Skip to Main Content

NZ Parliament: NZ Legislation

Legislation

NZ Legislation - This site contains offical versions of Acts (from 1934), Bills and Legislative Instruments (formerly Regulations)

New Zealand Acts As Enacted - is a database of Acts as originally enacted, provided by the Parliamentary Counsel Office and hosted by NZLII, the New Zealand Legal Information Institute

WestlawNZ - for New Zealand Acts and Secondary Legislation, with links to relevant case law and analysis 

Lexis Advance - for New Zealand Acts and Secondary Legislation, with links to relevant case law and analysis 

Early New Zealand Statutes - This collection of assent versions of New Zealand ordinances and statutes covers 100 consecutive years of New Zealand law-making from 1841-1940. It comprises Ordinances 1841-1854, Acts of Parliament 1854-1940, Auckland Provincial Acts 1853-1876 and Reprinted Statutes 1908.

Statutes of New Zealand 1854+ -  in print at Law Library KG 316

  • Acts are numbered within each year, they are first issued separately, then in bound annual volumes.
  • To find an act use Brookers index to statutes - a poster on the end of the statutes shelf. It gives the year and number of each act.
  • Some acts have been reprinted in an up-to-date set as Reprinted statutes of New Zealand, and later Bound Reprinted Statutes (Referred to as "RS" and "BRS" in the indexes).

Parliament Bills before the House; 1960+ Bills shelved before  the statutes - Law Library KG 312

  • Bills are draft statutes, before they are passed by Parliament.
  • To find out more about bills before select committees, see the committee business summary

Older Bills are available at Hocken Collections: New Zealand Parliamentary Bills, 1892-

Legislative Instruments - formerly Statutory Regulations. 1936/37+ shelved following Statutes - Law Library KG 321

Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs) set out printed amendments to a bill. - Law Library KG 310

Laws of New Zealand - e-encyclopedia about New Zealand law topics

Glossary - explains how terms are used with legislation

Select Committees

Select Committees

  • Select Committee reports are published as "I" Appendices.
  • Members of Select Committees can be found in the relevant Parliamentary Bulletin.

(Note: submissions to and documents of select committees are not usually printed and are only available for consultation at Parliament.

Debates

New Zealand Parliamentary Debates or Hansards 2003+

  • Known as Hansard, the Debates are a verbatim record what is said in Parliament
  • Print issued weekly 1867+ Central Government Publications 3OC5
  • Separate supplementary volumes with Questions for written answer from 1989
  • 1987+ search Hansard (Speeches), Oral Questions, and Written Questions via Knowledge Basket's LegislationNZ