Legislation Rule 2016: Changes to Regulation Publishing and Documentation for CTH

As mentioned in our previous TimeBase article, a statutory review of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 (Cth) was conducted in 2008 by a committee comprising Mr Anthony Blunn AO, Mr Ian Govey and Professor John McMillan AO. It produced the report titled 2008 Review of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003. The committee found that the Act had been successful in providing a repository of legislative instruments, improving public access to legislative instruments and facilitating parliamentary scrutiny of legislative instruments. As a result of the recommendations of that review, the draft Legislation Rule 2016 was introduced in December 2015.

Background to the Rule

The Legislative Instruments Act 2003 (Cth) will be renamed the Legislation Act 2003 (the Act) and will undergo other changes when the Acts and Instruments (Framework Reform) Act 2015 commences on or before 5 March 2016.

Among other things, the changes will require the First Parliamentary Counsel to make a rule prescribing the approved website on which registered laws and other documents are to be available to the public under section 15C of the Act as amended.

The draft Legislation Rule 2016 covers the following provisions:

• Requirements of lodgment and withdrawal, and compilation preparation and lodgment - Part 2;
• Registration and accuracy of the register - Part 3; and
• Authorised Versions - Part 4.

Many of these aspects were previously dealt with by the Legislative Instruments Regulation 2004 (Cth) but this will be repealed when the Act comes into operation.

Effect of the Act

Schedule 1 Part 2 of the Act contains the technical requirements for the establishment and maintenance of the new register.  The Register will be taken to be a complete and accurate record, and minister will be required to notify the First Parliamentary Counsel if they become aware of any errors.

The Act will also insert new provisions that deal with compilations for Acts, legislative and notifiable instruments.  “Required compilation events”, such as express amendments or repeals, will trigger an automatic requirement for a compilation to be lodged.  If a “discretionary compilation event”, such as the commencement of provisions occurs, the First Parliamentary Counsel will have discretion to decide whether a compilation will be required.

The First Parliamentary Counsel will also be able to make “minor editorial changes” to Acts, legislative or notifiable instruments that do not alter the effect of the legislation.

The Legislation Rule 2016 will commence on either the commencement of the Act or its registration date, whichever is the later.

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Draft Legislation Rule 2016, as reproduced on TimeBase LawOne