This Government omnibus bill amends land transport, maritime, and aviation legislation to modernise the transport regulatory system and reduce the chance of regulatory failure. Key changes include broader NZTA powers to close State highways for safety, modernised enforcement of transport service licences with higher maximum fines and infringement fees, new rail investigation powers, electronic alternatives to physical licences and labels (such as warrants of fitness), a lower threshold for starting maritime investigations, and a fix to the Civil Aviation Act 2023 numbering error that prevented Auckland and Wellington airports setting aerodrome charges. It passed its third reading on the voices on 13 May 2026 and is now the Regulatory Systems (Transport) Amendment Act 2026.
This omnibus bill amends land transport, maritime, and aviation legislation to modernise the transport regulatory system, with the stated aim of maintaining and improving effectiveness and efficiency and reducing the chance of regulatory failure. It gives regulators clearer tools, removes unnecessary compliance costs including by enabling digital alternatives to physical licences and labels, and fixes duplication, gaps, errors, and inconsistencies. It is designed as a vehicle for smaller regulatory fixes that do not each justify a standalone bill.
Supporters argue that regular regulatory maintenance keeps the transport system efficient and up to date at low cost and avoids problems accumulating. Because omnibus regulatory-systems bills bundle many small changes, scrutiny tends to focus on whether any individual amendment is more than technical and whether the package is transparent about what each change does.
See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.