Chapter 13
Interpretation and application of legislation
This is a single section from Chapter 13. Read the full chapter here.
Part 2
Have the specific definitions and meanings of expressions in Part 2 of the Legislation Act 2019 been considered?
Legislation should apply the definitions in Part 2 of the Legislation Act 2019. New legislation should not restate those definitions.
Part 2 of the Legislation Act 2019 defines what certain words and phrases mean. It is not necessary to restate these definitions in new legislation.
· Act, enactment, legislation, Order in Council, Proclamation, secondary legislation · commencement · Commonwealth country, part of the Commonwealth · consular officer · de facto partner, de facto relationship · department, Ministry · Gazette · Governor-General in Council · legislation website · maker · Minister · month and working day office · person · prescribed · presentation exemption | · proceeding · public notification , public notice · repeal · rules of court · writing · step-parent, stepdaughter, or any other relationship described by a word containing the prefix “step” · definitions of “Act”, “Governor”, “land”, and “person” in enactments passed before 1 November 1999 · definition of “regulations” in enactments passed before the commencement of the Legislation Act 2019 · New Zealand, North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, South Island or Te Waipounamu · territorial limits of New Zealand, limits of New Zealand |
Legislation can define these words and phrases differently but only if necessary. See, for example, the definition of “public notice” in section 5 of the Local Government Act 2002 , the definition of person in section 6 of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, and the different statutory definitions of “working day”, including several that exclude the period from Christmas to mid-January.
Part 2 also includes the following:
- words that denote a gender
- words denoting a natural person may include companies and other entities
- words denoting companies and other entities may include natural persons
- when sending by post is taken to be done
- parts of speech and grammatical forms of words defined in any legislation have a corresponding meaning (for example, if an Act defines “supply”, then “supplied” and “supplier” will have a corresponding meaning)
- words in the singular include the plural and vice versa
- words used in secondary legislation have the same meaning as in the empowering Act