Life Jackets for Children and Young Persons Bill
This bill changes the rules for life jackets on small recreational boats in New Zealand. It will require everyone on board a recreational boat 6 metres or less in length to wear a life jacket when the boat is moving. Currently, wearing life jackets is mostly up to the boat's skipper. The bill also changes the name of the bill and updates some definitions to make the rules clearer and easier to follow.
What this affects
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The bill will lead to new penalties for people who do not follow the life jacket rules on small recreational boats.
To ensure that the bill is effective at promoting lifejacket use, new offences and penalties will need to be created to enforce the new requirements.
Consequently, we recommend that the Government undertake policy work to create new offences and penalties under the Maritime (Offences) Regulations 1998.
Progress through Parliament
Have your say
Submissions open once a bill reaches the select committee stage and the committee calls for them. In the meantime, you can write to your local MP about it.
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.