Finding Legal Resources

Legislation

Legislation is made up of two parts:

1. Acts (also called Statutes)
2. Subordinate Legislation (also called the Regulations)

1. Acts

1.1 Queensland Statutes

All current Queensland Acts are held in print in the State Library's Reference collection at REF 346.9431. The official title for the published acts is Queensland Statutes. The Reference collection includes reprints (1828-1962) arranged alphabetically by subject, and bound volumes, issued annually, of all Acts passed during that year.

1.2 Reprints

Some Acts are reprinted at some stage in their life, usually because they are significant Acts which have been amended many times. Reprints incorporate all the amendments that have been made up to the time of being reprinted. This makes them very useful for legal research.

1.3 Annotations

What are they?
Annotations record all the amendments to an Act, so if it hasn't been reprinted, you can still track the changes that were made throughout the Act's life. The Acts are listed in the annotations alphabetically by title, and their amendments are listed in date order.

How and why do you use Annotations?
Suppose you wanted a 1905 version of the Oaths Act of 1867. You would go to the Annotations to find a list of all the amendments that took place to the Oaths Act between 1867 and 1905. The Annotations will give you the details of the relevant amending Acts so you can find them in the published statutes by title and date.

There are separate volumes for the annotations to repealed legislation and to Acts that are still in force. The Annotations volumes are in the reference collection on level 2 at REF 346.943.

Annotations from 1992+ are also available online.

1.4 What Acts are online?

In 1992, the Queensland Office of Parliamentary Counsel (QOPC) began making legislation available online.

On the QOPC site you can find some repealed acts as well as current legislation and bills.

1.5 Historical Legislation

Historical Queensland legislation is also progressively being made available online through the OzCase project. This is a good place to look for Queensland legislation pre 1936.

2. Regulations

Regulations are the administrative component of the parent Act. This is where you will find the detail of how the Act will be administered and enforced, eg: any forms to be submitted or licences that are required, age limits, fees, penalties etc. The Regulations were formed by the merger of various types of subordinate legislation, including the Queensland Statutory Instruments, the Regulations, Rules, and By-laws, and Proclamations and Orders in Council.

2.1 Finding Regulations

• In print: In the State Library catalogue, type "Queensland subordinate legislation" in the search box and you should retrieve a record with the locations of all the various incarnations of the Regulations. Subordinate legislation in print is held in the Reference Library at REF 346.9431 and the John Oxley Library collection at S346.934 007
• Online: Regulations are online (1991+) with their parent act on the website of the Queensland Office of Parliamentary Counsel (QOPC).

3. Other legislative publications

3.1 Bills

Bills are proposals for new laws to amend an existing Act or create a new Act. To become law, a Bill must pass through both houses of Parliament. Not all Bills tabled in Parliament become Acts: some are defeated and others lapse.

On its way to becoming an Act, a Bill is subjected to three "readings", that is, it is raised for discussion in Parliament three times. The discussion arising is recorded in the Parliamentary Debates, also known as Hansard. (For more about Hansard, see below). The second reading provides the most detailed explanation of the policy behind the Bill so for the purposes of legal research, it is the most useful.

Queensland Bills are held in print in the John Oxley collection at S346.943 005. Many Bills are also catalogued individually so you can find them by title in the State Library's catalogue.

Queensland Bills from 1992 onwards are available on the QOPC website.

3.2 Explanatory Memoranda

What is Explanatory Memoranda?

Every Bill now tabled in Parliament is accompanied by explanatory notes, also known as explanatory memorandum in some states. The purpose of these is to provide an explanation of the government's reason for introducing the Bill. Various sections of the Bill will also be explained in detail if necessary.

Explanatory notes were introduced for Queensland Bills in 1992 by Premier Wayne Goss.

Printed copies of the Queensland explanatory notes from 1992 are available in the Reference collection with the Queensland Statutes at REF 346.9431 and in the John Oxley Library's collection at JOL S346.943 005.

Brief explanatory notes about Queensland Acts prior to 1992 can be found in the Record of the Legislative Acts (JOL S346.943 004). You can also check the Queensland Government Gazette for discussion about very early (19th century) Bills. You can track this down through the index to the Government Gazette 1850–1907 in JOL at REFJ328.943 que, via the subject headings in the index.

3.3 Hansard

Hansard was not established in Queensland until 1864, five years after the granting of responsible government, although the foundation of the Parliamentary Reporting Staff dates from 1860. In the first few years of the new colony, the Brisbane Courier- Mail published long reports of parliamentary proceedings. In 1864 Parliament decided to establish Hansard. The first official Hansard was published for the sittings on 26 April 1864. You'll find a detailed history of Hansard in Queensland.

Queensland Hansards originally included the debates of both the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Council was abolished in 1922 so Queensland Hansard from that date only reports the debates of the Legislative Assembly.

Harsards are catalogued under several versions of their title so the easiest way to find them in the catalogue is to simply type "Queensland debates" into the search box. You'll retrieve records for all the various incarnations of Hansards, including both microfilm and print versions.

Microfilm: (1864–1998) is held in open access in the Micrographics room at MFL328.9432.

Print: (1877+) is available in JOL at S328.943 005.

Online: (1901+) is available on the Queensland Parliament site

4. Federal (Commonwealth) publications

4.1 Commonwealth Acts

The Acts of the Australian Federal government are published as Commonwealth Statutes. They are available (1901+) in print in the Reference collection at REF 346.9401

4.2 Commonwealth legislation online

Commonwealth Acts and Bills are online on the Comlaw site
Acts on the Comlaw site currently date from 1973, and bills from 1996.

4.3 Annotations for the federal statutes

The Federal Statutes Annotations are available online through the LexisNexis database, which you can access onsite at the State Library.

4.4 Commonwealth Debates

The Commonwealth debates (Hansard) are now published separately for the Senate and the House of Representatives. They have been published under a variety of titles over the years (eg: Parliamentary Debates, Official Record of the Debates etc). Debates for both the Senate and the House of Representatives are available in print in the State Library's collection at OSREF 328.9402 (1901-2001) and SER 328.9402,(2001+).

Hansard for the Senate and the House of Representatives, 1981+, is available online on the Parliament of Australia website.