{"id":"F2020L01640","name":"National Emergency Declaration Regulations 2020","slug":"national-emergency-declaration-regulations-2020","collection":"legislative_instrument","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":440705,"registerId":"F2020L01640-fast-fetch-1775956248761","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-12","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"National Emergency Declaration Regulations 2020","content":"---\nmeta-content-style-type: text/css\nmeta-content-type: application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8\n---\n\n?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\" standalone=\"no\"?>\n\n![Commonwealth Coat of Arms of Australia](image.001.jpeg)\n\n \n\nNational Emergency Declaration Regulations 2020\n\nI, General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd), Governor‑General of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, make the following regulations.\n\nDated 17 December 2020\n\nDavid Hurley\n\nGovernor‑General\n\nBy His Excellency’s Command\n\nChristian Porter\n\nAttorney‑General and the Minister for Industrial Relations\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nContents\n\nPart 1—Preliminary\n\n1 Name\n\n2 Commencement\n\n3 Authority\n\n4 Definitions\n\nPart 2—Modification of administrative requirements during a national emergency\n\n5 Laws that cannot be modified during a national emergency\n\nPart 1—Preliminary\n\n \n\n1  Name\n\n  This instrument is the National Emergency Declaration Regulations 2020.\n\n2  Commencement\n\n (1) Each provision of this instrument specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms.\n\n \n\n- Commencement information\n- Column 1 Column 2 Column 3\n- Provisions Commencement Date/Details\n- 1. The whole of this instrument The day after this instrument is registered. 19 December 2020\n\n\nNote: This table relates only to the provisions of this instrument as originally made. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this instrument.\n\n (2) Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this instrument. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this instrument.\n\n3  Authority\n\n  This instrument is made under the National Emergency Declaration Act 2020.\n\n4  Definitions\n\n  In this instrument:\n\nAct means the National Emergency Declaration Act 2020.\n\nPart 2—Modification of administrative requirements during a national emergency\n\n \n\n5 Laws that cannot be modified during a national emergency\n\n  For the purposes of paragraph 15(8)(h) of the Act, the following laws are prescribed:\n\n (a) the Australian Information Commissioner Act 2010;\n\n (b) the Freedom of Information Act 1982;\n\n (c) the Privacy Act 1988.\n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The regulations remain tightly focused on their original purpose: identifying specific laws as exempt from emergency modification powers. There is no scope creep — the instrument does exactly what it says on the tin and nothing more."},"complexity_factors":["Extremely short — only 5 sections total","Only 1 defined term ('Act') in the interpretation section","Single operative provision (section 5) that simply lists 3 Acts by name","No conditional logic, cross-references beyond the parent Act, or nested exceptions","Purpose is purely prohibitive/prescriptive with no procedural mechanics"],"plain_english_summary":"These regulations constrain the government’s emergency administrative flex under the National Emergency Declaration Act 2020 by expressly protecting the Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Privacy Act 1988, and the Australian Information Commissioner Act 2010 from suspension or modification.\n\nThey affect everyone — the public, government agencies, the Governor‑General and Ministers — by ensuring transparency and personal‑data protections remain intact during crises, preserving democratic accountability while allowing rapid emergency response."},"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"Unauthenticated. Configure AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY or use a provider module. Learn more: https://ai-sdk.dev/unauthenticated-ai-gateway","source":"analysis-cron"},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This instrument does not expand the scope of the parent Act; it specifies, for the purposes of paragraph 15(8)(h) of the National Emergency Declaration Act 2020, three named Acts that are excluded from modification during a national emergency (reg 5). It therefore narrows the set of laws that can be modified under the Act rather than extending the Act's reach (see regs 3 and 5)."},"complexity_factors":["Very narrow substantive scope: a single operative rule listing three Acts as non‑modifiable (reg 5).","Short, simple structure with only preliminary provisions and one operative provision (regs 1–5).","Dependence on the parent statute for meaning and effect — it operates by reference to paragraph 15(8)(h) of the National Emergency Declaration Act 2020 (reg 5; reg 3).","Potential interpretive reliance on undefined terms in the parent Act (for example, what counts as to 'modify' an administrative requirement in para 15(8)(h)), which could create downstream legal questions not resolved by this instrument (reg 5).","Minor technical detail on commencement timing (reg 2) that affects when the listing takes legal effect."],"plain_english_summary":"This regulation identifies three Commonwealth laws that cannot be changed under the National Emergency Declaration Act 2020 during a declared national emergency: the Australian Information Commissioner Act 2010, the Freedom of Information Act 1982, and the Privacy Act 1988. It affects Commonwealth decision‑makers who may otherwise modify administrative requirements under the Act, and matters because it locks in information‑access and privacy legal protections while other laws remain potentially subject to modification (see reg 5)."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/national-emergency-declaration-regulations-2020","history":"/api/acts/national-emergency-declaration-regulations-2020/history","analysis":"/api/acts/national-emergency-declaration-regulations-2020/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/national-emergency-declaration-regulations-2020/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/national-emergency-declaration-regulations-2020/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/national-emergency-declaration-regulations-2020/documents"}}