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Parliament Bill

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

20: Use of evidence, etc, for interpreting legislation

You could also call this:

"Using documents to help understand the law"

You can use certain documents to help understand what a law means. These documents are about what happened in Parliament. You can use them in court, but only to understand the law, not to question what Parliament did. You can look at these documents as evidence or take notice of them. This can include making comments based on what the documents say. This is allowed under Sections 18 and 19 and the Bill of Rights 1688, as long as you are not questioning Parliament's actions.

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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=LMS804148.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Courts and legal helpGovernment and voting > Government departments

19: Use of confidential documents and oral evidence, or

"Protecting Secret Information in Court"

21: Use of evidence, etc, for establishing historical events or other facts, or

"Using Parliament evidence to figure out past events"

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

20Use of evidence, etc, for interpreting legislation

Sections 18 and 19 and Article 9 of the Bill of Rights 1688 do not prevent or restrict a court or tribunal from doing any of the following for the sole purpose of ascertaining the meaning of any legislation (without impeaching or questioning the proceedings in Parliament):
admitting in evidence, or taking judicial notice of, a document relating to proceedings in Parliament communicated under the House of Representatives’ or a committee’s authority:
allowing the making of statements, submissions, or comments based on the document.