Explanatory Memoranda are documents that are issued with bills. They are written in plain English and are intended to explain the purpose of a bill. Explanatory Memoranda may be used in statutory interpretation – see the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 (Vic) s35.
Sources of Victorian Explanatory Memoranda
| Victorian Legislation & Parliamentary Documents |
- Coverage: 2001- (linked to the bill)
- Click on ‘Parliamentary Documents’, then click on ‘Bills’.
- The default listing is bills currently before Parliament, listed alphabetically. Click on the title to access the record for the bill, which includes the explanatory memorandum. The search box at the top of the screen searches the only the current bills and explanatory memoranda.
- For older explanatory memoranda click on ‘Archive’ in the left hand menu from within the bills page, click on the relevant session (some years are divided into ‘Spring’ and ‘Autumn’), then click on the word ‘Bill’. All of the bills for that session will be displayed alphabetically. Click on the bill title to access the bill record, which includes the explanatory memorandum for bills from around 2001 onwards.
- To search the full text of all documents on the site, including explanatory memoranda, use the search box on the ‘Archive’ page. The search box on the first (default) bills page only searches the current bills and explanatory memoranda.
- Provided by the Victorian Government.
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| Parliament |
- Coverage: 2001- (linked to the bill)
- Divided into ‘Bills this week’, ‘Bills’ (i.e. current bills) and ‘Bills Archive’.
- Note: links go to the Victorian Legislation & Parliamentary Documents website.
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| AustLII |
- Coverage: 1967- (selected items only in the earlier years, listed under the title of the bill)
- Browse by title or by year.
- Use ‘name search’ to search the titles of bills (EMs are listed under the bill title).
- Use ‘database search’ to search the full text of explanatory memoranda.
- Click on the ‘download’ link once you have located the explanatory memorandum to access versions formatted for printing etc.
- Click on the ‘bill’ link in the menu to access the relevant bill (where available on AustLII).
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| Lawlex |
- Coverage: 2001-
- Explanatory memoranda are linked to the record for both the Act and the bill. Note that the free version of Lawlex only provides access to current bills (a deeper archive is available to subscribers).
- Type in the name of the Act or bill in the ‘keywords’ field and the year in the ‘year from’ field. Set the jurisdiction to ‘VIC, then click search.
- On the ‘home page’ for the Act or bill, click on the ‘Explanatory Memorandum’ link in the ‘related links’ section.
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| GovPubs |
- Contains information about Victorian explanatory memoranda and links to holdings of Victorian bills (which are accompanied by explanatory memoranda) in the National Library and State / Territory Libraries.
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Information about Victorian Explanatory Memoranda
| GovPubs |
- Contains brief information about the history of Victorian explanatory memoranda.
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| Victorian Legislation Research Guide |
- Includes an introduction to explanatory memoranda in the ‘Bills & Explanatory Memoranda’ tab.
- Provided by the University of Melbourne Library.
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Related pages
See also Bills and Second Reading speeches.
Last updated: 4 March 2014.
