Legislation
All current Australian legislation and a great deal of superseded and repealed legislation can be found on the websites of the various Australian parliaments and governments. Legislation is also found on AustLII, although it is not as authoritative as the government sites (but you may find it more user-friendly).
The record of parliamentary debates, known as Hansard, is also found on the parliamentary websites - see the table below.
The following specialized library resources can be used to research legislation, for example to determine the version of an Act that was in force at a particular point in time or locate "extrinsic materials," such as explanatory notes and speeches in Hansard:
- Lawlex - a portal for searching all Australian jurisdictions and quickly finding explanatory notes or memoranda and second readings speeches
- LawNow - similar to Lawlex, it also enables you to "note up" legislation (i.e. find cases applying or interpreting a statutory provision)
- Annotated Acts and specialized commentaries - these focus on particular pieces of legislation, often in depth. They can be accessed from the Library's Dictionaries, Encyclopedias & Commentaries subject guide.
If you want to know more about what the terms used here mean, see this fact sheet on the legislative process in Queensland or one of the introductory texts in the Library, such as Laying Down the Law.
