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Legislation in the In Force collection is generally drafted by the NSW Parliamentary Counsel's Office (PCO), which also maintains this website. Specifically, the following are drafted by PCO:
- Bills/Acts of Parliament.
- Statutory rules within the meaning of the Interpretation Act 1987, that is, regulations, rules and by-laws that are made by the Governor or that are required to be confirmed or approved by the Governor, and court rules.
- Proclamations commencing Acts.
- Environmental Planning Instruments under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, including standard instrument orders under section 3.20 of that Act.
- Other instruments that directly amend any of the above
- Some other instruments that are of a legislative nature that are included in the In Force collection. These instruments are usually orders but may also be proclamations, determinations, notices, codes etc.
However, some other instruments of a legislative nature in the In Force collection (for example, some orders, directions, notices or guidelines) may be prepared by other agencies. These instruments can be identified by information under the heading “Drafting agency” on the Status information page of the In Force version.
The identification of an agency as preparing an instrument applies to the original instrument and not to any amendments. The names of agencies are historical information and are not updated if the agency is renamed or changed.
(See HTML and PDF in Glossary)
The Adobe website provides information about PDFs for assistive technology users.
The website provides information on how to configure Adobe Reader to work with assistive technology. Adobe Reader contains many capabilities specifically designed to make it easier for people with disabilities to read PDF files, regardless of whether the files have been optimised for accessibility.
The online tools also include a facility to convert PDF documents to either HTML or ASCII text.
For more information about reading PDF content, visit the Adobe website.
You can use the "Generate a PDF for this page" icon to create a PDF with standard headers and footers for any HTML page on the website - including any part of In Force legislation.
The PDF icon for the desktop view is on the right of the dark blue menu bar for a page:
For the mobile view, the PDF icon is in the lower section of the main Menu:
IMPORTANT - to make a PDF of a whole title of legislation, select the "Whole title" button first. The "Whole title" button can be found on the light blue document menu. Then click on the PDF button on the dark blue menu to make the PDF.
For legislation, the PDF will be of the page that is currently displaying in the right hand fragment view, which is the "Status information page" when you first display an In Force legislation title. To make a PDF of the whole title or another part of the legislation, you must select another view. If you are currently viewing part of an item of legislation (for example, one section of an Act), then the PDF will only be created for that section. To choose what to include in the PDF:
- To make a PDF of the whole legislative instrument including the Contents, click on the "Whole title" option, then the generate PDF icon.
- To make a PDF of the whole legislative instrument without the Contents, click on the name of the instrument at the top of the Contents (this will make the whole instrument appear in the fragment view), then the generate PDF icon.
- To make a PDF of a particular Part or similar component, click on the Part or component in the Contents (this will make that component appear in the fragment view), then the generate PDF icon.
You can use the same generate PDF icon to make PDFs of other pages on the website, including the Tables. The PDF will generate in a new tab of your browser. Once generated, you can use the PDF in the same way as other PDFs, including for the following:
- printing
- saving a local copy
- saving in another format (for example, Word or text)
- adding comments or annotations
- reflowing or adapting the file for mobile use.
Legislation feeds are an easy way to keep up to date with legislative changes on this website without having to constantly visit the site. When changes to the website are made a legislation feed can notify you and give you a link to the new or changed content. Legislation feeds are also called RSS.
All you need is a feed reader. Most current web browsers have feed readers built in or have plug-ins available. You can also use web-based readers or dedicated software. The legislation feeds are identified by the standard web feed symbol and you can set up as many different web feeds from this website as you need.
The following standard feeds are available:
- Notification of the making of statutory instruments, Government Gazettes and Bill information. For subscribers to the weekly notification email, this feed can be used instead of that email. The weekly email service will be continued for the time being but it is recommended that subscribers consider changing to the feed, which provides the same information.
- Bills—updates on all consultation drafts of Bills, Bills introduced, amended and passed by Parliament, and Bills assented to.
- New or updated In Force legislation—updates on new, amended or updated Acts, statutory instruments and environmental planning instruments in the In Force collection.
- New As Made legislation—updates when new Acts, statutory instruments and environmental planning instruments are added to the As Made PDF collection.
- New Government Gazettes.
You can make any of the following customised feeds:
- from a search result on the In Force collection you can create a feed to receive updates when the results of the search change
- from the Status Information page of an Act, statutory instrument or environmental planning instrument in the consolidated In Force collection, choose a feed to receive updates when that item of legislation is amended or updated
- from a Bill information page, choose a feed to follow the progress of that particular Bill.
