What it does
The Imperial Acts Application Act 1984 (Qld) performs three core functions. First, it selectively preserves a curated list of Imperial enactments. Under s 5, each Imperial enactment listed in Schedule 1 “shall, from the commencement of this Act, continue to have the same force and effect (if any) as it had in Queensland immediately prior to the commencement of this Act.” This is a straightforward continuation mechanism that avoids the need to re-enact ancient statutes.
Second, the Act carves out exceptions. Section 6 provides that nothing in the statute disturbs Imperial enactments listed in Schedule 2 “or any other Imperial enactment which independently of the provisions of the Imperial Act 9 George 4 Chapter 83 (Australian Courts Act 1828) is made applicable to Queensland by express words or necessary intendment of any Imperial enactment.” The reference to the 1828 Act is historically pivotal; that statute fixed the date of reception of English law in the Australian colonies at 25 July 1828. The 1984 Act therefore uses that cut-off as its baseline.
Third, and most substantively, s 7 terminates the application in and for Queensland of all Imperial enactments commencing with the Statute of Merton (20 Henry 3, A.D. 1235–6) that were in force in England at the time of the 1828 Act, subject to the preservation and non-disturbance rules already mentioned. In one sweeping provision the legislature repealed the residual operation of more than 700 years of English statute law.
Part 3 then substitutes contemporary Queensland rules for certain terminated Imperial provisions that had dealt with insurance. Section 8 reproduces, with minor modernisation, the Life Assurance Act 1774 (UK) rules: no insurance may be made on a life or event in which the beneficiary has no interest; the policy must identify the interested persons; recovery is limited to the value of the interest; and marine, goods and indemnity insurances are exempted. The section is set out both in narrative form and then again in four numbered subsections, an unusual drafting choice that emphasises each limb.