
Among the prominent submitters are the Parliamentary Commmissioner for the Environment, the Deputy Clerk of the House of Representatives, the Rail and Maritime and PSA unions, and former MPs Jan Logie and Marian Hobbs.
ACT leader and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour says the bill aims to improve lawmaking and regulation, but its critics - who make up the majority of submitters - argue it does the opposite, and ignores Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
'Instrument of politics'
Professor Dean Knight Photo: Victoria University of Wellington
A Professor of Law at Victoria University of Wellington Dean Knight said the bill would fail to do what it set out.
"This bill proposes a quasi-constitutional regime that seeks to reshape legislation through soft power, based on a suite of generalised norms, and in my view, it will fail in that mission," Knight said.
"It has the potential to influence and shape proposed laws and laws already on the books, and in my submission, I explain how it would do so through the exercise of soft power and the ways it would have real impact on policy and law making process, and without doubt, will have a much greater instrumental effect on laws than merely providing transparency, as it is claimed."
While not formally restricting the sovereignty of Parliament it would politically incentivise certain types of law and discourage others, Knight said.
"It will fail to be a meaningful constitutional blueprint for legislation, because many of the norms embedded in the bill are heavily contested and represent ideological dogma that is not above politics.
"It will fail to deliver on the constitutional mission, because it will be repealed immediately on change of government due to these flaws and the fact it is an instrument of politics, rather than a blueprint for lawmaking that sits above politics."
He was a "big champion" for improving legislative quality and regulatory design, but the bill was not the solution.
The process concludes on Thursday, with the select committee public hearings packed into a single week during recess, when Parliament is not sitting and most politicians return to their electorates.
Watch today's submissions in the livestream above at the top of this page.
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