{"id":"ministers-of-the-crown-statutory-designations-and-acts-amendment-act-1974","name":"Ministers of the Crown (Statutory Designations) and Acts Amendment Act 1974","slug":"ministers-of-the-crown-statutory-designations-and-acts-amendment-act-1974","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"wa","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":105683,"registerId":"wa-ministers-of-the-crown-statutory-designations-and-acts-amendment-act-1974-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-03","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Ministers of the Crown (Statutory Designations) and Acts Amendment Act 1974","content":"![Crest]()Western Australia\n\nAlteration of Statutory Designations Act 1974\n\n- **Reprinted under the *Reprints Act 1984* as**\n- **at 6 February 2015**\n\n\nWestern Australia\n\nAlteration of Statutory Designations Act 1974\n\nContents\n\nPart I — General\n\n1. Citation 2\n\n2. Commencement 2\n\n2A. Terms used 2\n\n3. Change of reference 2\n\n4. Variation or revocation of Orders 3\n\n4A. Effect of revocation of Order 4\n\n4B. Governor may rectify omissions 4\n\n5. Saving of prerogative powers 4\n\nNotes\n\nCompilation table 5\n\nDefined terms\n\n  \n\n- Crest **Reprinted under the *Reprints Act 1984* as**\n- **at 6 February 2015**\n\n\nWestern Australia\n\nAlteration of Statutory Designations Act 1974\n\nAn Act to facilitate the alteration of the style and title of Ministers of the Crown, offices and departments, and for purposes incidental thereto.\n\n[Long title amended: No. 62 of 1981 s. 2.]\n\n## Part I — General\n\n##### 1. Citation\n\nThis Act may be cited as the *Alteration of Statutory Designations Act 1974* 1.\n\n[Section 1 amended: No. 62 of 1981 s. 3.]\n\n##### 2. Commencement\n\nThis Act, or any Part thereof, shall come into operation on such date as is fixed by proclamation in relation thereto 1.\n\n##### 2A. Terms used\n\nIn this Act, unless the contrary intention appears —\n\n  department means any department or part of a department of the Government;\n\n  Minister means a principal executive office of the Government under the *Constitution Acts Amendment Act 1899*;\n\n  office includes any office in a department;\n\n  reference includes a reference otherwise than by designation, style or title.\n\n[Section 2A inserted: No. 62 of 1981 s. 4.]\n\n##### 3. Change of reference\n\n(1) Whenever —\n\n(a) the Governor —\n\n(i) designates and declares a principal executive office of the Government for the purposes of the *Constitution Acts Amendment Act 1899* and thereby changes the designation of a Minister;\n\n(ii) establishes, amalgamates, divides, or abolishes a department or alters the designation of any department;\n\nor\n\n(b) an office has been abolished (whether by reason of the abolition of a department or otherwise) or the designation of an office has been altered,\n\nthe Governor may, by Order in Council, direct that a reference to —\n\n(c) a Minister;\n\n(d) an office;\n\n(e) a department,\n\nas the case may be, contained in —\n\n(f) any law; or\n\n(g) any instrument, contract, or legal proceedings made or commenced before the coming into operation of the Order,\n\nby a reference specified in the Order shall be read and construed as a reference to a Minister, office, or department by the reference specified in that Order, and effect shall be given to any such direction.\n\n(2) An Order under this section shall not affect the validity of anything done by or in relation to any Minister of the Crown, office, or department before the coming into operation of the Order.\n\n(3) An Order under this section shall come into operation on the date on which it is published in the *Government Gazette*, or on such later date as may be specified in the Order.\n\n[Section 3 amended: No. 62 of 1981 s. 5.]\n\n##### 4. Variation or revocation of Orders\n\nAn Order in Council made pursuant to this Act may be varied or revoked by a subsequent Order in Council made thereunder.\n\n##### 4A. Effect of revocation of Order\n\nNotwithstanding anything in the *Interpretation Act 1918* 2, an Order in Council under section 4 that revokes an Order in Council made pursuant to section 3 shall, unless the Order in Council made under section 4 otherwise directs, effect a revival of the reference altered by the Order in Council made pursuant to section 3.\n\n[Section 4A inserted: No. 62 of 1981 s. 6.]\n\n##### 4B. Governor may rectify omissions\n\nWhere through an accidental omission to alter a reference to a Minister, an office in a department, or a department anything done or required to be done by or under a law is done by or in relation to a Minister, office, or a department by a reference other than the reference then currently applicable in relation to that Minister, office, or department, the Governor may by Order in Council take such measures as are necessary for removing any doubt arising from the omission and may validate anything which has been done by or in relation to a Minister, office, or department otherwise than by reference to the reference then currently applicable to that Minister, office, or department.