Legislative History

Statues annotations and indexes are tools which enable us to trace the legislative history of an Act, but more specifically how to:

• ascertain how an Act has been amended since its original enactment
• determine if the Act has been repealed
• find the Bill, Explanatory memorandum and second reading speech to an Act
• other legislative information, i.e. gazettals, assent and commencement of an Act.

South Australian Legislative History

Index of South Australian Legislation (also known as SA Statutes Index)
The SA Statutes Index is a listing of all South Australian Acts (current and repealed), Rules and Regulations. It should be one of the first resources you refer to when researching SA legislation. The Index is published annually and is updated by a fortnightly, cumulative publication – the SA Legislation Update. The Index and update are available online on the SA Attorney-General's website.

The Index lists all current South Australian legislation and provides the following information (see screen shot below):

• Act title, sessional Act number, date of operation and gazettal reference
• amending legislation
• regulations and gazettal notices

  For example: if we look at the entry for the Civil Liability Act 1936 (formerly the Wrongs Act 1936). Under "Principal Act and amendments" the first Act listed is the original sessional Act.

The next listed Act is the first amending Act since the 1975 consolidation of South Australian Acts, as follows...

And gazettal references....?

You will also find the the South Australian Statutes Index is peppered with references to the Gazette (the South Australian Government Gazette). Generally speaking, government gazettes, both federal and State, provide the authority for executive decisions and notices. Therefore, references to the Gazette can be important, and it is useful to be aware of the role of gazettal notices. For example, the SA Statutes Index tells us that the responsible minister overseeing the Civil Liability Act 1936 is the Attorney-General. We can check the authority for this in the SA Government Gazette of 14.12.1993 at page 2965.

Where do we find the SA Government Gazette? In print, in the Law Library Computer Suite; online (from 1999) at http://www.governmentgazette.sa.gov.au/

Commonwealth, State and Territory Legislative History

Federal Statutes Annotations is a listing of current Commonwealth legislation with details on legislative history of the Act, amending legislation, and case annotations. It is available in print (Stack 44 Lower Ground Floor).

Commonwealth Statutory Annotations is another multi-volume work which lists current Commonwealth legislation with details on the legislative history of the Act, amending legislation, and case annotations. It is available in print (Stack 44 Lower Ground Floor).

Lawlex provides links to Bills, second reading speeches, amending legislation for Australian legislation, of the Commonwealth, States and Territories.

Example: The Lawlex homepage for the Civil Liability Act 1936 (SA) is shown below. Selecting the Act title links you to the Act itself on the website of the SA AGs Department. Other options include Historical versions, viewing commencement information; Regulations promulgated under the Act; and a history of amendments to the Act, listed by section; and alert summaries about amending legislation. The second screenshot partially shows the amendments to the Act, with hypertext links to the related legislation; the third screenshot illustrates an alert summary describing an amending Act.