Australian Capital Territory

legislation (Republication) act 1996
This consolidation has been prepared by the ACT Parliamentary Counsel’s Office
Updated as at 21 December 2000
CONTENTS
	Page 
part I—preliminary
	1	Short title	1
	2	Commencement	1
	3	Object of Act	1
	4	Application of Act	1
	5	Interpretation	2
part II—authorisation to republish
	6	Role of Government Publisher	3
	7	Annotation of publishing	3
	8	Role of Parliamentary Counsel	3
	9	Annotation of authorisation	3
part III—form and content of republications
Division 1—Substantive amendments
	10	Incorporation of amendments	4
	11	Annotation referring to amending laws	4
	12	Provisions relocated or not republished	4
Division 2—Editorial amendments
	13	Authorisation for Parliamentary Counsel	5
	14	Formal amendments only	5
	15	Ambit	5
	16	Legal effect	7
	17	Annotation of editorial amendments	7
	18	Construing renumbered provisions	7
Division 3—Format
	19	Authorisation for Parliamentary Counsel	7
Division 4—Collections of laws
	19A	Application of Act to collections	7
part iv—miscellaneous
	20	Judicial notice	9
	21	Presumption regarding publishing	9
	22	Presumption regarding authorisation	9
	23	Presumption of accuracy	9
	24	Regulations	9
	25	Repeal	9
	SCHEDULE	Section 5
	REFERENTIAL EXPRESSIONS	10
	ENDNOTES
	1	About this republication	11
	2	Abbreviation key	11
	3	Table of legislation	12
	4	Table of amendments	12

Australian Capital Territory

legislation (Republication) act 1996
An Act relating to the republication of legislation and for related purposes
part I—preliminary
1	Short title
	This Act may be cited as the Legislation (Republication) Act 1996.1
2	Commencement
	This Act commences on the day on which it is notified in the Gazette.
3	Object of Act
	The object of this Act is to facilitate the updating and availability of laws.
4 	Application of Act
	This Act applies in relation to a republication of a law, whether in printed or electronic form, that is—
	(a)	published by or on behalf of the Government Publisher; and
	(b)	authorised by the Parliamentary Counsel.
5	Interpretation
	In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears—
“current legislative drafting practice” means the legislative drafting practices from time to time employed in the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office;
“editorial amendment”, in relation to a law, has the meaning given by section 15;
“Government Publisher” means the person holding the office in the Public Service the duties of which involve publishing laws, and includes any person publishing laws for or by the authority of the Executive;
“law” means an Act or a subordinate law;
“Parliamentary Counsel” means the person holding the office of Parliamentary Counsel in the Public Service;
“referential expression” means any of the expressions set out in the Schedule occurring in conjunction with a number or letter, or both, to designate a provision of a law;
“republication”, in relation to a law, means a republication of the law in printed or electronic form, and “republish” has a corresponding meaning.

part II—authorisation to republish
6	Role of Government Publisher
(1) 	The Government Publisher may—
	(a)	republish, or arrange for the republishing of, laws; and
	(b)	arrange for the sale and distribution of republished laws. 
(2)		For the purposes of this Act, a law republished pursuant to an arrangement referred to in paragraph (1) (a) is to be taken to have been republished on behalf of the Government Publisher.
7	Annotation of publishing
	An annotation to the effect that a republication of a law has been published by or on behalf of the Government Publisher is to be included in the republication.
8	Role of Parliamentary Counsel
(1)	A law is not to be republished pursuant to section 6 unless the Parliamentary Counsel has authorised the republication.
(2)	The parliamentary counsel may authorise the republication of 2 or more laws in a collection.
9	Annotation of authorisation
	An annotation to the effect that a republication of a law has been authorised by the Parliamentary Counsel is to be included in the republication.

