# Australia Legislation Scraper — Acts & Instruments (`ponderable_hydrometer/australia-legislation-scraper`) Actor

Search Australian federal legislation (legislation.gov.au) — Acts, legislative & notifiable instruments with title, dates, status and register links. Free, no key.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ponderable\_hydrometer/australia-legislation-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Ponderable Hydrometer](https://apify.com/ponderable_hydrometer) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation, SEO tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 90.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $4.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Australia Legislation Scraper — Acts & Instruments

**Search Australia's entire federal statute book — Acts and Legislative Instruments — from the official Federal Register of Legislation.** Title, dates, collection, principal-vs-amending flag, in-force status, and ready-to-use register/download links. Full OData filtering. Free keyless API.

For legal research, compliance monitoring, LegalTech and public-sector datasets in an underserved domain on Apify.

### What you get

Per legislation title:

- **Identity** — register `id`, `name`, `collection` (Act / Legislative Instrument / …), `subCollection`, `seriesType`
- **Numbering & dates** — `year`, `number`, `makingDate`, `asMadeRegisteredAt`
- **Status flags** — `isPrincipal` (principal vs amending), `isInForce`, `status`
- **Provenance** — `originatingBillUri`
- **Links** — `registerUrl`, `latestTextUrl` and `latestDownloadsUrl` on legislation.gov.au (the full statute text lives there)

### Output sample

```json
{
  "id": "C2004A03712",
  "name": "Privacy Act 1988",
  "collection": "Act",
  "subCollection": "PrincipalAct",
  "seriesType": "Act",
  "year": 1988,
  "number": 119,
  "isPrincipal": true,
  "isInForce": true,
  "status": "InForce",
  "makingDate": "1988-12-14",
  "asMadeRegisteredAt": "2004-08-13",
  "originatingBillUri": null,
  "registerUrl": "https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A03712",
  "latestTextUrl": "https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A03712/latest/text",
  "latestDownloadsUrl": "https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A03712/latest/downloads"
}
```

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `search` | string | Title substring match (e.g. `Privacy`). |
| `collection` | string | `Act`, `LegislativeInstrument`, `NotifiableInstrument`, … |
| `status` | string | `InForce`, `NoLongerInForce`, `Repealed`. |
| `isPrincipal` | boolean | Only principal (non-amending) titles. |
| `filter` | string | Raw OData `$filter`, e.g. `year eq 2020`. |
| `select` | string | Comma-separated `$select` fields. |
| `orderby` | string | `$orderby`, e.g. `makingDate desc`. |
| `titleIds` | array | Fetch specific titles by register ID (overrides search). |
| `maxResults` | integer | Cap on rows (default 100). |

### Example input

```json
{
  "search": "Privacy",
  "collection": "Act",
  "isPrincipal": true,
  "maxResults": 50
}
```

More examples: in-force Acts newest first `{"collection":"Act","status":"InForce","orderby":"makingDate desc","maxResults":200}`; specific titles `{"titleIds":["C2004A03712","C2004A00748"]}`.

### Why this actor

- **Whole-country coverage** — the official OData API for Australia's federal register, deep-paged over the entire result set (not just page one).
- **Full OData grammar** — friendly inputs for the common filters plus a raw `$filter`/`$select`/`$orderby` escape hatch.
- **Ready-to-use links** — every row carries direct text/download URLs so you can jump from metadata to the full statute.

### Pricing

Pay per result — **$4 per 1,000 results** (one result = one legislation title). No subscription; you pay only for what you get.

### Notes & limits

- The full statute **text** is served by the register website, not this JSON API. Each row includes `latestTextUrl` and `latestDownloadsUrl` for the content.
- Official public data; you are responsible for compliant use. Not affiliated with the Commonwealth of Australia.

### Related actors

- **eCFR Scraper** — US Code of Federal Regulations, section-level text.
- **Congress.gov Scraper** — US bills, laws and members.
- **CourtListener Scraper** — US case law and court opinions.

# Actor input Schema

## `search` (type: `string`):

Free-text match on the legislation title, e.g. "Privacy" or "Corporations".

## `collection` (type: `string`):

Restrict to a collection.

## `status` (type: `string`):

Restrict by in-force status.

## `isPrincipal` (type: `boolean`):

If true, return only principal (not amending) titles.

## `filter` (type: `string`):

Advanced: raw OData filter appended with AND, e.g. "year eq 2020" or "collection eq Default.Collection'Act' and isPrincipal eq true".

## `select` (type: `string`):

Comma-separated OData $select, e.g. "id,name,makingDate,collection,status". Leave empty for full rows.

## `orderby` (type: `string`):

OData $orderby, e.g. "makingDate desc" or "name asc".

## `titleIds` (type: `array`):

Fetch specific titles by register ID, e.g. \["C2004A00748"]. Overrides the search.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Cap on number of titles returned by the search.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "search": "Privacy",
  "collection": "",
  "status": "",
  "maxResults": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

All rows produced by this run, as JSON.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "search": "Privacy"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ponderable_hydrometer/australia-legislation-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "search": "Privacy" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ponderable_hydrometer/australia-legislation-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "search": "Privacy"
}' |
apify call ponderable_hydrometer/australia-legislation-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,ponderable_hydrometer/australia-legislation-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/MpGGHv5yLPY1N7Kl9/builds/TP1SSymBkMkvndDPS/openapi.json