Armed Forces Discipline Legislation Amendment Bill
This bill changes how the New Zealand Defence Force handles discipline. It creates a faster way to deal with minor rule-breaking and moves serious cases away from a person's direct commander. It also updates search powers, drug testing rules, and how bail works to be more like the civilian justice system. The bill aims to make the military justice system fairer and more efficient for everyone involved.
What this affects
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The bill changes how the military justice system works, including how offences are investigated, tried, and how punishments are given, making it more like the civilian system in some ways.
creation of a new minor disciplinary sanction system, which will provide a faster, more efficient, and more transparent way of dealing with very low-level offending (such as being late for duty)
transfer of responsibility for serious, complex, or sensitive offending out of the chain of command to the Director of Military Prosecutions
updating the existing search power under section 95 of the Armed Forces Discipline Act 1971, together with the creation of new powers to search defence areas and carry out drug testing
better alignment of bail provisions with those that apply in the civilian criminal justice system under the Bail Act 2000
Progress through Parliament
Have your say
This bill is open for public submissions to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee. Anyone can tell the committee what they think, and you don’t need to be an expert. Submissions close 24 March 2026.
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.