New Zealand Legislation: Acts
Acts are laws made by Parliament
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as at 1 December 2006
| Public Act | 1988 No 5 |
| Date of assent | 12 March 1988 |
| Commencement | see section 1(2) |
Changes authorised by section 17C of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989 have been made in this reprint.
A general outline of these changes is set out in the notes at the end of this reprint, together with other explanatory material about this reprint.
This Act is administered by the Ministry of Economic Development.
1 Short Title and commencement
3 Standards Council continued in existence
5 Term of office of members [Repealed]
6 Vacation of office [Repealed]
7 Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson [Repealed]
8 Meetings of Council [Repealed]
9 Remuneration and travelling allowances [Repealed]
Functions and powers of Council
11 Additional powers of Council
12 Officers and employees of Council [Repealed]
13 Superannuation and retiring allowances
14 Personal liability of members, etc [Repealed]
15 Funds and resources of Council [Repealed]
16 Bank accounts [Repealed]
17 Investment and borrowing [Repealed]
18 Local authorities and public bodies may contribute to Council's funds
19A Crown entity [Repealed]
[Repealed]
21 Annual report [Repealed]
New Zealand standards and other Acts, regulations, and bylaws
22 Regulations, etc, may be made by referring to or incorporating New Zealand standards
23 Citation of New Zealand standards
24 References to New Zealand standards in other Acts, etc
Proof of New Zealand standards
25 Proof of New Zealand standards
27 Amendment to Higher Salaries Commission Act 1977 [Repealed]
28 Amendment to Flags, Emblems, and Names Protection Act 1981 [Repealed]
29 Consequential amendment to Local Authorities (Members' Interests) Act 1968 [Repealed]
30 Consequential amendment to Public Bodies Contracts Act 1959 [Repealed]
An Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to standards; and to repeal the Standards Act 1965
(1) This Act may be cited as the Standards Act 1988.
(2) This Act shall come into force on 1 July 1988.
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
Council means the Standards Council continued in existence under section 3
goods includes products, substances, or things of any kind
mark includes a device, brand, heading, label, ticket, name, signature, word, letter, numeral, or combination thereof
Minister means the Minister of Commerce
New Zealand Standard means a standard promulgated by the Council as a New Zealand Standard under this Act or as a standard specification under the Standards Act 1965
services includes rights, benefits, privileges, or facilities of any kind
specification means a description of, or instruction, requirement, statement, or principle relating to, goods, services, processes, or practices by reference to their nature, quality, design, finish, performance, strength, purity, composition, contents, quantity, dimensions, weight, grade, durability, origin, age or other characteristics, and includes—
(a) a description of goods by reference to a mark on the goods:
(b) a model form of bylaws:
(c) a code of practice:
(d) a glossary of terms:
(e) definitions or symbols
standard means a specification relating to goods, services, processes, or practices approved or adopted by the Council or another standards organisation, and includes modifications to any such specification
standard mark means a mark adopted by the Council in relation to any goods, services, processes, or practices to identify those goods, services, processes, or practices as conforming to a standard
standards organisation means an international, national, or regional organisation with functions similar to those of the Council.
Compare: 1965 No 59 s 2; 1979 No 59 s 8(3)
Section 2 financial year: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
Section 2 Minister: substituted, on 1 December 1988, by section 4(1) of the Trade and Industry Act Repeal Act 1988 (1988 No 156).
Section 2 specification: amended, on 26 September 2006, by section 4 of the Standards Amendment Act 2006 (2006 No 44).
This Act binds the Crown.
Section 2A: inserted, on 26 September 2006, by section 5 of the Standards Amendment Act 2006 (2006 No 44).
(1) There shall continue to be a body known as the Standards Council.
(2) The Council is a Crown entity for the purposes of section 7 of the Crown Entities Act 2004.
(3) The Crown Entities Act 2004 applies to the Council except to the extent that this Act expressly provides otherwise.
(3A) Members of the Council are the board for the purposes of the Crown Entities Act 2004.
(4) The Council is hereby declared to be the same body corporate as the body corporate of the same name existing immediately before the commencement of this Act under the Standards Act 1965.
