22 December 2025
More information about Amendment Papers
We recently enriched Amendment Papers with additional information. We've added:
the status of the Bill that the Amendment Paper relates to
the date that the Amendment Paper was released
the name of the member or Minister who submitted the Amendment Paper
09 December 2025
RSS feeds are staying. Plus, a new API is coming
We recently ran a survey to understand how people were using the RSS feeds on legislation.govt.nz and whether an API could replace these feeds.
Your feedback was clear. We learned that RSS feeds remain essential for many workflows, while other users are excited about the flexibility of an API. So, we have decided to provide both RSS feeds and an API, as each option serves different needs of our diverse users.
Read more about this decision on the PCO website.
If you’d like to be on our contact list of people interested in the new API, please email us at demo@legislation.govt.nz.
09 December 2025
Accessibility improvements
We’ve recently implemented a series of accessibility fixes across the Legislation website to make it easier for everyone to use. These changes address issues that affected screen reader users, keyboard navigation, and those who rely on text magnification or custom spacing.
What’s changed
Improved navigation for low-vision users
No more horizontal scrolling when zooming in—content now reflows properly.
Better keyboard accessibility
The “Back to Top” button is always accessible, even at the bottom of the page.
Clearer screen reader experience
Action buttons now have descriptive labels, and page titles are unique and meaningful.
Enhanced mobile navigation
ARIA attributes update correctly, so assistive technologies announce menu states accurately.
Support for custom text spacing
Placeholder text remains visible when users adjust spacing for readability.
Semantic structure fixes
Headings, fieldsets, and legends have been corrected for better screen reader navigation.
Error pages improved
Added heading structure so users can quickly understand and navigate the page they are on.
Why this matters
These improvements make the site more inclusive and easier to navigate for people with visual impairments, cognitive differences, and those using assistive technologies. Our goal is to ensure that everyone can access legislation without barriers.
04 December 2025
Updates to Boolean operators
We’ve added powerful new search capabilities to make finding information easier:
Boolean Operators: Use
AND,OR, andNOT(or their symbol equivalents+,|, and-) to refine your searches. These terms are interchangeable for flexibility.Stemming Support: Add words in parentheses to disable stemming on specific words. For example:
fishwill return results like fishing and fisheries."fish"(in quotes) will return only the exact word fish.
28 October 2025
New search feature: “Bills” now included in header search
We’ve made it easier to find what you’re looking for. You can now search across Bills directly from the header search bar on the NZ Legislation website.
This enhancement allows you to:
Quickly navigate to a specific Bill using a title search, and
Search across the entire Bills collection using content-based queries.
Whether you're tracking legislation in progress or researching proposed changes, this update streamlines your access to bill-related content.
29 September 2025
Search results improvements
Search results include number of search matches inside legislation
When you conduct a content search on either the header search bar or the Advanced Search, the search result cards now include the number of keyword matches for your search terms. When you click on the associated keyword matches for a result, you are taken to the first match in the legislation document and can cycle through the matched terms via forward and back navigation controls.
Sort results by legislation number
Sorting legislation results by year now incorporates legislation number. This means that when you sort by either Year (newest) or Year (oldest), the legislation number is used to chronologically place the results within each year.
Title change noted in search results
Now when you begin to enter a previous legislation title in the header search bar, the autosuggest feature will tell you whether there is a current title for that piece of legislation. When you click on the suggestion you will be taken to the previous legislation title.
18 September 2025
API function to replace RSS feeds
As we update the New Zealand legislation website, we will be replacing its RSS feeds with an Application Programming Interface (API). This replacement is scheduled to happen before the end of 2025.
The API will enable software developers to get updates for their applications when changes are published to legislation.govt.nz. You will need an API key to get access to the data service.
To help RSS users change from RSS feed to the new API, we will provide instructions and API keys. We will provide more information about this before the replacement is finalised.
RSS feed users, please take our survey
We want to hear from RSS feed users to ensure the replacement API meets your needs and we can contact you with API instructions. If you use the RSS feed, please take our survey here:
Do you want to test and try the new API? We are looking for testers. To sign up please note your availability on this survey.
