bill Non-partisan · AI-drafted, editor-reviewed

Statutes Amendment Bill

In short — Arapono’s summary

This bill makes small technical fixes to 42 different New Zealand laws all at once. It corrects outdated wording, fixes cross-references that pointed to the wrong sections, and updates names of government bodies that have changed. For example, it updates rules about how oaths can be taken online using video calls, clarifies privacy complaint time limits, removes sexist and outdated language from older laws, and updates Air Force job titles from 'airman' to 'aviator'. None of these changes are meant to be controversial — all political parties agreed to include them.

What this affects

Tap a topic to see how this bill touches it — with the parts of the text it’s based on.

Outdated and offensive terms in criminal laws are replaced with neutral modern language.

From the bill

replace 'Sexual intercourse with severely subnormal woman or girl' with 'Sexual intercourse with certain persons'

replace 'defiling idiot or imbecile woman or girl' with 'defiling certain persons'

Where parties stand on Crime & Justice

Progress through Parliament

Introduced

First Reading

Select Committee

Second Reading● Current stage

Committee of the whole House

Third Reading

Royal Assent

Have your say

Submissions open once a bill reaches the select committee stage. In the meantime, you can write to your local MP about it.

Write to your MP

View the official bill on legislation.govt.nz

Bill text sourced from legislation.govt.nz (Parliamentary Counsel Office). Arapono’s summary and breakdown are drafted with AI grounded in that official text and reviewed by an Arapono editor for accuracy and neutrality before publishing. Arapono is non-partisan and takes no position on this bill.