Commonwealth legislation

Pacific Island Labourers Regulations (Repeal)

RepealedCTH

This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.

Jurisdiction

Commonwealth

Act Number

97 of 1956

Collection

legislative instrument

Plain English Summary

1/10 complexity

What this does: This regulation simply repeals (cancels) the Pacific Island Labourers Regulations made back in 1906.

Why it matters: The 1906 Regulations were detailed rules governing the employment of Pacific Island labourers—workers brought to Australia (mainly Queensland sugar plantations) under indentured contracts. This system, often associated with the historical practice of "blackbirding," was effectively abolished decades earlier when most workers were deported around 1906–1908. By 1956, the regulations were obsolete "dead wood," and this instrument formally removes them from the statute books as a housekeeping measure.

Who it affects: No one directly—this is purely administrative cleanup of outdated legislation. However, it marks a formal endpoint to the regulatory framework of a significant and controversial chapter in Australian immigration and labour history.

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Current sections

Direct links to the current provisions in Pacific Island Labourers Regulations (Repeal).

Pacific Island Labourers Regulations (Repeal)

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STATUTORY RULES.

No. .

REGULATION UNDER THE PACIFIC ISLAND LABOURERS ACT 1901-1950.*

I, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL in and over the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Regulation under the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901-1950.

Dated this fourteenth day of December, 1956.

W. J. Slim

Governor-General.

By His Excellency’s Command,

Signature of Athol Townley

Minister of State for Immigration.

Repeal of the Pacific Island Labourers Regulations.

The Pacific Island Labourers Regulations (being Statutory Rules 1906, No. 71) are repealed.

Notified in the Commonwealth Gazette on , 1956.

By Authority: A. J. Arthur, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra.

4530/55.—Price 3d. 9/2.11.1956.

Source text

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.