✦ Plain-English Summary

Statute Update (Regulations References) 2020

What it does

This bill updates outdated references to regulations scattered across 10+ federal laws. Basically, Parliament passed various acts that point to regulations—like rulebooks about who qualifies for what benefit or what counts as a safety standard—but many of those references had become stale or incorrect. This bill fixes those broken links by removing dead references and updating them to the right regulations.

Why it matters

When laws point to the wrong regulations, it creates confusion for government agencies, businesses, and citizens trying to follow the rules. Fixing these references makes sure that when you or a business rely on Australian law, you're actually following what's currently in force, not something outdated or repealed.

Key details

• Affected laws: The bill touches major acts including the Tax system law (GST), Citizenship Act, Customs Act, and Military Rehabilitation law, among others
• What changed: Some references to old regulations are removed entirely; others are reworded (for example, changing "mentioned in" to "covered by" for clarity)
• Timeline: The changes take effect once Parliament officially signs off (via Proclamation), but no later than 6 months after Royal Assent—so it's not immediate, but scheduled

Official Description

Amends 10 Acts to: replace references to specific provisions of regulations with more general means of identifying the provisions, so that the correct links between the contents of regulations and Acts will remain even if the regulations are remade, renamed or renumbered; and make consequential amendments.

No formal division recorded

This bill passed by voice vote — parliament agreed without calling a formal count. A division is only recorded when a member explicitly requests one.

No votes yet.

No votes were recorded for this bill.