part III—form and content of republications
Division 1—Substantive amendments
10 	Incorporation of amendments
(1)		If a law has been amended by—
	(a)	the repeal or omission of text;
	(b)	the substitution of text in place of any repealed or omitted text; or
	(c)	the insertion or addition of text;
a republication of the law is to set out the law as so amended.
(2)		For the purposes of subsection (1), a law is to be taken to have been amended only if the provision of the other Act or subordinate law, as the case may be, by which the amendment was made has commenced.
11	Annotation referring to amending laws
(1) 	Where a law is republished as amended, an annotation consisting of a reference to each other Act or subordinate law, as the case may be, by which an amendment was made is to be included in the republication.
(2)		Subsection (1) does not apply in relation to—
	(a)	an amendment that is to be deemed to have been made by the Amendments Incorporation Act 1929 as in force at any time before the commencement of the Acts Citation Act 1976; or
	(b)	an amendment made by section 7 of the Acts Citation Act 1976.
12	Provisions relocated or not republished
(1) 	Nothing in this Act requires—
	(a)	a provision of a law to be located within a republication of the law where it was located when the provision was enacted or made; or
	(b)	every provision of a law to be set out in a republication of the law.
(2)		If a provision of a law—
	(a)	is not located within a republication of the law where it was located when the provision was enacted or made; or
	(b)	is not set out in a republication of the law;
an annotation to that effect is to be included in the republication.
Division 2—Editorial amendments
13	Authorisation for Parliamentary Counsel
	The Parliamentary Counsel is authorised, in preparing a law for republication, to make any textual amendments of a formal nature which he or she considers desirable in accordance with current legislative drafting practice and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, to make editorial amendments.
14	Formal amendments only
	An amendment of a law purporting to have been made under section 13 that would, but for this section, effect a substantive change in the law is of no effect. 
15	Ambit
(1)	For the purposes of this Act, an editorial amendment in relation to a law is an amendment that—
	(a)	corrects a typographical error;
	(b)	corrects a reference to—
	(i)	any law or a provision of any law; or
	(ii)	a body, office, person, place or thing;
	(c)	goes only to a matter of spelling, punctuation, grammar or syntax;
	(d)	alters the citation of the law;
	(e)	renumbers or redesignates a provision of the law;
	(f)	alters the sequence of definitions or provisions of the law;
	(g)	replaces a reference to a provision of any law with a shorter form of reference to that provision;
	(h)	replaces a reference to any law or a provision of any law for which another law or provision has been substituted with a reference to the substituted law or provision;
	(j)	alters the manner of referring to a number, year, date, time, sum of money, quantity,  measurement, or other matter, idea or concept;
	(k)	replaces a reference to a body, office, person, place or thing the name of which has been altered with a reference by the new name;
	(m)	replaces a word indicating  gender or that could be taken to indicate  gender in accordance with current legislative drafting practice;
	(n)	replaces a reference to Her Majesty the Queen or to His Majesty the King with a reference to the Sovereign or the Crown;
	(o)	omits—
	(i)	the enacting formula or the law-making formula (including any signatures);
	(ii)	a provision that consists only of a description of the manner in which the law is arranged into Parts, Divisions and smaller units;
	(iii)	any referential expression; or
	(iv)	a provision that has expired, the operation of which is exhausted or spent or that is otherwise obsolete or redundant; or
	(p)	inserts, omits or alters a note; or
	(q)	updates a reference to the heading to a provision; or
	(r)	is consequential on any other editorial amendment.
(2)		In subsection (1), a reference to any law is to be taken to include a reference to a law of the Commonwealth, a State, another Territory or another country.
16	Legal effect
(1)	Subject to section 14, a law that is amended under section 13 has effect for all purposes, on and after the date of the republication of the law, as if the amendment had been made by another Act or subordinate law, as the case requires, with effect from that date.
(2)		An amendment of a subordinate law made under section 13 does not prevent the further amendment or repeal of that subordinate law by a later subordinate law.
17	Annotation of editorial amendments
	An annotation to the effect that a law has been amended under section 13 is to be included in the republication of the law.
18	Construing renumbered provisions
	If a provision of a law has been renumbered under section 13, a reference in a provision of another law made before the renumbering took effect (whether or not that other provision has commenced), or in any instrument or document, to the first-mentioned provision shall (except as regards the operation of the provision before it was renumbered) be construed as a reference to the provision as so renumbered.
Division 3—Format
19	Authorisation for Parliamentary Counsel
	The Parliamentary Counsel is authorised, in preparing a law for republication, to make alterations by way of format, layout or style or in any other presentational respect in accordance with current legislative drafting practice.
Division 4—Collections of laws
19A	Application of Act to collections
(1)		If the parliamentary counsel authorises the republication of 2 or more laws in a collection, this Act applies to each of the laws in the collection as if it were republished separately.
(2)		Subsection (1) does not prevent the use of—
	(a)	a single table of contents for the collection; or 
	(b)	annotations applying to 2 or more laws in the collection.

