New Zealand Acts

LEGISLATION ACT 2019 - SECT 4

4 Overview of this Act

1 In this Act,—

a) this Part contains the purpose of this Act, definitions, and other preliminary provisions:

b) Part 2 provides for the interpretation and application of legislation, including—

i) principles of interpretation and default definitions that apply (for example, a definition of working day):

ii) providing for rules that apply to the commencement, amendment, and repeal of legislation:

iii) general empowering provisions (for example, so that a power to prescribe a form can be used to prescribe required information and the method for supplying the required information in place of a form):

c) Part 3 provides for the drafting and publication of legislation, including by—

i) setting drafting and publication responsibilities; and

ii) providing tools for correcting errors in legislation; and

iii) providing for revision programmes to revise New Zealand’s legislation:

d) Part 4 sets disclosure requirements for Government-initiated legislation:

e) Part 5 supports parliamentary oversight and control over secondary legislation through—

i) providing for the House of Representatives to disallow all secondary legislation (with limited exceptions); and

ii) setting the deadlines for confirmation of secondary legislation (if confirmation by Parliament is required) and the consequences of not confirming:

f) Part 6 continues the PCO with the functions of drafting and publishing legislation and with associated functions that support the stewardship of New Zealand’s legislation:

g) Part 7 contains regulation-making powers and miscellaneous provisions.

2 This section is only a guide to the general scheme and effect of this Act.

3 See also —

a) the Imperial Laws Application Act 1988 , which provides for this Act to apply to Imperial legislation; and

b) the Legislation (Repeals and Amendments) Act 2019 , which contains repeals, revocations, and amendments to other legislation, as well as later amendments to this Act to require centralised publication of secondary legislation.