Acts
An Act is a statute or law passed by both Houses of Parliament that has received Royal Assent. On Royal Assent, Acts are given a year and number. Once an Act is formally enacted it can generally only be amended or repealed by another Act. When an Act changes, a compilation of the Act is prepared to show the Act as amended. Acts are also known as primary legislation.
In force
In force legislation is legislation that is on the statute book and has the force of law. On the Federal Register of Legislation, legislation that has been made but not yet commenced is also displayed in the in force listings. In force legislation does not include draft legislation such as Bills or legislation that has ceased, repealed or sunsetted.
No longer in force
Legislation that ceases to have effect or that has been repealed is no longer in force.
Act Reprints
Reprints are printed copies of Acts that incorporate all amendments to the act as at the date of reprinting. These were published as a series of pamphlets between 1973 and 2016. Before the introduction of point-in-time compilations on the Register, reprints served as the primary format for publishing amendments to Acts.
Information about the full Commonwealth Reprinted Acts series is available at Reprinted Acts | NLA.
Consolidated Acts 1911, 1935, 1950 and 1973
Before consolidations or compilations were published electronically on the Register, users of legislation relied on printed versions of the law. Consolidated volumes of the Constitution and all Acts that remained in force at a point in time were published in 1911, 1935, 1950 and 1973.