| Act |
A law passed by the Legislative Assembly and notified on the legislation register. |
| Administrative arrangements |
The allocation of portfolio responsibilities to Ministers. Administrative arrangements establish administrative units (i.e. directorates and agencies) and set out the legislation and matters to be administered by those units. |
| Amendment |
A change to a law. An amendment can change an existing provision, add new provisions or take out provisions from laws. |
| Amendment resolution |
A resolution passed by the Legislative Assembly to amend a subordinate law or disallowable instrument presented to the Legislative Assembly. |
| Approval statement |
A statement that accompanies an approved form and verifies that it has been approved. |
| Approved form |
A form approved under a law for use in administering the law. Examples of approved forms include forms to donate blood or apply for a taxi licencet. |
| Authorised version |
An official version of the law that the parliamentary counsel has authorised and is presumed to be a correct version of the law. Authorised versions on the legislation register appear in portable document format (pdf). |
| Bill |
A proposal for a new Act that is presented to the Legislative Assembly. |
| Commencement |
The time a new law begins to operate. A law may provide for its own commencement or commence by commencement notice. |
| Commencement notice |
A statutory instrument that fixes or otherwise determines the commencement of a law. |
| Disallowable instrument |
A statutory instrument that is declared to be a disallowable instrument by an Act, subordinate law or other disallowable instrument. Generally this 'declaration' is included in the provision that authorises the making of the instrument. Examples of disallowable instruments include declarations naming streets and suburbs and fee determinations. Disallowable instruments can be disallowed or amended by the Legislative Assembly. A disallowable instrument must be presented to the Legislative Assembly not later than 6 sitting days after notification. |
| Disallowance resolution |
A resolution passed by the Legislative Assembly to disallow a subordinate law or disallowable instrument presented to the Legislative Assembly. |
| Discharged |
A bill is discharged if, when the bill is due to be considered by the Legislative Assembly, the member in charge of the bill discharges it (see Standing Order 152). |
| Endnotes |
Notes at the end of a republication that provide information relating to the republished law. The endnotes usually include an abbreviation key, legislation history, amendment history and earlier republication table. Amending, modifying and repealing laws are annotated in the legislation history and amendment history, including commencement information. |
| Expiry |
A law, or a provision of a law, may be repealed by expiry. An expiry is usually expressly stated in the law. |
| Explanatory statement |
A document that accompanies a bill, subordinate law or disallowable instrument and explains its purpose and detail. |
| Exposure draft |
A proposed bill or subordinate law that is made publicly available for consultation. Exposure drafts are available on the Legislation Register. They may also be made available elsewhere. |
| Instrument |
A written document. |
| Lapsed |
A bill that remains on the Legislative Assembly Notice Paper at the end of an Assembly lapses on the polling day for the next general election. |
| Legislative instrument |
A subordinate law, disallowable instrument, notifiable instrument, or commencement notice. A legislative instrument is a type of statutory instrument. Legislative instruments must be notified on the legislation register to be enforceable. |
| Modification |
A law may modify another law by alteration, omission, substitution or addition. If a law is modified by another law, the law operates as modified by the modification does not amend the text of the law. |
| Negatived |
A bill is negatived if a vote by the Legislative Assembly on agreeing to the bill is lost. |
| Notifiable instrument |
A statutory instrument that is declared to be a notifiable instrument by an Act, subordinate law, disallowable instrument or another notifiable instrument. As with disallowable instruments, this 'declaration' is generally included in the provision that authorises the making of the instrument. Examples of notifiable instruments include notices of road closures and declarations about public holidays. Notifiable instruments do not have to be presented to the Legislative Assembly. |
| Notification |
Notification involves the publication on the legislation register of a statement that an Act or instrument has been made, along with the text of the Act or instrument. From 12 September 2001, ACT legislation has been notified on the legislation register and not in the government gazette. |
| Ordinance |
A law made by the Governor-General under the Seat of Government (Administration) Act 1910 (Cwlth). Before self‑government, ordinances made by the Governor-General were the main form of law made for the ACT. Most of the ordinances in force at self-government have been converted into Acts (see the Self-Government Act, s 34). However, the Governor-General has power to make ordinances for the ACT on a limited number of topics (see the Seat of Government (Administration) Act 1910 (Cwlth), s 12) |
| Regulation |
A kind of subordinate law. A regulation usually provides more detailed rules needed for the operation of a scheme or policy set out in an Act. |
| Regulatory impact statement |
A document prepared for a bill, subordinate law or disallowable instrument if those instruments are likely to impose appreciable costs on the community or part of the community. |
| Repeal |
A law is repealed when it ceases to have effect, is lapsed, expired or expressly repealed by another law. |
| Republication |
A new version of a law that includes any changes to the law. A strict policy of publishing separate republications for separate commencement and expiry dates has been adopted to provide point-in-time access to the law. This makes it easy to find the law as it was in force on a particular day. |
| Statutory Instrument |
An instrument made under a law. A legislative instrument is a type of statutory instrument. |
| Subordinate law |
A regulation or rule made under an Act. Regulations are the most common type of subordinate law in the ACT. They can be disallowed or amended by the Legislative Assembly. A subordinate law must be presented to the Legislative Assembly not later than 6 sitting days after notification. |
| Unauthorised version |
A version of a law on the legislation register in Word (doc) or rich text format (rtf). Unauthorised versions have not been authorised by the parliamentary counsel because they are not locked and the formatting cannot be guaranteed. However, unauthorised versions are generated from the same source as authorised versions. |
| Uncommenced |
A law or part of a law that has been notified but not yet commenced. |
| Withdrawn |
A bill is withdrawn if the Speaker rules the bill out of order and withdraws it from the Legislative Assembly Notice Paper. |
