The legislation will amend the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (Cth) by "improving language and structure". It reflects recommendations in the 1993 Clearer Commonwealth Law report by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal & Constitutional Affairs and the consequent, 1998 Attorney-General’s Department and the Office of Parliamentary Counsel joint discussion paper Review of the Commonwealth Acts Interpretation Act 1901.
Specifically, it restructures the Act by -
• co-locating and listing alphabetically definitionsIt also amends theLegislative Instruments Act 2003 (Cth) in relation to the construction of legislative instruments and is reflected in consequential amendments to 248 Commonwealth statutes.
• ensuring powers in relation to instruments apply to all types of instruments
• enabling section 19B and 19BA Orders to apply retrospectively
• providing that an action by a minister other than a minister authorised to perform that action is not invalid merely on that basis
• clarifying actions done by a person purporting to act under an appointment;
• providing that everything in an Act should be considered part of the Act and
• modernising concepts (eg by adjusting the definition of ‘document’ to include things like maps, plans, drawings and photographs and by allowing meeting participants to be in different locations and to participate using technology such as video-conferencing).
Among new definitions -
Australian citizen is specified to have the same meaning as in the Australian Citizenship Act 2007, which can currently be found in section 4 of that Act (the new definition is intended to pick up both s 4(1) and (2) of the current definition in the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 ). The term Australian citizen is used in numerous Commonwealth Acts without being defined. For example, the Bankruptcy Act 1966 and Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 . This amendment ensures that the term is given a consistent and contemporary meaning across Commonwealth law.Ongoing removal of imperial archaisms is reflected in the Explanatory Memorandum comment that -
Business day is defined as ‘a day that is not a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday in the place concerned’. There are over 200 references to ‘business day’ in Commonwealth legislation, many with differing definitions. The Acts Interpretation Act is a logical repository for this definition and will ensure that it can be applied consistently across the statute book.
Section 17 of the Acts Interpretation Act currently provides a definition of Minister or Minister of State as meaning ‘one of the King’s Ministers of State for the Commonwealth’. The reference to the Sovereign in this definition is unnecessary. It is clear that ‘Ministers of State for the Commonwealth’ are Ministers appointed by the Governor-General to administer departments of State of the Commonwealth under section 64 of the Constitution. While that section states that such officers ‘shall be the Kings/Queens Ministers of State for the Commonwealth’ they are referred to elsewhere in the Constitution as simply ‘Ministers of State’ (see for example sections 65 and 66)The Attorney-General commented that the Bill is
a major step towards reducing the complexity of Commonwealth legislation. The measures contained in this Bill will assist in making the law more accessible and easier to understand.
The Bill updates the language and concepts in the Acts Interpretation Act to bring it into the 21st century so that it continues to be a clear and useful point of reference for interpreting the law.
The measures passed today will ensure that the important rules and definitions contained within the Act are easier to find and understand.
This will have a significant impact on the overall clarity of Commonwealth laws and, in turn, make the law more accessible for all Australians.
It also reduces the size of the Commonwealth statute book by including a number of new general rules and definitions, which avoids the need to repeat these in other Commonwealth Acts
