Independent and unofficial. Not affiliated with any government body.

Cut The Red Tape

Let's count the red tape.

How many laws does Australia have? We're counting them, and we'll show you every day when laws are made or repealed.

Commonwealth legislation in force as at 8 November 2026

28,889Total laws in force
4,783Acts in force
24,106Legislative instruments in force
432,676Pages of legislation in force

Source: Federal Register of Legislation, CC BY 4.0, Office of Parliamentary Counsel

Legislative instruments — net change

Last 24 hours since 7 November 2026 (to 2026-11-08)

+0Added
−0Taken away
0Net change — No net change

See what changed on 2026-11-08 →

Last 7 days 2026-11-01 to 2026-11-08

+27Added
−26Taken away
+1Net change — Net up

Last 30 days — not yet available

—Added — not yet available
—Taken away — not yet available
—Net change — not yet available

Year to date — not yet available

—Added — not yet available
—Taken away — not yet available
—Net change — not yet available
About these figures

As at 8 November 2026. Source: Federal Register of Legislation public API (api.prod.legislation.gov.au): titles in force in the Act and legislative instrument collections, updated automatically each day. The Act total may still include some amending Acts that have not yet been repealed. Pages: sum of PDF page counts of the current authorised version of each in-force Act (244,076 pages) and instrument (188,600 pages); 4 titles had no page count recorded and are excluded.

Instruments only (not Acts). Added = instruments newly in force; Taken away = instruments no longer in force (repealed, sunsetted or ceased); Net = Added − Taken away. Daily tracking started on 13 October 2026 (2026-10-13 baseline).

Last 30 days — not yet available Tracking since 2026-10-13: only 26 of 30 days in this window are tracked, so a full-window figure would be misleading. Tracked so far (2026-10-13 baseline, changes to 2026-11-08): +105 Added, −82 Taken away, +23 Net. This row will fill automatically once the window is fully tracked. See tracked days →

Year to date — not yet available Tracking since 2026-10-13: only 26 of 312 days in this window are tracked, so a full-window figure would be misleading. Tracked so far (2026-10-13 baseline, changes to 2026-11-08): +105 Added, −82 Taken away, +23 Net. This row will fill automatically once the window is fully tracked. See tracked days →

Education series

Short chalkboard lessons on how Australian government works.

Lesson 9

Coming soon ·

What does the federal government actually do?

All lessons

Pick a state

Click a state on the map to see its laws. New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia have counts (South Australia’s is a manual count, not updated daily); pages for the other states and territories are up, and they are not yet counted.

Western Australia: see Western Australia legislationNorthern Territory: see Northern Territory legislationSouth Australia: see South Australia legislationQueensland: see Queensland legislationTasmania: see Tasmania legislationVictoria: see Victoria legislationAustralian Capital Territory: page (not yet counted)New South Wales: click for NSW legislation

State and territory legislation in force

State or territoryActsSubordinate legislationTotal
Australian Capital TerritoryNot yet counted
The register’s listings can’t be read automatically (its robots.txt disallows them), so counting isn’t possible.
New South Wales
As at 8 November 2026, 7:55 AM AEDT		879557 statutory instruments
191 environmental planning instruments		1,627
Northern Territory
As at 8 November 2026, 8:23 PM AEDT		385305690
Queensland
As at 8 November 2026, 8:20 PM AEDT		570426996
South Australia
Manual count 26 Oct 2026, as at 8:31 PM AEDT		1,015572 regulations and rules1,587
Tasmania
As at 8 November 2026, 8:20 PM AEDT		6091,3651,974
Victoria
As at 8 November 2026, 8:20 PM AEDT		826470 statutory rules1,296
Western Australia
As at 8 November 2026, 8:23 PM AEDT		811766 subsidiary legislation1,577

Sources: NSW Legislation website (Parliamentary Counsel’s Office); NT Legislation (Office of the Parliamentary Counsel); Queensland Legislation (Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel); South Australian Legislation (Attorney-General's Department); Tasmanian Legislation (Office of Parliamentary Counsel); Victorian Legislation (Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel); WA Legislation (Parliamentary Counsel's Office).

About these figures

Counts only, in alphabetical order. Each figure comes from that state’s own register and is not directly comparable between states or with the Commonwealth figures above: for example, NSW automatically repeals amending laws once they commence (Interpretation Act 1987, section 30C), so it mostly counts only principal laws, and Victoria’s register does not keep amending Acts and amending statutory rules as separate in-force titles, and does not list other legislative instruments (for example many made by notice in the Government Gazette). Western Australia’s Acts collection leaves out Appropriation, Loan, Supply, Reserves and Road Closure Acts (by the register’s own description) and includes ‘Laws’ published as Acts, and its register does not flag amending titles, so some older amending or repealing Acts are counted. South Australia’s figures are a manual count made on 26 Oct 2026 from the register’s default A to Z lists (ceased legislation and Acts of limited application are hidden, and amending Acts are included because the register lists them); they are not an official total and are not updated daily. The Northern Territory’s register does not flag amending titles either, so its in-force lists are counted as listed (they include an Appropriation Act). Each state’s page has its own details.

Video explainers

Short videos on what recent laws do. Newest first. Legislation links go to the Federal Register of Legislation. All video explainers

Earlier explainers

Every earlier video, linked on X.

Show 28 moreShow fewer

By administering department

DepartmentActsInstrumentsTotal
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts46610,41610,882
Department of Home Affairs4526,9867,438
Department of the Treasury1,1581,9793,137
Department of Veterans' Affairs1059261,031
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing351608959
Attorney-General's Department529425954
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water210577787
Department of Finance294454748
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations142363505
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry214270484
Department of Education186264450
Department of Social Services224211435
Department of Industry, Science and Resources142232374
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade96177273
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet157109266
Department of Defence85133218
Department of Agriculture011
Unassigned (no department recorded)54256

As at 8 November 2026, from the "administering department" recorded for each title in the Federal Register of Legislation. 68 Acts and 24 instruments are administered by more than one department and are counted under each, so the rows add up to more than the totals above. More on departments.

Every day: what was made, what was cut, and the net result.

What this is

Cut The Red Tape is an independent, non-partisan tracker of Australian legislation. It counts the laws in force and records the changes each day: what was made, what was repealed, and the net result.

We're starting with the Commonwealth because it publishes good open data. The states and territories come next. The aim is simple: to make the size of the rulebook visible, so anyone can see whether it's growing or shrinking.

We don't take a view on whether any particular law is good or bad. We just count.

How we count

Principal Acts, not amending Acts
Most Acts passed by Parliament only change other Acts. Once their changes take effect they are usually repealed automatically. We count the principal Acts that actually hold the law, so the number isn't inflated by paperwork.
Legislative instruments
Regulations, rules and determinations are made by ministers and agencies under Acts. There are far more of these than Acts, and we count them separately.
Sunsetting
Most Commonwealth instruments expire after about 10 years unless they are remade. When an old instrument is replaced by a new one, we show it as remade rather than as new red tape.
Count isn't everything
A two-page Act and a 5,000-page Act each count as one. We plan to add page counts so size is visible too.

Follow along

Contact and social links are coming soon. In the meantime, check back here.

Disclaimer

Cut The Red Tape is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the Australian Government, any state or territory government, or any government body. It is a private, independent project. Figures are drawn from public legislation registers and may contain errors. For the authoritative text of any law, use the official register.

Legislation data from the Federal Register of Legislation, Office of Parliamentary Counsel, used under a Creative Commons Attribution licence.