Self Paced Lesson - Legislation - Subject Guide: 3: History of an Act - Cth

The Operational Status of a Commonwealth Act

The information regarding the operational status of a Commonwealth Act can be found in the Endnotes section at the end of the Act.
You can access an Act via FROL, as detailed previously.

Endnote 3 is the relevant endnote for most Commonwealth Acts to determine the operational status of a Commonwealth Act as it contains the commencement details of the Act itself.

Take a look at the example below, which gives the commencement details of the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth):

What does this mean?

There is little difference here between the commencement details for a Western Australian Act and a Commonwealth Act.
However, the commencement details for the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) are a little complicated. 

Not all of the Act came into force (or commenced) at the same time.
The commencement details tell you that sections 10 to 12, 23 to 40, 42 to 45 and Schedules 1 to 3 commenced on the 31 May 2007.  'F2007L01114' is the unique identifier for the Legislative Instrument which proclaimed these commencements.
The rest of the Act commenced on Royal Assent, which was 30 June 2006.
This Act provides a good example of potential complexity of establishing whether or not all of an Act is in force on a given date.

Legislative instruments are found via FROL in the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments (FRLI).
Searching for legislative instruments, including subordinate legislation, will be discussed in Topic 12: Regulations - Cth.

Commonwealth legislative amendments are located in the Endnotes.

Endnotes are ALWAYS located at the end of an Act - often in the Schedules.

Endnotes list:

• Legislation history
• Amendment history

To access the Endnotes:

• expand the Table of Contents, located on the left of screen
• navigate the the end of the TOC
• expand the Endnotes

Amendment history lists every amendment made to every section, clause, or wording in an Act.

Amendments to a Commonwealth Act

Details of amending Acts to Commonwealth Acts can be found, as with the commencement details, in the Endnotes section of the Act.
We will again look at the Endnotes to the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth).

Endnote 1 states that the "legislation history in Endnote 3 provides information about each law that has amended the compiled law.
The information includes commencement information for amending laws and details of application, saving or transitional provisions that are not included in this compilation."

Endnote 3 of the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) shows that the first Act to amend the Act is the Statute Law Revision Act 2010 (Cth).

Take a look at this example:

• The first Act mentioned in this table is the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) itself.
• The next line details the first amending Act, the Statute Law Revision Act 2010 (Cth), which is No. 8 of 2010, and which received Royal Assent on 1 March 2010.
• The provision in the Statute Law Revision Act 2010 (Cth) which amends the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) is Schedule 5 (item 137(a)) and it commenced on 1 March 2010, as specified in section 2(1) of the Statute Law Revision Act 2010 (Cth).
• The other Acts listed in this table have also amended the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth).
• To find the most recent amendment to this Act, scroll down to the bottom of this list to find the last amending Act listed. 
  • At the time of writing (September 2016), the most recent amendment to the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) is the Territories Legislation Amendment Act 2016 (Cth), 33 of 2016.  Check this table yourself.
    If you find a more recent amendment than the one listed here, it demonstrates the dynamic nature of the law.

You can also find a list of amending Acts (but without commencement details) by going to the series homepage of the Act and selecting the Principle+Amendments tab.
Simply click View Series at the top of the page and you will be taken to the series homepage.

The history of a section of an Act - Amendments

You need to be able to track the changes which have been made to a section of an Act.
This is because clients may have been reading a different, superseded version of a section, and you need to be confident about why you are using a different version of the section.
You also may find a relevant case to support your client's case and you need to be able to confirm the case is about the same version of the current legislation.

As we discussed in the previous topic, the history of a section is documented in the Endnotes at the end of a Commonwealth Act.

Endnote 4 provides information about amendments made at the provision level.
It will include a list of any amendments to a section as well as information about any provisions that have been repealed, expired or ceased to have effect.

If a section has not been amended, it will not be listed in the table of amendments.

Take a look at this example:

You are interested in the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth) s 21.
You need to look at the history of amendments to this section, which you find listed in Endnote 4 at the end of the Act.

Locate the Act and take a look at Endnote 4 - Amendment history.

Here you can see that section 21 has been amended four times.

To get a full picture of the history of this section, you need to go to the original Act 20 of 2007 (the sessional details of the Act).
The original Act 20 of 2007 is the Act as passed.

Then look at each of the following Acts: 142 of 2007, 85 of 2008, 90 of 2009, and 119 of 2012 to see what changes they made to s 21 of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth).

Note:

An Act will always keep the year it first came in to force in its title.

The Act does not change the year each time it is updated.

Therefore, the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth) will always have this title,
regardless of how many amendments or updates it has, or when these changes were made.

