ACT proposes 'innovation trials' to pause regulations on new tech

The ACT Party has launched a new policy to make it easier for Ministers to pause regulations to allow companies to test new technologies.

Leader David Seymour announced the move in a speech to the Canterbury Club in Christchurch, rebranding what are often called "regulatory sandboxes" as "innovation trials".

The idea is to have government Ministers able to "strike down specific regulations for a specific amount of time".

"If, say, someone wanted to do a trial of driverless cars in Christchurch, they could go to the government and it could grant a sandbox where specific rules were set aside for a specific period in a specific region."

He said they were currently used only "occasionally" but his Regulation Ministry had "created a blueprint" for how they could become a "default" option.

"When the inevitable concerns spring up 'but what happens if something goes wrong', the answer is that it is just a time-limited trial, and if things do go wrong it doesn't need to continue. Minds are put at ease, the sky isn't falling."

Seymour pointed to things like driverless cars; cryptocurrency and digital finance; AI applications; precision agriculture and cell-cultivated food as potential solutions that could benefit.

"Are we making the most of this new age of innovation? Unfortunately, I think the answer is no ... a core driver of that is a sluggish and slow system of government that struggles to keep pace with change."

He gave the example of Jeremy Clarkson on Clarkson's Farm using drones to map field boundaries and identify problems in - or spray - crops, saying drones in New Zealand weighing more than 25kg could not be used without a Part 102 certification that cost up to $2000 and took more than a year to obtain.

"In Australia, drones up to 150 kilograms operate on farmland under simple licensing. We're not talking about a cutting-edge technology New Zealand can't access. We're talking about something our competitors are already using, every day, on farms not far from here."

He said autonomous vehicle companies were "burning through billions of dollars trying to find the right regulatory environment to test their technology at scale" and unlike other countries, New Zealand could offer a clear framework, a guaranteed timeline and a "government that will get out of the way".

"Bring your idea here. We'll build the runway while you're still designing the plane."

He implied New Zealand was falling behind.

"Singapore actively recruits companies into its regulatory sandbox programme. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has accepted 191 firms through its sandbox since 2015. These governments made a decision: uncertainty is the enemy of investment, and we will reduce it faster than anyone else.

"We will make innovation trials a standing offer, not a favour a minister grants when someone complains loudly enough but a published, permanent pathway that any company, anywhere in the world, can apply to. A front door for innovation, not a back door."

ACT pushed back on questions from RNZ about how appropriate it was for the Regulations Ministry to have prepared details of the policy, given public servants are required to be politically neutral.

"The Ministry has not prepared details of ACT policy. Innovation trials, also known as regulatory sandboxes, are already an option for ministers and ministries. However, no Government ministers have yet taken up the opportunity to implement a trial," the party said.

"ACT is campaigning to ensure that innovation trials are actually implemented in the next term of government."