This section introduces the legislation terms and navigation and search terms used on the website.
Please note that this page is not intended to give complete definitions of these terms, but rather is to help the general user by explaining how the terms are used in the context of this website.
Act
An Act is a law passed by Parliament. Acts are also sometimes called statutes. Before an Act is passed by Parliament it is called a Bill.
There are five types of Acts: public, private, local, provincial,
and imperial.
administering department or ministry
Most Acts and Regulations are administered by a government organisation, usually a department or ministry, which is identified in the Act
or Regulation. That department or ministry is generally responsible for the operation of the legislation and for making recommendations to
the government of the day about improving it. You can usually find the name of the administering agency from the contents list of each Act
or Regulation. Alternatively it may appear under Legislative history or Administrative information in the contents.
amendments
Changes made to an Act or Regulation are called amendments. By default, this website shows Acts and Regulations with the
amendments incorporated, up to the date indicated (the "as at" date).
as at
The "as at" date indicates the last date that amendments were incorporated into a particular version of legislation.
If legislation hasn't been amended since it was incorporated in the database, the "as at" date will be its date of
incorporation until it is officialised.
as enacted
Enacted means, in relation to a Bill, passed or made into law. On this website, "as enacted" refers to the original version of an
Act when it was passed into law.
as made
Regulations are generally made by the Governor-General in Council, Ministers of the Crown, and certain other bodies. On this website,
"as made" refers to the original version of the Regulations when they were made into law.
See About legislation for more on Regulations.
as reported
A select committee reporting to the House of Representatives on a Bill may recommend changes to the Bill. The "as reported"
version of a Bill is the version that shows those recommended changes.
Bill
A Bill is a proposed Act (although not all Bills will become Acts). There may be several versions of a Bill—see
Bill number. For information on the legislative stages a Bill passes through, see
How a bill becomes law.
Bill number
Bills are assigned a number when they are introduced into the House of Representatives. A version number is shown after the Bill number,
eg 100—1, 100—2, 100—3.
The first version is the Bill as introduced into the House of Representatives. The second
version will usually be "as reported" back from the relevant select committee. The third version will usually be the version after
the committee of the whole House stage. (See How
a Bill becomes law for information on the various stages.)
clause
On this website, a clause refers to the basic unit of a Regulation or a Bill. Each clause within a Regulation or Bill deals with a separate
subject or idea and has its own number. When a Bill becomes an Act, its clauses are called sections.
Within the text of a Regulation, the basic unit may actually be called "regulation", "rule", or "clause".
commencement
Commencement means the date when an Act or Regulation (or part of it) first has the force of law.
commentary
After a select committee has examined a Bill, it will report back to the House of Representatives. Its report usually includes a new version of the
Bill (the "as reported" version) showing the select committee’s proposed amendments, and a commentary. The commentary explains the changes
to the Bill recommended by the select committee, and examines the issues the committee has considered. The commentary appears at the start
of the "as reported" Bill.
current
An Act is described on this website as current if it has been enacted (although it may not yet be in force), and it has not been repealed.
A Regulation is described on this website as current if it has been made (although it may not yet be in force), and it has not been revoked.
A Bill is described on this website as current if it has not been enacted and has not been terminated.
Note that amendment legislation is not included in the current collection on this website. It can be located using a guided search, an advanced search,
or by browsing by type.
deemed regulations
These are not included on this website (unless they are published in the Statutory Regulations series). For more information on deemed regulations,
see Deemed regulations and
About legislation on the
Parliamentary Counsel Office website.
eprint
See reprint.
explanatory note
When a Bill is first introduced to the House of Representatives (the "as introduced" version), its text is prefaced by an
explanatory note. This note does not appear with later versions of the Bill and is not updated if the Bill is later amended.
When a Regulation is published, an explanatory note appears at the end of the text. It is not part of the Regulation proper.
Some types of Regulations are published with a "statement of reasons" instead of an explanatory note.
Gazette
The Gazette
is the official newspaper of the Government of New Zealand. Regulations are notified in the Gazette after they are made, but before they
come into force. The date of notification is given at the end of the Regulations, under the Administrative information or the Gazette information.
government Bill
A government Bill is a Bill introduced into the House of Representatives by a member of Parliament in his or her capacity as a Minister.
Government Bills deal with matters of public policy.
Governor-General
The Governor-General is the representative of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second in New Zealand. As the Queen's representative, the
Governor-General may give the Royal assent to a Bill, which turns it into an Act.
