This omnibus Government bill has the single broad policy of promoting high-quality legislation that is easy to find, use, and understand. It was enacted as the Legislation Amendment Act 2026.
This omnibus bill amends the Legislation Act 2019 with the broad goal of making the law easier to find, use and understand. Its main changes require agencies to publish their secondary legislation (rules made under delegated powers, such as regulations, orders, bylaws and notices, rather than Acts made directly by Parliament) on approved websites, and give the Parliamentary Counsel Office a function to maintain the New Zealand Legislation website as a central access point for that material. It affects the government and non-government agencies that make secondary legislation, and everyone who needs to read and rely on the law.
The bill is administered through the Parliamentary Counsel Office and was championed by the Attorney-General. Supporters argue current arrangements, where secondary legislation is scattered across agency sites, the Gazette or is hard to locate, undermine the rule of law, raise compliance costs and hamper scrutiny of delegated law-making, and that a "one-stop shop" fixes this. The measures are largely technical and attracted little opposition, with any concerns focused on the cost and burden of compliance.
See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.