Legislation feeds can be viewed using your browser's built-in feed reader, a browser extension or an external feed reader.
The following are some common browsers:
Browser | Built-in support | Alternative |
---|---|---|
Internet Explorer | Yes | |
Mozilla Firefox | Yes | |
Safari 8 | Yes | |
Google Chrome | No | You will need to use an extension such as RSS Feed Reader |
Microsoft Edge | No | There are no extensions available yet. Use a standalone reader (see below) |
You can also download an external feed reader or use a web/cloud based one. The following are the most popular feed readers:
Reader | Link | Features |
---|---|---|
Cloud-based | Feedly | Syncs across desktops and mobiles |
Web-based | Feedreader | |
Desktop-based | RSSOwl |
- This website uses the Atom XML standard web feed. See more on web feeds at Wikipedia Web feeds.
- For more information on feed readers visit Wikipedia Comparision of feed readers.
To link to the home page, type the following into your document, email, or browser shortcut properties: http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au
To link to the main Search page, use the following link:
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/search
To link to the main Browse page, use the following link:
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/browse
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/type/year/number
Substitute type with:
- act for Acts
- subordleg for statutory instruments (including regulations)
- EPI for environmental planning instruments
Substitute year with the year in which the instrument was made (usually the year in its title).
Substitute number with the number of the instrument.
This will link to the Status Information page of the title.
Examples:
To link to the Crimes Act 1900 No 40, use the
following:
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/1900/40
To link to the Deer Regulation 2008 (438), use the following:
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/subordleg/2008/438
To link to the Wollongong City Centre Local Environmental Plan 2007 (30), use the following:
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/EPI/2007/30
These links will always go to the current version if the instrument is in force, or the last version if the instrument is repealed.
Note. The following link syntax cannot be guaranteed to remain static, for example if individual components are renumbered or a comprehensive restructuring of an instrument occurs.
Abbreviations:
sec is used for section, chap for
Chapter, part for Part, div for
Division, subdiv for Subdivision,
sch for Schedule
(Note. links are only available to the top level
of the schedule, not to its components)
In the case of statutory instruments which are Rules use rule., and for Regulations use reg.
In EPIs cl is used instead of sec.
Examples:
To link to section 20 in Division 1 of
Part 3 of the Crimes Act 1900 No 40, the link would
be:
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/1900/40/part3/div1/sec20
To link to rule 1 in Part 2 of the District Court Rules 1973 (01), the link would be:
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/subordleg/1973/01/part2/rule.1
In most browsers you can also right click on the provision you want to link to in the contents and select Copy Link Location, and then paste this to create a link.
To link to regulations made under an Act, use the following link:
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/year/number/regulations
For example, to link to regulations listed under the Stock Foods Act 1940 No 19, use the following:
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/1940/19/regulations
To create a link to the whole title view of an instrument, add "whole" to the instrument link.
For example, to create a link to the whole title of the Crimes Act 1900 No 40, use the following link:
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/1900/40/whole
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/type/year-number.pdf
Substitute type with:
- acts for Acts
- regulations for Statutory instruments
- EPIs for Environmental Planning Instruments
year is the year the instrument is made.
number is the number of the instrument.
For example, to link to the As Made PDF of the Graffiti Control Act 2008 No 100:
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/acts/2008-100.pdf
To link to the As Made PDF of the Mine Safety (General) Regulation 2009 (2009-109)
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/regulations/2009-109.pdf
To link to the As Made PDF of the Hastings Local Environmental Plan 2001 (Amendment No 72) (2009-100):
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/EPIs/2009-100.pdf
Maps in zoomable PDF are provided for standard-based environmental planning instruments in the In Force collection. This feature was introduced in late 2007. These instruments are drafted on the basis that significant planning content (such as land application, land use zoning, building heights, floor space ratios and heritage areas) will be displayed on maps rather than described in the text of the instrument.
A "Maps" button appears on the light blue document menu if maps have been provided for a particular instrument. The Maps button and references in the text to maps are linked to an index page that provides access to the individual maps. This index page has also been designed to provide point-in-time functionality.
You need the Adobe Reader to view these maps Download Adobe Reader.
