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Chapter 15 - Delegated legislation and
disallowance
Types and volume of delegated legislation
The types of statutory instruments embraced by the general term “delegated legislation” are extremely diverse. In 1970 there were only three different kinds; by the 1990s this had increased to over 100. They include:
- regulations
- determinations, such as Parliamentary Service, Public Service and Defence 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 regulations and other statutory instrument is considerable and increasing in the long term. The table below sets down details of the numbers in recent years:
| Year |
Statutory Rules* |
Disallowable Instruments |
| 1985-86 |
429 |
426 |
| 1986-87 |
322 |
510 |
| 1987-88 |
345 |
690 |
| 1988-89 |
398 |
954 |
| 1989-90 |
411 |
847 |
| 1990-91 |
484 |
1161 |
| 1991-92 |
531 |
1031 |
| 1992-93 |
408 |
1244 |
| 1993-94 |
490 |
1313 |
| 1994-95 |
419 |
1668 |
| 1995-96 |
398 |
1502 |
| 1996-97 |
395 |
1396 |
| 1997-98 |
454 |
1434 |
| 1998-99 |
330 |
1342 |
| 1999-2000 |
348 |
1307 |
| 2000-2001 |
425 |
1434 |
| 2001-2002 |
310 |
1236 |
| 2002-2003 |
351 |
1310 |
| 2003-2004 |
380 |
1156 |
| * instruments published in the statutory rules series |
This shows that the greatest growth has been in disallowable instruments.
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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