Western Australian Consolidated Acts Western Australian Consolidated Acts (1) An authorised
officer may exercise any of the powers conferred by this section in respect of
a written law that is reprinted under this Act.
(2) The exercise of a
power conferred by this section shall not have effect to alter or otherwise
affect the substance or operation of any written law.
(3) An authorised
officer may substitute —
(a) for
words that designate cardinal numbers, figures that designate the same
numbers;
(b) for
words that designate ordinal numbers, figures and letters that designate the
same numbers;
(c) for
words that designate a sum of money, figures, together with the appropriate
symbol, that designate the same sum;
(ca) for
words, or words and figures, that designate a distance, weight, size, volume
or other physical quantity, an expression that designates the same quantity by
means of figures followed by an abbreviation of the relevant unit of
measurement;
(d) for
words, or words and figures, that designate a date, an expression that
designates the same date by means of —
(i)
the number designating the day of the month;
(ii)
the name of the month; and
(iii)
where required, the year expressed in figures;
(da) for
figures that designate a year of the 20th century for the purposes of a
formality (e.g. as part of the date of completing a form), figures that
designate a year of the 21st century for those purposes;
(e) for
words, or words and figures, that designate a time of day, an expression that
designates the same time by means of figures followed by the abbreviation
“a.m.” or “p.m.” as the case may require;
(ea) for
“per centum”, or “percent” or “per cent”,
the symbol “%”;
(f) for
a reference to His Majesty the King or Her Majesty the Queen, a reference to
the Crown or the Sovereign;
(g) for
a reference to a written law or a law made by or under the authority of any
legislature outside the State, a reference to any other written law or law so
made if the effect of —
(i)
the Interpretation Act 1984 ; or
(ii)
any other written law,
is that the former is
to be read, or to be taken to be amended to read, as the latter;
(ga) for
a reference to a provision of a written law that was renumbered under an Act
repealed by section 9(1), a reference to the provision as renumbered;
(gb) for
a written law’s short title or other mode of citation which has been
changed, a reference to the title or mode of citation as changed;
(h) for
a name, style or title of a person, office, officer, authority, department,
place, locality, or thing which has been changed, the name, style or title as
changed;
(i)
for a reference to —
(i)
a subsection of a section of an Act or a subclause of a
clause of a Schedule to an Act; or
(ii)
any lesser subdivision of a section or clause; or
(iii)
any corresponding provision of subsidiary legislation,
which is expressed in
the long form (e.g. subparagraph (a), (b) or (c) of subsection (1)
of section 4), a reference to that provision expressed in the short form
(e.g. section 4(1)(a), (b) or (c)).
(4) An authorised
officer may omit —
(a) any
referential expression;
(b)
words of enactment, and in the case of subsidiary legislation, words of
attestation or authentication of its making, and any signature of the maker or
makers;
(c) a
provision as to the commencement of a written law;
(d) a
provision that consists only of a statement showing the manner in which a
written law is arranged into Parts or other divisions;
(e) a
provision that has expired or become spent or had its effect;
(f) any
repealing provision, including any list of repealed laws;
(g) any
saving, transitional or validation provision which can conveniently be omitted
by reason of its having application only to a time or events which have
passed.
(4A) If in a series of
3 paragraphs in a written law —
(a)
“and” or “or” (the relevant conjunction ) appears
after the second paragraph; and
(b)
there is no conjunction after the first paragraph,
an authorised officer
may insert the relevant conjunction after the first paragraph.
(4B) If in a series of
4 or more paragraphs in a written law —
(a)
“and” or “or” (the relevant conjunction ) appears
after the paragraph that is next before the last paragraph; and
(b)
there is no conjunction after any preceding paragraph,
an authorised officer
may insert the relevant conjunction after each preceding paragraph.
(4C) For the purposes
of subsections (4A) and (4B), 2 paragraphs that are separated by
text other than a paragraph of the same kind may be regarded as not being in
the same series of paragraphs even if their designations are sequential.
(4D) In
subsections (4A) to (4C) —
paragraph includes a subparagraph, item, subitem
and any other similar provision.
(5) An authorised
officer may —
(a) make
any amendment necessary to give effect to a provision in a written law whereby
other written laws are to be deemed to be amended, or to have effect or be
construed as if they had been amended, in a specified manner;
(aa)
amend a list of definitions in a written law by changing the sequence in which
the definitions are listed;
(ab)
amend an address, a telephone number or other contact details in a written law
to reflect changes or additions to those details;
(b)
correct any error in —
(i)
spelling;
(ii)
grammar;
(iii)
punctuation;
(iv)
the use of upper or lower case; or
(v)
the typing or printing,
in or of a
written law;
(ba)
correct any inconsistency within a written law in respect of any matter
mentioned in paragraph (b);
(c)
correct any error or anomaly in —
(i)
the way in which a written law is referred to; or
(ii)
the way in which a provision is designated;
(d)
where in a provision a term that is being defined appears in bold italic text
and begins with a definite or indefinite article, amend the provision
to —
(i)
delete the article; or
(ii)
change the appearance of the text so that the article is
not in bold or italics.
(5a) For the purposes
of subsection (5) an authorised officer may make any amendment not
affecting the meaning of the written law.
(5b) Despite anything
in subsection (2) or (5a), an authorised officer may make a clerk’s
amendment to an Act even if the amendment affects the operation or meaning of
the Act.
(5c) In
subsection (5b) clerk’s amendment means an amendment of a reference
in a provision of an Act to another provision of the Act, being an amendment
in respect of which the Clerk of the Parliaments has issued a certificate to
the Attorney General to the effect that the amendment —
(a) is
one that should have been made as a clerical amendment before an Act received
the Royal Assent in consequence of other amendments made to the Act during its
passage through Parliament as a Bill; and
(b) is
necessary in order to enable an Act to have the operation and meaning that
Parliament intended it to have.
(6) The Attorney
General may, when issuing a direction to the Government Printer under
section 5(1) or at any time subsequently, issue a certificate to the
effect that an amendment specified in the certificate has been effected in
accordance with this section and such a certificate shall be evidence for all
purposes, and be admissible in all courts, that the amendment has been
lawfully made in accordance with this section.
[Section 7 amended by No. 15 of 1994
s. 6; No. 10 of 1998 s. 61(2); No. 24 of 2000 s. 38; No. 74 of
2003 s. 102(3); No. 31 of 2010 s. 9.]