\n\n[Section 4B inserted: No. 62 of 1981 s. 6.]\n\n##### 5. Saving of prerogative powers\n\nNothing in this Act shall prejudice any power exercisable by virtue of the prerogative of the Crown in relation to functions of Ministers of the Crown.\n\n[Part II, III, IV deleted: No. 62 of 1981 s. 7.]\n\n[Part V deleted: No. 111 of 1979 s. 3.]\n\n[Part VI, VII deleted: No. 62 of 1981 s. 7.]\n\n![dline]()\n\nNotes\n\n1 This reprint is a compilation as at 6 February 2015 of the *Alteration of Statutory Designations Act 1974* and includes the amendments made by the other written laws referred to in the following table. The table also contains information about any reprint.\n\nCompilation table\n\n| **Short title** | **Number and year** | **Assent** | **Commencement** |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| *Ministers of the Crown (Statutory Designations) and Acts Amendment Act 1974* 3 | 27 of 1974 | 29 Oct 1974 | 1 Dec 1974 (see s. 2 and *Gazette* 6 Dec 1974 p. 5204) |\n| *State Energy Commission Act 1979* s. 3(2) | 111 of 1979 | 21 Dec 1979 | 1 Feb 1980 (see s. 2 and *Gazette* 1 Feb 1980 p. 284) |\n| *Ministers of the Crown (Statutory Designations) Amendment Act 1981* | 62 of 1981 | 13 Oct 1981 | 13 Oct 1981 |\n| **Reprint of the *Alteration of Statutory Designations Act 1974* as at 24 Nov 2000** (includes amendments listed above) | | | |\n| **Reprint 2: The *Alteration of Statutory Designations Act 1974* as at 6 Feb 2015** (includes amendments listed above) | | | |\n\n\n2 Repealed by the *Interpretation Act 1984*.\n\n3 Now known as the *Alteration of Statutory Designations Act 1974*; short title changed (see note under s. 1).\n\nDefined terms\n\n*[This is a list of terms defined and the provisions where they are defined. The list is not part of the law.]*\n\n**Defined term Provision(s)**\n\ndepartment 2A\n\nMinister 2A\n\noffice 2A\n\nreference 2A\n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"Scope cannot be meaningfully assessed as the legislative text is unavailable. Based on the title, this appears to be a narrow administrative amendment Act consistent with its stated purpose of updating ministerial designations across statutes — suggesting scope likely remained aligned with original intent. However, this is speculative without the actual text."},"complexity_factors":["Insufficient source material — the legislation text was not retrievable, preventing substantive analysis","Based on title alone, Acts Amendment laws of this type typically involve mechanical cross-referencing across multiple statutes, which can add moderate structural complexity","Ministerial designation changes can have downstream legal effects across many Acts simultaneously, requiring careful tracking","Historical 1974 legislation may use archaic drafting conventions that add interpretive difficulty"],"plain_english_summary":"A 1974 Western Australian Act that—based on its title—relabels or standardises the statutory titles of Ministers of the Crown and amends other Acts accordingly. It’s essentially a machinery‑of‑government housekeeping measure.\n\nThat matters because changing statutory designations alters which minister is legally responsible for particular functions and how those responsibilities are recorded across WA legislation."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[],"contradictions":[]},"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"A positive credit balance is required for all requests, including BYOK, so fallback providers remain available. Add credits at https://vercel.com/d?to=%2F%5Bteam%5D%2F%7E%2Fai%3Fmodal%3Dtop-up to continue.","source":"analysis-cron"},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":true,"description":"The original 1974 Act appears to have been substantially broader, containing Parts II through VII which have since been deleted (Part V in 1979, Parts II, III, IV, VI and VII in 1981). The current Act is essentially a streamlined machinery provision dealing solely with administrative updating of statutory references. The original scope likely included substantive amendments to other Acts or more detailed procedural mechanisms that have been removed, leaving only the core reference-updating function."