Public Access to Legislation Project
Welcome to the Public Access to Legislation (PAL) Project home page.
Read the media statement from the Attorney-General, 16 January 2008.
Read more about the New Zealand Legislation website.
The PAL Project, designed to improve the way in which New Zealand legislation is made available to the public, was completed in January 2008. It has involved the implementation of a new XML-based drafting and publishing system within the PCO, and the provision of the New Zealand Legislation website. The new website provides free access to Acts, regulations, Bills, and Supplementary Order Papers.
The legislation on the website is at present an unofficial version of New Zealand legislation. The PCO has started a process of "officialising" the legislation, so that the website can ultimately become an official source of New Zealand legislation. This process is expected to take around three years. See Making online legislation official on the New Zealand Legislation website.
Free access to New Zealand Legislation
- New Zealand Legislation website
- Acts
- Regulations
- Bills
- Supplementary Order Papers
- See About this site for more information
- New Zealand Parliament website
- Bills introduced since the start of 2003, and earlier Bills still before the House, in PDF format
- Supplementary Order Papers relating to Bills currently before the House, in PDF format
- Knowledge Basket
- Bills and Supplementary Order Papers
- Acts: original versions (amendments not incorporated), and reprints published since 1 November 2002
- Regulations: original versions (amendments not incorporated), and reprints published since 1 October 2003
Project history
The PAL Project was originally scheduled to go live in February 2003, but the PCO and Unisys identified a number of issues that required further work. In May 2003 the Government sought, and later gained, independent assurance that the system, when implemented, would be operationally stable, maintainable, and capable of future enhancement.
The PAL Project resumed in March 2005 following agreement between the PCO and Unisys on the commercial basis on which the project could proceed, and Cabinet approval of that agreement.
The PAL system for drafting and publishing legislation was implemented within the PCO, Office of the Clerk, and Tax Drafting Unit of the Inland Revenue Department in November 2007.
The New Zealand Legislation website became available to the public in January 2008.
The Interim Website of New Zealand Legislation, which had been provided by Brookers since 2002, was withdrawn on 30 June 2008. The Interim Website was initially retained after the New Zealand Legislation website went live, while the New Zealand Legislation website was brought up to date with the latest legislative amendments, and the collection of Bills then before the House of Representatives was incorporated.