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Legal Research Skills Guide: Bills

Bills

A Bill is a proposed law as it passes through Parliament. A Bill must receive assent from both houses to become an Act. Bills can be introduced in either House.

Most Bills are drafted by the Parliamentary Council's Office. Bills are debated, considered and can be amended as part of the legislative process.

Bills have clauses instead of sections or provisions.

The Commonwealth, State & Territory governments provide a website where you can find Bills and current and historical Act compilations. These can be found in the Law Library Resource Guide.

The Path of a Bill

 

Source/Credit line: Parliamentary Education Office (www.peo.gov.au)

Locating a Bill

When locating a bill, you can look on parliamentary websites, legislation websites for each jurisdiction, AustLII and Timebase LawOne.

When searching or browsing the databases, use the name of the Bill (which is usually the name of the final Act).

Finding a bill

Activity #22 - Finding a Commonwealth Bill

 Using the Commonwealth Legislation website, use the Bills section of the website to locate the Crimes Amendment Bill 2005.

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