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Parliament Bill

Parliamentary privilege - Article 9 of Bill of Rights 1688 - Prohibited impeaching or questioning of proceedings in Parliament

19: Use of confidential documents and oral evidence

You could also call this:

"Protecting Secret Information in Court"

You are looking at a proposed law change about using secret documents and spoken evidence in court. This law change says courts cannot make someone show secret documents or talk about them. It also says courts cannot use these documents as evidence. You need to know that this law change applies to documents and spoken evidence that the House of Representatives or a committee got in secret. If the House of Representatives or committee makes the document or spoken evidence public, then courts can use it. This can happen if they tell the public about it or let someone else tell the public. A document or spoken evidence is secret if it is given to the House of Representatives or committee in private or as a secret. This means you cannot talk about it or show it to others in court unless the House of Representatives or committee says it is okay. The court must follow these rules to protect secret information.

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This page was last updated on 9 November 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS804147.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Courts and legal helpGovernment and voting > Government departmentsRights and equality > Privacy

18: Evidence, questions, and statements, etc, about proceedings in Parliament, or

"What happens in Parliament can't be used in court"

20: Use of evidence, etc, for interpreting legislation, or

"Using documents to help understand the law"

Part 2Parliamentary privilege
Article 9 of Bill of Rights 1688: Prohibited impeaching or questioning of proceedings in Parliament

19Use of confidential documents and oral evidence

This section applies to the use, in a court or tribunal, of documents and oral evidence that have been received by the House of Representatives or a committee in confidence.
A court or tribunal must not—
require the document to be produced; or
admit the document into evidence; or
admit evidence concerning the document.

A court or tribunal must not—
admit evidence concerning the oral evidence; or
require a document recording or reporting the oral evidence to be produced; or
admit the document into evidence.

However, a court or tribunal may do anything referred to in subsection (2) or (3) in relation to a document or oral evidence received by the House of Representatives or a committee (without impeaching or questioning the proceedings in Parliament) if the House of Representatives or committee has—
communicated the document or oral evidence to the public; or
authorised its communication to the public.

For the purposes of this section, a document or oral evidence is received by the House of Representatives or a committee in confidence if it is received (as advice, evidence, or anything else)—
in private; or
as secret evidence.