Geddis on Earthquake Recovery Act

Andrew Geddis has a useful piece on the Earthquake Recovery Act.

He goes through all the reasons why the Act is constitutionally over-reaching and potentially draconian – but usefully also goes through some of the safeguards (public reaction to any mis-use of the emergency powers).

The Government should indeed be very careful about any use of the emergency powers. There will be a backlash, if they are used un-necessarily.

Also, as I commented on the other thread, it could well be a good idea in say a couple of months, to look at amending the Recovery Act so the powers to amend legislation by regulation is restricted to just those Acts identified as necessary. I can understand that initially there may not have been time to go through all 2,000 or so Acts and identify which ones of them may get in the way of reconstruction – but that could be done over the next few weeks.