A New Framework For Commonwealth Legislation: Acts and Instruments (Framework Reform) Bill 2014
Monday 27 October 2014 @ 11.24 a.m. | Legal Research
The Federal Government has introduced the Acts and Instruments (Framework Reform) Bill 2014 into the House of Representatives. The Bill will make a number of important changes to the way that Commonwealth legislation will be recorded. The Bill repeals the current Acts Publication Act 1905 (Cth) and will incorporate requirements for publishing Acts into the renamed Legislative Instruments Act 2003(Cth), which will become the Legislation Act 2003. This new framework will consolidate what are currently two separate schemes into the one Act and a single register that will be called the Federal Register of Legislation.
Notifiable Instruments
The Bill will establish a new category of instruments called “notifiable instruments”. These will be instruments that are non-legislative in character (and thus not subject to sunsetting or disallowance), but that are still of public interest. In his second reading speech, Mr Michael Keenan, the Minister for Justice, noted that currently:
“instruments are published in many different places, including in various government gazettes, on agency websites or portals and in newspapers. This makes it difficult for users to find these instruments or even be aware that they exist.”
The Explanatory Memorandum lists instruments that may fall into this category as follows:
- instruments declared to be notifiable instruments by their enabling laws
- instruments prescribed by the Regulations
- instruments that are neither legislative instruments or notifiable instruments under their enabling legislation or the Regulations, but are made under a power delegated by the Parliament or another power given by law, and are registered as notifiable instruments
- commencement instruments for legislative and notifiable instruments, and
- instruments that include a provision that amends or repeals another notifiable instrument
The New Register
Schedule 1 Part 2 of the Bill 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 Bill 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 Bill will also introduce new sections on “authorised version”, which are based on the approach adopted in the Australian Capital Territory. The Explanatory Memorandum says that:
“Generally, an electronic copy of a registered law or explanatory statement will be an authorised version if it is downloaded from the approved website or if the copy indicates that it is authorised in a prescribed way. A printed copy will be an authorised version if it is produced directly from another authorised version.”
Other Changes
The bill will also introduce a number of other changes, including introducing new generally applicable drafting standards, and allowing the First Parliamentary Counsel to make rules in relation to maintaining the Register. According to Mr Keenan’s speech, it also will “move certain content form the act to regulations to help consolidate detail that may be more suitably placed in delegated legislation and which may need to be updated regularly” – for instance, the list of legislative instrument classes which are not subject to disallowance, which is currently in section 44 of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.
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Sources:
Acts and Instruments (Framework Reform) Bill 2014 (Cth), Explanatory Memorandum and Second Reading Speech - available from TimeBase's LawOne Service
