New Zealand Legislation
Last updated 9 June 2009
This section explains what is on the site (and what isn’t), how to use it, how often it is updated, that the legislation is unofficial, and where to go for more help. It also includes site owner, linking, accessibility, copyright, disclaimer, and privacy information.
What is on this site
What legislation is provided on this website?
Are all amendments included in the text of the legislation?
RSS feed
What is not on this site
What legislation is not on this website?
Where else is legislation available from?
Is legislation available in Microsoft Word or other formats?
Does the website provide access to court judgments?
How to use this site
Searching or browsing legislation
Viewing legislation
Printing legislation
How do I find legislation on a particular topic?
How do I find amendment legislation, as opposed to principal legislation?
How do I find repealed or revoked legislation?
How do I find Bills that are no longer current?
How do I find Supplementary Order Papers?
How do I find the High Court Rules? The Building Code?
How do I find out whether legislation is in force or not?
How do I find out when an Act comes into force?
How do I find out when a Regulation comes into force?
Why do some documents show the New Zealand Coat of Arms while others do not?
How often the site is updated
How up to date is this website?
Can I be notified when new legislation appears?
Understanding legislation
Advice about the interpretation or operation of legislation
Further information
Status of legislation on this site
Current status of legislation on this website
Making online legislation official
More about this site—site owner, linking to the site, accessibility, copyright, disclaimer, privacy
Who is the website owner?
Linking to this website
Linking to legislation
Can I put a copy of an Act, Regulation, Bill, or Supplementary Order Paper on my website?
Accessibility
Copyright
Disclaimer
Privacy
This website provides free public access to up-to-date unofficial versions of the following New Zealand legislation:
Amendment Acts and amendment Regulations are provided in all cases from 1999 onwards. Amendment Acts and amendment Regulations from 1997 and 1998 are also provided, but usually in summary format. In general, amendment Acts and amendment Regulations before 1997 are not provided. See How do I find amendment legislation, as opposed to principal legislation?
Acts repealed and Regulations revoked after 4 September 2007 are available on this website. Legislation repealed or revoked before this date is not generally available, with certain exceptions (such as portions of the Building Regulations 1992, particularly the Building Code, which is still in force).
Bills and Supplementary Order Papers current at 1 January 2008 or later are available on this website. However, some documents that were current before that date and are still current, but have not been republished since 2007, will not be available on this website until they have been republished as a later version.
See also How up to date is this website?, What legislation is not on this website?, and Where else is legislation available from?
Yes, legislation on this website has amendments incorporated to provide a snapshot of the law as it currently stands. Amendments are added as soon as possible after they come into force—see How up to date is this website?
Superseded versions of current Acts and Regulations are retained on the website to make it easier for users to view the law that was in force at a particular time. To view superseded versions, click on the See other versions link which is available when viewing a specific Act or Regulation. However, superseded versions of Acts and Regulations before 4 September 2007 are not provided.
See also How do I find amendment legislation, as opposed to principal legislation?
An RSS feed is available to help you keep up to date with legislation. Your RSS reader will show you what's new since the last time you checked the feed, without having to visit the website itself.
There are a number of ways to subscribe to the RSS feed, depending on your preferences, your browser, or your feed reader:
that displays in your web browser address
bar when you visit this website. Save the feed to your bookmarks or favourites.The following deemed regulations or sources of law are not available on this website:
See About legislation for more on regulations. A list of deemed regulations, with information on how to access them, is provided by the Parliamentary Counsel Office.
Legislation repealed or revoked before 4 September 2007 is generally not provided, with certain exceptions (such as portions of the Building Regulations 1992, particularly the Building Code which is still in force). See How do I find repealed or revoked legislation?
In general, amendment Acts and amendment Regulations from before 1997 are not provided. Later amendment Acts and amendment Regulations are provided, but those from 1997 and 1998 are usually in summary form. See also How do I find amendment legislation, as opposed to principal legislation?
Schedule 3 (Excise and excise-equivalent duties) of the Customs and Excise Act 1996, Schedule 1 (The Tariff) of the Tariff Act 1988, and Schedule 3 (Thai goods containing non-originating materials) and Schedule 7 (Product-specific rules of origin for Australian goods) of the Customs and Excise Regulations 1996 are not currently available in the collection. See the New Zealand Customs Service website for these documents.
Bills and Supplementary Order Papers that were no longer current at 1 January 2008 are not available on this website. In addition, some documents that were current before 1 January 2008 and are still current, but have not been republished since 2007, will not be available on this website until they have been republished as a later version. See Where else is legislation available from?
