16 JANUARY

NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE

7

The bill is also intended to improve passport administration and rectify aspects of the Passports Act 1980 that are currently giving rise to administrative difficulty.

Racing Amendment
This bill amends the Racing Act 1971 to:

(a) Rename the New Zealand Racing Authority the New Zealand Racing Industry Board;

(b) Provide for the Minister to appoint the members of the Board, three without nomination, and the remaining seven on the nomination of various racing industry bodies;

(c) Provide for the Board to have functions not presently enjoyed by the New Zealand Racing Authority relating to bet types, the rates of deductions from betting, alteration to the rules of racing, marketing and promotion, and licensing;

(d) Remove the restriction on the conduct of racing and the operation of betting on Sundays;

(e) Revise the procedure for the allocation of totalisator licences;

(f) Amend the provisions relating to the membership of and appointments to the Totalisator Agency Board along similar lines to those intended for the New Zealand Racing Industry Board;

(g) Provide for the Totalisator Agency Board to operate fixed-odds betting; and

(h) Lower the minimum legal age for the placing of bets from 18 to 16 years.

Health and Safety in Employment
The principal purpose of the bill is to provide for the prevention of harm to employees. The bill provides for employers to ensure the safety of their employees in the work place by providing information on results of the monitoring of their health or place of work. Employers are also required to provide training and adequate supervision to employees on health and safety procedures as well as hazard management.

This bill has 65 clauses and is in five parts.

Part I sets out the purpose of the bill, its interpretation and application to the Crown.

Part II relates to the duties with respect to safety and health in employment and particularly the duties of employers relating to hazard management, the provision of health information, and training and supervision in health and safety procedures.

Part III provides standards in relation to codes of practice and the making of regulations.

Part IV relates to general provisions with respect to:

— accidents;

— inspectors, their duties and functions;

— improvement and prohibition notices;

— offences, penalties, and appeals;

— personation of inspectors;

— funding of administration and Insurance Corporation;

— non-compliance with other enactments;

— amendments, repeals, revocations, and savings.

Part V relates to the setting up of a Trust Board to have as its function the establishment and maintenance of fire rescue stations. Part V also sees the dissolution of the Coal Mining Industries Welfare Council.

Local Government Law Reform (No. 2)
This bill amends legislation relating to local government in New Zealand.

Part I: Amendments to Local Government Act 1974

Part I amends the Local Government Act 1974. Except as provided in clauses 10 (2), 14 (2), 15 (2), 16 (3), 17 (2) and 71, Part I comes into force on 1 July 1992. The most significant amendments in Part I relate to regional councils, re-organisation proposals, and ministerial reviews.

Regional councils

Part I:

(a) Redefines the functions, duties, and powers of regional councils;

(b) Provides that the major functions of regional councils will be in relation to resource management, pest destruction, the control of noxious plants, the management of harbours, the control of marine pollution, the management of hazardous wastes, flood protection schemes, land drainage schemes, transport planning and funding, regional civil defence, and, where all the affected territorial authorities agree, tourism;

(c) Enables the Auckland Regional Council and the Wellington Regional Council to establish and maintain regional parks and regional reserves;

(d) Takes away the power of regional councils to perform a wide range of permissive functions;

(e) In the case of the Auckland region, provides for the transfer of specified service delivery functions and specified assets and liabilities to a new Auckland Regional Service Trust;

(f) Establishes a formula for the use of any proceeds from the sale of port company shares and debt securities, which formula has, as its principal purpose, the retirement of local authority debt;

(g) Reduces the membership of regional councils from a maximum of 30 members to a maximum of 14 members;

(h) Prevents members of regional councils from being also members of territorial authorities within the same region; and

(i) Provides that, as from the commencement of 1 July 1992, regional councils will no longer receive part of the proceeds of local authorities’ petroleum tax.