Print on demand: buy commercial prints of any legislation (or just print yourself for free)
6 January 2014, updated 19 July 2021
New to the website: print on demand, a feature that allows users to order a commercially printed copy of any Act, Legislative Instrument, Bill, or Supplementary Order Paper on this website. You can select the legislation you want to print using a “shopping cart” system, then send your order to Print Legislation for printing and delivery. More about ordering commercial prints online …
Any version with any “as at” date can be ordered, so commercially printed reprints are available every time a document is amended. (Web feeds are available to alert users to updates.) If a PDF is official, the commercial print is also official (although as with any printed copy, it is likely to go out of date rapidly).
You can still print documents for yourself free of charge.
With the move to providing up-to-date official legislation online, which can be printed either by the user or commercially, the Parliamentary Counsel Office will stop providing some of its hard-copy products. Publication of traditional printed reprints will stop after the current reprinting programme has been completed. The 2013 annual bound volumes of legislation, to be published early in 2014, will be the last published by the Parliamentary Counsel Office. The Tables of New Zealand Acts and Ordinances and Statutory Regulations and Deemed Regulations in Force will be published for the last time for the 2013 year (in early 2014) since this information, in an up-to-date format, is available via the search facility on the website. More about the Tables …
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Legislative disclosure statements published on new legislation disclosure website
7 August 2013
As from 29 July 2013, most Government Bills and substantive SOPs will contain a link in their explanatory notes to a disclosure statement containing information about the development and content of the Bill or SOP. The first disclosure statement was published today in relation to the Te Urewera–Tūhoe Bill.
The statements are published, as part of an administrative trial, on a new website maintained by the Parliamentary Counsel Office at disclosure.legislation.govt.nz that links to the New Zealand Legislation website. Legislation is being developed to implement the disclosure regime and the findings of the administrative trial will inform the development of this legislation.
Disclosure statements assist Parliament in its consideration of legislation and assist people who make submissions on new Bills that are being considered by a select committee. The statements are prepared by the department that is responsible for the legislation. Contact details for any enquiries about published disclosure statements are available at disclosure.legislation.govt.nz/contact.
New website labels
5 August 2013
From today, the category of “Regulations” on this website has been replaced by “Legislative Instruments”, and “Deemed Regulations” have been replaced by “Other Instruments”.
This doesn’t affect how individual documents are named—for example, the Family Courts Rules 2002 and the Building Regulations 1992 still have the same names, but to find them, search or browse under Legislative Instruments rather than Regulations (or use Quick Search and don’t specify a category).
These label changes are because provisions of the Legislation Act 2012, which came into force today, affect how some types of legislation (Orders in Council, regulations, rules, notices, etc) are referred to.
For more on what these terms mean, see What is on this website and the Glossary. For more on the Legislation Act 2012, visit the Parliamentary Counsel Office website.
Update: 30 January 2014
From January 2014, the "SR" ("Statutory Regulation") reference series has been replaced by "LI" ("Legislative Instrument") —so, for example, LI 2014/37 rather than SR 2014/37 will appear in search and browse results for Legislative Instruments made after 2013. This change took effect in January 2014 rather than earlier, so that the Statutory Regulations series could continue to the end of 2013.
A new format for Supplementary Order Papers
29 November 2012
Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs) can now be produced in a new format—the RT SOP. This new format can make the changes proposed to a Bill easier to understand, by presenting them in context.
An RT SOP is an SOP where the proposed changes that the SOP makes to the Bill are identified using revision tracking markup. Instead of the SOP describing the proposed changes to be made, the changes are shown applied to the Bill. In this an RT SOP is similar to a revision tracked Bill produced for a select committee.
Only Government SOPs will use the RT SOP style, and only in some instances—the new style is likely to be used when the amendments proposed are complex or extensive, although decisions on the format will be made on a case-by-case basis. RT SOPs have the same status as a "regular" SOP, and they are published online and in hard copy as usual.
The first SOP to be published in the new format was SOP No 151 to amend the Advanced Technology Institute Bill.
To find RT SOPs on this website, do the same as for other SOPs—first, navigate to the relevant Bill. Then find SOPs under the Versions and SOPs tab.
GST increase to 15% from 1 October 2010 is not automatically reflected in fees and charges in published legislation
14 September 2010 (updated 5 August 2013)
The prescribed fees and charges in Acts and Regulations (or Legislative Instruments) set out on this website do not reflect the increase in GST that took effect on 1 October 2010 (except in the case of changes made specifically by amending legislation that came into effect on or after 1 October).
The effect of section 78(3) of the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985 is, in general terms, to increase the amount payable for a fee/charge. For more about tax changes, visit the Inland Revenue website.
However, you will need to consult with the Government agency that administers the relevant legislation to obtain details of the actual fee or charge payable. The name of the relevant agency appears on the contents page of an Act or Regulation (or Legislative Instrument), or under Legislative history or Administrative information on the contents page.