Acts and Regulations, including some unavailable from this site (earlier repealed, revoked, or amendment legislation, and earlier legislation as originally enacted), are available on the Knowledge Basket website. PDF facsimiles of historical Acts from 1888 to 1894 are also available on the Knowledge Basket website.
Bills and Supplementary Order Papers, including those currently before the House or its select committees, are available on the New Zealand Parliament website. Earlier Bills and Supplementary Order Papers may also be available on the Knowledge Basket website.
You can buy official printed copies of legislation from Legislation Direct and from selected bookshops—see Buy online. Official printed legislation is also available from some public libraries.
This website provides legislation in HTML and PDF formats only. The Parliamentary Counsel Office is not able to provide access to legislation in any other format, or to email copies of legislation.
This website does not provide access to court judgments. Decisions of public interest from the courts are available to the public on the Ministry of Justice website. The New Zealand Legal Information Institute website also provides free access to court judgments.
You may search or browse across all the Acts, Bills, and Regulations on this website together or separately.
For search tips, see Search help.
You may browse Acts and Regulations by title, year, or type, and browse Bills by title or type.
For an explanation of the terms used in the navigation bars and search or browse options, see Navigation and search terms in the Glossary.
The results of your search or browse request are displayed by title. After searching, selecting a title will take you to the first hit in that item of legislation. After browsing, selecting a title will take you to the contents page of an Act or Regulation, or the versions page of a Bill.
When browsing legislation by title, remember that legislation is identified by its full name. So, for example, the full name of the Bill of Rights is the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and so it is listed under "N". Note also that the High Court Rules are contained in Schedule 2 of the Judicature Act 1908, and so can be found by searching Act titles for "judicature". The Building Code is contained in Schedule 1 of the Building Regulations 1992; these Regulations have been revoked, and so can be found in the revoked collection, although the Building Code continues in force.
See also the Guide to using the New Zealand Legislation website.
To view legislation, first locate it by searching or browsing. Selecting its name will take you direct to its contents page, or give you a link to the contents page.
From the contents page there are several viewing options:
See also the Guide to using the New Zealand Legislation website.
To print a specific section or clause, navigate to it using the viewing instructions above and then use your browser’s Print function (under the File menu on most browsers).
To print an entire Act, Regulation, or Bill, navigate to it using the instructions for View whole Act (or Regulation or Bill) or View PDF copy above. Then use your browser’s or PDF viewer’s print function. (PDF versions look like traditional printed legislation, and are particularly suited to printing out.)
While in general there is no charge for using this website, including for printing, printing in some places (eg in a library or internet cafe) may incur a charge.
You can also buy official printed copies of legislation from Legislation Direct and from selected bookshops. See Buy Online.
If you don’t know which piece of legislation is relevant, you can search the text of all Acts or all Regulations to find your topic. Use Quick search, or search the Act or Regulation content field in Guided search or Advanced search.
Note that searching will only find words actually used in legislation.
Alternatively, you can use newzealand.govt.nz to search for the topic you are interested in.
This website is a source of up-to-date legislation, which means that the amendments are incorporated into the text of the principal Act or Regulation as soon as possible after they come into force—see How up to date is this website?.
However, amendment legislation, and original versions of legislation (in its "as enacted" or "as made" form without subsequent amendments), are available. To search for this legislation using Quick search, untick the box that excludes amendment and original legislation. To search for this legislation using Guided search or Advanced search, or to browse for it, select the as enacted or as made option under version.
In certain cases, amendment legislation is intended to stand alone from the principal legislation. In these cases the amendment legislation is not incorporated into the principal legislation. On the website it is still located with other amendment legislation, however, and is found using the same methods.
In general, amendment legislation in its original form is available from 1999 onwards. Earlier amendment legislation is available from 1997 but may be in summary form, and in certain cases amendment legislation may be available from before this date.
Acts repealed and Regulations revoked after 4 September 2007 are available on this website. To search for repealed or revoked legislation, use Advanced search or Guided search and ensure the box for repealed or revoked legislation is ticked. To browse for repealed or revoked legislation, ensure that the appropriate version option has been selected.
Legislation repealed or revoked before 4 September 2007 is not generally available on this website, with certain exceptions (such as portions of the Building Regulations 1992, particularly the Building Code, which is still in force).
Some repealed and revoked legislation is available from the Knowledge Basket.
Repealed or revoked legislation can be found in some public libraries. It may be possible to buy a copy of the repealed or revoked legislation from Legislation Direct. Alternatively, the National Library of New Zealand or the Parliamentary Information Service may be able to help.
You can find a Bill that is no longer current from Quick search if you ensure the box that excludes Bills that have been enacted is not ticked. Both Guided search and Advanced search provide more options: you can specify under "version" whether you are interested in current, enacted, or terminated Bills.
