Hairdressing law shake-up announced by David Seymour

RNZ News

27-05-2025

Separate hairdressing regulations are set to be scrapped, with cabinet agreeing to all four recommendations from a regulatory review into the hairdressing and barbering industry.
The
review, carried out by the Ministry for Regulation along with the Ministry of Health
, looked at the regulations the industry needed to follow and whether any of them were deemed to be unnecessary or holding the industry back.
They included rules prohibiting dogs, other than guide-dogs, from being inside a barber shop and a ban on staff serving their clients refreshments.
Minister for Regulation David Seymour said "pointless bureaucracy" was being cut back.
"This is buzz cut season for red tape and regulation at salons up and down New Zealand. We are taking a serious trim to the amount of pointless bureaucracy, really shaving it back to the scalp where it's no longer needed because it's critical that people up and down this country who run small businesses can spend more time doing what they want to do and spend less time complying with pointless rules and regulations.
"The savings ... are about $1 million a year. Some will say 'what's a million dollars in the context of the whole economy', I say how many times do you see a government actually removing rules that aren't needed, actually saving money year after year to make it easier to get on with our lives."
The cost of the review had been about half a million dollars over six months, he said, "and give it 10 years' time it will have paid for itself 20 times over".
Seymour said the changes being talked about would come into effect from 1 July, but changes to the sale and supply of alcohol would need to go through legislation he hoped to convince his coalition partners to progress before the end of the year.
He said hairdressing was a very competitive industry, and concerns about hygiene and sanitation would be "solved by customer vigilance and competition amongst salons, it doesn't actually require an inspector to come in".
If he was wrong about that, the requirement for the rules to be reassessed after two years would see the rules reintroduced "but I don't think that will happen".
David Seymour at today's announcement.
Photo:
RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Announcing the review in December, Seymour said regulations were not making a practical difference to public health, but were
frustrating business owners and customers
.
The review has now recommended a full revoke of the Health (Hairdressers) Regulations 1980.
Seymour said compliance with health and safety, building regulations and general public health requirements was required already and there was no need for separate regulation from the 1980s.
"Existing regulations aren't making a practical difference to safety, but the compliance is frustrating and costly. We anticipate that revoking all existing regulations will save the industry a minimum of about $1 million per year," he said.
Seymour said the review also found that existing regulations were often applied inconsistently, with annual registration fees set by local government varying between $140 and $495, depending on location.
"Examples of absurd rules include how far apart salon seats should be, how bright the lights in the business are, whether you can have a 'cuppa' with your cut and whether dogs are allowed in salons. From the end of July now these decisions will be up to the business owner," he said.
Minister for Regulation David Seymour announces a shakeup in hairdressing regulations.
Photo:
RNZ / Marika Khabazi
The review put forward two options in revoking the existing regulations. One option was to rely on existing mechanisms in other legislation along with new industry guidance. The other was to replace the current regulations with risk-based regulations, focused on health and hygiene practices.
Ultimately, it recommended the first option, with the possibility that more targeted regulations could be introduced at a later date.
The
Ministry for Regulation
will work with the Ministry of Health on hygiene, disinfection, and sanitation guidance, accompanying WorkSafe's existing guidance.
It will also work with the Ministry of Justice to respond to concerns raised by submitters over how alcohol licensing applies to the industry.
Once the regulations are revoked, the Ministry for Regulation will be required to report back in two years to see whether the risks were being appropriately managed by the new regime or whether new risk-based regulations should be introduced.
The review identified some instances of harm still occurring in the industry, such as ACC claims related to non-workers, complaints to the industry body and complaints to the Commerce Commission.
But it said the harm was low-level and existing regulations were not proportionate to the risks.
The review was the third sector-wide regulatory review carried out by the Ministry for Regulation, following reviews into early childhood education and agricultural and horticultural products.
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