House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is a law-making body made up of elected individuals who are called members of Parliament. For more information
on the House of Representatives and Parliament, see What
is Parliament? and Role of Parliament.
imperial Acts
Imperial Acts are Acts of the Parliaments of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom that are part of the law of New Zealand under
the Imperial Laws Application Act 1988.
imperial Regulations
Imperial Regulations are Regulations made under an imperial Act and in force in New Zealand.
in force
In force means that the Act or the Regulation has the force of law. This is the case if the Act or Regulation has come into force and has not
been repealed or revoked.
introduced
A Bill is introduced when a member of Parliament (or in the case of a Government Bill, a Minister) presents it to the House of Representatives
for its consideration.
key
Some later versions of a Bill show the amendments made to the previous version. Inserted text is underlined; deleted text is struck out. A key in
these versions shows the type of amendments made to the Bill and how they are indicated. You can see whether the amendments are unanimous or
majority amendments, and whether they are select committee or committee of the whole House amendments, by either viewing the PDF version of the
Bill or by hovering your cursor over the amendment to see the information in pop-up text.
legislation
On this website, legislation means Acts, Bills, Regulations, and Supplementary Order Papers (although Bills and Supplementary Order Papers are
not legislation, but contain or relate to proposed legislation).
legislative history
For Bills and Acts, legislative history is a summary of the key dates of a Bill's progress through its legislative stages in the House of
Representatives. These dates include the date of the Bill's introduction, the date when it was reported back to the House from the select
committee, and the date when it received the Royal assent. Legislative history appears at the end of later versions of Bills and Acts.
local Act
A local Act deals with matters of public interest but only affects a particular part of New Zealand, eg the Aid to Water-Power Works Act 1910
and the Masterton Trust Lands Act 2003.
local Bill
A local Bill, promoted by a local authority, usually becomes a local Act if enacted.
member's Bill
A member's Bill is a non-government Bill promoted by a member of Parliament who is not a Minister. A member’s Bill deals with matters
of public policy, and becomes a public Act if it is enacted.
not yet in force
An Act or Regulation is not yet in force if it has not commenced. An Act or Regulation that is not yet in force does not have the force of
law until it commences.
Parliament
Parliament is New Zealand's principal law-making body. It has full power to make laws that apply to anyone in New Zealand. Parliament is made
up of the House of Representatives and the Sovereign (represented in New Zealand by the Governor-General). For more information, see the
New Zealand Parliament website.
Parliamentary Counsel Office/Te Tari Tohutohu Pāremata
The Parliamentary Counsel Office of New Zealand is responsible for drafting and publishing most of New Zealand's legislation.
The Parliamentary Counsel Office provides and maintains this website. For more information, see the
Parliamentary Counsel Office website.
PCO
See Parliamentary Counsel Office.
principal Act
The original Act that is enacted to implement a particular policy (as opposed to an amendment Act which makes changes to an existing principal Act).
principal Regulation
The original Regulation that is made to implement a particular policy (as opposed to an amendment Regulation which makes changes to an
existing principal Regulation).
private Act
A private Act is an Act that deals with the particular interest or benefit of a person or body, eg the Wills’s Road Hall Act 1935 and the Sydenham
Money Club Act 2001.
private Bill
A private Bill, promoted by a person or a body of persons, becomes a private Act if enacted.
provincial Act
A provincial Act is an Act that dates back to the time when New Zealand was a colony divided into six provinces. Each province had the jurisdiction
to pass Acts that only applied within that province.
public Act
A public Act is an Act that affects the public at large. It deals with matters of public policy and is promoted by the Government or a
member of Parliament who is not a Minister.
Regulations
Regulations are laws made by the Governor-General, Ministers of the Crown, and certain other bodies under powers conferred by an Act of Parliament.
Regulations generally deal with matters of detail or administration, or matters that are subject to frequent change. Regulations may also be known
as Orders in Council, rules, notices, determinations, proclamations, or warrants. This website contains only Regulations that are published in the
Statutory Regulations series. See About legislation
for more on Regulations.
repealed Act
On this website, an Act is described as repealed if it has been repealed, is spent, or has expired. It is no longer in force.
reprint
On this website, a reprint, or eprint, is a version of an Act or Regulation that incorporates all amendments made to it as at the date of the last
amendment. However, only the legislation that has been updated since September 2007 will state that it is a reprint, and will include a reprint
note at the end of the document.
