Legal Research Skills

Commencement and Amendments

To find the assent and commencement dates and amendment details for Commonwealth legislation using the Federal Register of Legislation:

1. Go to the 'in force' (i.e. current) version of the Act
2. Navigate to the Endnotes in the Table of Contents (at the end of the Act) to see the Legislation history (commencement) and Amendment history (changes to sections)

• Note: The amending legislation is not hyperlinked. You will then need to find the amending Act by searching the Register for Acts As made. 

Reprints

To find a reprint (consolidation) of a Commonwealth Act, with all amendments up to that date through the Federal Register of Legislation:

1. Go to the in force Act you would like to find a reprint for
2. Click All versions
3. View the start and end dates to find the reprint most relevant to your time period

Assent and Commencement

To find the assent and commencement dates for current legislation through the Queensland and New South Wales Legislation websites:

1. Go to the relevant Act
2. Click Legislative History
3. Click the arrow next to List of Legislation or Original Legislation

Amendments

Find out whether a section of current legislation has been amended through the Queensland and New South Wales Legislation websites using History notes.

1. Go to the section of the Act you would like to see amendments for
2. Make sure History notes are turned on
3. Any amendments and a link to the amending legislation will appear at the bottom of the page
4. If the history notes do not appear inline with the section, go to Legislative History and expand History notes to view the section amendment history for the entire Act.

Reprints

To find reprints (consolidations) of an Act, with all the amendments up to that date through the Queensland and New South Wales Legislation websites:

1. Go to the Act you would like to find reprints for
2. Click Legislative history
3. Click the arrow next to Table of Reprints or Versions to view all the reprints

Use LawOne to find assent and commencement dates, amendments, and reprints.

To find information on an Act:

1. Search for the title of the Act in the main search bar
2. Click the Act title to view the full-text legislation
3. Click Key Info in the top-right hand corner to find links to assent and commencement information, table of amendments, historical reprints and more.

Use LawNow to find assent and commencement information, amendments, legislative history, as well as commentary and cases citing legislation.

1. Browse to the Act by selecting a jurisdiction > Current Acts
2. View assent, commencement, and amendments by clicking Legislative History
3. View reprints by clicking Historical versions
4. View any cases and commentary citing the Act by clicking View Legislation Citator.

• Tip: To search for cases citing a specific provision, follow the steps on the Cases considering legislation page.

Amendment: Change or alteration to existing legislation or Acts.

As made: Acts or Regulations as originally passed by Parliament without amendments. Also referred to as Sessional Acts/Regulations or Acts/Regulations as passed.

Commencement: The commencement of a law is the date at which a law comes into force. Different parts of a law may come into force at different times and may be on a day or days to be appointed by proclamation. A clause, stating whether the law comes into force by assent or proclamation, usually appears at the beginning of the legislation.

Consolidated Acts or Regulations: Consolidated Acts or Regulations incorporate amendments made by other legislation since the original legislation was made. A consolidated Act or Regulation refers to the combination of a number of Acts or Regulations of Parliament into one codifying statute. This term is commonly used for online versions of legislation. See also Reprinted Acts or Regulations.

In force: Current Acts or Regulations. Currently in force.

Proclamation: An official public announcement, usually published in the government gazette. If an Act or Regulation is to commence by proclamation, the responsible government minister will publish an announcement in the government gazette ‘proclaiming’ the date that the legislation will commence.

Reprinted Acts or Regulations: A reprinted Act or Regulation incorporates all changes made to the Principal Act or Regulation, at the date shown on the reprint. This term is commonly used for hardcopy versions of legislation. See also Consolidated Acts or Regulations.

Royal Assent: The signing of a Bill by the Governor-General, which is the last step in making a Bill into an Act of Parliament, or law.

Adapted from NSW Glossary & Federal Glossary, State Library of NSW, used under CC BY 4.0

Complete this tutorial for an introduction to finding legislative amendments in different databases. Click at the bottom-right corner to expand to full size.