Editorial services

OPC has a dedicated editorial service for draft legislation. OPC editors assist in ensuring Acts and instruments drafted by OPC are of the highest possible standard, and promote consistency across the Commonwealth statute book.

Editorial functions in relation to draft legislation include:

• checking styles, formatting and language
• cross‑reference checks, including checking references to provisions in the draft legislation (internal cross‑references) and also references to provisions of other legislation and other documents (external cross‑references)
• reading draft amendments into the principal legislation to confirm they operate correctly
• checking for clashing amendments to the provisions being amended by the draft legislation

Acts and tied instruments

Acts and tied instruments (regulations, Ordinances and regulations of external Territories and Jervis Bay Territory, and other legislative instruments made or approved by the Governor‑General) prepared by OPC undergo a range of editorial checks before finalisation. There is no charge to agencies. This is also the case for some limited categories of non‑tied instruments, such as rules of court.

Other editorial services

OPC can also provide other editorial services on a billable basis. For example, if OPC drafts a non‑tied instrument for an agency, editorial checks will be undertaken as part of the drafting service. Agencies preparing non‑tied instruments in‑house may contact the First Parliamentary Counsel or their instrument client adviser to discuss how OPC editorial services could assist with in‑house drafting of non‑tied instruments.