Welcome to SCALEplus
SCALEplus is the legal information retrieval system owned by the Australian Attorney-General's Department. SCALEplus is an integral part of the Australian Law Online initiative to bring low or no-cost access to the law for the community.
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO SCALEplus USERS
The Acts - Current Compilations and Numbered Acts databases on SCALEplus are only up-to-date as at 31 December 2005. However, please note that no other new material has been added since 1 January 2005.
The Attorney-General's Department has developed a new legislative repository that will eventually replace SCALEplus. The new system, known as
ComLaw (http://www.comlaw.gov.au), became available online on 1 January 2005. It contains:
- Commonwealth primary legislation, as well as other ancillary documents and information, in electronic form, and
- the new Federal Register of Legislative Instruments (FRLI) which was established on 1 January 2005 under the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 as the authoritative source for legislative instruments and compilations of legislative instruments.
This will greatly increase the coverage of legislative instruments; at present SCALEplus includes all Statutory Rules, but only a small selection of other legislative instruments.
Most of the existing material in SCALEplus, including the historical databases, is being migrated to ComLaw in stages. The first stage of this migration was completed on 1 January 2005. The following records are still to be migrated:
- all historical databases,
- Statutory Rules that are not in force, and
- the legislation of the non-self-governing Territories.
Further updates about migration will be posted to SCALEplus as information becomes available.
From 1 January 2005 all new primary and subordinate legislation that is made will be published on ComLaw/FRLI as relevant, not on SCALEplus. However, SCALEplus will continue to be available to users until all relevant material, including historical material, is migrated to ComLaw.
Any queries can be directed to the SCALEplus mail box scaleplus@ag.gov.au, the ComLaw mail box comlaw@ag.gov.au or the FRLI mail box frli@ag.gov.au.
What's on SCALEplus
SCALEplus contains
legislation of the Commonwealth and non self-governing Territories (and related material such as
Reserved Commonwealth Laws, the
Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act and the
Constitution (including ancillary documents) as well as Bills, explanatory memoranda/statements, tables, indexes and other finding aids).
Commonwealth Legislation
- Acts - Current Compilations (as at 01/01/2005)
- Numbered Acts 1973+ - Alphabetical Listing
- Numbered Acts 1973+ - Numerical Listing
- Statutory Rules (including Regulations) - Current Compilations (as at 01/01/2005)
- Numbered Statutory Rules (including Regulations) 1979+ - Alphabetical Listing
- Numbered Statutory Rules (including Regulations) 1979+ - Numerical Listing
- Explanatory Statements of Statutory Rules - Alphabetical Listing
- Explanatory Statements of Statutory Rules - Numerical Listing
- Instruments made under legislation
- Bills 1996+
- Explanatory Memoranda for Bills 1996+
Territory Legislation
- Ashmore and Cartier Islands
- Numbered Ordinances
Numbered Regulations
- Compiled Ordinances
Compiled Regulations
- Australian Antarctic Territory
- Numbered Ordinances
Numbered Regulations
- Compiled Ordinances
Compiled Regulations
- Christmas Island
- Numbered Ordinances
Numbered Regulations
- Compiled Ordinances
Compiled Regulations
- Cocos-Keeling Island
- Numbered Ordinances
Numbered Regulations
- Compiled Ordinances
Compiled Regulations
- Coral Sea Islands Territory
- Numbered Ordinances
Numbered Regulations
- Compiled Ordinances
Compiled Regulations
- Heard Island and McDonald Islands
- Numbered Ordinances
Numbered Regulations
- Compiled Ordinances
Compiled Regulations
- Jervis Bay Territory
- Numbered Ordinances
Numbered Regulations
- Compiled Ordinances
Compiled Regulations
Commonwealth and Territory Historical Legislation
- Acts - Historical Compilations
- Statutory Rules (including Regulations) - Historical Compilations
- Instruments - Historical
- Ashmore and Cartier Islands
- Australian Antarctic Territory
- Christmas Island
- Cocos-Keeling Island
- Coral Sea Islands Territory
- Heard Island and McDonald Islands
- Jervis Bay Territory
What's not on SCALEplus
SCALEplus does not contain
State Legislation or
Commonwealth and State Case Law Databases.
There are two reasons for this. First, we hope in the future to achieve legislative backing to make SCALEplus the authoritative storeplace of Commonwealth legislation in electronic form.
Second, we are (and have been for some time) very aware of duplication of resources on the web.
All the data which was until recently in SCALEplus other than Commonwealth legislation is now available from a number of Other Sites which include, in many cases, the source information provider.
How to use SCALEplus
Start with the
Quick Reference sheet. More detail
can be can be found in the
User Guide (
Download RTF)
Otherwise go to
Quick Search and start using the system. If you have some familiarity with the Internet and the World Wide Web you will find it fairly easy to get good results from SCALEplus.
Need Help
If you need help then please contact the SCALEplus
Help Desk by phone (02) 6250 6484 (61-2-6250 6484 if outside Australia) between 8:30am and 5:00pm AEST Monday to Friday (public holidays excepted) or by e-mail
scaleplus@ag.gov.au. All enquiries will be attended to as soon as possible.
(1 December 2004)
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