Compare: 1965 No 59 s 3
Section 3(2): substituted, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
Section 3(3): substituted, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
Section 3(3A): inserted, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
(1) The Council shall consist of not more than 12 members of whom—
(a) not more than 4 shall be persons appointed by the Minister:
(b) not more than 8 shall be persons appointed by the Minister in accordance with subsection (2) or subsection (4).
(c) [Repealed]
(2) When appointing members under subsection (1)(b), the Minister must appoint from nominations made by nominating bodies as set out in regulations made under section 26.
(3) Nothing in subsection (2) shall be construed as preventing any 2 or more of the bodies specified in the regulations from agreeing on a joint nomination.
(4) If insufficient nominations have been submitted to the Minister under subsection (2) within a period specified by the Minister, the Minister, to the extent of the insufficiency, may appoint any person or persons to be a member or members of the Council without nomination.
(5) In appointing members of the Council, the Minister shall have regard to—
(a) their knowledge of and experience in management; and
(b) their knowledge of and experience in the development and use of standards.
(6) [Repealed]
(7) [Repealed]
Compare: 1965 No 59 s 4; 1972 No 103 s 2
Section 4(1)(a): amended, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
Section 4(1)(c): repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
Section 4(2): substituted, on 1 December 2006, by section 6(1) of the Standards Amendment Act 2006 (2006 No 44).
Section 4(3): amended, on 1 December 2006, by section 6(2) of the Standards Amendment Act 2006 (2006 No 44).
Section 4(6): repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
Section 4(7): repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Section 5: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Section 6: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Section 7: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Section 8: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Section 9: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
(1) The primary functions of the Council shall be to develop standards and to promote, encourage, and facilitate the use of standards in New Zealand with the object of—
(a) improving the quality of goods or services, having regard to economy in their production or supply; or
(b) promoting standardisation in industry, trade, or commerce; or
(c) encouraging and facilitating industrial development, trade, or commerce; or
(d) promoting public or occupational safety, health, or welfare; or
(e) minimising environmental risks; or
(f) promoting social responsibility.
(2) Without limiting the effect of subsection (1), the Council's functions shall include the following:
(a) to prepare draft standards and, when satisfactory to the Council, to approve and promulgate them as New Zealand standards:
(b) to examine standards of other standards organisations and, if the Council considers it appropriate, to adopt and promulgate them (with or without modification) as New Zealand standards or to endorse them as suitable for use in New Zealand:
(c) to examine New Zealand standards and, if the Council considers it appropriate, to revoke them or approve and promulgate standards to replace or modify them:
(ca) to recommend specifications other than standards:
(d) to undertake and promote research and educational work in connection with the development and use of standards and other specifications:
(e) to adopt and regulate the use of standard marks in relation to goods, services, processes, or practices:
(f) to register under the Trade Marks Act 2002 as certification trade marks standard marks adopted by the Council:
(g) to co-operate with other standards organisations and organisations or persons with similar or related functions with a view to furthering the functions of the Council, and to become a member of or affiliate to any such organisation as the Council considers appropriate:
(h) to co-operate and promote New Zealand's participation in the preparation of international standards and other specifications and in their promulgation:
(i) to perform any other functions conferred on it by or under this or any other enactment or that the Minister may direct it to perform in accordance with section 112 of the Crown Entities Act 2004.
(3) The Council shall, as part of its processes leading to the approval, adoption, endorsement, or revocation of standards, invite public comment and consult and co-operate with Government and local government bodies, persons engaged in industry, trade, and commerce, consumer groups, and other persons with a view to ensuring as far as reasonably practicable that the Council's decisions with respect to the approval, adoption, endorsement, or revocation of any standard are supported by the bodies and persons having an interest in the standard.
(4) If any New Zealand standard is cited in any Act or regulation, the Council shall not amend, revise, revoke, or replace that standard except with the approval of the Minister who is for the time being charged with the administration of the Act or regulation.
Compare: 1965 No 59 ss 16, 17
Section 10(1)(d): amended, on 26 September 2006, by section 7(1) of the Standards Amendment Act 2006 (2006 No 44).
Section 10(1)(e): added, on 26 September 2006, by section 7(1) of the Standards Amendment Act 2006 (2006 No 44).
Section 10(1)(f): added, on 26 September 2006, by section 7(1) of the Standards Amendment Act 2006 (2006 No 44).