part iv—miscellaneous
20	Judicial notice
	All courts, tribunals and persons acting judicially shall take judicial notice of a republication of a law to which this Act applies.
21	Presumption regarding publishing
	A republication of a law purporting to have been published by or on behalf of the Government Publisher is to be taken to have been so published unless the contrary is established.
22	Presumption regarding authorisation
	A republication of a law purporting to have been authorised by the Parliamentary Counsel is to be taken to have been so authorised unless the contrary is established.
23	Presumption of accuracy
	A republication of a law to which this Act applies shall, unless the contrary is established, be taken to set out correctly the text of the law as at the date of the republication.
24	Regulations
	The Executive may make regulations for the purposes of this Act.
25	Repeal
	The Amendments Incorporation Act 1929 is repealed.

SCHEDULE	Section 5
REFERENTIAL EXPRESSIONS
For the purposes of the definition of “referential expression” in section 5, the expressions are— 
	(a)	“of this Act”, “of these Regulations” or “of these Rules”;
	(b)	“to this Act”, “to these Regulations” or “to these Rules”;
	(c)	“of this Schedule”;
	(d)	“of this Part”;
	(e)	“of this Division” or “of this Subdivision”;
	(f)	“of this section”, “of this regulation” or “of this rule”;
	(g)	“of this subsection”, “of this subregulation” or “of this subrule”;
	(h)	“of this paragraph” or “of this subparagraph”;
	(i)	“of this clause” or “of this subclause”;
	(j)	“of this item”;
	(k)	“before-mentioned” or “afore-mentioned”;
	(l)	“hereof” or “hereto”;
	(m)	“said” or “aforesaid”; or
	(n)	any word or phrase to the same or similar effect as a word or phrase specified in any of the preceding paragraphs.

ENDNOTES
1	About this republication
This is a republication of the Legislation (Republication) Act 1996 as in force on 21 December 2000.  It includes all amendments made to the Act up to Act 2000 No 80.
Amending and modifying laws are annotated in the table of legislation and table of amendments.  However, any current modifications are not included in the republished Act but are set out in the endnotes.
The Parliamentary Counsel’s Office currently prepares 2 kinds of republications of ACT laws:  authorised printed republications to which the Legislation (Republication) Act 1996 applies and unauthorised electronic republications.  The status of a republication appears on its cover and is indicated by its republication number.
A republication number without a letter (eg 1, 2, 3 etc) indicates that the republication is an authorised printed republication.  A number with a letter (eg 1A, 1B, 1C etc) indicates that the republication is an unauthorised electronic republication.
Section 13 of the Legislation (Republication) Act 1996 authorises the Parliamentary Counsel, in preparing a law for republication, to make textual amendments of a formal nature which the Parliamentary Counsel considers desirable in accordance with current legislative drafting practice.  The amendments do not effect a substantive change in the law.
In preparing this republication, amendments have been made under section 13.
Not all amendments made under section 13 are annotated in the table of amendments.  Full details of any amendments can be obtained from the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office.
2	Abbreviation key
Key to abbreviations in tables

am = amended
amdt = amendment
ch = chapter
cl = clause
def = definition
dict = dictionary
div = division
exp = expires/expired
Gaz = Gazette
hdg = heading
ins = inserted/added
LR = Legislation (Republication) Act 1996
mod = modified
No = number
notfd = notified
o = order
om = omitted/repealed
orig = original
p = page
par = paragraph
pres = present
prev = previous
(prev...) = previously
prov = provision
pt = part
r = rule/subrule
reg = regulation/subregulation
renum = renumbered
reloc = relocated
R[X] = Republication No
s = section/subsection
sch = schedule
sdiv = subdivision
sub = substituted
SL  = Subordinate Law
sp = spent
*  = SL unless otherwise stated
† = Act or Ordinance unless otherwise stated

3	Table of legislation
Act†	Year and number†	Gazette
notification	Commencement	Transitional provisions	

Legislation (Republication) Act 1996	1996 No 51	8 Oct 1996	8 Oct 1996		
Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1999	1999 No 66	10 Nov 1999	10 Nov 1999	—	
Statute Law Amendment Act 2000
	2000 No 80	21 Dec 2000	21 Dec 2000	—	

4	Table of amendments

Provision	How affected†

s 8	am 1999 No 66 s 6 sch 3
s 15	am 2000 No 80 amdt 2.31, amdt 2.32
div 4 of pt 3 (s 19A)	ins 1999 No 66 s 6 sch 3
s 19A	ins 1999 No 66 s 6 sch 3