6

NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE

No. 2

(b) The equal treatment of shareholders in a takeover:
(c) Mandatory bids, equal pricing, and equal opportunity for acceptance:
(d) Incremental acquisitions and partial bids:
(e) Pricing rules and defensive tactics.

The Panel is required to give persons and organisations that wish to do so the opportunity to make submissions to it both as to the type of takeover code that should be formulated and as to the actual provisions of the proposed code.

On being approved by the Governor-General by Order in Council the recommended code will have the force of law.

The bill deems an Order in Council that approves the takeovers code to be a regulation for the purposes of—
(a) The Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989; and
(b) The Regulations (Disallowance) Act 1989.

The bill authorises the making of regulations prescribing offences for contraventions of the code and conferring on the High Court the power to make orders in cases where shares in a public issuer have been acquired in contravention of the code.

On a date to be appointed by the Governor-General by Order in Council the provisions of Part I of the Companies Amendment Act 1963, which relates to company takeovers, will cease to apply to takeovers of listed companies.

District Courts Amendment (No. 3)

This bill, which is to come into force on 1 April 1992, makes a number of miscellaneous amendments to the District Courts Act 1947. The amendments are designed to align certain procedures of District Courts with the corresponding procedures of the High Court.

The bill provides for the removal of summary judgment application from the District Court to the High Court and allows for the District Court to order the removal into the High Court of any question of law to be argued.

The bill includes a number of discovery provisions which empower the District Court to order, prior to, and during the commencement of any action, the disclosure of documents relevant to a claim before the Court.

The bill also includes provisions relating to the duties and powers of Deputy Registrars and makes the necessary amendments to the District Court Rules.

Transport Safety

The bill implements new policies relating to the safety of road and rail transport. The principal changes are:

(a) A new drink driving strategy is implemented in respect of drivers under 25 years of age;
(b) Provision is made for the use of vehicle surveillance equipment (speed cameras) to assist in the detection of speeding offences:
(c) The demerit points system is overhauled;
(d) Owner liability is extended to certain traffic offences;
(e) Random breath testing is expressly authorised;
(f) A new railway safety regime is established;
(g) Procedures under the Road User Charges Act 1977 and the Transport Services Licensing Act 1989 are streamlined; and
(h) The jurisdiction of the Transport Accident Investigation Commission is extended to cover rail accidents.

Passports

This bill is to replace the Passports Act 1980. The principal differences between that Act and this bill are that the bill:

(a) Facilitates the introduction of single identity passports by providing for the issue of separate passports to persons under the age of 16. Such passports will be valid for 5 years. At present, the Minister of Internal Affairs may, if requested to do so by a parent or guardian of a child, endorse the name of that child on the parent’s or guardian’s passport instead of issuing a separate passport. It is proposed that this practice be discontinued. The move towards a “one person, one passport” approach is required as a result of the proposed implementation of a machine readable passport system, since details of endorsements cannot be included on the machine readable zone of a passport. The implementation of a machine readable passport system conforms to a Recommended Practice on Facilitation which was adopted pursuant to Article 37 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago, 1944), New Zealand is a party to the Convention:

(b) Makes provision for emergency travel documents:

(c) Makes provision for the Minister to require a person to surrender a passport held by the person where proceedings are commenced under the Citizenship Act 1977 to deprive the person of New Zealand citizenship. The person will be entitled to a short term passport pending conclusion of the proceedings:

(d) Prevents the holder of a New Zealand passport or any other person from giving or accepting a New Zealand passport or certificate of identity or other like documents as a security, and provides that where this is done the security shall be void and of no effect:

(e) Increases the level of fine for passport offences from the present maximum of $500 to $2,000:

(f) Amends the current delegation provision to more accurately reflect section 41 of the State Sector Act 1988:

(g) Authorises the disclosure of information from the Department of Internal Affairs to the Customs Department in relation to holders of New Zealand passports, certificates of identity, and emergency travel documents, for the purposes of facilitating the processing of passengers and border screening at international airports in New Zealand:

(h) Authorises the disclosure of information from the Department of Internal Affairs to the Australian Department of Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs in relation to holders of New Zealand passports, certificates of identity, and emergency travel documents, for the purpose of facilitating the processing of such holders and border screening at international airports in Australia:

(i) Rewrites provisions relating to the recall of passports and other documents, and carries forward into the Act some provisions that are currently contained in regulations.