Thank you for the opportunity to submit on the Regulatory Standards Bill. This submission is by the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists (NZCCP), which represents more than 1800 clinical psychologists and advanced-level clinical psychology trainees in Aotearoa New Zealand. The NZCCP acknowledges that there will be some diversity of views within our membership. However, we believe this submission is consistent with the psychological and health literature and would be supported by a majority of our membership.
The NZCCP opposes the Regulatory Standards Bill. We believe it should be thrown out in its entirety and we do not believe that any amended version of the Bill should be passed.
Our rationale for this position is underpinned by the belief that the Regulatory Standards Bill places too much power in the hands of the Minister for Regulation to impact on existing and future legislation in ways that may reflect particular political leanings rather than long-term good governance for the benefit of the population of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Some examples of this include the potential of the Bill to:
∙ Impede the ability of existing and future legislation to be written in ways that flexibly responds to the conditions that Aotearoa New Zealand will face. This flexibility may be vital for the future existence of a just society, or even of humanity.
∙ Breach or minimise the significance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in shaping the direction and substance of legislation in Aotearoa New Zealand.
∙ Put individual property and corporate rights over the collective interests for people and planet.
∙ Limit the ability of health and social services, either government or NGO, to deliver effectively for communities. This may adversely affect much of the population, and particularly affect many marginalised groups.
∙ Create a situation in which corporations can demand “compensation” from the Government if they are disadvantaged when the Government makes laws that fairly serve the interests of people and the environment.
It is well understood that the health and wellbeing of all nations is adversely affected by increased economic inequity and other forms of social processes that disadvantage particular members of society and large international studies show that increasing financial and social equity leads to improved health and wellbeing, particularly for the most disadvantaged citizens2 Furthermore, improving environmental sustainability leads to increased health and wellbeing across society.3 Given this understanding, it is critical that as a nation we aim to reduce the inequity across the whole population, ideally by making sure we reduce the financial and other disadvantages experienced by those who are disadvantaged and underserved. The NZCCP believes that, if passed, the Regulatory Standards Bill would lead to increased inequity and to a lack of the legislative flexibility needed to create a more just and equitable society.
For these reasons, we oppose the Regulatory Standards Bill being passed into law.
Thank you for considering this submission. We are prepared to speak to this submission if it would be of value to the Select Committee.
1 Schulz, E. H., Detrick, R. P., & McGee, S. S. (2020). Income inequality and mental health in developed countries: A systematic review. BMC Public Health, 20, 1384.
2 Stuckler, D., Basu, S., & McKee, M. (2021). Income inequality and health: A global overview. The Lancet Public Health, 6(3), e139-e147.
3Jenkins, P. W., & Bennett, D. I. (2023). How social inequalities in health are impacted by environmental sustainability. Environmental Health Perspectives, 131(7), 076004.
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