The PCO's official news item about this change also shares this information: Legislation.govt.nz to replace RSS Feeds with an API | Parliamentary Counsel Office
We are here to answer your questions about this change. Please email us at demo@legislation.govt.nz.
25 September 2025
New search functions: Boolean search and revised secondary legislation options for Advanced Search
Boolean search now available
You can now use Boolean search keys to refine legislation searches. Use this from the main search on the home page, or from the Contents field in Advanced Search.
+ search for AND, example: marine + construction, finds legislation that includes both words.
| search for OR, example: apples | pears, finds legislation that include either word.
- search for one term without including another term, example: marine – construction, finds only legislation that includes marine but not construction.
" wraps an exact phrase for searching, example: “apples and pears” finds the exact phrase “apples and pears.
* at the end for a suffix, or at the start for a prefix, example: mar* finds all words that start with mar.
( ) wraps a phrase or word for precedence, example: CLARIFY
~N after a word or phrase to provide documents with the word, for example, “apples pears” ~2 provides documents that have apples within three words of pears
Revised secondary legislation options for Advanced Search
On the Advanced Search page, when you choose Secondary legislation, search options now include a list of 10 types of secondary legislation to filter on. This is condensed from the previous list of 35 types, as follows.
Regulation
Orders (includes Orders in Council)
Rules (includes “rule” type)
Code (includes “Code of practice”)
Bylaw
Determination
Exemption
Notice
Instrument
Other type
10 September 2025
Access XML and PDF files of legislation from URLs
Now, you can access the XML and PDF files of legislation posted on this site. To do this, navigate to the legislation you wish to view. Then, change the end of its URL in the browser to be either .xml or .pdf.
For example, to view the XML version of the Marine Reserves Act 1971, navigate to its page. Find its URL in the browser:
https://demo.legislation.govt.nz/Acts/public/1971/15/096be8ed81e81a37/096be8ed81e81a37
At the end of its URL, add the text ".xml", as shown below:
https://demo.legislation.govt.nz/Acts/public/1971/15/096be8ed81e81a37/096be8ed81e81a37.xml
You can now view and access the XML version using the URL that includes .xml at the end.
02 September 2025
View and search long legislation
Long legislation now displays for on-screen reading, scrolling, and navigation. An example of this is the Income Tax Act 2007.
Long legislation does have a limit that affects CRTL+F searches. A CTRL+F search will only search the content you currently see on screen. To search within all content for a full item of very long legislation, use the content search on the top right of the page.
04 August 2025
Search within legislation
You can now search within legislation for specific text. Open a legislation item and at the upper right, you'll find Search legislation. Click on this and enter your search term. You'll see how many times your item is found in this legislation, and you'll be able to click through to each instance. Your search term will be highlighted in the legislation until you click Exit search.
23 July 2025
Autocomplete
We now have an Autocomplete function in the Search bar on our home page. This gives you suggestions as you type a word, so you can find the items you want more quickly.
17 July 2025
Search updates and legislation amendment alerts
We've added a feature to Advanced Search, and a feature to search results.
You can now search for legislation by its legislation number with the Advanced Search function.
Search results now include the legislation number and year for each search result.
We've also added alerts to note if legislation has amendments that are not yet incorporated. There are two types of amendment alert:
an alert on the main legislation page, with a link to view upcoming amendments
a detailed alert on the Versions tab for the legislation. This includes the legislative sources of amendments that are not yet incorporated.
For an example of this alert in action, see the Fisheries Act 1996.
19 May 2025
This demo website now contains official versions of New Zealand legislation
All legislation published by the PCO under section 67 of the Legislation Act 2019 is available from this site. This includes the collection of Acts, Bills, and PCO-published secondary legislation.
When the legislation.govt.nz website is updated with legislative content, those updates are also published here, at demo.legislation.govt.nz.
See About this demo website for more information.
28 April 2025
New feedback gathering tool
The right-hand Feedback tab and Submit feedback in the top navigation now takes you to a feedback form. When you submit this form, PCO receives your message and a link to the URL on this site where you requested feedback. At PCO, we review and manage your feedback internally. This allows us to keep your information private and secure.
See our updated Privacy statement for more information.
