One-Stop Law Access in Sight as Legislation Bill Clears First Hurdle

The New Zealand Government has taken a major step toward making laws easier to access and understand with the passage of the first reading of the Legislation Amendment Bill. Attorney-General Judith Collins announced the milestone, highlighting its potential to revolutionise how secondary legislation is published and accessed in the country.

Tackling the Hidden Maze of Secondary Legislation

Secondary legislation — which includes a broad array of legal instruments such as regulations, rules, bylaws, orders, notices, and exemptions — plays a significant role in governing various aspects of New Zealanders’ daily lives. Yet despite its legal weight, it has long been scattered, inconsistently published, and difficult to track.

“Currently most secondary legislation is drafted and published by agencies and is difficult to access,” Collins explained. “No one knows how much there is, with estimates ranging from 7,500 to 10,000 instruments published by around 100 government and non-government agencies, as well as every local authority.”

This fragmented publication landscape has often meant that critical legal instruments are buried across agency websites, the New Zealand Gazette, and even newspapers. In some cases, they aren’t published publicly at all — a situation Collins described as undermining the rule of law and digital government, while driving up compliance costs for individuals and businesses.

A Legislative Overhaul for Transparency and Accessibility

The Legislation Amendment Bill aims to resolve this opacity by requiring all secondary legislation created by agencies to be published on their website or another officially approved internet platform. This standardisation of publication will make the law significantly more accessible, enforceable, and transparent.

The proposed legislative changes align with broader government efforts to support digital transformation and enhance civic participation by providing accessible legal information to all citizens.

A New Era: One Unified Legislative Portal

In tandem with the bill, the Parliamentary Counsel Office (PCO) is redeveloping New Zealand’s official legislation website. The upgrade incorporates cutting-edge data collection and indexing technology to locate and link existing agency-published secondary legislation.

A public demonstration version of the site is already live and includes a growing collection of agency documents. Users can search across a central database that will increasingly serve as a single access point for all New Zealand legislation.

“This will turn the website into a one-stop shop for legislation matters,” Collins said. “My vision is that the public will soon only need to visit one website to find all New Zealand legislation and related information.”

The Road Ahead

With the first reading now complete, the bill will progress through further stages of parliamentary scrutiny, including select committee consideration and public consultation. Should it pass into law, the reforms could mark a turning point for how legal information is managed and delivered in New Zealand — setting a precedent for modern governance in a digital age.

The ultimate goal is simple yet transformative: create a legal landscape that is open, unified, and navigable — one where every New Zealander, regardless of legal training, can find and understand the rules that govern them.