PCO news
Table of 2012 Statutory Regulations
5 April 2013
Statutory Regulations are made under the authority of empowering legislation. A table listing the Acts or other authorities under which Statutory Regulations were made in 2012, and the 2012 Statutory Regulations, is now available.
Clauses for standard elements of Treaty settlement Bills
25 March 2013
The Attorney-General and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations recently decided that standard clauses are to be used in new Treaty of Waitangi settlement Bills covering redress that is common to most settlements.
Proposal to re-enact and update the Interpretation Act 1999 in the Legislation Act 2012
6 March 2013
We are seeking your views on the proposal to re-enact the Interpretation Act 1999, with updating modifications, in the Legislation Act 2012. Please send us your comments by 5 pm on 16 April 2013.
View the discussion paper and the draft Legislation (Interpretation) Amendment Bill »
New features added to the New Zealand Legislation website
4 March 2013
New features were released to the New Zealand Legislation website yesterday. They include:
Tagged sections/clauses
You can now download sections or clauses in PDF or Word format by tagging them—ideal when you need to print just a few sections, or when you want to incorporate legislation into a larger document. Just click the Tag section button when viewing legislation. More on tagging sections/clauses »
Amendment legislation easier to locate
Amendment legislation is found by using Advanced search. Amendment Acts in force (and Amendment Regulations in force) have been given their own category under Status, making them easier to identify. In addition, Acts not yet in force now includes not-yet-in-force amendment Acts (and the same applies for Regulations).
To find out what is included in each category under Advanced search, click its adjacent question mark symbol.
Quick search now searches amendment legislation not yet in force, as well as principal Acts and Regulations (both in force and not yet in force), current Bills, and the titles of Deemed Regulations. However, the drop-down list that appears as you type does not currently include in-force amendment legislation—to include them, click Search (or use Advanced search).
Web feeds more intuitive
Web feeds are a powerful way to keep up to date with changes to legislation. They are now easier to set up, plus you can regenerate and edit an existing feed. More about web feeds »
Stemming can be turned off
"Stemming" means that variants of a word are included in a search, as well as the word itself. For example, a search for govern will also find governs, governed, and governing. Advanced search now allows you to turn this feature off, which is otherwise applied by default. More about searching techniques »
Disclosure of Chief Parliamentary Counsel's expenses for the six months to 31 December 2012
12 February 2013
In 2010, the State Services Commissioner introduced a disclosure regime for expenses, gifts, and hospitality incurred by Chief Executives of Public Service departments and Crown entities.
Although the PCO is a non-public service department and therefore not bound by that disclosure regime, it has decided to voluntarily publish this information.
View the expenses, gifts, and hospitality for the six months to 31 December 2012 »
View the expenses, gifts, and hospitality for the 2011–12 year »
View the expenses, gifts, and hospitality for the 2010–11 year »
Price increase for legislation—1 February 2013
25 January 2013
On 1 February 2013, the price of printed legislation will increase by 21.5% to recoup the subsidised production and distribution costs of retail legislation.
The Parliamentary Counsel Office has provided, since January 2008, free access to legislation online via the New Zealand Legislation website. Bills, Acts, and Statutory Regulations can be downloaded from this website.
Legislation Bill passed
7 December 2012
The House yesterday passed a Bill to modernise and improve the law regarding publication of legislation. It also modernises the law relating to the PCO.
For a summary of what the Act will achieve, view the press release from the Hon Christopher Finlayson, Attorney-General »
View the Legislation Act 2012 »
More about the Legislation Bill »
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 on the New Zealand Legislation website 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 the New Zealand Legislation website, do the same as for other SOPs—first, you navigate to the relevant Bill. Then find SOPs under the Versions and SOPs tab.
Legislation page size survey indicates strong support for the move to A4 pages
26 November 2012
Thank you to everyone who responded to our survey on preferences for legislation page size. The survey, which ran from 18 October to 8 November, asked users whether they preferred the page size that legislation is printed on to remain at its current size of B5 (a smaller size) or increase it to A4. Page size relates to both bought, printed legislation and PDFs downloaded from the New Zealand Legislation website.
We received 290 responses. A clear majority supported the change to A4:
- 73% for A4
- 18% for B5
- 9% didn't mind or weren't sure.
Some opinions were strongly held. Supporters of B5 find it easier to handle and to read. Those in favour of change want to save paper, expect it to reduce costs, and find A4 easier to read. Some people are only interested in on-screen legislation, but more than 90% use printed legislation and expect to do so in the future.
The survey provides strong support for our intention to move to A4. We will make the change during the 2013/14 financial year. The final timing will depend on factors such as when the New Zealand Legislation website becomes a source of official legislation and the production of bound annual volumes. The work will also be slotted into the website's work programme so as to make the most efficient use of development resources. We will give legislation users advance notice of the change closer to the time.
