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Frequently asked questions
Drafters of Bills have many different ways of commencing a Bill:
The Bill might commence on the assent of the Bill, when it is signed by the Governor or Governor General.
It might commence 28 days/3 months/six months etc after assent.
It might commence on a date to be fixed by proclamation (the proclamation would appear in a Government Gazette), which is an open-ended option that allows as much time as is needed to do things like draft the relevant regulations and rules to implement the Act.
It might be triggered by a specific event, for example, once 50 nations have signed the Kyoto Protocol.
The Bill might have retrospective effect - if there is a loophole in legislation highlighted by a court decision, the Bill might close the loophole as of the date of the court decision.
Just to put a bigger twist on things, don't forget that different sections of a Bill can come into effect at different times. Western Australia has had a few Bills where only sections 1 and 2 (the title and the commencement information) were proclaimed when the Bill was assented to, and the remaining 300+ sections came into effect in great clumps and at different times, sometimes 6, 12 or 18 months apart.
Answer contributed by Kelly Underwood and Colin Fong, December 8th 2011
Drafters of Bills have many different ways of commencing a Bill:
The Bill might commence on the assent of the Bill, when it is signed by the Governor or Governor General.
It might commence 28 days/3 months/six months etc after assent.
It might commence on a date to be fixed by proclamation (the proclamation would appear in a Government Gazette), which is an open-ended option that allows as much time as is needed to do things like draft the relevant regulations and rules to implement the Act.
It might be triggered by a specific event, for example, once 50 nations have signed the Kyoto Protocol.
The Bill might have retrospective effect - if there is a loophole in legislation highlighted by a court decision, the Bill might close the loophole as of the date of the court decision.
Just to put a bigger twist on things, don't forget that different sections of a Bill can come into effect at different times. Western Australia has had a few Bills where only sections 1 and 2 (the title and the commencement information) were proclaimed when the Bill was assented to, and the remaining 300+ sections came into effect in great clumps and at different times, sometimes 6, 12 or 18 months apart.
Answer contributed by Kelly Underwood and Colin Fong, December 8th 2011
NSWDC's are not automatically published to the NSW Caselaw website
the judge has the choice if they will publish the decision the NSW SC and DC registries do not search for old cases unless you are a party very few DC judgments are available in "DCLR(NSW)" (LawBook's NSW District Court Law Reports).
Some DC judgments are available on Caselaw , and some on Austlii. Any judgment not available in these three places can NOT be obtained in any other way but by filing a request under Practice Note 11.
The friendly library staff at the NSW Attorney General's Library are highly recommended as a contact if you are having trouble finding a decision.
NSWDC's are not automatically published to the NSW Caselaw website
the judge has the choice if they will publish the decision the NSW SC and DC registries do not search for old cases unless you are a party very few DC judgments are available in "DCLR(NSW)" (LawBook's NSW District Court Law Reports).
Some DC judgments are available on Caselaw , and some on Austlii. Any judgment not available in these three places can NOT be obtained in any other way but by filing a request under Practice Note 11.
The friendly library staff at the NSW Attorney General's Library are highly recommended as a contact if you are having trouble finding a decision.
Look under the Principal Act in the Current Annotations then find the amending legislation. If the Act is very new use the same process with the Update to current annotations.
Alternately - check the Endnotes to the Reprint by clicking the final + sign in the left-hand navigation of the reprinted act, then look at the List of Legislation for the details of any particular act.
Answer contributed by Barbara Flowers, July 22nd 2011
Look under the Principal Act in the Current Annotations then find the amending legislation. If the Act is very new use the same process with the Update to current annotations.
Alternately - check the Endnotes to the Reprint by clicking the final + sign in the left-hand navigation of the reprinted act, then look at the List of Legislation for the details of any particular act.
Answer contributed by Barbara Flowers, July 22nd 2011
AustLII now hosts historical Queensland Acts from 1867 to 1951
UQ eSpace hosts digitized versions of 19th century Queensland Government Gazettes. These early gazettes often contain the sessional Acts of that time.
