NOTICE: This guide is currently under review, with a new guide to be launched before Semester 1, 2025. In the meantime, please direct any queries or feedback about this guide to the Library's Digital Experience via our Enquiry and Feedback form.
Subsidiary legislation is often called delegated legislation, subordinate legislation or legislative instruments, and can include regulations, rules, orders, statutory instruments, by-laws and so on. At the Commonwealth level, they are called Legislative Instruments.
Parliament does not make subsidiary legislation, instead they delegate the power to someone else to do so.
In delegating the power to make subsidiary legislation, Parliament imposes precise restrictions on the exercise of this power.
Subsidiary legislation must exist in relation to an enabling Act. The enabling Act is often called the principal Act.
It provides for subsidiary legislation to be made and will specify who has been delegated the power to do so under the Act.
An enabling Act may have multiple pieces of subsidiary legislation enabled by it (operating under it).
These will contain the administrative details that are necessary to ensure that the provisions of the enabling Act will operate successfully.
The delegated legislation may be administered by Government Departments, Local Councils, Courts or some other body to which the authority has been delegated.
Regulations are the most common form of delegated legislation, these are made by the executive or a Minister to apply to the general population.
They are used for legislation of general application emanating from a government department.
These are published in the Statutory Rules series until 2004 and in the Select Legislative Instrument series from 2005.
For example, the Jetties Amendment Regulations 2020 (WA).
From 2020, subsidiary legislation and some related instruments published in the Gazette were allocated a unique identifier, in the format “SL 2020/1”. This change was introduced to simplify the way in which these instruments are referenced, and to ensure that each instrument is uniquely identifiable.
More detail on the unique identifier is on the Western Australian Legislation website.
Source Subsidiary Legislation by Title from Legify
Legify is an easy to use tool for accessing authorised versions of Acts and Delegated or Subsidiary Legislation.
Simply type in the main words of the subsidiary legislation (but do not include the word Act or Regulations) eg Dog.
The Results list will include Acts, Regulations, etc. that have these words in the title.
The Results can be filtered by jurisdiction.
Results can be filtered by type: Acts or Regulations.
Clicking on the title takes you to the authorised version of the Act.
For Western Australian legislation, this is the Western Australian Legislation website.
Source Subsidiary Legislation on Western Australian Legislation
Task: Find subsidiary legislation that is in force and made under the Dog Act 1976 (WA).
Step 1: Go to the Western Australian Legislation website: www.legislation.wa.gov.au
Step 2: Take a look at the homepage for the Western Australian Legislation Database.
You will see a main section that essentially replicates the information found in the grey left-hand side menu.
In both sections you can select In force under Acts to access the section of the database devoted to Western Australian legislation and subsidiary legislation.
Step 3: Follow through the alphabetical listing to locate the Dog Act 1976 (WA)
Step 4: Once on the page for the Dog Act 1976 (WA), locate the link for Subsidiary legislation made under this Act.
You will be taken to a page listing all in force and ceased subsidiary legislation under this Act.
Any other delegated legislation, or specific orders or proclamations made under the authority of the Act are also listed here.
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Step 5: Click on the title of the piece of subsidiary legislation that you wish to view.
In this case select the Dog Regulations 2013 (WA) as this is the only piece of subsidiary legislation in force.
You will then be taken to the regulations page and from here you will be able to download the regulations themselves to see if there have been any amendments made since the last reprint, as you would with an Act.
If you have the name of the principle Act, you can now find subordinate legislation made under it.
