Legislation Interpretation Act 2021

If an Act or a legislative instrument provides that proceedings for offences are to be dealt with, or disposed of, summarily or before a special magistrate or 1 or more justices, those offences will be dealt with under the Criminal

Procedure Act 1921 as summary offences.

If an Act or a legislative instrument provides that a pecuniary sum may be recovered summarily or before or on the award of a special magistrate or 1 or more justices, that sum may be recovered on information in proceedings under the Criminal

Procedure Act 1921 and an order for payment made in any such proceedings is enforceable as if it were a fine.

A reference in an Act or a legislative instrument to a complaint (being an instrument charging a person with a summary offence) will be taken to be a reference to an information under the Criminal

Procedure Act 1921 (and a reference to a complainant will be taken to be a reference to an informant under that Act).

A reference in an Act or a legislative instrument to making a complaint in respect of an offence will be taken to be a reference to laying an information under the Criminal

Procedure Act 1921 in respect of an offence of the relevant class.

A reference in an Act or a legislative instrument to a complaint (being an instrument charging a person with a summary offence) other than of a kind contemplated by subsection (3) or (4) is to be construed so as to recognise that, following the commencement of the Summary

Procedure (Abolition of Complaints) Amendment Act 2016, all offences are to be charged on information.