2583. Hon Alison Xamon to the Leader of the House representing the Attorney General:
Noting that the Western Australian Legislation website publishes ratified State agreements in the form of Schedules to the principal Act whereby Schedule 1 shows the original agreement and subsequent schedules show each supplementary agreement in the order it was ratified (rather than publishing the State agreement in its complete, consolidated, current form), I ask:
(a) will the Minister please instruct Parliamentary Counsel’s Office to also provide a link to a complete, consolidated, current version of each State agreement;
(b) if no to (a), why not; and
(c) if yes to (a), when?
Hon Sue Ellery replied:
(a)–(c) The Western Australian Legislation Website is where WA legislative instruments are made publicly available. Not all variations to State Agreements are ratified by an Act of Parliament. Some variations must only be tabled in both Houses of Parliament and some may be made by simple agreement between the parties. Parliamentary Counsel’s Office is involved only where a Bill is required to ratify a variation to a State Agreement, and therefore does not have a complete and up-to-date record of all variations that would enable PCO to produce consolidated versions of all State Agreements.