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House of Representatives                                Ch 10                                                 p 340

Schedule

Historically schedules have been used to avoid cluttering a bill with detail or with material that would interfere with the readability of the clauses. In earlier times amending bills commonly included schedules setting out amendments that, because of their nature, could more conveniently be set out in a schedule rather than in the clauses of a bill. During the 37th Parliament the practice started of including in schedules all amendments to existing Acts, whether amendments of substance or of less important detail. Office of Parliamentary Counsel Drafting Direction No. 1 of 1996 made it the standard practice in respect of government bills for all amendments and repeals of Acts to be made by way of numbered items in a schedule. Other items may be included in an amending/repealing schedule (e.g. transitional provisions). Other examples of the types of material to be found in schedules are:

While a schedule may be regarded as an appendix to a bill, it is nevertheless part of the bill, and is given legislative effect by a preceding clause (or clauses) within the bill. Schedules are referred to as ‘Schedule 1’, ‘Schedule 2’, and so on.