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Legislation Act 2019

Preliminary provisions

3: Purpose of this Act

You could also call this:

"This law helps make New Zealand's laws easy to find, understand, and use."

The purpose of the Legislation Act 2019 is to promote high-quality legislation for New Zealand that is easy to find, use, and understand. This Act helps achieve that by stating principles and rules about how legislation is interpreted, and by making legislation simpler and more consistent. You will be able to find all legislation published electronically in one place over time, making it easier for you to access and understand the laws of New Zealand. This Act also provides tools to keep legislation up to date and supports parliamentary and public scrutiny of legislation. The Act continues the work of the Parliamentary Counsel Office, which has functions and objectives that promote high-quality legislation. The Legislation Act 2019 is designed to make laws easier for you to find, use, and understand, and to support the work of Parliament and the public in scrutinising legislation.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM7298131.

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"When the law starts working"

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4: Overview of this Act, or

"What this law is about and how it works in New Zealand."

Part 1Preliminary provisions

3Purpose of this Act

  1. The purpose of this Act is to promote high-quality legislation for New Zealand that is easy to find, use, and understand.

  2. To that end, this Act—

  3. states principles and rules about the interpretation of legislation:
    1. allows legislation to be simpler, shorter, and more consistent:
      1. provides for all legislation to be published electronically in 1 place over time (with exceptions):
        1. provides tools for modernising and simplifying legislation and keeping legislation up to date:
          1. supports effective parliamentary and public scrutiny of legislation:
            1. continues the PCO with functions and objectives that promote that purpose.