Parliamentary Counsel Office
Added: Jan 26, 2012
A new approach to describing how amendments are made in legislation
New ways to describe amendments have been approved for use in legislation that sets out amendments to be made to other legislation. The changes will make amendments easier to follow, and more efficient to draft and to apply.
The new terminology is being introduced gradually from 1 January 2012. Bills already before the House at this date will continue to use the old terminology.
The new approach:
- is used consistently irrespective of its location—previously the main body of Bills and regulations, schedules within Bills and regulations, and Supplementary Order Papers all used different terminology to describe amendments
- uses more direct language
- generally uses fewer words.