The Legislation Advisory Committee was established by the then Minister of Justice (the Rt Hon Geoffrey Palmer, now Sir Geoffrey) in February 1986. The Committee is serviced by the Ministry of Justice and generally meets every six weeks.
Terms of Reference
The terms of reference of the Legislation Advisory Committee are as follows:
(a) To provide advice to departments on the development of legislative proposals and on drafting instructions to the Parliamentary Counsel Office;
(b) To report to the Minister of Justice and the Legislation Committee of Cabinet on the public law aspects of legislative proposals that the Minister or that committee refers to it;
(c) To advise the Minister of Justice on any other topics and matters in the field of public law that the Minister from time to time refers to it;
(d) To scrutinise and make submissions to the appropriate body or person on aspects of Bills introduced into Parliament that affect public law or raise public law issues;
(e) To help improve the quality of law-making by attempting to ensure that legislation gives clear effect to government policy, ensuring that legislative proposals conform with the LAC Guidelines, and discouraging the promotion of unnecessary legislation;