Section 10(2)(ca): inserted, on 26 September 2006, by section 7(2) of the Standards Amendment Act 2006 (2006 No 44).
Section 10(2)(d): amended, on 26 September 2006, by section 7(3) of the Standards Amendment Act 2006 (2006 No 44).
Section 10(2)(f): amended, on 20 August 2003, by section 201 of the Trade Marks Act 2002 (2002 No 49).
Section 10(2)(h): amended, on 26 September 2006, by section 7(4) of the Standards Amendment Act 2006 (2006 No 44).
Section 10(2)(i): amended, on 26 September 2006, by section 7(5) of the Standards Amendment Act 2006 (2006 No 44).
(1) The Council may make grants or advances of money, on any conditions that it thinks fit, or pay any fee or subscription, to any organisation or person with similar or related functions or carrying out work related to that of the Council.
(2) This section does not limit sections 16 and 17 of the Crown Entities Act 2004.
Section 11: substituted, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Section 12: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
(1) For the purpose of providing superannuation or retiring allowances for its officers or employees, the Council may from time to time pay sums of money by way of subsidy into any scheme under the National Provident Fund Act 1950 containing provision for employer subsidy.
(2) Notwithstanding anything in this Act, any person who, immediately before becoming an officer or employee of the Council, is a contributor to the Government Superannuation Fund under Part 2 or Part 2A of the Government Superannuation Fund Act 1956 shall be deemed for the purposes of that Act to be employed in the Government service so long as the person continues to be an officer or employee of the Council, and that Act shall apply to the person in all respects as if service as such an officer or employee were Government service.
(3) For the purposes of the Government Superannuation Fund Act 1956, the Council shall be the controlling authority in relation to any officer or employee to whom that Act applies by virtue of subsection (2).
(4) Subject to the Government Superannuation Fund Act 1956, nothing in subsection (2) shall entitle any person to whom that subsection applies to become a contributor to the Government Superannuation Fund after ceasing to be a contributor to that fund.
Compare: 1965 No 59 s 18(4)
Section 13(1): amended, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Section 14: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Section 15: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Section 16: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Section 17: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
For the purpose of providing funds for the performance of the functions of the Council, any local authority or public body may from time to time make grants out of its general funds to the Council of such amounts as it thinks fit.
Compare: 1965 No 59 s 40
[Repealed]
Section 19: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Section 19A: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
The Council shall be exempt from income tax.
Compare: 1965 No 59 s 36
Section 20: amended, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Heading: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Section 21: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
(1) Where regulations or bylaws may be made under any Act prescribing, defining, or making other provision in relation to goods, services, processes, or practices of any kind, any such regulation or bylaw may be made by referring to or incorporating in whole or in part, and with or without modification, any New Zealand standard relating to goods, services, processes, or practices of that kind.
(2) Where a bylaw is made or proposed to be made by referring to a New Zealand standard,—
(a) no resolution making the bylaw and no copy of the bylaw shall be deemed to be complete unless it has attached to it a copy of the standard or the part of the standard referred to (together with any text that the standard or part incorporates by reference) and states or shows any modification made to it by the person or body making the bylaw:
(b) the object or purport of the bylaw shall be deemed to be sufficiently stated for the purposes of any enactment requiring that public notice be given of it if the notice refers to the standard by the title and number given to it by the Council and, in the case of a bylaw referring to part only of a standard, states the number and heading of the part referred to.
Compare: 1965 No 59 ss 26, 27
A New Zealand standard may (without prejudice to any other mode of citation) be cited in an Act, regulation, or bylaw by the title and number given to it by the Council, and any such citation shall (unless the context otherwise requires) be deemed to include and refer to the latest New Zealand standard with that citation (together with any modifications to it) promulgated by the Council before the Act was passed or the regulation or bylaw made.
Compare: 1965 No 59 s 28(1)
A reference in any other Act or in a regulation or bylaw to a standard, standard specification, or New Zealand standard declared or promulgated by the Council whether under this Act or the Standards Act 1965 shall be deemed to be a reference to a New Zealand standard within the meaning of this Act.
(1) The fact that any specification has been approved or adopted by the Council and promulgated as a New Zealand standard shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be sufficient evidence that it is a New Zealand standard made and promulgated in accordance with the requirements of this Act.
