Have your say > Bills and new laws

Bills and new laws

All laws start life off as a bill.

One of the biggest things that Parliament does is look at potential laws and changes to laws (these are called bills). New Zealanders all have the chance to have their say on these bills because they affect everyone. It’s really important young people too get have their thoughts, experiences and opinions heard on bills in front of Parliament.

Any member of parliament (MP) can introduce a bill to parliament but most bills are introduced by Ministers and are known as “government bills”. Some bills make it through the massive process to become laws, while others get dropped because more MPs are against it than for it.

Around the select committee table

One of the jobs of the select committee is to examine bills and then report back to parliament. The select committee gets into the details of the bill and finds out what New Zealanders think through a public submission process.

Most bills are advertised in newspapers around New Zealand to encourage submissions. Generally submissions to select committees become public, which means that anyone can see what you (or your group) have said.

There are 13 different select committees. Each one has about eight MPs from different parties in parliament. Each select committee focuses on one or two big national topics like “health” or “justice”.

Click here to read a young person’s experience of presenting at a select committee.

 Not quite sure what a bill is or what an MP stands for? Check out Dr. Glossie’s Glossary of Political Terms

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