Nomination of select committee to consider Bill

This is a revision Bill (see below). Standing Order 276 provides that there is no amendment or debate on the first reading of a revision Bill. Immediately following the Bill’s first reading, the question is put that the Bill be considered by a select committee nominated in the explanatory note to the Bill. The Primary Production Committee is nominated for this purpose.

General policy statement

This is a Bill to re-enact, in an up-to-date and accessible form, the Valuers Act 1948 (the 1948 Act).

The Bill is a revision Bill prepared under subpart 3 of Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019.

The revision powers are set out in section 96 of the Legislation Act 2019. In summary, a revision Bill may—

• revise the whole or part of 1 or more Acts, and for that purpose may combine or divide Acts or parts of Acts:

• omit redundant and spent provisions:

• renumber and rearrange provisions from the Acts revised:

• make changes in language, format, and punctuation to achieve a clear, consistent, gender-neutral, and modern style of expression, to achieve consistency with current drafting style and format, and generally to better express the spirit and meaning of the law:

• include new or additional purpose provisions, outline or overview provisions, examples, diagrams, graphics, flowcharts, readers’ notes, lists of defined terms, and other similar devices to aid accessibility and readability:

• correct typographical, punctuation, and grammatical errors and other similar errors:

• make minor amendments to—

  • clarify Parliament's intent, resolve ambiguity, or reconcile inconsistencies between provisions:

  • update monetary amounts for New Zealand Consumer Price Index increases (excluding jurisdictional, offence and penalty amounts):

  • update provisions for changes in technology if the amendments are consistent with the spirit and meaning of the law:

  • ensure the correct division of matters between Acts and secondary legislation:

• make consequential amendments to other enactments:

• include any necessary repeals, savings, and transitional provisions.

A revision Bill must not change the effect of the law, except as authorised by section 96(3) of the Legislation Act 2019.

Accordingly, this Bill (as introduced) does not make any substantive policy changes.

However, an Amendment Paper to amend this Bill has been released. The Amendment Paper contains amendments to the Bill that are expressly identified as intended to change the effect of the old law. The Business Committee of the House of Representatives has authorised the Primary Production Committee to have the power to consider and, if it thinks fit, adopt the amendments set out in the Amendment Paper.

A number of relatively minor inconsistencies, anomalies, discrepancies, and omissions were identified in the course of preparing this revision Bill. The following sets out, in general terms, the kinds of matters that were identified and how they have been remedied:

• minor changes have been made to achieve consistency with current drafting style and format (for example, to update archaic language like thereof, hereby, thereat, hereinafter, aforesaid, notwithstanding, and shall and to replace provisos):

• changes have been made to update or clarify the language used. For example,—

  • a reference to an officer under the control of the Valuer-General has been updated to refer to a public service employee under the control of the Valuer-General (see clause 64):

  • a reference to a servant of the Institute has been updated to refer to an employee or agent:

  • a reference to abode has been updated to refer to a place of residence:

  • references to the Board’s accounts have been updated to refer to its financial statements:

  • a reference in section 37(3) of the 1948 Act to a person carrying on in New Zealand the business of banking has been adjusted to refer to concepts under the Banking (Prudential Supervision) Act 1989 or the Deposit Takers Act 2023 (see clause 92 and clause 9 of Schedule 1):

• amendments have been made to ensure that the language used in the Bill is gender-neutral:

• the Legislation Act 2019 contains various provisions that are intended to shorten legislation. For example, section 13 contains standard definitions, section 49 provides a power to prescribe different matters for different classes, and section 51 provides that a power conferred by an Act may be exercised from time to time. Those provisions have been relied on when preparing this Bill. For example,—

  • clause 5 (which relates to interpretation) no longer contains a definition of Minister because section 13 of the Legislation 2019 contains a definition of that term that will apply to this legislation:

  • clause 90 (which gives the Institute a power to make rules) omits the reference to prescribing different fees for different classes of valuers or members and omits the words from time to time:

• section 16(1)(c) of the 1948 Act contained a reference to the constitution of branches of the Institute. A reference to a constitution in that context is ambiguous given that the term now commonly refers to a governing document. The meaning of the provision has been clarified in clause 90(1)(c):

• some inconsistencies in terminology have been removed. For example,—

  • section 28(1) of the 1948 Act refers to the Board causing a name to be removed from the register. This is inconsistent with other provisions that refer to the Board giving a direction to remove a name. The wording of various provisions has been aligned to consistently refer to a direction (see clause 32):

  • sections 35(4) and 42 of the 1948 Act use inconsistent language to set out various holding out offences. The wording of those provisions has been aligned to consistently refer to using or causing or permitting to be used certain words, titles, initials, or abbreviations (see clauses 8, 106, and 107):

• section 31 of the 1948 Act provides that the Board may cause a valuer’s name to be removed from the register if it is satisfied of certain matters but not otherwise. These words have been omitted from clause 35 as being unnecessary, inconsistent with other provisions that provide for removal, and inconsistent with current drafting practice:

• section 43 of the 1948 Act contains a general reference to offences against the Act where no other penalty for that offence is provided. For clarity, the Bill contains more specific references to the relevant offences (see clauses 9, 26, and 109).

See also Part 1 of Schedule 3 of the Bill, which sets out minor amendments to—

• clarify Parliament's intent, resolve ambiguities, or reconcile inconsistencies between provisions:

• update provisions to reflect changes in technology.

Clause by clause analysis

Clause 1 is the Title clause.

Clause 2 provides for the Bill to come into force 6 months after enactment.