(2) Without affecting any other method of proof, the production in any proceedings of a copy of a specification purporting to be a New Zealand standard shall be sufficient evidence thereof in the absence of proof to the contrary.
Compare: 1965 No 59 ss 23(5), 28(2)
Heading: substituted, on 26 September 2006, by section 8 of the Standards Amendment Act 2006 (2006 No 44).
The Governor-General may, by Order in Council, make regulations that provide for the way in which nominations and appointments may be made under section 4(2).
Section 26: substituted, on 26 September 2006, by section 8 of the Standards Amendment Act 2006 (2006 No 44).
[Repealed]
Section 27: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Section 28: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Section 29: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
[Repealed]
Section 30: repealed, on 25 January 2005, by section 200 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115).
The enactments specified in the Schedule are hereby repealed.
Schedule |
Amendment(s) incorporated in the Act(s).
1General
2Status of reprints
3How reprints are prepared
4Changes made under section 17C of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989
5List of amendments incorporated in this reprint (most recent first)
This is a reprint of the Standards Act 1988. The reprint incorporates all the amendments to the Act as at 1 December 2006, as specified in the list of amendments at the end of these notes.
Relevant provisions of any amending enactments that contain transitional, savings, or application provisions that cannot be compiled in the reprint are also included, after the principal enactment, in chronological order. For more information, see http://www.pco.parliament.govt.nz/reprints/ 
.
Under section 16D of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989, reprints are presumed to correctly state, as at the date of the reprint, the law enacted by the principal enactment and by the amendments to that enactment. This presumption applies even though editorial changes authorised by section 17C of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989 have been made in the reprint.
This presumption may be rebutted by producing the official volumes of statutes or statutory regulations in which the principal enactment and its amendments are contained.
A number of editorial conventions are followed in the preparation of reprints. For example, the enacting words are not included in Acts, and provisions that are repealed or revoked are omitted. For a detailed list of the editorial conventions, see http://www.pco.parliament.govt.nz/editorial-conventions/ or Part 8 of the Tables of New Zealand Acts and Ordinances and Statutory Regulations and Deemed Regulations in Force.
Section 17C of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989 authorises the making of editorial changes in a reprint as set out in sections 17D and 17E of that Act so that, to the extent permitted, the format and style of the reprinted enactment is consistent with current legislative drafting practice. Changes that would alter the effect of the legislation are not permitted.
A new format of legislation was introduced on 1 January 2000. Changes to legislative drafting style have also been made since 1997, and are ongoing. To the extent permitted by section 17C of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989, all legislation reprinted after 1 January 2000 is in the new format for legislation and reflects current drafting practice at the time of the reprint.
In outline, the editorial changes made in reprints under the authority of section 17C of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989 are set out below, and they have been applied, where relevant, in the preparation of this reprint:
•omission of unnecessary referential words (such as “of this section”
and “of this Act”
)
•typeface and type size (Times Roman, generally in 11.5 point)
•layout of provisions, including:
•indentation
•position of section headings (eg, the number and heading now appear above the section)
•format of definitions (eg, the defined term now appears in bold type, without quotation marks)
•format of dates (eg, a date formerly expressed as “the 1st day of January 1999”
is now expressed as “1 January 1999”
)
•position of the date of assent (it now appears on the front page of each Act)
•punctuation (eg, colons are not used after definitions)
•Parts numbered with roman numerals are replaced with arabic numerals, and all cross-references are changed accordingly
•case and appearance of letters and words, including:
•format of headings (eg, headings where each word formerly appeared with an initial capital letter followed by small capital letters are amended so that the heading appears in bold, with only the first word (and any proper nouns) appearing with an initial capital letter)
•small capital letters in section and subsection references are now capital letters
•schedules are renumbered (eg, Schedule 1 replaces First Schedule), and all cross-references are changed accordingly
•running heads (the information that appears at the top of each page)
•format of two-column schedules of consequential amendments, and schedules of repeals (eg, they are rearranged into alphabetical order, rather than chronological).
Standards Amendment Act 2006 (2006 No 44)
Crown Entities Act 2004 (2004 No 115): section 200
Trade Marks Act 2002 (2002 No 49): section 201
Trade and Industry Act Repeal Act 1988 (1988 No 156): section 4(1)
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