Table of legislation waiting to be brought into force by Order in Council (as at 1 July 2012)
This table was presented to the House of Representatives on 5 September 2012. View the table »
Legislation Bill read a second time
31 August 2012
The Legislation Bill received its second reading on 29 August 2012. Amendments recommended by the Regulations Review Committee were agreed to.
2012–2013 reprints programme released
22 August 2012
The 2012–2013 reprints programme has been established, based on results of the annual reprints survey and in accordance with the PCO's reprinting policy.
2012–2013 reprints programme: Reprints scheduled »
Summary of results of 2012 reprints survey »
Deemed regulations now available through NZ Legislation website
2 May 2012
Deemed regulations are now available through the New Zealand Legislation website. Using that website, you can search or browse for deemed regulations by title or year, although content searching is not available.
This replaces the list of deemed regulations that up until now has been maintained on this website.
More about deemed regulations on the New Zealand Legislation website »
More information about deemed regulations »
The New Zealand Legislation website has a new look
11 April 2012
The New Zealand Legislation website has a new look, with faster, simpler ways to find and view legislation.
We think the changes make it easier for everyone, from general user to legal researcher, to find what they want. Some of the changes include:
- Quick search is available on every page
- Quick search provides suggestions as you type, plus you can access your recent searches
- Advanced search is more intuitive
- search and browse results are more flexible and easier to understand
- you can swap between views of legislation more easily
- information about amendment history is more accessible, under the Versions and amendments tab
- the homepage provides quick ways in to popular legislation and other resources
- if you get lost, there is plenty of help, with pop-up explanations and "how to" information.
The website is also set to provide access to Deemed Regulations—included as a way of making them more accessible to the public. Links to Deemed Regulations will be added gradually in the weeks following implementation. When they all have been added, the list of Deemed Regulations currently on this website will be removed.
If you have saved bookmarks to legislation, or use links from other websites to access legislation, these links should work as before. An occasional link may break, so feel free to contact us if you need help locating legislation.
The changes to this website have been arrived at through a process of user testing, consultation, and exposure through the "Preview website". Development work has progressed well, ahead of timetable. We have more improvements planned, most fundamental being making the website a source of official legislation. We aim to achieve this in the 2012–13 financial year.
New ways to describe amendments in legislation
19 January 2012
New ways to describe amendments have been approved for use in legislation that sets out amendments to be made to other legislation. The changes will make amendments easier to follow, and more efficient to draft and to apply.
The new terminology will be introduced gradually from 1 January 2012. Bills already before the House will continue to use the old terminology.
Recent changes to legislation in response to the Canterbury earthquake
23 November 2011
For information about changes to legislation made in response to the earthquake, visit the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority website »
Mix & Mash competition winners announced
5 October 2011
The winners of Mix & Mash 2011—the Great New Zealand Remix & Mashup Competition—have been announced. The PCO was delighted to sponsor the Open Government category.
Mix & Mash was an opportunity for us to share some of the other ways people can access legislative data:
- legislation in XML format at www.legislation.govt.nz/subscribe/
- the DTDs used by the legislative data
- the customisable web feeds that alert users to changes in legislation at www.legislation.govt.nz/atombuilder.aspx.
Acts from 1841 to 2007 As-Enacted Collection and 1908 Consolidation now available
28 September 2010—updated 25 May 2011
The PCO has been working on a project to digitise New Zealand Acts from 1841 to 2007 as originally enacted. The aim of the project is to provide free online access to all New Zealand Acts in their original form (ie as enacted), whether or not they have subsequently been repealed.
The digitisation project has now been completed and the collection is being hosted by NZLII, the New Zealand Legal Information Institute, with the collection also being made available to the National Library.
The collection is called the New Zealand Acts 1841–2007 As-Enacted Collection. The Acts are in PDF format and do not include any later amendments or show whether or not they have been repealed.
NZLII also hosts the 1908 Consolidation, a separate database that the University of Auckland kindly provided to the PCO. The 1908 Consolidation is a collection of 208 Acts enacted via the Consolidated Statutes Enactment Act 1908 to revise, re-enact, and replace 806 earlier Acts (which were repealed by that 1908 Act).
For current legislation, and for legislation enacted or repealed since 2007, visit the
New Zealand Legislation website.
More about the PCO's historical legislation digitisation programme »
Web feeds make it easy to keep up to date with changes to legislation
The New Zealand Legislation website now offers web feeds to keep users up to date with changes to the law. You can subscribe to ready-made feeds, or design custom feeds that match your particular interests.
See About web feeds on the New Zealand Legislation website for more about web feeds and how to set up custom feeds, or go straight to the Web feeds page to set up a ready-made feed.
GST increase to 15% from 1 October 2010 not automatically reflected in fees and charges in published legislation
14 September 2010
The prescribed fees and charges in Acts and Regulations set out on the
New Zealand Legislation website and contained in printed legislation will not reflect the increase in GST that takes effect on 1 October 2010 (except in the case of changes made specifically by amending legislation that comes 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, legislation users 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 under Legislative history or Administrative information on the contents page.
