Assented Bills of previous Parliaments

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TOTAL RESULTS: 3785

  • Date
    12 Aug 2021 
    Chamber
    House of Representatives 
    Status
    Assent 
    Portfolio
    Finance 
    Summary
    Amends the
    Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918
    to: enable the Electoral Commissioner to declare an elector to be a ‘designated elector’ on the basis of a reasonable suspicion that the elector has voted more than once in an election; provide for decisions regarding declarations of designated electors to be subject to review by the Electoral Commissioner or the Administrative Appeals Tribunal; and provide examples of the types of conduct and behaviours that may constitute the offence of interference with political liberty, and increase the penalty for this offence. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    07 Dec 2017 
    Chamber
    Senate 
    Status
    Act 
    Portfolio
    Finance 
    Summary
    Amends the:
    Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918
    to: establish public registers for key non-party political actors; require non-financial particulars, such as senior staff and discretionary government benefits, to be reported; prohibit donations from foreign governments and state-owned enterprises being used to finance public debate; require wholly political actors to verify that donations over $250 come from an organisation incorporated in Australia, or with its head office or principal place of activity in Australia, or an Australian citizen or Commonwealth elector; prohibit other regulated political actors from using donations from foreign sources to fund reportable political expenditure; limit public election funding to demonstrated electoral spending; amend the enforcement and compliance regime for political finance regulation; and enable the Electoral Commissioner to prescribe certain matters by legislative instrument; and
    Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984
    to make consequential amendments. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    09 Feb 2022 
    Chamber
    Senate 
    Status
    Act 
    Portfolio
    Finance 
    Summary
    Amends the
    Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918
    to allow regulations to be made to temporarily expand the existing secure telephone voting method, currently available to sight impaired persons and Australians working in Antarctica, to coronavirus affected individuals for a limited time window. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    12 Aug 2021 
    Chamber
    House of Representatives 
    Status
    Act 
    Portfolio
    Finance 
    Summary
    Amends the
    Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918
    to: insert a vote-saving provision for postal votes that are not received inside a sealed envelope bearing a postal vote certificate; enable postal voters outside Australia to complete certain procedural steps electronically if they are unable to comply with authorised witness requirements; amend how records of paper-based postal vote applications are managed; remove the requirements for pre-poll declaration envelopes to carry a distinguishing number; provide for a fixed pre-poll period commencing no earlier than 12 days before polling day; enable the early opening and sorting of pre-poll ballot papers, and the early extraction of declaration votes; allow ‘spoilt’ or ‘discarded’ ballot papers to be bundled; increase the number of scrutineers permitted to observe the computerised scrutiny of Senate elections; and remove the requirement for the authorisation of printed electoral material to include details of the printer. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    28 Oct 2021 
    Chamber
    House of Representatives 
    Status
    Act 
    Portfolio
    Special Minister of State 
    Summary
    Amends the
    Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918
    to: implement certain recommendations of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters'
    Report of the inquiry on the future conduct of elections operating during times of emergency situations
    by enabling the Electoral Commissioner to make limited operational modifications by legislative instrument where an emergency declaration has been issued under a Commonwealth law and moving the existing power to adjourn or suspend polling at a polling place or pre-poll voting office from local polling booth presiding officers to the Electoral Commissioner; delay the commencement of the scrutiny for a House of Representatives election for a Division where polling has been adjourned or temporarily suspended; prevent scrutineers and Australian Electoral Commission officers from disclosing the results of a Senate election in a Division where polling has been adjourned; and make minor amendments in relation to the cut-off date for postal vote applications and the format of postal vote certificates. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    09 Feb 2022 
    Chamber
    Senate 
    Status
    Act 
    Portfolio
    Finance 
    Summary
    Amends the:
    Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918
    to: require registered political parties and disclosure entities to use their current registered name in authorisations for electoral communications; and allow registered political parties certain limited flexibility in how their present their names in an authorisation; and
    Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984
    ,
    Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983
    ,
    Broadcasting Services Act 1992
    and
    Special Broadcasting Service Act 1991
    to harmonise authorisation requirements across broadcasting, electoral and referendum legislation, while retaining current authorisation requirements in relation to specified printed materials. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    28 Oct 2021 
    Chamber
    House of Representatives 
    Status
    Act 
    Portfolio
    Special Minister of State 
    Summary
    Amends the
    Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918
    to: respond to a recommendation of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters'
    Report on the conduct of the 2016 federal election and matters related thereto
    by requiring the Electoral Commissioner to implement certain processes to assure the security and accuracy of the computer systems (including the systems for scanning ballot papers and counting votes) used to scrutinise votes for a Senate election; clarify the process for resolving candidate ties; clarify that the 'bulk exclusion' process is not required to be used in the computerised scrutiny process; allow a scrutineer to request access to an original ballot paper to resolve a question about formality or a preference vote being counted in the scrutiny of a Senate election; and require the Electoral Commissioner to publish Senate election data for each formal ballot case in the election within 7 days of the return of the writ for a Senate election. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    25 Nov 2021 
    Chamber
    House of Representatives 
    Status
    Act 
    Portfolio
    Special Minister of State 
    Summary
    Amends the
    Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918
    to: extend the application of the foreign donations framework to current sitting members of the House of Representatives and Senators; require members of the House of Representatives and Senators who receive gifts for the purpose of incurring electoral expenditure or creating or communicating electoral matter to lodge an annual return with the Australian Electoral Commission; and extend the period for which a person is taken to be a candidate by an additional six months for the purpose of the disclosure period for candidate and Senate group returns and for restrictions on receiving foreign donations. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    30 Nov 2006 
    Chamber
    House of Representatives 
    Status
    Act 
    Portfolio
    Special Minister of State 
    Summary
    Amends the
    Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918
    and
    Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984
    in relation to: trials of electronically assisted voting for sight-impaired people and remote electronic voting for defence members and civilians serving outside Australia; registration of certain persons as general postal voters; the deadline for postal vote applications; delivery arrangements for postal voting material; receipt of postal votes; establishment of pre-poll voting centres; proof of identity for enrolment from outside Australia; and defamation of electoral candidates and false statements. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    03 Dec 1997 
    Chamber
    House of Representatives 
    Status
    Act 
    Portfolio
    Finance and Administration portfolio 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

What is a bill?

A bill is a proposal for a law or a change to an existing law. A bill becomes law (an Act) when agreed to in identical form by both houses of Parliament and assented to by the Governor-General.