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lex-au

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legislation
australia
akn
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akoma-ntoso
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metadata 
license: cc-by-4.0
language:
  - en
tags:
  - law
  - legislation
  - australia
  - akn
  - xml
  - akoma-ntoso
pretty_name: lex-au — Commonwealth Acts as AKN 3.0 XML

lex-au

Commonwealth Acts as Akoma Ntoso 3.0 XML — open civic infrastructure for Australian legislative data.

Australia's legislation.gov.au provides DOCX and PDF downloads but no structured XML, no section-level addressing, and no AKN. This dataset fills that gap for Commonwealth Acts in force.

Version: v0.5.2 — 12 Acts, published 2026-07-01. Source code and CLI at github.com/cchew/lex-au.

Versions

  • v0.5.2 — 2026-07-01: Added Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 (12 Acts).
  • v0.5.0 — 2026-06-27: Navigator prerequisites — <blockList>/<item>, <date>, subsidiary legislation support, amendment history (<lifecycle>, <temporalData>, <passiveModifications>), <quotedStructure>, <figure>/<img>, <rref> range references. 225 tests. AKN compliance ~91-100% of applicable elements.
  • v0.4.0 — 2026-06-26: AKN semantic layer — <term>/<def>/<TLCTerm>, FRBR completeness (country/subtype/number/name/prescriptive/authoritative), <longTitle>, <classification>/<keyword>, <preamble>/<formula>, <quantity> (penalty units/imprisonment/deadlines), <role>/<TLCRole>, <authorialNote> eIds, <noteRef>. 11 Acts. AKN compliance ~68-72%.
  • v0.3.0 — 2026-06-23: Schedule clause hierarchy, DOCX tables, notes/examples/penalties, 4th nesting level (A)(B)(C), extended <ref> patterns. 11 Acts.
  • v0.2.0 — 2026-06-22: Intra-section hierarchy, <ref> cross-references, <preface>/TOC, schedules, multi-volume Acts, ISO FRBRdate. 11 Acts.
  • v0.1.0 — 2026-06-19: Structural skeleton (part/division/section, basic FRBR). 8 Acts.

What's in this dataset

Each Act is a single AKN 3.0 XML file with:

  • FRBR URIs (/akn/au/act/{year}/{slug}/aus/{comp_id})
  • Structural hierarchy: parts, divisions, subdivisions, sections
  • Intra-section hierarchy: <subsection>, <paragraph>, <subparagraph> with nested eIds (e.g. sec-6__subsec-1__para-a)
  • <ref> elements for same-Act section/subsection references and cross-Act FRBR URIs
  • <preface> with <toc>/<tocItem> and compilation notices
  • Schedules as <attachments><attachment><hcontainer name="schedule">
  • <term refersTo="#term-X"> and <def> in definition sections; <TLCTerm> registry in <references>
  • <quantity refersTo="#penaltyUnit|#custodialSentence|#deadline"> for penalty units, imprisonment terms, and statutory deadlines
  • <role refersTo="#commissioner|#minister|..."> for known Commonwealth officeholders; <TLCRole> registry
  • FRBR completeness: FRBRcountry, FRBRsubtype, FRBRnumber, FRBRname, FRBRprescriptive, FRBRauthoritative
  • <date> elements for statutory dates and time expressions
  • <blockList>/<item> for unnumbered list structures
  • <lifecycle>, <temporalData>, <passiveModifications> populated from Endnote 3-4 amendment history
  • <quotedStructure> for single-provision amendment inserts; <figure>/<img> for embedded images; <rref> for section range references
  • Corpus index at index.json; parse report per Act in reports/

Current corpus (v0.5.2)

Act Year Compilation
Acts Interpretation Act 1901 C2026C00117
National Health Act 1953 C2026C00164
Freedom of Information Act 1982 C2026C00020
Privacy Act 1988 C2026C00227
Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 C2025C00525
Social Security Act 1991 C2026C00160
Criminal Code Act 1995 C2026C00098
Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 C2026C00212
Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 C2026C00218
Corporations Act 2001 C2026C00058
Fair Work Act 2009 C2026C00141
National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 C2026C00181

Known limits

  • <ref> cross-references are pattern-matched; nested or unusual citation forms may be missed.
  • Role dictionary is global, not Act-specific; "the Minister" refers to different ministers in different Acts.
  • <noteRef> injection handles [note N] bracket markers only; superscript and (note N) patterns are not handled.

Licence

CC BY 4.0. Source legislation is Crown copyright — Commonwealth of Australia; reproduction permitted for non-commercial and research purposes under the PSI Framework.

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