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.

Bills introduced to Parliament are scrutinised to make sure they meet certain standards and to consider whether they should be referred to a committee for further investigation. This can include feedback from stakeholders and the general public, and a report recommending potential improvements to the bill.

Keyword(s)
Status
Current Bills
Previous Bills
Type

TOTAL RESULTS: 159

  • Date
    30 May 2012 
    Chamber
    House of Representatives 
    Status
    Act 
    Portfolio
    Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy 
    Summary
    Amends the
    Broadcasting Services Act 1992
    in relation to the provision of captioning services by commercial, national and subscription television broadcasters by: introducing and increasing captioning targets; requiring the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to develop a captioning standard to determine the quality of captioning services; requiring broadcasters to transmit emergency warnings in the form of text and speech, and captioned where possible; introducing compliance reporting and record keeping requirements; providing for a statutory review by the ACMA; and making compliance with the captioning requirements a licensing condition. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    18 Nov 2024 
    Chamber
    House of Representatives 
    Status
    Not Proceeding 
    Sponsor
    SCAMPS, Sophie, MP 
    Summary
    Amends the
    Broadcasting Services Act 1992
    to prohibit the broadcasting of marketing relating to certain food or drink products on television and radio broadcasting services, and online services. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    19 Jun 2023 
    Chamber
    House of Representatives 
    Status
    Not Proceeding 
    Sponsor
    SCAMPS, Sophie, MP 
    Summary
    Amends the
    Broadcasting Services Act 1992
    to prohibit the broadcasting of marketing relating to certain food or drink products on television and radio broadcasting services, and online services. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    24 May 2012 
    Chamber
    House of Representatives 
    Status
    Act 
    Portfolio
    Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy 
    Summary
    Amends the
    Broadcasting Services Act 1992
    to provide earlier access, in particular circumstances, to the digital commercial satellite television service known as the Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST) by: enabling VAST licensees to provide their digital commercial satellite television services to specified external territories; enabling third party digital retransmission services to be taken into account for administering the conditional access scheme for VAST services; requiring licensees in certain licence areas to nominate multiple places against which their time based broadcasting obligations will be assessed; and enabling the minister to vary the date for digital switchover in a licence area or when that area becomes a digital only local market area. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    10 May 2000 
    Chamber
    House of Representatives 
    Status
    Act 
    Portfolio
    Communications, Information Technology and the Arts portfolio 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    15 Feb 2024 
    Chamber
    House of Representatives 
    Status
    Act 
    Portfolio
    Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts 
    Summary
    Amends the
    Broadcasting Services Act 1992
    and
    Radiocommunications Act 1992
    to: enable the continuation of terrestrial community television to audiences in Melbourne and Adelaide beyond the current expiry date of 30 June 2024; and provide the Australian Communications and Media Authority with certain instrument-making powers; and
    Broadcasting Services Act 1992
    to harmonise the code of practice arrangements. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    27 Oct 2022 
    Chamber
    House of Representatives 
    Status
    Act 
    Portfolio
    Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts 
    Summary
    Amends the
    Broadcasting Services Act 1992
    to: provide for applications for renewals of an existing community broadcasting licence to be considered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) as a current service and not a proposed new service; enable the ACMA to grant community broadcasting licences and temporary community broadcasting licences with effect from a specified future date; amend the criteria for new temporary community broadcasting licences; enable the ACMA to limit the number of temporary community broadcasting licences that can share a particular frequency; provide for deadlines for late applications for the renewal of a community licence; and provide for expedited timelines for the ACMA to commence a process to allocate new community broadcasting licences. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    12 Oct 2006 
    Chamber
    House of Representatives 
    Status
    Act 
    Portfolio
    Communications, Information Technology and the Arts 
    Summary
    Introduced with the Datacasting Transmitter Licence Fees Bill 2006, the bill amends the
    Broadcasting Services Act 1992
    and
    Radiocommunications Act 1992
    to ensure compliance by channel A datacasting transmitter licence holders with licence fee payment and record keeping obligations. Also makes a consequential amendment to the
    Australian Communications and Media Authority Act 2005

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    14 Jun 2023 
    Chamber
    Senate 
    Status
    Not Proceeding 
    Sponsor
    HENDERSON, Sen Sarah 
    Summary
    Amends the
    Broadcasting Services Act 1992
    to ban gambling advertisements during the broadcast of live sporting events on television, radio and live streaming and for one hour before and after the event. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

  • Date
    12 Feb 2019 
    Chamber
    Senate 
    Status
    Before Senate 
    Sponsor
    STEELE-JOHN, Sen Jordon 
    Summary
    Amends the
    Broadcasting Services Act 1992
    to: require national broadcasters, commercial television broadcasting licensees and subscription television licensees to provide a minimum number of hours of television audio description per week; and provide for the Australian Communications and Media Authority to enforce and review the new requirement. 

    Bill | Explanatory Memorandum

Bills lists

All bills before Parliament for the current calendar year and details of their progress.

Legislative Analysis

Parliamentary Library analysis of bills, including the purpose, background and key issues.

Legislative Instruments

Parliament delegates the power to legislate so details of law can be changed quickly by others. These delegated laws are referred to as legislative instruments and can be overruled – disallowed – by Parliament.

Disallowance Alerts

Legislative instruments subject to a notice of motion to disallow. The progress and eventual outcome of any such notice is also recorded.

Tariff proposals

The introduction of a tariff proposal is the formal procedure for initiating the collection of customs and excise duties.

Bills referred to committees

To inquire and report views on the bill from organisations and individuals.

Statistics on legislation

Printed bills and explanatory memoranda

Order printed versions at the Federal Register of Legislation by clicking the print icon at the document level.