QUT Law Library's site Ozcase on the QUT Library website. hosts, in searchable pdf, the consolidated Public Acts of Queensland 1828-1936, as well as many of the 'pamphlet reprints' that updated legislation after the 1962 consolidation, and before the 'blue reprints' began (1992) (not fully comprehensive yet). This website also includes much 19th century land legislation and the Criminal Code 1899 with its preparatory and extrinsic materials. The site has a search engine.
The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel hosts Queensland sessional acts 1970+.
Answer contributed by Barbara Flowers, July 22nd 2011, updated 18th June 2013
AustLII now hosts historical Queensland Acts from 1867 to 1951
UQ eSpace hosts digitized versions of 19th century Queensland Government Gazettes. These early gazettes often contain the sessional Acts of that time.
QUT Law Library's site Ozcase on the QUT Library website. hosts, in searchable pdf, the consolidated Public Acts of Queensland 1828-1936, as well as many of the 'pamphlet reprints' that updated legislation after the 1962 consolidation, and before the 'blue reprints' began (1992) (not fully comprehensive yet). This website also includes much 19th century land legislation and the Criminal Code 1899 with its preparatory and extrinsic materials. The site has a search engine.
The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel hosts Queensland sessional acts 1970+.
Answer contributed by Barbara Flowers, July 22nd 2011, updated 18th June 2013
The SA Attorney-General's South Australian Legislation website hosts electronic versions of historical consolidations from January 2003. Older consolidations may be available for selected titles. Access is via the current consolidation. Earlier consolidations are listed underneath. For repealed titles, click on the link "Show ceased Acts ... link at the top of the listing.
Answer contributed by Michelle Smith, 21 August 2012
The SA Attorney-General's South Australian Legislation website hosts electronic versions of historical consolidations from January 2003. Older consolidations may be available for selected titles. Access is via the current consolidation. Earlier consolidations are listed underneath. For repealed titles, click on the link "Show ceased Acts ... link at the top of the listing.
Answer contributed by Michelle Smith, 21 August 2012
The SA Attorney-General's South Australian Legislation website hosts electronic versions of sessional Acts from January 2003.
AustLII hosts a database of sessional Acts from 1837 to date.
Flinders University hosts a database of scanned copies of Acts of the Parliament of South Australia 1837 - 2002.
For the sessional Acts 1837-2002, note that neither the AustLII nor the Flinders University databases are comprehensive. Some Acts appear to have been missed in the scanning process and appear on neither database, but there are also a few which appear on the Flinders University web site database but not AustLII and vice versa.
Answer contributed by Michelle Smith, May 2014
The SA Attorney-General's South Australian Legislation website hosts electronic versions of sessional Acts from January 2003.
AustLII hosts a database of sessional Acts from 1837 to date.
Flinders University hosts a database of scanned copies of Acts of the Parliament of South Australia 1837 - 2002.
For the sessional Acts 1837-2002, note that neither the AustLII nor the Flinders University databases are comprehensive. Some Acts appear to have been missed in the scanning process and appear on neither database, but there are also a few which appear on the Flinders University web site database but not AustLII and vice versa.
Answer contributed by Michelle Smith, May 2014
For 1851-1995, use the AustLII Victorian Historical Acts database. The pdfs are copies of the original printed Acts and are thus exact replicas which (as far as I’m aware) can therefore be used as “official” versions, just like the print versions themselves.
1996+ are on the Victorian Parliamentary Documents website - select Victorian Statute Book. All are pdfs of the “official” print versions.
For 1851-1995, use the AustLII Victorian Historical Acts database. The pdfs are copies of the original printed Acts and are thus exact replicas which (as far as I’m aware) can therefore be used as “official” versions, just like the print versions themselves.
1996+ are on the Victorian Parliamentary Documents website - select Victorian Statute Book. All are pdfs of the “official” print versions.
The WA Parliamentary Counsel's Office made the old reprints of all Acts freely available online in PDF.