Amendment

To see what the amendment was (to see what was changed), you will need to find the amending legislation.

In this example we will look at the amendment made to s 21 by 119 of 2012.

From Federal Register of Legislation:

Using the Advanced Search feature to find an Act's Amending Legislation from its Series Details

Step 1: Select Advanced search

Step 2: Select Type >

Step 3: Check the box beside Amending

Step 4: Select Year/Number (All) >

Step 5: Add the Year/Number in the search box
             Format:  YYYY/NNN
             Example:  2012/119

Step 6: Click on the Act title

Step 7: Find (Ctrl + F) 21

Navigate through the Act to the relevant section 

Compilation Details for Commonwealth Acts

A new compilation of a Commonwealth Act appears on FROL whenever it is amended.
Reprints of Acts do exist, but do not feature in the notes section of the Act as is the case with a Western Australian Act.

As the law changes, compilations of the law as amended are published on the FROL.  These are listed on each act's series page with details of start and end dates. These dates should be used as a guide to decide which compilation covers the desired point in time or period of interest.

The notes at the end of the compilation will list the commencement dates for amendments, providing additional information to work out what the law was on a particular date.

Finding Act compilations: 

• Use FROL to access the Act in which you are interested.
  In this example, go to the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth).
• Select the All Versions link from the activity menu located below the deep blue band and above the Act name
  This will give you the list of numbered compilations for this Act.

   

Select the compilation/version relevant to the time period you are researching.

Authorised Versions

An authorised version is always in a pdf file format and can be identified by the words Authorised version, ComLaw Authoritative Act, Federal Register of Legislative Instruments or Explanatory Statement to [unique identifier of the instrument it relates to] on the electronic or printed copy.

An authorised version is taken to be a reliable source of information by a court or tribunal unless proven to the contrary. 

Finding an Act compilation for a particular point in time

Imagine you had a set of circumstances which arose on 25 December 2015 and you needed to know what this Act said on this date.
Your task therefore is to find the correct compilation of the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) which was current on 25 December 2015.

Find the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) on FROL. 

Note: This page gives details of the name of the Act and the unique identifier of this compilation (at the time of writing this is C2021C00356 ).

This page gives you the list of compilations and their start and finish dates.

You would look down this list of compilations and choose the compilation that was in effect at this date - at 25 December 2015 (the date our set of circumstances arose).

The relevant date range is found in Compilation C12, which has the unique identifier C2015C00258.

Tip:

The versions page to Bookmark / add to Favorites if saving an Act.

Amendments since the most recent compilation

A Commonwealth Act appears on FROL as a compilation (that is, incorporating all the amendments made).
Amendments made since the last compilation may be listed in the All versions page.

Below the All versions heading, uncheck the box beside Hide possible future amendments to see any unincorporated amendments.

The operational status of Amendments made since the most recent reprint

When an amendment is made to a Commonwealth Act, generally a new compilation is created and placed on FROL.  See the comments above regarding unincorporated amendments. 

To determine the operation status of amendments made since the most recent compilation:

Step 1: Go to the Act in which you are interested.

Step 2: Locate the current version of the Act and check to see that it has the tick logo which marks it as an authoritative compilation, stamped with the unique identifier.

Step 3: Look at the Endnotes section to see the list of amending Acts. Endnote 3 contains the details of each law that has amended the Act, Endnote 4 includes information about amendments at the provision (section) level, and Endnote 5 contains a list of uncommenced amendments.

For example:

Step 1: Locate the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) on FROL.

Step 2: Check that the compilation you are looking at is the current version and it authoritative (has the tick logo).

Step 3: Scroll down to Endnote 3 which contains the list of amending Acts, and you will see that last amendment (as at December 2020) was the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment (Jabiru) Act 2020 (Cth), Act number 87 of 2020.

If there is a more recent amendment than this, it demonstrates the dynamic nature of the law. It is constantly changing.

Citing Acts:

It is vital that an Act is cited correctly, with every Act/section properly specified.
The requirements for citing legislation are contained in the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC).

Check the AGLC to read about variations in acceptable citation format, and how to add a note to indicate which jurisdiction passed the Act. 

Information about citing Acts and other types of legal materials are available in the AGLC Referencing Guide.

Example:  Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth)

Keeping up to date:

FROL provides an alerting service in the My Account feature to which you can subscribe to keep up to date with legislative changes.

Some government departments also provide information about updates to legislation in particular areas.
The Parliament of Australia also provides a service called My Parliament that allows you to track the progress of Bills.

Some publishers also provide legal alerts for their customers.