Review Of The Legislative Instruments Act

Key Points

• The Legislative Instruments Act 2003 (Cth) has had a significant impact on the rule-making of Commonwealth agencies over the last three and a half years.
• Look forward to changes to the Act in the year ahead.

The Legislative Instruments Act 2003 (Cth) came into effect on 1 January 2005. It introduced a comprehensive regime for the making, registration and publication of legislative instruments on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments (FRLI), together with dealing with parliamentary scrutiny and sun-setting of Commonwealth delegated legislation.

The Act also substantially re-enacted those parts of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (Cth) that dealt with regulations and disallowable instruments, and extended their operation to all legislative instruments.