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This Act may be cited as the Interpretation Act 1978.
The Ordinances set out in Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the Schedule are repealed.
The laws of the State of South Australia set out in Part 4 of the Schedule cease to have effect in the Northern Territory as laws of the Northern Territory.
Where there is, in an Act, or a law of the State of South
Australia in its application to the Northern Territory, made before the commencement of this Act, a word, expression or provision as to which there is no provision in this Act which is appropriate to its interpretation, application or effect but as to which a provision of a law in force before the commencement of this Act would, but for the repeal effected by this section, have continued to be appropriate to its interpretation, application or effect, the provision in that last-mentioned law continues to apply to the word, expression or provision in that first-mentioned law, notwithstanding the repeal effected by this section.
Notwithstanding the repeal effected by this section, in the interpretation, application or effect of a word, expression or provision in an Act, or law of the State of South Australia in its application to the Northern Territory, to or in relation to anything done or suffered before the commencement of this Act, reference shall be made to the law as in force or deemed before the commencement of this Act to be in force at the time when that thing was done or suffered and not to this Act, and that law continues to have effect for that purpose.
Subject to section 2, this Act applies to each Act, and to each
Ordinance and Act of the State of South Australia in its application to the Northern Territory, and to each Ordinance of the Northern
Territory, whether made before or after the making of this Act, including this Act, as though that law were an Act.
This Act binds the Crown not only in right of the Territory but, so far as the legislative power of the Legislative Assembly permits, the Crown in all its other capacities.
In the application of a provision of this Act to a provision, whether in this Act or in another law, the first-mentioned provision yields to the appearance of an intention to the contrary in that other provision.
This Act applies, so far as it is applicable:
(a) to and in respect of statutory instruments made under laws to which this Act applies, and to and in respect of the interpretation, application and effect of such instruments, as if those instruments were Acts; and
without limiting its general application:
(i) to and in respect of references to statutory instruments as if they were references to Acts; and
(ii) to and in respect of references to Acts as if they were references to such instruments.
(1) An Act commences on the day specified or provided for in the Act.
An Act may be specified to commence:
on a particular day or on a number of different days; or
on a day to be fixed by Gazette notice; or
on the happening of a particular event or events.
Example for subsection (2)(c)
On the commencement of another Act.
(3) If an Act is specified to commence as specified in subsection (2)(b):
a single day or time may be fixed; or
(b) different days or times may be fixed for different provisions of the Act.
(4) If an Act does not specify or provide for its commencement, or the commencement of any provision, the Act or the provision of the Act commences on the day after the day on which assent to the Act is declared.
A proposed law or part of a proposed law reserved for the signification of the pleasure of the Governor-General does not have effect before the day on which notification of the Governor‑General's assent is published in the Gazette, despite anything to the contrary in section 5 or in the proposed law.
Note for section 6
See section 8 of the
Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978 (Cth).
An Act or a provision of an Act commences at the beginning of the day on which it commences, unless otherwise provided in the Act.
A reference in an Act to the commencement or the day or time of commencement of the Act or part of the Act, or another Act or part of another Act, (the provisions concerned) is a reference to:
if the provisions concerned commence on a single day or at a particular time – that day or time; or
if different parts of the provisions concerned commence on different days or at different times – the last of those days or times.
(1) The date appearing on a copy of an Act printed by the Government Printer and purporting to be the day on which assent was given to the Act shall be evidence of that day.
(2) The date appearing on a copy of an Act printed by the Government Printer and purporting to be the day on which the assent to the Act was notified in the Gazette shall be evidence of that day.
(3) The dates appearing on a copy of subordinate legislation printed by the Government Printer and purporting to be:
the date on which the subordinate legislation was made; and
(b) the date on which the subordinate legislation was notified in the Gazette,
shall be evidence of those dates.
(1) A power to make a statutory instrument, or to do any other thing, under a provision of an Act may be exercised before the provision commences.
Examples of powers under subsection (1)
1 A power to establish a board or other body.
2 A power to make regulations.
3 A power to approve forms.
The statutory instrument or other thing may take effect either:
(a) on the commencement of the provision under which the power was exercised; or
(b) before the commencement of the provision under which the power was exercised, to the extent necessary for the effective operation of the Act.
(3) Subsection (1) applies whether the provision is in the Act as enacted or whether it is to be inserted into the Act by another Act.
At any time after a proposed law has been passed by the Legislative Assembly and before it has commenced:
it may be cited by its proposed short title; and
(b) it may be the subject of a further proposed law to amend or repeal it,
and if a provision of an Act to amend or repeal another Act (including a provision relating to the commencement of the Act proposed to be amended) commences before or on the same day as the Act or provision amended or repealed, the Act or provision amended or repealed, as the case may be, shall not commence except as amended or for the purpose of making the repeal effective as though the repealed provision had never existed.
Subject to section 63C(5), the repeal of an Act or part of an Act by which a previous Act or part of an Act was repealed, does not without express words have the effect of reviving that last-mentioned Act or
part.