Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

So it is not a retrospective operation; ASIS will come in and operate from the day this receives royal assent? It is just when you look at amendment (1) it says ‘clause 2, page 2 (table item 6), omit the table item’. So you are omitting the table from the current act and introducing a new table, which is schedule 1, items 21 to 57. That means that item 40A then falls within items 21 to 57, which means that the bill will receive royal assent and the schedule is being varied. That aside, the question really is: from when does item 40A operate—from when this bill receives royal assent or from when the principal act receives royal assent and, if so, has it?