NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE

No. 123

Health Reform

This Bill amends the Area Health Boards Act 1983 and Part II of the Social Security Act 1964.

Part I which amends the Area Health Boards Act 1983:

(a) Reconstitutes each health board as a corporation sole (consisting of a single commissioner appointed by the Minister of Health), and makes the necessary consequential amendments;

(b) Provides that each commissioner may, with the consent of the Minister of Health, appoint a deputy; and

(c) Imposes two qualifications on the duty of the general manager to act independently in matters relating to decisions on individual employees.

Those qualifications are:

(i) That the State Services Commissioner may from time to time, after consultation with the Director-General of Health, promulgate conditions of employment of any general manager (not being conditions that are inconsistent with any terms and conditions of any applicable collective employment contract); and any such general manager shall ensure that the conditions of employment entered into with any person employed by the board are consistent with the conditions of employment so promulgated; and

(ii) That the State Services Commissioner may from time to time declare that all or any part of the conditions of employment fixed under a collective employment contract for persons employed in the Health Service are to be the actual conditions of employment.

It is expressly provided that nothing in the new subsections authorises the reduction of the individual conditions of employment of any person employed in the Health Service immediately before the commencement of the section.

Part II of the Bill amends the Social Security Act 1967, which is administered by the Department of Health, and relates to medical and hospital benefits and other related benefits.

Finance Bill (No. 2)

This Bill contains a number of miscellaneous provisions including amendments to the following legislation:

(a) Accident Compensation Act 1982

Under the present legislation, the Commissioner of Inland Revenue is required to pay the amount of any levy payable by a self-employed person when it first appears that the levy is due and payable, whether or not it has actually been paid. The new provisions provide that payments of levies by the Commissioner to the Corporation will, from 1 August 1991, occur when the levy payments are actually received by the Commissioner, and this will apply to levies from both employers and self-employed persons. Provision is made for appropriate adjustments when the Commissioner has already paid amounts in respect of any levy received after 1 August 1991, or where the amount of any levy is written off or reduced by an assessment or reassessment.

(b) Customs Act 1966

The amendment provides new definitions of the terms “documents” and “duty”.

(c) Housing Corporation Act 1977

The amendments reconstitute the Housing Corporation of New Zealand, empower the Corporation to sell or dispose of its property and makes related amendments to the Housing Corporation of New Zealand.

(d) State-Owned Enterprises Act 1986

Major amendments relate to the Government Supply Brokerage Corporation (N.Z.) Ltd., the Forestry Corporation of New Zealand Limited, Government Computer Services Ltd., the National Provident Management Company Limited, and Timberlands West Coast Ltd.

(e) Adult Adoption Information Act 1985

The amendment makes it clear that fees can be prescribed to any matter under the Act and provides an interim scale of fees to cover the period until new fees regulations come into force.

(f) Animals Act 1967

The major amendments remove the Crown’s obligation to compensate owners of cattle slaughtered because of infection with brucellosis or tuberculosis and compensation to be paid out of levies collected under the Meat Act 1981.

(g) Crown Minerals Act 1991

This amendment to section 108 of the Crown Minerals Act 1991 alters and reinstates, with minor amendments, subsection (1) which was omitted by Supplementary Order Paper No. 40. A consequential amendment is also made to section 387 of the Resource Management Act 1991.

(h) Dog Control and Hydatids Act 1982

These amendments dissolve the National Hydatids Council and provides that all the Council’s rights, assets, and liabilities or debts become assets, liabilities and debts of the Minister of Agriculture.

(i) Education Act 1989

The Bill dissolves the Parent Advocacy Council and provides that the Council’s rights, assets, and liabilities become those of the Minister of Education.

The Bill also repeals and replaces section 65 of the Education Act 1989, and makes certain other repeals. It has the effect of repealing provisions of that Act making it compulsory for teachers in kindergartens and State schools to be registered teachers, together with provisions that provide for certain exceptions. The opportunity has been taken to repeal some spent transitional provisions relating to teacher registration.