Legislation is laws made by Parliament and comprises:
The Federal Register of Legislation
(Previously known as ComLaw)
The Federal Register of Legislation (the Legislation Register) is the authorised whole-of-government website for Commonwealth legislation and related documents. It is managed by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel. It contains the full text and details of the lifecycle of individual laws and the relationships between them.
LawNow is a database of Australian legislation and legislative histories. From the legislation you can link to the official government websites and find relevant cases in Lexis+ CaseBase.
Judgments And Decisions Enhanced. A free resource which keeps you up to date with the latest decisions of Australian and International Courts and Tribunals. Jade provides a sophisticated citator and allows you to see how specific paragraphs of a case have been subsequently considered. Australian legislation is also included.
Jade offers a paid subscription service to Jade Professional which provides you with advanced legal research tools such as visualisations of case law and legislation, email alerts, document checking to confirm and analyse your citations, and the ability to share and collaborate online. Curtin law students are eligible for a free subscription to Jade Professional. Using your Curtin email account simply email help@jade.io to request this. If you have any problems please email the Faculty Librarian, Law on LibraryResearchSupport@curtin.edu.au.
Open access database of Australian Commonwealth and State legal information. Content includes full text legislation, case law, journal articles and other legal materials.
Although not a database which Curtin Library subscribes to, there is a free component. Click on ‘Search Legislation’ to search by keywords and by jurisdiction. Links to Bills, Explanatory Memorandum, Hansard 2nd reading speeches and historical versions are provided where available.
Search on terms within legislation titles to find Australian legislation from authoritative Commonwealth, state and territory sources.
Parliamentary Counsel’s Office
The Parliamentary Counsel’s Office is the official publisher of Western Australian legislation and statutory information.
LawNow is a database of Australian legislation and legislative histories. From the legislation you can link to the official government websites and find relevant cases in Lexis+ CaseBase.
Judgments And Decisions Enhanced. A free resource which keeps you up to date with the latest decisions of Australian and International Courts and Tribunals. Jade provides a sophisticated citator and allows you to see how specific paragraphs of a case have been subsequently considered. Australian legislation is also included.
Jade offers a paid subscription service to Jade Professional which provides you with advanced legal research tools such as visualisations of case law and legislation, email alerts, document checking to confirm and analyse your citations, and the ability to share and collaborate online. Curtin law students are eligible for a free subscription to Jade Professional. Using your Curtin email account simply email help@jade.io to request this. If you have any problems please email the Faculty Librarian, Law on LibraryResearchSupport@curtin.edu.au.
Open access database of Australian Commonwealth and State legal information. Content includes full text legislation, case law, journal articles and other legal materials.
Search on terms within legislation titles to find Australian legislation from authoritative Commonwealth, state and territory sources.
Link to these government websites to find their legislation, Bills and Subordinate Legislation
To identify relevant legislation on a topic, start with secondary sources.
See the Secondary sources tab for more on finding information on a topic in:
To understand Australian law, you must know how to find and interpret current and point-in-time legislation passed by either Commonwealth or State Parliaments .
Legislation is laws made by Parliament and comprise:
Before legislation is enacted, a Bill or proposed Act is introduced to Parliament and must be debated and passed by both houses of Parliament before being assented to by the Governor (Australian states) or Governor-General (Commonwealth). It will then come into force on a particular date. An explanatory memorandum accompanies a Bill and explains the effects.
Hansard or parliamentary debates are the records of the debates in each house of Parliament of either the Commonwealth or state governments.
Bills, Hansard, explanatory memoranda and second reading speeches are categorised as extrinsic material (as opposed to primary and secondary sources of information).
In general, there are different types of Acts:
Principal Act - the original Act passed by Government. Also called a Numbered Act or Sessional Act
Amending Acts or amendments - these Acts make changes to the Principal Act and should be read together with the Principal Act
Reprinted Acts or reprints - incorporate in the Principal Act all the changes made by Amending Acts. Online, these are called consolidations or compilations
Acts in force - acts that have become part of law and deemed operational
Ceased Acts - legislation that is no longer in force , having been repealed, expired, revoked or superseded
Extrinsic materials help you to understand, define or interpret the intent of legislation. For example:
Changes to the law are always being proposed and debated. In general a Bill, its Explanatory Memorandum, parliamentary debates (Hansard) and Second Reading Speeches are to be found through parliamentary websites.
For example:
Find current Bills of the Commonwealth. Their Explanatory Memorandum will be found with the Bill.
Assented bills of previous parliaments
Search for assented bills previously before parliament.
Bills of the Parliament of Western Australia
Find current or all Bills (since 1997) with their Explanatory Memoranda, Second Reading Speeches, assent and commencement dates and previous versions.
Parliamentary debates (Hansard) - Western Australia
Search on the title of the Bill or keywords to find the debates associated with it. Hansard is available online on this site from 1870 onwards.
Parliamentary debates of the House of Representatives (House Hansard)
Parliamentary debates of the Senate (Senate Hansard)
Commonwealth Government Gazette (notices)
Provides links to publications and other resources, including other Australian government websites. The website includes a number of features that assist searchers with finding Australian Government publications, including:
Provides access to PDFs of each gazette and access to individual notices.
Prior to 1/Jan/2002 the index to the gazette links straight to the PDF of the gazette. From 1/Jan/2002 several indexes to the gazette (such as location and enabling act) are provided and these link to the relevant notices.
PDFs of new gazettes are added into the database as soon as practical after publication of the paper printed gazette.