Bills and legislative instruments
Bills
A Bill is a draft Act that is under consideration by state or federal parliament.
Note: upcoming amendments or Bills can affect an Act or area of the law you are researching.
Finding Bills
Bills, Amendments and associated Explanatory Memoranda are located on government websites and databases:
- Commonwealth
- New South Wales
- Australian Capital Territory
- Victoria (Select Parliamentary Documents > Bills)
- Queensland
- South Australia
- Tasmania
- Western Australia
- Northern Territory
Keeping up-to-date with legislative changes
Legislative updates are available through customisable alert services:
- Westlaw AUAustralian Cases, Legislation, News & Current Awareness, Law Reviews and Journals, Practical Law and Forms & Precedents.
- Lawlex PremiumLawlex allows you to create "Legislative Alerts" delivered via email. "My Legislative Alerts" box > create a profile by selecting "Subjects of interest", "Legislation" or "Bills".
- ParlInfoParlInfo provides a tracking service which provides email updates to specific Bills. Select "Track" within a Bill and follow the prompts.
Legislative instruments
"Subordinate legislation" or "delegated legislation" (also known as "statutory instruments") covers a number of specific types of legislation which are enacted by delegated bodies rather than parliamentary process, including:
- regulations
- rules
- orders
- by-laws.
Statutory instruments are available on government legislation websites:
- Commonwealth
- New South Wales
- Australian Capital Territory
- Victoria (Legislative Information > Statutory Rules [SRs] currently in force)
- Queensland
- Tasmania
- South Australia
- Western Australia
- Northern Territory
Local by-laws are located on council websites.
Court procedures are located on government or court websites or published in commentary services.
