If an Act has been amended a number of times, there may come a time where they are reprinted by the publisher of the relevant jurisdiction. The Government printer will re-issue the Act in a new pamphlet version, incorporating all of the changes up to a specified date. This means that all amendments up to a certain point in time have been consolidated. A particular reprint will include all amendments up to a specific date. Reprinted Acts are a bit like an online compilation, except that they potentially become out-of-date over time, if subsequent amendments are made to provisions of the Act. Reprinted acts are not passed again by the Parliament, but are compiled by the executive branch of government under legislative authority.

To find reprints of a Western Australian Act, with all the amendments up to a specific date in the Western Australian Legislation database, you will need to click on the Reprints link, which is located in the left hand side of the database homepage. 

To find a reprint of a Commonwealth Act, with all the amendments up to a specific date in the Federal Register of Legislation database, you will need to go to the In force version of the Act. You will need to click All versions. You will then need to view the start and end dates of the Acts in the list, to find the reprint most relevant to your time period. 

Authority

Online compilations of Commonwealth Legislation are now authoritative and can be used in legal proceedings, as outlined in the Evidence Amendment Act (Cth) Schedule 3. An authoritative online compilation from the Federal Register of Legislation, will always be in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format and will include the words 'Authorised version' or 'Authoritative'. 

In Western Australia, the Online compilation of an Act is not recognised as authoritative. Paper reprints are the official authorised version of WA Legislation, and it is this version which should be taken to court (along with any subsequent amending Acts, if the provision you wish to cite was affected by the amendments). The Western Australian Legislation database, has made available downloadable PDFs of all reprints of current Western Australian Acts in force. You can find more information in relation Reprinted WA Acts here. 

Top tip!: Reprints should always be updated to ensure you have the current version of the law, or to see if any amendments have been made since the latest reprint. See Updating Acts for more information.