How to link to the New Zealand Legislation website
The PCO welcomes and encourages linking to the New Zealand Legislation website. Links can be made freely and without seeking permission. Rather than posting copies of Acts, regulations, Bills, or Supplementary Order Papers on other websites, we strongly recommend that instead you provide a link to the New Zealand Legislation website.
The advantage of linking is that you provide legislation from an up-to-date and authoritative source. It also avoids having legislation on websites in PDF or other formats that do not comply with the New Zealand Government Web Standards.
Note that, while links to Acts and Regulations are stable, at present each new version of a Bill will have a new URL. Links to older versions of a Bill that are no longer the latest version do remain stable, however.
The purpose of this page is to explain the process by which other websites can link to legislation available on the New Zealand Legislation website.
Background
Content on the New Zealand Legislation website is available as a set of HTML (both whole and fragmented) and as a PDF for each title of legislation. A fragment refers to the splitting of a document into smaller (lower level) components, for storage and retrieval. Examples of fragments are:
- Commentaries
- Explanatory Notes
- Provisions
- Reprints Notes
- Schedules
- Skeletons
- Tables of contents
For most purposes, the PCO recommends linking to the HTML table of contents for each individual legislative document.
How to link
Each link has three parts:
- the website URL: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/
- the schema that uniquely identifies the document
- the required landing page.
Identifying schema
The basis for linking is a schema that uniquely identifies each legislative document. This schema consists of:
- the information type (Act, Regulation, Bill, SOP)
- the legislation type or category (public, local, members, government, imperial, etc)
- the year (for Bills, this is year of introduction)
- the number, padded with initial zeros to 4 digits. For Bills, the number will also include the Bar number and split letter (if applicable).
| Information Type | Legislation Type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Acts | ‘imperial’ ‘local’ ‘private ’ ‘provincial’ ‘public’ |
act/imperial/2001/0055/ act/local/2001/0055/ act/private/2001/0055/ act/provincial/2001/0055/ act/public/2001/0055/ |
| Bills | ‘government’ ‘local’ ‘member’ ‘private’ |
bill/government/2001/0004-1/ bill/government/2001/0004A-2/ bill/local/2001/0004-1/ bill/local/2001/0004A-2/ bill/member/2001/0004-1/ bill/member/2001/0004A-1/ bill/private/2001/0004-1/ bill/private/2001/0004A-2/ |
| Regulations | ‘imperial’ ‘public’ |
regulation/imperial/1974/0045/ regulation/public/1999/0055/ |
| SOPs | ‘government’ ‘members’ |
sop/government/2001/0002/ sop/members/2001/0005/ |
So, for example, the Resource Management Act, a public Act, number 69 of 1991, is identified by:
act/public/1991/0069/
and the District Courts Rules 1992 (SR 1992/109) are identified by:
regulation/public/1992/0109/
If you are unsure of the number, you will find it on the New Zealand Legislation website (it appears by the document name on relevant search and browse results pages, and on the contents page for each document).
Landing pages
To specify the landing page, choose from:
The HTML contents page
latest/contents.html
This takes users to the contents page for a legislative document—the method we recommend for most purposes. It takes the user to a page that is quickly downloaded, while providing all navigation options.
The individual HTML versions page
latest/versions.aspx
This method takes users to the versions page for a legislative document. The versions page for an Act or Regulation lists, and links to, all versions available for that item of legislation. The versions page for an Act also lists, and links to, related Bill information (if applicable).
For a Bill, the versions page lists, and links to, the following if applicable: Acts from this Bill, related Bills, Acts from related Bills, related SOPs.
The download PDF page
latest/viewpdf.aspx
This method takes users to the PDF download page. The PDF download page specifies the document’s size and provides a link to download the PDF. For larger documents, eg Income Tax Act 2004, downloading the PDF version may take some time and use a large amount of bandwidth.
The HTML whole page
latest/whole.html
This takes users to the entire legislative document on a single HTML page. For larger documents, eg Income Tax Act 2004, accessing this page may take some time and use a large amount of bandwidth.
Individual provisions
Note that the PCO does not recommend linking to individual provisions, because legislative documents are continually being amended. When a legislative document is amended and republished, links to provisions within the document can become invalid.
Individual provisions are identified within the website by a unique, randomly generated ID. It is possible to create a link to an individual provision, by navigating to it and using the URL displayed in the browser as the basis for the link. However, the link may become invalid if, for example, the provision is later repealed.
Some examples
Income Tax Act 2007 (public Act, number 97 of 2007) HTML contents page:
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2007/0097/latest/contents.html
Transport (Breath Tests) Amendment Notice 2001 (SR 2001/82, regulations) HTML contents page:
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2001/0082/latest/contents.html
Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Amendment Bill (number 81-3A, government Bill introduced in 2006) HTML versions page:
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2006/0081A-3/latest/versions.aspx
Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Act 2008 (local Act, number 1 of 2008) HTML whole page:
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/local/2008/0001/latest/whole.html