To magnify and view more detail in the maps, there are several zoom functions available: on the zoom menu bar of your PDF viewer, click on the - and + symbols to change the zoom level, or type or select a percentage in the Zoom box, you can also right click with your mouse and select this function, on the zoom menu bar, change the magnification options to Dynamic Zoom. You can then use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out by dragging the mouse up and down or by turning the mouse wheel, you can also right click with your mouse and select the Dynamic Zoom function.
To print an area of a PDF map where you have zoomed in, select Print from the File menu. Under Print Range, select "Current view". To print the entire map, the Print Range selection should be set to "All".
If you have Adobe Acrobat Professional you have extra functions available: on the zoom menu bar, change the magnification options to Loupe. This opens a magnified area of the map in a small window. As you move around the main PDF screen, the portion of the map in the magnification window changes, to have the main PDF document in a small window and the magnified area as the larger document, change the magnification option to Pan & Zoom Window instead, you can also right click with your mouse and select the Loupe or Pan & Zoom functions.
The index page also shows pin links to the State planning agency interactive Planning Viewer on the NSW planning portal website. The map content on the portal has not been certified as correct under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. For current maps in the format in which they were officially approved, refer to the PDF maps on this website as available from the index page.
Information indicating the portfolio Minister is provided on the Status Information page for individual Acts in the In Force collection.
The Allocation of the Administration of Acts sets out the Ministers who are responsible for the administration of particular Acts (or part/s of Acts) and for any Regulations etc made under those Acts. The Allocations are approved by the Governor. The current version of the Allocation of the Administration of Acts is found in the In Force database under Regulations.
The site navigation links in the main blue bar contain the following selections:
- Search: enables you to search consolidated legislation currently in force or repealed.
- Browse: contains two categories (In Force and Repealed) of three alphabetical lists of consolidated versions of the three categories of legislation: one for Acts, one for Regulations and the other for EPIs (environmental planning instruments).
- Notification-Gazette: contains links to the official online notification feature and Gazette searching and browsing.
- As Made: has links to Search As Made and Browse As Made. Search As Made enables you to search legislation in the form in which it was originally enacted or made. This legislation is stored in PDF format. Browse As Made contains three alphabetical lists relating to legislation in the form in which it was originally enacted or made. The first list relates to Acts; the second list to Regulations (listed under their parent Act); and the third list to EPIs (environmental planning instruments).
- Bills: has links to Search Bills and Browse Bills. NSW Bills includes Bills (including Explanatory Notes) at all stages of the Parliamentary process, from 1987 onwards. There is also a collection of Consultation drafts of Bills publicly released before introduction, from 1999 onwards.
- LegInfo: contains information about using and understanding legislation, including a Guide to interpreting NSW legislation, and overview of How legislation is made and the Legislation tables (which contain a series of generated information tables about legislation, including repeals and commencements). There is also a collection of superseded print-based tables and other reference material.
- Links: contains useful related links (including legislation, Bills, Gazettes, Parliaments and drafting organisations of other states, territories and countries).
The grey site navigation links at the top right of the page contain:
- Home: takes you to the home page for the NSW legislation website.
- About: contains information about the NSW legislation website.
- Contact: contains contact information.
- Help: contains detailed help for using the NSW legislation website.
- Mobile View/Desktop View: toggles between the two viewing modes for the website.
The grey site navigation links at the bottom of the page contain:
- What's new: contains the latest information about the website.
- Accessibility: contains accessibility information in relation to the website.
- Sitemap: contains the sitemap for easy navigation around the website.
- Copyright and Disclaimer: contains copyright and disclaimer information in relation to the website and legislation.
Desktop view mode
In Force and Repealed legislation is set out in two parts: Contents view on the left and Fragment view with navigation options and text on the right.
The Contents view contains a linked table of contents for the legislation, including whole instrument, Chapters, Parts, Divisions, Subdivisions and Schedules, as well as individual sections or clauses. When a link is selected in this view, the detailed text of that selection is displayed in the Fragment view.
The Fragment view contains document navigation items and text for the link selected in the Contents view. The navigation items in this view include:
- Whole title: displays the whole instrument, including the status information, full contents with hypertext links and historical notes.
- Regulations or Parent Act: displays either a list of regulations made under that Act or the parent Act for that statutory instrument.
- Historical versions: displays a list of historical versions for the instrument from a base date of 1 January 2002. However, some selected titles have more extensive collections.
- Historical notes: is a quick link to the information about amendments to the instrument.
