Who makes New Zealand's law?
Parliament passes the Acts. But most of the rules people actually meet, the fees, forms, standards and exemptions, are made under those Acts by Ministers and agencies. This study asks whether that balance is shifting, and whether Parliament's own scrutiny is keeping pace.
Why it matters
Handing detail to secondary legislation is normal and often sensible: it is quicker to change and keeps Acts readable. The question is where the line sits. New Zealand's Legislation Design and Advisory Committee guidelines treat some powers as needing special justification, above all a power for secondary legislation to amend or override an Act (a Henry VIII clause). Parliament's Regulations Review Committee examines what is made under these powers. If more law moves outside Parliament while less of what Parliament passes is examined closely, both checks matter more.
The questions
- Delegation. Do newer Acts hand more law-making to the executive? Measured by regulation-making powers, Henry VIII clauses, Acts left for Ministers to bring into force, and how much secondary legislation each Act generates.
- Scrutiny. Is less of what Parliament passes examined in detail? Measured by how many Government Bills skip a select committee report, how much committees change the Bills they do see, and how time in the House compares with a Bill's size.
- Does scrutiny catch delegation? When a Bill arrives with a Henry VIII clause, how often is the power narrowed or removed before it passes?
- What explains the pattern? Whether changes follow drafting conventions, particular kinds of law (such as Treaty settlement Acts, which rarely delegate), urgency, or changes of government. Reported without taking a side on any of them.
Method
The data is Statute Atlas: every Act since 1841, every Bill since 1998 at each stage it reached, and the secondary legislation PCO holds, read from the Parliamentary Counsel Office's XML. Delegation and scrutiny are measured from the text as enacted and from the change markup committees leave in reported Bills. Every pattern-based count is spot-checked against the text on a random sample, and each finding will carry its error rate. Where the text can't answer a question (urgency motions, Regulations Review Committee reports), those sources are joined in and named.
Status
The full statute book is being read now; it finishes in early November 2026. Findings will be published here once the counts are complete and the spot-checks are done, not before. Early charts are on the atlas and will move as data comes in.
Limits
Counts from wording are proxies for legal effect: a clause can delegate a lot or a little. Old Acts still in force are survivors, so eras aren't directly comparable. Secondary legislation before the 1990s is incomplete on PCO's site. And this looks at the statute book, not at how powers are used in practice.
Independent work in my own time, from public sources. Not affiliated with the Parliamentary Counsel Office, Parliament or any agency, and not legal advice.