Tēnā koe Luke,

Thank you for contacting us with such an interesting question.

 

The "greens", as we call them, are advance copies of Acts that the Office
of the Clerk circulates to a small number of government agencies and law
libraries as soon as the Governor-General has given Royal assent to
legislation.

 

When a bill has had its third reading and has been prepared in the form of
an Act, the official copies (the "loans") are printed on parchment and
certified personally by the Clerk, to assure the Governor-General that the
bills they are signing have been passed by the House. Two copies are
presented to the Governor-General for Royal assent. One of these signed
copies is provided to the High Court and the other retained at Parliament.

 

However, there are of course other people who need to know and apply the
law as soon as it comes into force. To avoid having the Governor-General
sign lots of copies of the loans, the greens are printed at the same time
as the loans for limited circulation. This means the recipients have
copies of Acts immediately and don't have to wait until the printed
statutes are delivered, usually a week or so later. The greens are
identical to the loans other than the paper they are printed on, so they
are deemed authentic versions. They are stamped to signify that the bill
was certified by the Clerk, and to note the date it received Royal assent.
We believe the different colour was to distinguish the assents from copies
of bills, and to show that they were interim versions.

 

These days, new Acts are readily available within 24 hours of receiving
assent, via the Legislation website ([1]www.legislation.govt.nz), so the
number of agencies receiving the greens is has reduced significantly over
time.

 

The greens are not available for sale, though standard copies of Acts can
be purchased through the Legislation website.

 

Is there a particular recently passed bill that you are interested in
having a green copy of? While we have only a limited print run for each
bill, if we have a spare of one you're interested in, we would be happy to
send it to you.

 

Ngā mihi,

 

Mary

 

-------------------------------------
Mary Drakeford (She/her [2]pronouns)
 

Parliamentary Officer (House)

 
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[3]cid:image001.png@01D97F59.36D50F90
1.067, Parliament House, Parliament
Buildings,
Private Bag 18041, Wellington 6160

P: 04 817 9481
 

 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----

From: Luke <[4][FOI #23305 email]>

Sent: Thursday, 29 June 2023 10:09 am

To: clerk <[5][Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives request email]>

Subject: Official Information request - Green Assents

 

Dear Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives,

 

I've come across copies of Acts of Parliament, which are referred to as
"Green Assents". They appear to be stamped (though not typically signed)
by the Clerk of the House.

 

I've tried to research them online, but came up largely empty-handed.
Therefore, I'm sending you this email in the hopes that you could address
some questions I have about them.

 

1. What are Green Assents, what is their significance, and why are they
printed on green paper?

 

2. What is the history of Green Assents?

 

3. Where can a member of the public find and/or purchase a copy?

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Luke

 

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