This article develops arguments about improving legislative quality, parliamentary scrutiny and accessibility of the law in New Zealand.

Editorial note: Local government in New Zealand exists within a fairly well-defined narrative. New Zealand is the most centralised nation within the OECD. Central government is by far the dominant partner in the central-local relationship and recent innovations in local government have tended towards further centralisation, such as the amalgamation into Auckland’s Super-City. While there...

In my judgement, the overall conclusion to be reached is that New Zealand does regulatory statutes rather badly. They are insufficiently researched. They are not rigorously tested before being enacted. Nor are sufficient efforts made to find out how they worked in the real world. And large statutes are amended far too readily, leading to...