60
120
Revised statutes are presented for examination and approval to Committees of the
Senate or House, or to joint Committees and, once examined and approved, are
presented as a Bill for enactment by the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General.
121
There have been occasional consolidations in New Zealand since the decision to
reprint rather than consolidate. In 1976, and again in 1994, Parliament enacted an
Income Tax Act. In both cases the consolidation was passed without political
contention and on the basis of agreement not to relitigate the policy of any
provisions. The Income Tax Act 1994 was referred to as a reorganisation of the
1976 Act. Section AA1 of the 1994 Act makes it plain that the purpose of the Act
was to re-enact the law contained in the 1976 Act in a reorganised form and that the
reorganisation of the provisions and change in style and language were not intended
to affect the interpretation of the provisions of the 1976 Act as they are included in
the 1994 Act. The 1994 Act was itself a precursor to the rewriting of the Act that
began in 1995 and was enacted just a few days ago.
122
A kind of consolidation occurs from time to time when a new Act is enacted to
replace several Acts dealing with different aspects of the same broad subject, but
this is usually done as part of a more general single reform of the law on the matter.
The Resource Management Act 1991 replaced a number of statutes relating to
environmental planning and protection, but it introduced new concepts and
approaches.
123
There is a limit to what consolidations and reprints (non-substantive modernisation)
can achieve to make legislation more accessible. A resumption of the consolidation
and revision work of the first 30 years of last century, and of the requisite
companion (specialised, and time-limited) parliamentary procedures, might well
ensure that modernisation does not occur only as a by-product of substantive reform.
What stands in the way of continuous consolidation, however, are resource