One of the "principles of responsible regulation" that Rodney Hide is pushing through his Regulatory Standards Bill is that laws should not be made unless there has been a careful evaluation of the issue, the effectiveness of the proposed measure, the alternative options, and the costs and benefits of each. The government does this at present, through a "Regulatory Impact Statement" attached to each bill (the guidelines for which are here).
Guess what's missing from Hide's bill...?
