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House of Representatives                                Ch 10                                                 p 403

Reckoning of time

Pursuant to the Acts Interpretation Act any period of time prescribed or allowed by an Act dating from a given day, act or event, unless the contrary intention appears in the Act, is reckoned exclusive of the day of such act or event. ¹ The day on which a legislative instrument is presented therefore is not taken into account for the purposes of determining the number of sitting days within which it may be disallowed. A sitting may extend beyond a calendar day but constitute only one sitting day. ² Similarly, a sitting which is suspended and resumed on a later day constitutes only one sitting day. ³ Any disputed question on the reckoning of time would be, initially at least, for the House itself to decide. The possibility of the matter being subsequently the subject of litigation cannot be ruled out, in which case it could be a matter for the courts to consider.

A notice of disallowance lodged on the last possible sitting day has been regarded as valid, the provisions of standing order 108—that a notice only becomes effective when it appears on the Notice Paper—not being seen as cutting down the then provisions of the Acts Interpretation Act which referred to a notice given ‘within 15 sitting days’. ⁴

Acts Interpretation Act 1901 , s. 36(1).

VP 1978-80/596.

VP 1917-19/171; see also Ch. on ‘Order of business and the sitting day’.

NP 154 (28.11.2000) 8674.