What is a Register ID?
How do I search for legislation by Register ID?
Where can I get further information on how to use search, browse and advanced search?
Where can I find the explanatory statement for a legislative instrument?
Where can I find all Bills and Explanatory Memoranda (EM) for a particular year?
Where can I find the Bill and EM of an Act published on the Register?
Where can I find the Corporations Law?
How do I create a link to the latest version, superseded version or the series page for legislation?
How do I browse for legislation by letters of the Alphabet?
What do the coloured icons next to search results mean?
What does the orange icon next to the document type on the download tab mean?
What does an orange icon on the latest version of legislation mean?
What is a Replacement vs a Rectification?
What does the information in the footer of a replaced or rectified document mean?
What does effective mean?
How do I use the What's New function?

What is a Register ID?

There are a number of different types of ID numbers on the Register. A title ID is the ID given to the Principal or first version of a title. These numbers have an A (Acts), L (LIs), N (NIs), Q (Prerogative instruments, Constitution, AAOs and Norfolk Island legislation) or G (Gazettes) following the year in the ID number. For example, the Title ID for the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 is C1901A00002. A compilation ID is the ID of a particular subsequent version of a title. These numbers have a C following the year in the ID number. For example Compilation No 36 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 is C2019C00028 and Compilation No 37 of that Act is C2023C00213.

How do I search for legislation by Register ID?

To search by Register ID you can enter the ID into the Search for field, change the Search in field to ID and leave the default in the Search using field as Register ID, then click on Open title. Searching for a title ID will take you to the text page of the latest version of the title. Searching for a compilation ID will take you to a particular version of a title.

Where can I get further information on how to use search, browse and advanced search?

For information on browse, search and advanced search see https://www.legislation.gov.au/help-and-resources/using-the-legislation-register/how-to-use-browse-search-and-advanced-search.

Where can I find the explanatory statement for a legislative instrument?

An explanatory statement or ES is a document that sets out how a legislative instrument is expected to operate and details about individual provisions. An explanatory statement is registered along with a legislative instrument and is therefore associated with the As made version of a legislative instrument. The explanatory statement for new legislative instruments can be viewed by changing the View document dropdown from Legislative instrument to Explanatory statement. You can also access Word and PDF copies of a legislative instrument's explanatory statement by navigating to the Download tab.

If there are no options to view or download an explanatory statement for the legislative instrument you are interested in, you may be looking at a later version of that instrument. To see the explanatory statement you will need to navigate to the As made version of that instrument.

There are two ways you can do this:

1. Go to All versions and select the As made version of the instrument; or

2. Edit the url and change the date range to asmade. For example, by updating https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2014L00870/2024-01-23/text to https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2014L00870/asmade/text.

Where can I find all Bills and Explanatory Memoranda (EM) for a particular year?

The best place to find a list of all Bills and Explanatory Memoranda (EM) for a particular year is the Australian Parliament House (APH) website. The authoritative source for Bills, EMs and associated documents, including information about their passage through Parliament, is the Parliament of Australia Bills page at https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation. For historic Bills and EMs pre 1997 not available on this page you can search APH Parlinfo database at https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/.

Explanatory Memoranda to accompany every government Bill introduced into the Parliament have been produced since 1983 and they are usually available on both the APH Bills page and the APH Parlinfo database. For the earlier years of 1901 to 1982 there is an online Index to Explanatory Memoranda that was produced by the Parliamentary Library that will tell you if an EM or similar document was produced for a Bill.

The Federal Register of Legislation no longer publishes copies of all the Bills and EMs for each year. For Acts between 1997 to 2023 you will find a link to a page with a copy of the Bill as first introduced and the initial EM on the Register. For Acts published from 2024 onwards the Register will have a link to the APH website Bills page, with a full history of the Bill, at the bottom of the all versions page for each Act. Copies of Bills before they become an Act and Bills that are not passed by Parliament are not available on the Federal Register of Legislation.

Where can I find the Bill and EM of an Act published on the Register?

The Federal Register of Legislation has copies of the first reading of each Bill and the initial EM as introduced into Parliament for Acts published on the Register from about 1997 to 2023. The Bill and EM, if available, can be found at the bottom of the all version tab for each Act under the heading Originating Bill and Explanatory Memorandum. For Acts published from about 1997 up to the end of 2023 a link takes you to a separate Bills page on the Register that has a short description of the Bill, a link to the Parliament House website and copies of the first reading Bill and the initial EM if available. For Acts published from 2024 onwards a link will take you directly to the Bills page on the Parliament House website.

Where can I find the Corporations Law?

The Corporations Law was created within section 82 of the Corporations Act 1989 by the Corporations Legislation Amendment Act 1990, Act No 110, 1990. Compilations of the Corporations Act 1989, which include the Corporations Law, are available on the All versions tab for this title.

How do I create a link to the latest version, superseded version or the series page for legislation?

There are generally three options for linking to legislation:

To create a link you can copy the URL of the page you are viewing. It is recommended to link to the text page of the latest version (which will always link to the latest version) such as https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A00467 or https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A00467/latest/text. If required you can link to a superseded version of a title by copying the URL from that version's page. Note that a superseded version always has the start date of the compilation in the URL. For example https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2005B01098/2020-06-12/text.

