ACT drafting and publishing practice
PCO strives to provide best-practice drafting and publishing. PCO continually assesses drafting and publishing practice to achieve greater simplicity and clarity and better accessibility. PCO's drafting and publishing practices are set out in the documents published here.
The documents will be updated as drafting and publishing practices evolve.
The following documents provide a guide to ACT drafting and publishing practice:
The guide sets out current drafting practice for various provisions, for example, how to draft naming, resignation and approved form clauses. It deals with the form of legislation, for example how to set out penalty clauses, when to start a new page and how to number provisions.
Drafting Practice Guide [PDF 3.5 MB] [Word version 649.4 KB]
This is a hands-on guide to the form of amendments. It is largely example-based.
This is a guide to plain legal language that encourages the use of clear, concise and simple language. It gives advice on the use of words and phrases and provides alternatives, for example, to compound prepositions, euphemisms and legalese.
This guide promotes consistency in the spelling of words used in ACT legislation. It deals, for example, with usage, hyphenation, words set solid and spaced, italicised words, abbreviations, contractions and symbols.
Spelling, Abbreviations and Symbols Guide [PDF 549.8 KB] [Word version 316.5 KB]
These are guidelines and a practice note for technical amendments, particularly technical amendments made in statute law amendment bills. A statute law amendment bill is generally presented in spring and autumn sitting periods of the Legislative Assembly each year. Statute law amendment bills are used to update legislation and make it consistent. They also make minor corrections to legislation. Examples of Statute Law Amendment Acts can be found on the legislation register.
Technical Amendments Guidelines [PDF 11.9 KB] [Word version 27.0 KB]
Technical Amendments Practice Note [PDF 11.3 KB] [Word version 26.5 KB]
The document consolidates the explanatory material presented to the Legislative Assembly when the Legislation Act was enacted and amended.
Legislation Act Explanatory Material [PDF 2.0 MB] [Word version 444.5 KB]
The Legislation Act Index is a subject index to the Legislation Act. It is intended to help the user who knows there is a provision in the Legislation Act dealing with, for example, necessary and convenient powers, but who cannot find the provision. The user can look up 'necessary and convenient' in the index.
Legislation Act Index [PDF 441.0 KB] [Word version 222.0 KB]
This fact sheet sets out PCO’s editorial renumbering publishing practice under the authority of the Legislation Act 2001, part 11.3.
Editorial Renumbering Publishing Practice [PDF 184.6 KB] [Word version 46.6 KB]