Parliamentary and Government Materials
Hansard, the AJHR, the Gazette, Cabinet papers, Law Commission work, select committees and official reports.
Chapter 5 covers the material Parliament and the executive produce. It is a bigger chapter than its Australian equivalent and carries several forms with no counterpart there.
Hansard
Parliamentary debates have no author and open with the date. The volume number and “NZPD” follow, then the page.
(date) volume NZPD page.
Debates that are not yet bound
Parliament publishes debates online before they are bound, and an unbound debate has no page number at all. r 5.1.1 replaces the page with the subject and the speaker.
The AJHR
In the Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, the year doubles as the volume number, which is why it takes square brackets. A journal spanning two years names both in full.
The title takes quotation marks rather than italics, unlike almost everything else in this chapter.
The New Zealand Gazette
The Gazette changed structure in October 2017 and the two forms differ in more than one place. The newer one carries a notice number and no page. The older one carries an issue number before the title and a starting page after it.
Orders in Council and proclamations are cited through the Gazette rather than having forms of their own (rr 4.3.2 and 4.3.6). Where a proclamation’s Gazette title does not carry the word, add it at the start.
The Law Commission
The Commission’s own citation runs together with no space between the series letters and the number. It is “NZLC PP12”, never “NZLC PP 12”.
The series are R for Reports, PP for Preliminary Papers, SP for Study Papers, IP for Issues Papers, MP for Miscellaneous Papers and OP for Occasional Papers.
Cabinet material
The Cabinet Manual is cited by the Cabinet Office as author. Other Cabinet documents are identified by their own reference.
Select committees and standing orders
Note that a submission takes quotation marks and a committee report takes italics.
Papers and reports
This is the catch-all for official reports. Both the author and the publisher can be dropped: the author where their name is already inside the title, the publisher where it is the same as the author (r 5.4).
Material obtained under the Official Information Act
r 5.3 is not a citation form of its own. Where you obtained a document under the Act, say so at the end of the citation, after the pinpoint, on whatever type the document is.
It describes how you got hold of a particular passage, so it is dropped from the bibliography along with the pinpoint.
Related Index entries
Order in CouncilProclamationHansard (parliamentary debate)Appendix to the Journals of the House (AJHR)Submission to a select committeeStanding ordersCabinet documentCabinet ManualLaw Commission paperNew Zealand Gazette noticeSelect committee reportDocument obtained under the Official Information ActPaper or reportLast reviewed 6 August 2026