Bills that were no longer current at 1 January 2008 are not available on this website. They may be available through the Parliament website or through the Knowledge Basket.
Supplementary Order Papers are listed on the versions page of the associated Bill. It is not possible to locate a Supplementary Order Paper by using the search or browse functions—instead, search or browse for the associated Bill and view its versions page. To search for text within a Supplementary Order Paper, first navigate to it and then select "Search within this SOP".
The High Court Rules are contained in Schedule 2 of the Judicature Act 1908, and so can be found by searching Act titles for "judicature".
The Building Code is contained in Schedule 1 of the Building Regulations 1992; these Regulations have been revoked, and so can be found in the revoked collection, although the Building Code continues in force.
In general, legislation on the New Zealand Legislation website is in force unless noted otherwise. If the legislation has been repealed or revoked, or if the entire Act or Regulation is not yet in force, there will be a note at the top of the screen stating this.
However, if provisions of an Act or Regulation are in force and others are not in force, this will not be noted. To check whether specified provisions are in force, see How do I find out when an Act comes into force? or How do I find out when a Regulation comes into force?
If amendments to an Act or Regulation are not yet in force, they will not have been incorporated. To view them, you will need to locate the amendment legislation that inserts them.
An Act passed since 1 January 2000 has a section that states when it comes into force (commencement), usually as section 2. Acts passed before this date may contain a specific commencement section, usually as section 1(2).
An Act may come into force at different times. The most common are:Sometimes different sections of an Act come into force at different times.
The date of assent appears on the Act's contents page.
You can find commencement orders in the Regulations collection. They are held with amendment Regulations and original versions of Regulations so, when using Quick search, ensure the box that excludes these Regulations is not ticked, and when using Guided search or Advanced search, ensure "as made" versions are selected. The title of a commencement order usually starts with the name of the Act being brought into force, so enter words from the Act's title in the "Regulation title" box.
If an Act does not state when it comes into force, it usually comes into force on the day after the date of assent (in accordance with section 8(2) of the Interpretation Act 1999, for Acts passed after 1 November 1999) or on the date of assent (in accordance with section 10A(1) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1924, for earlier Acts).
A Regulation may come into force at different times. The most common are:
Sometimes different clauses of a Regulation come into force at different times.
Regulations will usually contain a specific provision stating when they come into force, usually regulation 2 or regulation 1(2).
The date of its notification in the Gazette is stated at the very end of the Regulation. From the Regulation's contents page, follow the Administrative information or Gazette information link.
If a Regulation does not state when it comes into force, it usually comes into force on the day after the date of its notification in the Gazette (in accordance with section 9(2) of the Interpretation Act 1999, for Regulations made after 1 November 1999) or on the date on which they are made (for Regulations made before 1 November 1999).
Items that have been officialised or have semi-official status display an image of the New Zealand Coat of Arms in their PDF and "View whole" HTML versions. This means that they are an accurate and authoritative version of legislation. Items that do not display the Coat of Arms do not have this status. See Making online legislation official.
An update statement, which includes the date and time that the website was last updated, is provided on the Home page.
We aim to make legislation (including Bills and Supplementary Order Papers) available on this website in accordance with the following timeframes:
New Acts, Bills, and Supplementary Order Papers are made publicly available only when notified to do so by Parliament.
Current Acts and Regulations are updated with amendments as soon as possible after the amendments come into force. We aim to incorporate amendments within three weeks after the amendment comes into force. However, if an amendment is to come into force more than 90 days after enactment/making, we aim to incorporate the amendment by the date the amendment comes into force. Our ability to achieve these timeframes may be affected from time to time by the number or complexity of the amendments.
Each Act or Regulation states when amendments were last incorporated. If an amendment has been enacted/made, but not yet incorporated into the principal enactment, an alert message will appear under the "See related information and/or uncompiled amendments" item for that principal enactment. We aim to make this alert message available on the website within five working days of the publication of the amendment on the website. Our ability to meet this timeframe may be affected from time to time by the number or complexity of amendments.
This website does not provide access to an email alert service, but an RSS feed is available to notify you when new legislation is posted.
The Parliamentary Counsel Office does not give advice to the public about the interpretation or operation of legislation. For this, you should contact the government agency that administers the legislation. You can usually find the name of the administering agency from the contents page of an Act or Regulation, or under Legislative history or Administrative information on the contents page.
For advice about the legal effect of any legislation, you should contact a lawyer (see the New Zealand Law Society website), your local Citizens Advice Bureau, or a community law centre.
Another useful website is the Legal Services Agency's LawAccess website, a catalogue of law-related information and resources.
If you have any questions or would like more information about this website, visit the Frequently asked questions of the Parliamentary Counsel Office website or Contact us.
