New Zealand Legislation goes on line

Attorney-General Margaret Wilson today launched the first, free public online access to up-to-date electronic versions of Acts and Statutory Regulations.

The launch of www.legislation.govt.nz represents a significant initial step in achieving the objectives of the Public Access to Legislation (PAL) Project, she said. The project aims to improve public access to legislation in both printed and electronic form.

The website is a temporary measure, offering a basic, searchable, unofficial electronic database of New Zealand legislation. It will be replaced by a more comprehensive database, which will include Bills before Parliament, early next year.

The interim legislation site, developed and hosted by professional publisher, Brookers, will allow users to navigate through Statutes and Regulations down to section level and hypertext link between legislation references. Users will be able to search through all online legislation for selected words or phrases, and look for specific pieces of legislation by name or section number.

“In launching this site, the Government is moving closer towards fulfilling its responsibility to make legislation readily available to the public, both as enacted and in an up-to-date form with amendments incorporated,” Margaret Wilson said.

“It is also an important development in terms of implementing the Government’s E-government strategy, and will provide significant content for the new Government web portal when that goes live.”

Margaret Wilson said it is hoped the interim site will be used extensively, and generate sustained interest in the full website, which is expected to go live early in 2003.”

The PAL Project is being undertaken by the Parliamentary Counsel Office with implementation partner, Unisys New Zealand. Brookers was selected earlier this year to work with Unisys and provide the Parliamentary Counsel Office with the electronic legislation database and associated services for the PAL Project.

For more information on the PAL Project, visit www.pco.parliament.govt.nz

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