22Purpose of Part and general policy on consulting and sharing

22  Purpose of Part and general policy on consulting and sharing

The purpose of this Part is to promote consultation, collaboration and information-sharing across government on the interpretation of legislation with the aim of reaching, as far as possible, consistency in statutory interpretation across the Commonwealth.

To that end, Commonwealth agencies are encouraged to raise concerns or questions about the meaning of legislation with the administering entity before seeking advice, so as to:

(a) give the administering entity the opportunity to consider whether the policy requires change; and

(b) minimise legal costs by identifying whether the administering entity already has an answer to the question.

There is a general expectation that agencies will consult and share information about Commonwealth legal work with one another, where they consider it appropriate, even where these Directions do not require it.