Your trim milk flat white has been illegal in Wellington - until now

If you've been enjoying trim milk in Wellington, technically you've been living outside the law.

A bizarre law that's been sitting on New Zealand's statute books since 1919 has made it illegal to sell skimmed milk in the capital for more than 100 years.

Now, it's finally set to be scrapped.

Attorney-General Chris Bishop announced this week that more than 150 outdated laws are being lined up for a repeal Bill as part of a major statute "spring clean".

Included in there is the Wellington Milk-Supply Act 1919 - a relic from a very different era that established a council-controlled licensing regime for milk vendors in the capital, making it illegal to sell skim milk within the city boundaries.

It dates back to a time when dairy factories and farmers were fiercely competing for business in the region.

Anyone caught selling skimmed or adulterated milk could actually be fined $20.

Thankfully for flat-white-loving Wellingtonians, the council hasn't been handing out fines for decades.

"I haven't detected a surge of political support for the legislation, so I'm pretty sure it's had its time and it's right to repeal it," Wellington Mayor Andrew Little said via Stuff.

The bizarre law actually popped up back in 2021, when Wellington lawyer Tyrone-Jay Barugh applied for a milk supply licence under the Act.

According to Stuff report at the time, Barugh could have become the only legal milk distributor in Wellington - if he gained approval.

The council declined the application, pointing out it hadn't issued milk licences for decades. And instead of heading to court, both agreed to lobby the Government to repeal the outdated law instead.

Bishop said in his announcement on June 16, the Wellington milk law is just one example of the strange legislation still at play.

“We’ve got layer upon layer of legislation dating back more than 150 years – a legal lasagne, if you will," he said.

Some are historically important. Some are genuinely bizarre. And quite a few are technically still in force despite almost nobody realising they still exist.

The Wellington milk law is one of 152 Acts identified for repeal. Other laws on the chopping block include the Dunedin City Fish-markets and Empowering Act 1918, which allowed the city council to operate a fish market and buy and sell sheep.

"The point of this project isn’t to wipe away history,” Mr Bishop says.

“It’s about making New Zealand law easier to navigate and easier to understand, while preserving these stories for future generations.”

The repeal Bill is set to head to Parliament at a later date.