Statute Update

Sections 49 and 51A of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 impose certain requirements in relation to applications for amendment or annotation of a record of personal information kept by an agency or Minister. Paragraphs 49(d) and 51A(e) require applications to be sent by post to the agency or Minister, or delivered to an officer of the agency or member of the staff of the Minister, at the address of the office of the agency or Minister determined in accordance with paragraph 15(2)(d) of the Act. Paragraph 15(2)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 was repealed by the Freedom of Informati

Item 6 corrects the reference in subsection 102NM(1) of the Family Law Act 1975 to subsection 102NL(2) and rephrases the subsection to make it clear that the court’s decision to apply the law against hearsay to child-related proceedings is made under subsection 102NL(3).

Paragraphs 24(1D)(ca) and (d) of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 provide that a judgment of the Federal Circuit Court under section 17A of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999 and an order made by the Federal Circuit Court under section 88F, 88U or 88V of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999 are taken to be interlocutory judgments for the purposes of certain subsections of section 24 of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 dealing with the appellate jurisdiction of the Federal Court. The Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999 was repealed on 1 September 2

Paragraph 45(5)(d) of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 refers to “a variation of [the] participant’s plan covered by subparagraph 47A(1)(d)(i) or (1AB)(j)(i) (crisis or emergency funding as a result of a significant change to the participant’s support needs)”. There is no subparagraph 47A(1)(d)(i) in the Act. Subparagraph 47A(1A)(d)(i) of the Act provides for a variation of the statement of principles included in an old framework plan because a participant requires crisis or emergency funding as a result of a significant change to the participant’s support needs. Item 65 corr

The amendments repeal spent provisions that dealt with historical increases, transitional indexation adjustments and other historical arrangements in the veterans’ affairs portfolio. The provisions have performed their historical function by giving effect to past increases in rates and amounts, applying transitional adjustments to indexation factors, and dealing with the consequences of those adjustments for historical payment, rate-calculation and income-tax purposes. Those historical increases and transitional adjustments have worked through the relevant legislative mechanisms, and the provi

The Statute Update Bill 2026 amends 42 Commonwealth acts to make minor, technical amendments across the Commonwealth statute book, including to fix errors, remove spent and obsolete provisions, and update references to align with modern legislative drafting practice. The bill also repeals 106 spent or obsolete acts. Such amendments would improve the quality of legislation and ensure it can be more easily understood. Statute law revision acts and statute stocktake acts have been passed since 1934 to remove obsolete and spent provisions from the statute book and correct drafting mistakes. They

Item 2—Continuing operation of certain provisions Item 2 of Schedule 2 makes clear that the repeal of an Act by item 1 of Schedule 2 does not affect the continuing operation of any provision of the repealed Act that is made, or expressed to be made, for an application, saving or transitional purpose. It also preserves provisions that are consequential to, or related to, those application, saving or transitional provisions. Item 1 of Schedule 2 repeals a number of spent or redundant Acts. Some of those Acts contain application, saving or transitional provisions, or provisions that are related