Centrist: Janet Dickson ruling shows New Zealand’s regulator reforms fall short

Janet Dickson faces losing her licence over a compulsory tikanga course, while Alberta limits regulators’ power to impose ideological training.

Professional bodies are supposed to regulate professions, not politics

The Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal has upheld the registrar’s refusal to exempt Janet Dickson from Te Kākano, a compulsory 90-minute course covering Māori language and development, the Treaty of Waitangi and Māori land.

The Real Estate Authority had already signalled that it intended to cancel her licence. Dickson now appears likely to lose the right to work in real estate after 30 years. There is no allegation that she acted incompetently or dishonestly in a property transaction, or harmed a client.

Roger Partridge: The two-thirds we never built

The Financial Markets Authority is having a bad year. Its chair resigned in May. Its chief executive has been suspended. And the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is investigating its culture.

Some will see this as a failure of the FMA’s board model. It is better seen as a reminder that New Zealand only ever built one part of the system needed to govern regulators well.

Dr Eric Crampton: Send my regards to NZ’s regulators as they struggle to keep up

Last year, Cabinet papers promised that New Zealand’s agricultural-product regulator would be required to use assessments from trusted overseas regulators. The Bills now before Parliament instead say the regulator must merely “have regard to” them.

A duty to have regard to something is not a duty to use it. It can be satisfied by reading the overseas assessment, noting it, and then doing the local assessment much as before.

David Farrar: 260 regulators!

David Seymour announced:

For the first time, the full scale and structure of New Zealand’s regulatory landscape has been mapped, exposing decades of overlap and complexity, Regulation Minister David Seymour says.

“In New Zealand there are over 260 regulators. This includes 95 in central government, 79 in local government, and 57 statutory bodies, committees, or tribunals,” Mr Seymour says.

The total number is bad enough, but look at how many one entity may have rot deal with.