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.
There are a number of ways to find a Commonwealth Act depending on what type of information you have about the Act.
You can locate a Commonwealth Act when you know:
- the title of the Act
- the series / sessional details
Authoritative versions of Commonwealth Acts are to be found on the Federal Register of Legislation (referred to in this Lesson as FROL) which is "the authorised whole-of-government website for Commonwealth legislation and related documents".
Authorised versions are always in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format, and are stamped with one of the following forms of words:
- “Authorised version”; or
- “Authoritative”; or
- “Federal Register of Legislative Instruments”; or
- for an explanatory statement for a legislative instrument—“Explanatory Statement to” and a reference to the unique identifier for the instrument.
If you download or print an authorised version from the Federal Register of Legislation without making any changes to it, the copy is also an authorised version for the purpose of court proceedings.
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Source an Act by Title from Legify
Legify is an easy to use tool for accessing authorised versions of Acts and Delegated Legislation.
Simply type in the main words of an Act (but do not include the word Act) eg Civil Liability.
The Results list will include Acts, Regulations, etc. that have these words in the title.
The Results can be filtered by jurisdiction.
In this example we will use the title to find the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth).
The link takes you to the authorised version of the Act.
For the Commonwealth of Australia legislation, this is the Federal Register of Legislation website.
Source a Commonwealth Act by Title from Federal Register of Legislation
In this example we will use the title to find the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth).
Step 1: Go to the Federal Register of Legislation homepage, click the light blue Acts In Force box.
Step 2: This will take you to the Browse Acts by Title screen.
Here, locate the hyperlink that represents the first two letters of the title of the Act you are looking for. In this case, select Au.
Step 3: This will take you to an alphabetical listing of all of the Acts that begin with Au.
You can scroll through the list until you locate the Act in question but as this is a long results list we shall use the filtering options on the left located under the heading Filter results.
In the Filter by Title search box, enter the title of the Act you are looking for and click Apply filter.
The results page will now show you the Acts that meet your search parameters.
If you click on the title of the Act you will be taken to the text of the current Act.
Alternatively you can download the Act by selecting Download on the right-hand side.
To view the compilation page for the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth), select View Series on the right-hand side.
The View Series link takes you to the compilation page for the Act which looks like this:
On this compilation page, you will see that there are many versions of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth).
Each of these versions is known as a 'compilation'.
This is because every time the Act is amended, a new compilation of it appears on FROL.
This new compilation incorporates the new amendments.
Note: The year the Act became law remains constant within the Act's title, regardless of the date of the latest compilation.
For example, there is not an Australian Citizenship Act 2020 (Cth), even though there were amendments made in 2020 to Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth).
Each compilation is given its own RegisterID (number).
Note how every compilation except for the first (current) one has "superseded" written underneath it.
On the left you can see if there are any unincorporated amendments that have yet to be included in a compilation.
Tip:
If this is an Act you refer to regularly, bookmark, or save to Favorites, the Compilation page.
This ensures you will always access the latest version, and not use a superseded version in error.
Step 6: Click on the first compilation in this list - this is the one with the word "latest" underneath it.
This is the current (or at least, the latest - make note of any unincorporated amendments) version of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth).
This will take you to the page for the most recent compilation of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth).
From this page you can view the text of the Act.
It is not recommended that you download a copy, as it may be superseded after you have downloaded a copy. Instead, bookmark the Compilations page..
Finding a Commonwealth Act when you know the topic
If you need to find a Commonwealth Act on a particular topic, you can use the Advanced Search option on FROL.
In this example, we are going to look for an Act that is on the following topic: amend legislation in relation to courts and litigation, particularly in migration matters.
Step 1: On the FROL homepage, click the Advanced Search link located beside the Search button.
Step 2: In the pop-out Search pane:
In the Search for box, type the topic: amend legislation courts litigation migration
From the Search in drop down menu, select Name and text
From the Search using drop down menu, select Contains all the words
Click the Search button
Step 3: Look at the search results. These results will include Acts and Legislative Instruments (Determinations, Rules and Regulations) that fit the search parameters you have set.
Here, as we are looking for an Act on this topic, select the result that is an Act. In this case, select the Migration Litigation Reform Act 2005 (Cth).
You can limit your search to certain categories of document by ticking or clearing the boxes to limit pre-set categories:
The Advanced Search options are extensive, so look at all the options available and limit your search as required
- From the Filters options, expand Collections
- From the drop down menu, check the box beside Act
- Click on the Search button
- Note: Specifying that you only wish to retrieve Acts should exclude regulations and other statutory instruments.
A note on Boolean Operators
The Boolean operators, 'AND', 'OR' and 'NOT' play a major role in constructing search strategies. Each of these Boolean operators has a profound effect on the number of results you will obtain for any given search.
'AND' will limit the number of results you get by obliging all search terms to appear;
'OR' will broaden the search by obliging only one of the search terms to appear;
'NOT' will limit the search by only retrieving results that do not contain a specified term.
To search for a phrase, put "inverted commas" around the words that make up the phrase.
If you look at the FROL advanced search screen, you can see that some of this logic has been incorporated into the search fields.
"Contains all of the words" field has the same effect as the 'AND' connector, as all the words must be present in the document for it to be found.
"Contains phrase" field has the same effect as putting inverted commas around the words of a phrase.
"At least one of the words" is the same as the 'OR' connector.
The "Contains phrase" limiter would only be used if you knew exactly the phrase for which you were looking, as it will find far fewer items, but will be more precise. If you weren't sure if it was precisely correct, you would use "Contains all the words". If this found nothing, you could try "with at least one of the words". Each of these fields is getting progressively wider, but less precise.
Now you know how to use FROL to find Commonwealth Acts by title and subject.
After you have read through the information on this page, attempt the self-test question to gauge your understanding of the topic.