The technical and traditional meaning of reprint refers to a copy of an Act or Regulation, printed and published by the Parliamentary Counsel Office,
that incorporates all amendments made to it as at the date of publication of the reprint. For more information on printed reprints see the
Parliamentary Counsel Office website.
reprint note
A reprint note is a note that appears at the end of a reprint or eprint, explaining its status and listing the amendments incorporated in that particular
reprint or eprint. Reprint notes in unofficialised legislation refer to the legislation as an eprint. For more on officialisation, see
Making online legislation official.
revoked Regulation
On this website, a Regulation is described as revoked if it has been revoked, is spent, has been disallowed, or has expired. It is no longer in force.
section
A section is the basic unit of an Act. Each section deals with a separate subject or idea and has its own number.
SOP
See Supplementary Order Paper.
Statute
See Act.
Statutory Regulations
See Regulations. Statutory Regulations are in general referred to as "Regulations" on this website.
See About legislation
for more on Regulations.
superseded
A version of an Act or a Regulation is superseded if it is no longer the most recent version.
Supplementary Order Paper
A Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) is a document that sets out proposed amendments to a Bill.
terminated
On this website, "terminated" refers to a Bill that has been defeated, discharged, vetoed, or withdrawn, or has lapsed. A terminated Bill has
failed to become an Act.
type
For an Act, "type" means public, local, private, provincial, or imperial. For a Bill, "type" means government, local, private, or member's.
For a Regulation, "type" means regulations (ie non-imperial) or imperial.
About takes you to a page that provides an overview of this website.
Access keys are keyboard shortcuts. See List of access keys.
Advanced search lets you restrict your search to a defined category or categories of Acts, Bills, or Regulations. You can also search for a specific section or clause. By searching "All", you can search across Acts, Bills, and Regulations at the same time.
All means Acts, Bills, and Regulations.
Back to search results takes you from the page that you are viewing to the page that lists the results of your last search.
Browse is a way of finding legislation on this website. To find legislation on this website, you must make a search request or browse request. You can browse Acts and Regulations by title, by year, or by type. You can browse Bills by title or by type.
Contents takes you to the contents page for the legislation that you are viewing.
Buy Online takes you to a page that tells you how to buy an official printed copy of legislation.
Download PDF allows you to download a PDF copy of the legislation that you were viewing.
Edit browse takes you to the browse panel at the bottom of your results, so you can edit your previous browse criteria.
Edit search takes you to the search panel at the bottom of your results, so you can edit your previous search criteria.
Guided search provides you with some assistance when making a search request. It is available for Acts, Bills, and Regulations, but not for all at once.
Home takes you to the homepage for this website.
HTML is short for Hypertext Markup Language. It is the authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web.
KB is short for kilobyte, a unit of information or computer storage.
Next takes you from the results page that you are viewing to the results page that comes immediately after it. It enables you to move through a document section by section or clause by clause.
Next result takes you from the match that you are currently viewing to the match that comes immediately after it.
PDF is short for Portable Document Format. The PDFs on this website present legislation in a format that looks like traditional printed legislation, and is particularly suited to printing out. If your browser is unable to open the PDF, you can download Adobe Acrobat Reader free of charge from the Adobe website, which will allow you to open it.
Previous takes you from the results page that you are viewing to the results page that comes immediately before it.
Previous result takes you from the match that you are currently viewing to the match that comes immediately before it.
Quick search lets you carry out simple searches of current Acts, Bills, and Regulations. You can search for titles of legislation, or for words or phrases within the legislation's content. It can be used to search across all current Acts, Bills, and Regulations at the same time.
Related information and/or uncompiled amendments links to a page that provides extra information about that item of legislation, eg about amendments that have not yet been incorporated.
Remove highlighting: when viewing legislation after searching, your search terms are highlighted. "Remove highlighting" lets you turn this off. You can replace the highlighting using your browser's back button or by repeating your search.
Results is the list of Acts, Bills, or Regulations that match your search or browse request.
Search is a way of finding legislation on this website. See Search help.
Search within lets you search within the legislation that you are viewing.
See other versions produces a list of other versions of the Act, Bill, or Regulation that you are viewing.
Site map shows you an overview of the navigational structure of this website, and is a quick way of navigating around the site.
View PDF copy, where available, allows you to view the document that you are viewing in PDF format.
View whole [Act, Bill, Supplementary Order Paper, or Regulation] allows you to expand the legislation that you are viewing. By default, you view legislation one section (or clause) at a time, to minimise downloading times. This function gives you the entire Act, Bill, Supplementary Order Paper, or Regulation, and shows the size of the HTML page (in kilobytes).
Web feeds are also know as RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) or Atom feeds. You can use web feeds from this website to keep up to date with changes to the law. After you subscribe to a feed your feed reader automatically checks the feed and displays whatever is new in one place without you having to revisit the website. You can subscribe to ready-made feeds, or set up custom feeds. See Web feeds for more information.