You can also link to other pages for the title such as the Details, Authorises, Interactions, Downloads or All versions pages. For legislative instruments you can link to the Explanatory statement found on the as made version page under the View Document dropdown. For example https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2011L00287/asmade/text/explanatory-statement.

Further information on linking is available at https://www.legislation.gov.au/help-and-resources/using-the-legislation-register/linking-and-downloads.

How do I browse for legislation by letters of the Alphabet?

To browse for legislation by letters of the Alphabet:

• go to the Browse tab on the Quick search found on the Home page

• select the legislation you would like to browse for from the Collection drop down

• in the Browse by drop down select Name

• in the Browse for drop down, choose from In force, No longer in force or All to select both In force and No longer in force titles

• select the letter of the alphabet you would like to browse for

Once you have selected a letter to browse by you will be directed to your results. You can use the Advanced search options to further refine your results. For example if you would like to search by the first two or more letters, you can put additional letters in the Search for field. You can also apply further filters or change the filters if you like to search a different collection or refine your search.

Further information on Browse, Search and Advanced Search is available at https://www.legislation.gov.au/help-and-resources/using-the-legislation-register/how-to-use-browse-search-and-advanced-search.

What do the coloured icons next to search results mean?

When viewing search results you will see one of three coloured icons next to the name of the legislation. A green icon means that title is still in force, red means it is no longer in force and orange means that it is in force but has unincorporated commenced amendments. You can see from the effective date of the current version, when a new version is due to commence. A new compilation will be registered as soon as the amendments have commenced and the version has been prepared.

What does the orange icon next to the document type on the download tab mean?

The orange icon normally means that there is further information about this document available. When the orange icon is found on the downloads tab next to the document type it means that there has been a replacement of a document. To view the details you can click on the icon to see the date and type of replacement. At the bottom of the page you can see the replacement history for the original version by clicking on the icon next to the replacement date. The details include the replacement date, replacement type and reason for replacement. The help icon next to the Replacement History provides for further information on rectifications. Click the arrow next to the reason for replacement to see copies of the original documents as published.

What does an orange icon on the latest version of legislation mean?

An orange icon next to a search result means that there are unincorporated commenced amendments that affect this title. On the text view page of the title you will see the words Latest Version in orange and an orange icon that provides you with more details. When you click the icon an unincorporated amendments message is displayed and provides a link to view the unincorporated amendments. This link will take you to the all versions view where you should see an entry in orange which provides details of amendments that have commenced but have not yet been incorporated, including the amending title(s) and the effective date for those amendments. To view more information about the amendments, click on the link in that entry to navigate to the amending title.

What is a Replacement vs a Rectification?

There are two types of document replacement found on the Register, Rectification and Replacement. A rectification will be made in cases where the text of the document is incorrect for example where an amendment has been incorrectly incorporated or where a conversion error has resulted in images or symbols not displaying correctly. A replacement of a document will be made when there is an error in the presentation or information assisting in the use of the document is incorrect, examples are updating or correcting endnotes, fixing a table of contents, correcting headers or page numbers, splitting documents into volumes, removing blank pages, updating commencement dates, correcting text wrapping issues, or correcting an error in a gazette notice.

What does the information in the footer of a replaced or rectified document mean?

The information in the footer of a rectified or replaced document will tell you that the document is a rectification or replacement and the date of the rectification or replacement. For example the words in the footer might be Replaced Authorised Version registered (date of replacement) (Register ID). The original document footer before replacement would have the words Authorised Version registered (date of replacement) (Register ID). Details of the rectification or replacement are found at the bottom of the downloads page and are accesses by clicking the icon next to the replacement date.

What does effective mean?

For a compilation the effective date is the date from which a version of the text of the law as amended applies or the period of time the text of the law applied, if it is a superseded version. For an As made version of an Act or instrument the effective date is the date that the Act received royal assent or the instrument was registered. The effective date is not the commencement date for an Act or instrument. The commencement details for an Act or instrument are usually set out in the text of that Act or instrument.

How do I use the What's New function?

The What's New function displays new and amended titles recently published on the Federal Register of Legislation within the last 7 days. Recently published titles are grouped by the relevant collection: Acts, legislative instruments, notifiable instruments, gazettes, administrative arrangements orders and prerogative instruments.

Clicking on a What's New Collection link will launch a search for all titles within that collection registered within the relevant period and take you to a search results page. The results on this page are sorted by registration date, with the most recently published items appearing at the top of the list. As with any set of searched results, you can use the filters above the list to further refine your results.

To view recently published As made versions, use the Type filter on the search results page and select As Made from the options and then click Search to see the relevant hits.

To view recently published compilations, use the Type filter on the search results page and select Compilation from the options and then click Search to see the relevant hits.

Where no items were published within a collection during the last 7 days, clicking on the link will inform you that "Your search returned no results."

If you are looking for titles across collections, we recommend using the Advanced search, leaving the Search for field blank and changing the Date option from Effective Latest to Registered > On or Between and entering either a specific date or a date range of interest. These results can then be further sorted and filtered, including between As made versions and compilations using the Type filter.

The link to Items registered from 1 January 2024 contains content that was published from 1 January 2024 to 31 July 2024 only and will no longer be updated following the release of the What's New function.