- Search title: enables you to search the instrument you are currently viewing.
- Maps: displays a list of maps relating to that instrument, if any.
- RSS: provides a link to set up a legislation feed for updates to that instrument.
Mobile view mode
In the mobile view, the Contents view and navigation options are combined into the Document menu.
The In Force collection is in HTML.
To print or save a PDF version of a fragment or whole title, see Generating PDFs.
To print an HTML fragment (which usually contains a whole section or schedule) click on the printer icon in the top right corner and then follow your usual print setup instructions.
To view or print a whole title, choose from the following:
- for the whole title with the table of contents included, click the Whole title button in the main fragment window. This enables you to view a complete version of an item of legislation in HTML with a linked table of contents.
- for the whole title without a table of contents, click on the title of the instrument at the top of the table of contents. This gives you a complete version in the fragment window without the table of contents.
You can also copy and paste the HTML text (Edit > Select All > Copy, or click and drag to select the text) to the clipboard and paste into a word-processing application such as Microsoft Word (Word 2000 or later provides the best print display), or into a text editor such as WordPad.
The As Made collection is in PDF (Portable Document Format) and can be viewed, downloaded and printed in the standard way for that application. For more information about PDF, visit the Adobe website or you can Download Adobe Reader.
Legislation in the In Force collection can be generated as a PDF using the icon on the dark blue menu bar.
The Parliamentary Counsel's Office does not provide or sell printed copies of legislation.
If you would like to obtain printed copies of legislation there are several options available:
-
You can print out the legislation you require free of charge
from the legislation website:
- As Made titles and the Government Gazette are made in PDF and can be printed in that format.
-
In force titles can be printed as HTML or by
generating a PDF version
from the icon on the blue
taskbar.
- You can print directly (Ctrl+P or Print button) from the HTML version of legislation you see on the screen. The printout will reproduce the view of the title you have displayed on-screen—single section, whole part, whole title etc.
- You can also copy from the HTML version by highlighting the required text, copying and pasting into a Word or other document. Copying from HTML avoids the hard returns that occur when copying from a PDF version.
- You can click on the delivery van icon on the blue task bar of the status information page for the legislation you want and purchase a professionally printed copy of that legislation.
- You can download the PDF of the legislation you require onto your computer and then either save it onto a USB drive and take it to any print shop or email it to them and they will print it for you.
- You can go to your local library to access the legislation website and print out the copies you require.
NSW amending Acts are automatically repealed after they commence by section 30C of the Interpretation Act 1987. This is for a number of reasons:
- They contain only amending and machinery provisions (substantive provisions in NSW are always inserted into the Principal or target Act).
- The retention of the amending Acts creates several potential problems for users of the "In Force" statute book on the NSW legislation website. This is because provisions become duplicated and produce more than one hit when searching.
- If the amending Acts linger on in the "In Force" collection, there is the chance that the target of those amendments may be subsequently amended by another Act. In that event, the user consults what is effectively a "spent" amending Act and is likely to be misled as to the current status of the provisions.
- The removal of the amending Acts (after their amendments have commenced) serves to keep the In Force collection to a more manageable size. The amending Acts are still permanently retained on the legislation website both in the "As Made" and "Repealed" collections.
This practice of repealing spent amending Acts is not unique or new to NSW. At one stage the amending Acts were repealed in batches twice a year as part of the statute law amendment process and from 2006 to 2008 contained a self-repealing clause.
It should be noted that once an amendment of a Principal Act that is made by an amending Act has commenced, the repeal of the amending Act does not affect the amendment that has been made (section 30 of the Interpretation Act 1987).
Section 3.20 (previously section 33A) of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (the EPA Act) provides that the Governor may prescribe the standard form and content of local environmental plans or other environmental planning instruments (called a standard instrument). The current standard instrument is prescribed by the Standard Instrument (Local Environmental Plans) Order 2006.
An environmental planning instrument (EPI) may be made that declares that the standard instrument provisions are adopted, and may also prescribe other matters as provided under section 3.20 of the EPA Act. EPIs made this way are referred to as standard instrument local environmental plans. The plans are automatically amended when the standard instrument is amended, and other amendments to the plans are affected by the requirements of section 3.20 and the standard instrument.
If an EPI is a standard instrument local environmental plan, this is indicated under “About this Plan” on the Status Information page for the EPI in the In Force collection.