What it does
The Legislation (Exemptions and Other Matters) Regulation 2015 is a Commonwealth legislative instrument made under the Legislation Act 2003. Its role is to specify which instruments fall into or out of particular categories within the Commonwealth legislative instrument framework: which instruments are not legislative instruments at all, which are notifiable instruments, which are exempt from parliamentary disallowance, and which are exempt from the 10-year sunsetting rule.
The Regulation is a meta-regulatory instrument. It does not directly regulate citizens or impose rights or obligations on private persons. Instead, it shapes the legal character and lifecycle of hundreds of other government instruments across the entire Commonwealth administrative landscape.
Understanding this Regulation requires first understanding the Legislation Act 2003 framework. Under that Act, the default position is that an instrument made under a statutory power that determines or alters the content of the law is a legislative instrument. Legislative instruments must be registered on the Federal Register of Legislation, are subject to parliamentary disallowance under section 42 of the Legislation Act, and automatically sunset 10 years after they take effect under Part 4 of Chapter 3. This Regulation creates the exceptions to those defaults for specific categories of instruments.