},"complexity_factors":["Short statute with only 7 operative sections (Parts II-VII were deleted by amendments)","Only 4 defined terms in section 2A","Simple conditional structure in section 3 with clear trigger events (designation changes, departmental reorganisation)","Minimal cross-referencing (only references to Constitution Acts Amendment Act 1899 and Interpretation Act 1918)","Straightforward remedial provisions (sections 4A and 4B) without nested exceptions","Legislative history visible through deletions indicates original Act was more complex but has been significantly simplified over time"],"plain_english_summary":"This Western Australian law provides a simple but important administrative mechanism: it allows the government to update the names of Ministers, government departments, and offices across all existing laws and legal documents without having to amend every single piece of legislation individually.\n\n**What it does:**\n- When a Minister's title changes, a department is renamed, merged, split, or abolished, or an office is restructured, the Governor (acting on ministerial advice) can issue an Order in Council to automatically update all references in existing laws, contracts, and legal proceedings.\n- This prevents legal confusion when, for example, the \"Minister for Education\" becomes the \"Minister for Schools\" or the \"Department of Lands\" merges into a \"Department of Planning and Lands.\"\n\n**Who it affects:**\n- Government departments and agencies\n- Ministers of the Crown\n- Anyone dealing with government contracts or legal matters involving specific department or ministerial titles\n\n**Key protections:**\n- **No retrospective invalidation:** Anything legally done under the old name remains valid (section 3(2)).\n- **Fixing mistakes:** If someone accidentally uses an old name, the Governor can fix this and validate the action (section 4B).\n- **Revival of old names:** If an Order is revoked, the old reference automatically comes back into use unless the new Order says otherwise (section 4A).\n- **Royal powers preserved:** The law doesn't interfere with the Crown's traditional (prerogative) powers (section 5).\n\n**Why it matters:**\nWithout this law, every time a government restructured or a Minister changed their title, Parliament would need to pass amending legislation for hundreds of existing laws. This Act saves enormous legislative time and prevents technical legal arguments about whether a contract or law applies when the name has changed."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":true,"description":"Subsequent amendments expanded and clarified the Governor's corrective powers: definitions were added (s.2A) and powers to revive prior references on revocation (s.4A) and to validate/rectify accidental omissions (s.4B) were inserted. Other Parts were deleted, consolidating the Act's narrow administrative function into Part I. These changes broadened the Act's practical reach by explicitly authorising retrospective validation and remedial Orders (see s.3, s.4, s.4A, s.4B)."},"complexity_factors":["Technical but narrowly focused subject matter: substitution of statutory references rather than substantive policy change","Use of Orders in Council as the primary mechanism (executive discretion over statutory cross‑references)","Temporal and retroactivity issues (orders operate from Gazette publication; preserves prior acts — s.3(2))","Mechanism for variation/revocation and automatic revival on revocation (s.4, s.4A)","Power to validate accidental omissions (s.4B) — can affect past legal acts and create retrospective legal effects","Defined terms that condition application (s.2A)","Interaction with other statutory interpretation rules and historical repeal of related Interpretation Act provisions"],"plain_english_summary":"This Act lets the Governor, by Order in Council, re‑read references in laws, instruments and contracts when Ministers, offices or departments are renamed, created, merged, split or abolished. It preserves past acts’ validity, allows those Orders to be varied or revoked (and to revive prior references unless otherwise directed), and lets the Governor validate or correct accidental omissions. It affects government agencies, private parties bound by statute or contract, and courts by preventing legal gaps after administrative reorganisations."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/ministers-of-the-crown-statutory-designations-and-acts-amendment-act-1974","history":"/api/acts/ministers-of-the-crown-statutory-designations-and-acts-amendment-act-1974/history","analysis":"/api/acts/ministers-of-the-crown-statutory-designations-and-acts-amendment-act-1974/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/ministers-of-the-crown-statutory-designations-and-acts-amendment-act-1974/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/ministers-of-the-crown-statutory-designations-and-acts-amendment-act-1974/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/ministers-of-the-crown-statutory-designations-and-acts-amendment-act-1974/documents"}}