Acts are drafted to cover the past, present, and anticipated future.
However, people, technology, and circumstances change.
So the law must change to keep pace with these developments in the community.
Acts are, therefore, updated with amendments, out-dated sections are removed or repealed, and new sections are added.
Researching why an Act was changed, what it was changed to and from, the purpose of the change, and an explanation of the change all aids in the understanding of an Act.
This section will show you how to check
- that a Commonwealth Act is in force (its operational status)
- for amendments
- if the amendments are in force
- if amendments have been consolidated into an authoritative consolidation on FROL
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 31 May 2007. 'F2007L01114' is the unique identifier (RegisterId) 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 a later topic: Legislative Instruments.
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 operational 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 RegisterId.
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 Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) on FROL.
Step 2: Check that the compilation you are looking at is the current version and it is 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 July 2016) was the Statute Law Revision Act (No. 1) 2016 (Cth), Act number 4 of 2016.
If there is a more recent amendment than this, it demonstrates the dynamic nature of the law. It is constantly changing.
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 (July 2016), the most recent amendment to the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) is the Statute Law Revision Act (No. 1) 2016 (Cth), 4 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 home page 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 home page.
Reprint 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. An Act compilation that is taken from FROL and meets certain criteria (see the box below) is considered authoritative.
Finding Act compilations:
- Use FROL to find and access the Act in which you are interested. In this example, go to the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth).
- When you get to the Act on FROL, click on View Series, which will give you the list of compilations for this Act.
- All current acts in force are authoritative compilations
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Look at the current PDF 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 (as required by the Acts Publication Act 1905 (Cth) s 7(1)(c)). If there is no Authoritative version of the Act in which you are interested and you need it for court purposes, you need to get the latest reprint version with any subsequent amendments and compile it from those. It is possible to purchase documents from various resellers (the primary ones in WA being the Uni Co-op) or by mail order directly from the Commonwealth Government Printer. More information regarding obtaining print copies of legislation can be found on the FROL website. |
There are two versions of this logo:
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Amendments since the most recent reprint
A Commonwealth Act appears on FROL as a compilation (that is, incorporating all the amendments made). Amendments made since the last compilation may be identified by their listing under the Unincorporated amendments heading in the current compilation homepage of the Act and also on the series page, as can be seen from the example below:
Amendments listed here have not, except in very exceptional circumstances, yet commenced. It is good practice, however, to check the endnotes section of the Act, as described above, to see if the provisions have commenced.
Step by Step:
- Follow the steps outlined above to get to the Acts Compilation page for the Act in which you are interested.
- Look at 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 RegisterId
Finding an Act compilation for a particular point in time
Imagine you had a set of circumstances which arose on 25 December 2011 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 2011.
Find the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) on FROL.
Note: This page gives details of the name of the Act, the RegisterId (which is a unique identifier) of this compilation (at the time of writing this is C2016C00539) and whether or not this is an authoritative compilation by confirming the presence or otherwise of the tick logo.
To view the list of versions of this Act, select View Series.
This page gives you the list of compilations, including the RegisterId (previously known as a ComlawId) for each compilation and its start and finish dates.
You would look down this list of compilations and choose the compilation highlighted, as 25 of December 2011 (the date our set of circumstances arose) falls within this compilation's date range.
The RegisterId for this compilation is C2011C00731.
Also of note is that there is no tick logo associated with this compilation, so this is not an authoritative compilation.
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 (4th Edition) (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 Legal Citation Lesson.
Keeping up to date:
FROL provides an alerting service called My Account 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.
For example, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection has a link to notices of legislative changes for Immigration specialists.
The Parliament of Australia also provides a service called My Parliament that allows you to track the process of Bills.
Some publishers also provide legal alerts for their customers.
The history of a section of an Act - Amendments
Acts and their sections are updated with amendments, out-dated sections are removed or repealed, and new sections are added to keep pace with developments in the community.
Researching the history of an Act - when it was changed, why it was changed, the purpose of the change, what it was changed from and to - aids in the understanding of an Act.
Researching changes to an Act is important for work, as you need to know exactly how the Act read at the time of your client's issue (point-in-time research).
Every change to an Act is recorded for every section, subsection and clause in the Endnotes, which are located at the very 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 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 section 21 of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth).
