Referencing: Australian Legal Materials

• There are two main kinds of legislation:
  • Statues (Acts of Parliament)
  • Delegated Legislation, e.g. regulations, rules and orders; also known as:
    • Legislative Instruments (Commonwealth) or Subsidiary Legislation (or Statutory/Subordinate Legislation) (States)
• When referring to legislation as ‘the Act' in your narrative, Act should have an initial capital and be in italics. 
• The full legislation reference should be used for both in-text and end-text references.
   
• A legislation reference takes the following format:
  • In-Text: Short Title Year (Jurisdiction abbreviation) pinpoint
  • End-Text: Short Title Year (Jurisdiction abbreviation).
     

• Title (Short): Each Act has a short title given in section 1, which includes the year the Act was passed.

• Jurisdiction: The short title does not include the jurisdiction. When you are citing legislation, you must add an abbreviated form of the jurisdiction in the in-text citation, e.g. Crimes Act 2008 (WA). (AGLC rule 3.1.3)  (See Jurisdiction abbreviations below).

• Pinpoint: For an Act, this is usually an abbreviation and a number, separated by a space. It should refer to a specific section(s) within an Act, or specific regulation(s) or rule(s). Where a subsection is added, it should appear in parenthesis after the section number, with no space between them, e.g.

Crimes Act 2008 (WA), s. 7(4)

The abbreviation used should correspond to the highest ‘level’ cited in the pinpoint reference. In the example above, the highest level of the pinpoint is to a section, therefore the abbreviation used is ‘s’.  Abbreviations should be used except where the pinpoint begins a sentence.

See Abbreviations below, and refer to the Australian Guide to Legal Citation Appendix C.

Notes on referencing Bills (AGLC Rule 3.2):

• A Bill reference takes the following format:
  • In-Text: Short Title Year (Jurisdiction Abbreviation) pinpoint
  • End-Text: Short Title Year (Jurisdiction Abbreviation).
     
• Title / Year: A Bill is cited in the same manner as an Act, except the title and year should not be italicised. 
• Pinpoint: A pinpoint reference within a Bill is to a clause or clauses, abbreviated to ‘cl.’ and ‘cls.’ respectively (AGLC rule 3.5).

Notes on referencing Explanatory Memoranda (AGLC Rule 3.7):

• The format of a reference to an Explanatory Memorandum for a Bill is:
  • In-Text: Explanatory Memorandum, Bill Short Title Year (Jurisdiction abbreviation) pinpoint
  • End-Text: Explanatory Memorandum, Bill Short Title Year (Jurisdiction abbreviation).

• The Explanatory Memorandum is cited the same as the Bill, prefixed with the term "Explanatory Memorandum" as in the example
• A pinpoint to a Explanatory Memorandum should be to a page, and follow APA conventions for page abbreviations.

• The format of a reference for a parliamentary debate is:

  • In-text: Jurisdiction, Parliamentary Debates, Chamber, Full Date of Debate, pinpoint [Name of Speaker]
  • End-text: Jurisdiction, Parliamentary Debates, Chamber, Full Date of Debate.
     
• Jurisdiction: Written out in full, not abbreviated
• Pinpoint: Page numbers to Hansard should be included where available, and follow APA conventions for page abbreviations.  (The PDF version available from the Parliament websites contains accurate page numbers).
• Names: "MP," "MLC," "MLA," "Senator" and other designations indicating membership of Parliament should not be included with the speaker's name.
• Ministry: ​If the speaker holds a position within a relevant Ministry or Shadow Ministry, this can be included after their name, preceded by a comma, e.g. [Liza Harvey, Minister for Transport]:
  • Jurisdiction, Parliamentary Debates, Chamber, Full Date of Debate, Pinpoint [Name of Speaker, Position]

• Quasi-legislative materials include gazettes and legislation delegated to non-government entities
• The format of a reference to a gazette is:
  • In-Text: Jurisdiction, Gazette Title, No Gazette Number, Full Date, pinpoint
  • End-Text: Jurisdiction, Gazette Title, No Gazette Number, Full Date.​​​

Notes on referencing Case law:-

Reported decisions

• A reported case citation follows this format:
  • In-Text: Party name v Party name (Year) case citation, pinpoint
  • End-Text: Party name v Party name (Year) case citation.
     

• Party names: Written in italics and separated by an italicised v with NO full stop after

• Year: Use (round brackets) OR [square brackets] around the year, as used by the original case you are citing 

• Case citation: A reported case citation is made up of the following elements:

  • volume or (year) [year]

    • If the year appears in round brackets (2015), the report series is ordered by volume, and you must include the volume number in the case citation.

e.g.  (2015) 242 CLR 374

• If the year appears in square brackets [2017], the report series is ordered by year. There may be a volume number as well.

e.g.  [1971] Qd R 117

e.g.  [1984] 3 NSWLR 156

• abbreviation for the law report series

• starting page of the case

e.g.  (2015) 242 CLR 374

e.g.  [1984] 3 NSWLR 156

• Pinpoint: A pinpoint reference refers to a specific page or paragraph number of the case. Follow APA conventions for page abbreviations.