Regulation wrap for 2024

2024 has been a big one for the new Ministry for Regulation. 

We’ve delivered a final report for our first regulatory review – the Early Childhood Education regulatory review, we’re finalising our first draft of the Agricultural and horticultural products regulatory review report and we’ve launched a third regulatory review into the hairdressing and barbering industry.

Early Childhood Education regulatory review

Agricultural and horticultural products regulatory review

Hairdressing and barbering industry regulatory review

The recently launched portal where people can report red tape issues will enable us to do even more to find and resolve regulatory issues that are getting in the way of people doing more – leading to more productive use of people’s time, and better outcomes for those who want to get things done.

So far, we’ve received almost 415 red tape issues, and our review team are busy triaging and reviewing them. Some of the biggest themes are traffic management, anti-money laundering and small food manufacturing. We’ve heard from people about a wide range of things including toys, aviation, bike racks, boats, service stations, hot water bores, engineering, electrical workers, health supplements and trailers.  

Report a red tape issueopen_in_new

We’ve also been busy behind the scenes working with regulatory agencies to make things better for New Zealanders. For example, we’ve helped to keep costs down for Buy Now, Pay Later customers, and supported bakers to manage health and safety regulations.  

Buy Now, Pay Later (82 KB, Pdf)

Flour dust standards - what should they be? (84 KB, Pdf)

There are a range of other issues we’ll progress in early 2025.

We’re making changes to regulatory policymaking too. Cabinet has changed impact analysis requirements to take effect from 1 January 2025, supporting the effectiveness and resilience of new policy.

Working across government to improve the regulation making process

And the proposed contents of the Regulatory Standards Bill is out for public consultation until 13 January 2025.

Have your say on the Regulatory Standards Billopen_in_new

You can keep up to date with our work via our LinkedIn page, that already has over 6,300 keen followers. Our Strategic Intentions document is a great holiday read – setting out what we’ll do, how it’ll be done, and by when, right through until 2029.

Follow us on LinkedInopen_in_new

Strategic Intentions (2.3 MB, Pdf)

We all benefit when we have rules and regulations that enable New Zealanders to do more – leading to more productive use of people’s time, and far better outcomes for those who want to get things done.

Our office is closed from 25 December 2024 to 6 January 2025. We won’t be monitoring our inboxes during our office close-down period. People can still provide feedback into our engagement hub, including reporting red tape issues, and our team will respond once we’re back in the office. 

We look forward to helping government agencies make their rules and regulations easier for New Zealanders to navigate in 2025.