About this site
ComLaw, incorporating the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments (FRLI), is the legal information retrieval system owned by the Australian Attorney-General's Department. ComLaw is an integral part of the Australian Law Online initiative to bring low or no-cost access to the law for the community.
ComLaw contains:
- Commonwealth primary legislation, as well as other ancillary documents and information, in electronic form, and
- The new Federal Register of Legislative Instruments (FRLI) that was established on 1 January 2005 under the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 as the authoritative source for legislative instruments and compilations of legislative instruments
- As new, up-to-date compilations are added to ComLaw and the FRLI, the previous compilations are retained as Historical Data. If you want to see an item of legislation as it looked at a particular date, the historical data is the place to look. The historical data also includes legislation of the Commonwealth that is no longer in force.
Agencies wishing to lodge material for registration on the FRLI are able to do so at the FRLI Lodgment Site.
SCALEplus users please note:
Most of the material from SCALEplus, including the historical databases of repealed legislation, has been migrated to ComLaw.
From 1 January 2005 all new primary and subordinate legislation that is made will be published on ComLaw/FRLI as relevant, not to SCALEplus. However, SCALEplus will continue to be available to users until all relevant material, including historical material, is migrated to ComLaw.
Items in the Navigation Pane
The following table describes the items contained in the Navigation pane.
Navigation Items |
| Description |
Browse | | Displays the Browse Current page, which enables you to browse through information stored within ComLaw (including the FRLI). |
Advanced Search | | Enables you to perform a search within ComLaw (includes the FRLI). |
What's New | | Provides access to material added to ComLaw or FRLI within the previous 14 days. |
Commonly Viewed Legislation | | Displays hyperlinks to popular legislation, for example the Acts Interpretation Act 1901, or The Constitution. |
Legislation tables | | Displays hyperlinks to legislation tables. To display a table, click on the required hyperlink. |
FRLI |
| Link to the FRLI website. |
Notify me when | | Allows you to set a notification, so that you are informed, via email, when an item is added to or modified within the site databases nominated by you. |
Legislation sales | | Displays information relating to the purchase of legislative
documents. |
Feedback |
| Displays the Feedback Form for ComLaw/FRLI website. |
About this site | | Displays information about the ComLaw website. |
Contact us |
| Displays the Contact details for ComLaw/FRLI. |
FAQ | | Displays hyperlinks to frequently asked questions. |
Quick Reference Guide |
| Link to the Quick Reference Guide: Using ComLaw. |
Site Map | | Displays a text based listing of the items in the Navigation pane. |
Attorney-General’s Department |
| Link to the Attorney-General’s Department Website. |
Parliament of Australia |
| Link to the Parliament of Australia Website. |
Australian Government Information |
| Link to the Australian Government Website. |
Government Notices Gazette |
| Link to Gazettes Online (Commonwealth Government Notices). |
SCALEplus |
| Link to SCALEplus. |
Other sites | | Displays links to other sites containing legal information, for example, Commonwealth Case Law sites, and State and Territory sites. |