The Law Commission

The Law Commission is one of my favourite bodies. I think they generally do great work as they proactively look at how to improve our laws, rather than just be reactive.

But one aspect of their work which is starting to raise more and more concerns with me, is their constant views on legislation before Parliament considering their President is a former Labour Party Leader and a major donor to Labour – lobbyist and lawyer Sir Geoffrey Palmer. People complain about the US style of politics, yet don’t complain when one of NZ’s most entrenched lobbyists gets appointed to an important constitutional role.

Reading this story on Rodney Hide’s Regulatory Responsibility Bill, I note once again the Minister is suddenly armed with an opinion from the Law Commission that there were “very serious concerns” about the quality of the bill.

I’m going off memory here but it seems everytime an opposition bill makes it to select committee, that the Law Commission pops up talking about how seriously flawed the bill is.

Well here will be a good test of the Law Commission. The Electoral Finance Bill is almost inarguably the most seriously flawed bill of a generation. Will the Law Commission (which has been appointed as an advisor on the Bill) label the EFB “seriously flawed” or will it merely talks of minor clarifying changes to be made?