There are a small number of reprints missing; for example, the (now repealed) Health Act 1911 (WA) has 14 of the 15 reprints available online in PDF for access, dating back to 1919 for the reprint and as well as the Act as originally passed in 1911. The only reprint that is missing is from 1944, and its non-existence is probably related to WWII paper shortages and therefore a much smaller print run.
Ceased and repealed Act reprints are shown in red in the lists of legislation, whereas current legislation is shown in blue.
Answer updated by Kelly Underwood on 8th July 2019
The WA Parliamentary Counsel's Office made the old reprints of all Acts freely available online in PDF.
There are a small number of reprints missing; for example, the (now repealed) Health Act 1911 (WA) has 14 of the 15 reprints available online in PDF for access, dating back to 1919 for the reprint and as well as the Act as originally passed in 1911. The only reprint that is missing is from 1944, and its non-existence is probably related to WWII paper shortages and therefore a much smaller print run.
Ceased and repealed Act reprints are shown in red in the lists of legislation, whereas current legislation is shown in blue.
Answer updated by Kelly Underwood on 8th July 2019
Technically WA didn't start producing EMs until about 2000, but that's actually when they began being a requirement when a Bill was tabled in Parliament. Before then, they were only produced on the very off-chance. The WA Parliamentary Library has a list with links to copies of all the EMs, Explanatory Notes, Committee Notes etc about legislation that they could find any reference to in WA Hansard.
If you want to access an EM, go to the WA Parliamentary website, and look at either the Current Bills List, or the All Bills List. The All Bills list starts in 1997.
Answer updated by Kelly Underwood on 8th July 2019
Technically WA didn't start producing EMs until about 2000, but that's actually when they began being a requirement when a Bill was tabled in Parliament. Before then, they were only produced on the very off-chance. The WA Parliamentary Library has a list with links to copies of all the EMs, Explanatory Notes, Committee Notes etc about legislation that they could find any reference to in WA Hansard.
If you want to access an EM, go to the WA Parliamentary website, and look at either the Current Bills List, or the All Bills List. The All Bills list starts in 1997.
Answer updated by Kelly Underwood on 8th July 2019
Try Hansard from MillbankSystems - it contains debates commencing in 1800. The site is still undergoing development and experimentation, and further features may be added in due course. Work to improve the quality of the data is also ongoing. It doesn't look like it goes any further than 2005 though, so for current debates your best bet may be the official UK Parliament Hansard site or They Work For You.
They Work For You is a brilliant site that is run by a charity called MySociety. Essentially the idea is to make UK Hansard more open and accessible to the general public. At time of writing (22 July 2011) it appears to be bang up to date. Users can tag sections of Hansard, link to relevant Wikipedia articles etc. All MPs are flagged so that every single time that MP particpates in a debate, it is linked to the MPs main page on the site. All their votes in Parliament are assessed, for their relative strength of views (for and against).
They've got actual Commons debate going back to 1935, but the coverage of other stuff doesn't go as far back. It's best to check the coverage dates on the site to make sure that what you'd be looking for is likely to be there.
Answer extended by Kelly Underwood, July 22nd 2011
Try Hansard from MillbankSystems - it contains debates commencing in 1800. The site is still undergoing development and experimentation, and further features may be added in due course. Work to improve the quality of the data is also ongoing. It doesn't look like it goes any further than 2005 though, so for current debates your best bet may be the official UK Parliament Hansard site or They Work For You.
They Work For You is a brilliant site that is run by a charity called MySociety. Essentially the idea is to make UK Hansard more open and accessible to the general public. At time of writing (22 July 2011) it appears to be bang up to date. Users can tag sections of Hansard, link to relevant Wikipedia articles etc. All MPs are flagged so that every single time that MP particpates in a debate, it is linked to the MPs main page on the site. All their votes in Parliament are assessed, for their relative strength of views (for and against).
They've got actual Commons debate going back to 1935, but the coverage of other stuff doesn't go as far back. It's best to check the coverage dates on the site to make sure that what you'd be looking for is likely to be there.
Answer extended by Kelly Underwood, July 22nd 2011
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