The pervasive impact of regulation on society, coupled with regulatory failures often attributed to the performance of regulators, calls for the professionalisation of regulation as a practice, vocation, and discipline. To this end, governments and non-governmental organisations around the world have begun to explore pathways to build out the regulatory profession.

This special issue of Policy Quarterly has five articles on aspects of government regulation in New Zealand, five articles on various topical policy issues from a range of (mostly academic) contributors, and three articles based on student research internships.

This article tackles the contentious subject of whether regulated entities (those who are required to comply with the law) are ‘customers’ of the agencies that are regulating them. Does it matter what they are called?

This article is a case study of the journey that led to the inaugural annual national forum on the 2016 New Zealand Port and Harbour Marine Safety Code which took place in July 2017 in Wellington.

The article discusses the mechanics, influences and principles of good regulatory decision making in New Zealand.