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Chapter 15 - Delegated legislation and disallowance

Types and volume of delegated legislation

The types of legislative instruments are extremely diverse. In 1970 there were only three different kinds; by the 1990s this had increased to over 100. They include:

  • regulations
  • determinations
  • ordinances of territories
  • plans of management, for example, for fisheries
  • declarations, approvals, principles and notices
  • by-laws of statutory authorities
  • navigation and aviation orders
  • notices, such as broadcasting service notices
  • standards, such as accounting standards
  • declarations, such as health legislation declarations
  • directives, such as airworthiness directives
  • guidelines, such as aged care and child care guidelines.

The volume of instruments is considerable and increasing in the long term. The table below sets down details of the numbers in recent years:

                                              Year                                 Disallowable Instruments

                                        1985-1986                                      855

                                        1986-1987                                      832

                                        1987-1988                                    1035

                                        1988-1989                                    1352

                                        1989-1990                                    1258

                                        1990-1991                                    1645

                                        1991-1992                                    1562

                                        1992-1993                                    1652

                                        1993-1994                                    1803

                                        1994-1995                                    2087

                                        1995-1996                                    1900

                                        1996-1997                                    1791

                                        1997-1998                                    1888

                                        1998-1999                                    1672

                                        1999-2000                                    1655

                                        2000-2001                                    1859

                                        2001-2002                                    1546

                                        2002-2003                                    1661

                                        2003-2004                                    1561

                                        2004-2005                                    2432

                                        2005-2006                                    2449

                                        2006-2007                                    2349

                                        2007-2008                                    2982

(See Supplement)

Generally speaking, about half of the law of the Commonwealth by volume consists of delegated legislation rather than acts of Parliament.

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