The electronic versions of legislation on this website, and any legislation printed from this website:
You can buy official copies of legislation from Legislation Direct or selected bookshops. See Buy Online. Copies are also available in many public libraries.
Some legislation on the website has been officialised, or has semi-official status. See Making online legislation official.
It is intended that the legislation on this website will become an official source of New Zealand legislation in the future. This involves two steps. Firstly, the Parliamentary Counsel Office is officialising the material, giving it semi-official status. Officialised material has been confirmed as being an accurate and authoritative version of legislation. The intention is that officialisation will be completed by 31 December 2012. Secondly, when it is completed, the Parliamentary Counsel Office intends to promote legislation to make the New Zealand Legislation website an official source of legislation.
The officialisation process includes the exercise of the powers conferred by section 17C of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989. That section authorises the Parliamentary Counsel Office to make certain editorial changes to a reprinted enactment so that it can be reprinted in a format consistent with current legislative drafting practice.
Items that have been officialised include an image of the New Zealand Coat of Arms in their PDF or "View whole" HTML versions.
In addition, legislation published since the website went live has semi-official status and does not need further officialising, as it has been published from the same source files as official printed legislation published since the go-live in January 2008. This legislation also includes an image of the New Zealand Coat of Arms in its PDF or "View whole" HTML versions.
Some changes to the material on this website have already been made in anticipation of officialisation. This includes the conversion of roman numerals in headings to arabic numerals, and changes in format to more closely follow current legislative drafting practice.
This website is owned and provided by the New Zealand Parliamentary Counsel Office/Te Tari Tohutohu Pāremata (PCO), which is responsible for drafting and publishing most of New Zealand's legislation.
The website is under regular review so that improvements can be made. If you have any feedback about this website, please Contact us.
The Parliamentary Counsel Office welcomes and encourages linking to this website. Links can be made freely and without seeking permission. Please copy and paste the following code into your HTML:
<a href="http://www.legislation.govt.nz">New Zealand Legislation website</a>
For information on linking see Creating links to the New Zealand Legislation website.
Note that, while links to Acts and Regulations will be stable, each new version of a Bill will have a new URL.
The Parliamentary Counsel Office strongly recommends that instead you link to legislation on this website. See Linking to legislation.
The advantage of providing a link to this website is that the legislation will be maintained in an up-to-date form. It also avoids having legislation on websites in PDF format that does not comply with the New Zealand Government Web Standards.
Go to the List of Access Keys.
The New Zealand Legislation website has been designed to comply with the mandatory standards of the New Zealand Government Web Standards, allowing the content to be usable by all, irrespective of physical or technological impediments.
Some items of legislation are large, particularly the "whole" or PDF versions, and may be slow to download.
The final form and content of legislation is a matter for Parliament or, in the case of regulations, the person or body responsible for making the regulations. There are therefore some instances where the Parliamentary Counsel Office is unable to publish legislation (including Bills and Supplementary Order Papers) in a form that fully complies with the Standards. Two examples where compliance with the Standards cannot be achieved are:
If you come across any accessibility issues, please Contact us.
There is no copyright in New Zealand legislation (see section 27 of the Copyright Act 1994) (although note that there may be copyright in certain types of deemed regulations not available from this website). All Acts, Bills, Supplementary Order Papers, and Regulations featured on this website may be reproduced free of charge in any format or media without requiring specific permission.
All other material featured on this website is subject to Crown copyright protection unless otherwise indicated. The Crown copyright protected material may be reproduced free of charge in any format or media without requiring specific permission. This is subject to the material being reproduced accurately and not being used in a misleading context. Where the material is being published or issued to others, the source and copyright status must be acknowledged.
If you have any questions regarding copyright on material on this website, please Contact us.
The electronic versions of legislation on this website, and any legislation printed from this website:
See also Current status of legislation on this website.
Supplementary material on this website is intended to provide general information to the public, and every effort has been made to ensure that the material is accurate and up to date. However, the Parliamentary Counsel Office may change, delete, add to, or otherwise amend information contained on this website at any time.
Although the Parliamentary Counsel Office endeavours to create particular links within and between legislation on the website, it will not always be possible to do so in every case due to resource or timing issues.
The Parliamentary Counsel Office is not responsible for the content or reliability of websites linked to from this website and does not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them. Linking is not to be taken as endorsement of any kind. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and we have no control over availability of the linked pages.
You may browse and access information contained within this website without providing any personal information.
Where you voluntarily provide personal information (eg through the Feedback form), we will use that information only to communicate with you. We will keep that information secure and will not disclose it to third parties.
If you have concerns about personal information that we hold please Contact us.