How are laws made?

WALT gather opinions and ideas from others to make informed decisions.

What is a law?

Read through the article linked above, and in your own words describe what you think laws are.

How do laws get passed?

An idea for a new law, called a “bill”, must pass through several stages before they can become laws.

At each stage different people must make decisions about whether the idea is good, or if it needs to be changed. These different stages are there to make sure that this bill is a good idea to pass.

This is a simplified version of how this happens.

You local member of parliament brings this idea for change, in the form of a bill to Members of Parliament.

The public thinks the law should be changed. They get in touch with their local Member of Parliament to change it.

The MP’s discuss the pros and cons of the idea. If there are enough pros, they will vote yes or no, to pass on to the next stage.

The bill is now presented to the public who will have a chance to have their say, and changes can be made..

Once final changes have been made, a final vote happens. If the vote passes the bill can then be written into NZ law.

You time to try change the law.

Choose one of the options below, or write your own law that you would like to see come into effect.

Present your idea to your “Members of Parliament”

If you managed to get all 4 votes yes you may skip to the final stage.

If you got a NO vote it is now time to make some changes to your law.

Rewrite your law, by adding conditions (i.e only non-violent video games), and a short explanation about how this change will make people happy.

Time to try that again...

Because everyone has an opinion, it can be difficult trying to get everyone to agree.

Present your new idea back to your “Members of Parliament”

Did you manage to pass your law?