18 March 2025
Filters and links to secondary legislation
We've added links to secondary legislation made under a specific section. Directly under an empowering provision, a link will take you to a filtered view of secondary legislation.
05 March 2025
Divided Bills
We've added the relationships between divided Bills. You'll find previous versions of divided Bills in the "Versions" tab, as well as the related Bills that were created from a division.
10 February 2025
Amendments incorporated
We've added links to the amendments incorporated in each version of Acts and secondary legislation. You'll find these listed in the "versions" tab.
28 January 2025
Filter secondary legislation
On the "Related secondary legislation" tab you'll see a new "Refine results" button. This will take you to a page where you can sort and filter on the secondary legislation empowered by a particular Act.
23 January 2025
Collapsible contents pane
People have told us they like the new persistent contents pane, but they want to hide it when they don't need it. You can now collapse the contents pane with a new button at the top, and bring it back when you need it again.
14 January 2025
Original enacted versions of all Acts available
The as-enacted versions of all pre-2008 Acts have been added to this website. These versions were converted from scans of the original printed annual bound volumes of Acts. Generally, you can find these converted versions:
as the earliest version of the Act - for Acts that are in force
as the earliest version of the Act - for repealed Acts that already had versions on legislation.govt.nz
as the only version available - for repealed Acts that were not previously published on legislation.govt.nz
If you want to see a scan of the original version from the annual bound volumes, click on the download button and you will be able to choose to download the original copy. Note that you can also download a copy of the converted PDF, but if there are any discrepancies, look at the original scanned version. Note that the versions in the repealed collection have not been checked so there may be errors.
13 January 2025
All versions
We've added all previous versions of Acts and secondary legislation to the demo site. You can find these in the Versions tab, or through the drop-down that appears at the top of the page when you scroll down.
A reminder that this demo website displays a static version of the content from legislation.govt.nz as at 10 April 2024, so you will find some recent versions missing.
18 December 2024
Year filter
You can now filter on a specific year, or across a range of years, in Advanced Search.
09 December 2024
Year sorting
You can now sort your results by year using the drop-down on the right-hand side of your search results. Please note that much of the agency-published secondary legislation does not have years, so it appears at the end of your results after you've applied a sort.
22 January 2025
Alerts
We've added the alerts that appear on the current site for reprints. We've also added an alert to tell you when you're looking at an older version of legislation, along with a link to take you to the current version.
03 December 2024
In-page version drop-down
Now, when you are scrolling through legislation you can use the drop-down on the top right of the page to change to another version. You'll go directly to the same section you are looking at, but in a new version.
02 December 2024
Secondary legislation filter
We've added an option in Advanced Search that lets you filter between agency-published and PCO-published secondary legislation.
27 November 2024
Secondary legislation linked to administering agencies
We've linked secondary legislation published by the Parliamentary Counsel Office to its administering agency. You can filter by administering agency with the drop down to the left of your search results, or through the browse page.
22 November 2024
Versions now available
We've added previous versions of Acts, Bills, and PCO-published secondary legislation to the site. As a first step, we've limited this to the previous ten versions. If you're looking at an older version of legislation, you'll see an alert and a link that will take you to the current version. We will add the full set of versions in the future and keep refining how versions look and are accessed on the site.
21 November 2024
Alphabetical sorting
You can now sort your search results from A-Z, or from Z-A. Give the new sorting drop-down a try and see what you think.
13 November 2024
Download legislation as PDF
PCO-published legislation can now be downloaded as a PDF. This includes:
Acts
Bills
Secondary legislation
Amendment papers
06 November 2024
Filters added to Advanced Search
We've added new filters to the Advanced Search for Acts, Bills, and secondary legislation. Take a look and see what you think. We've added:
status
classification
04 November 2024
Demo site access is open. Try new functions and features
This demo website has new functions and features, and improvements to existing features. These include:
agency-published secondary legislation is searchable alongside Acts, Bills and PCO-published secondary legislation
filters to quickly refine search results
better feedback on your search query
new contents panel for legislation navigation
improved links between Acts and secondary legislation
filters and a browse page for administering agencies
clear visibility on legislation status
mobile optimisation
toggle to show or hide repealed sections and history notes