Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Residential Care and Disability Support Services Act 2018

General provisions

6: Interpretation: references to, and using as guide, old law

You could also call this:

"Understanding old laws helps explain new laws in this Act"

Illustration for Residential Care and Disability Support Services Act 2018

When you read other laws or documents, they might mention old laws like sections 69FA and 132D of the Social Security Act 1964. You should interpret these as references to the corresponding parts of this Act. You can use the old laws as a guide to understand what the new laws mean. The old laws are called the former enactments.

The new laws in this Act are based on the old laws, but rewritten. They are meant to have the same effect as the old laws. If you are unsure about what a new law means, you can look at the old law it replaced to help you understand it.

If a new law is unclear, you can use the old law to figure out what it means. This is called the old law. But if the new law has been changed since 26 November 2018, you should not use the old law to understand it.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS41533.

Topics:
Health and wellbeing > Healthcare servicesFamily and relationships > Children and parenting
Previous

5: Interpretation, or

"What special words in this law mean, so you can understand it better."

Next

7: Transitional, savings, and related provisions, or

"Special rules to help when laws change"

Part 1General provisions

6Interpretation: references to, and using as guide, old law

  1. A reference in an enactment or a document to all or any of the provisions of sections 69FA and 132D, Part 4, and Schedules 27 and 30 of the Social Security Act 1964 (the former enactments) is to be interpreted as a reference to, or to the corresponding provisions of, this Act and Schedules 2 and 3, to the extent necessary to reflect sensibly the intent of the enactment or document.

  2. Subsection (1) is subject to the consequential amendments in Schedule 10 of the Social Security Act 2018.

  3. The provisions of this Act and Schedules 2 and 3—

  4. are the provisions of the former enactments in rewritten form; and
    1. are intended to have the same effect as the corresponding provisions of the former enactments.

      1. Subsection (3) is subject to subsections (5) and (6) and section 7.

      2. If the meaning of an enactment in this Act or Schedule 2 or 3 that comes into force on 26 November 2018 (the new law) is unclear or gives rise to absurdity, the wording of a law that is repealed by section 77(1) and that corresponds to the new law (the old law) must be used to ascertain the meaning of the new law.

      3. Subsections (3) to (5) do not apply, if a new law is affected by an amendment made after the beginning of 26 November 2018, to that new law after the amendment commences.

      Compare