Government and legal

In-text citation

Spell out the full name of the Australian Bureau of Statistics the first time you use it, as follows; then use the shortened form ABS from then on.

References

Provide:

• the name Australian Bureau of Statistics in full
• the ABS catalogue number, where relevant
• each ABS article or report as a unique reference list entry.

In-text citation

• Cite individual authors if they are listed; however, in most cases the author will be a department or agency.
• When multiple layers of government agencies are listed as the author, cite the most specific agency as the author.
• Only include the parent agency/government in the author position when it helps to avoid confusion between two similar names
  (e.g. Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services vs. U.S Department of Health and Human Services).

In subsequent citations, you can use the abbreviated form:

References

• When multiple layers of government agencies are listed as the author, cite the most specific agency as the author.
• Only include the parent agency in the author position when necessary to avoid confusion between two similar names (e.g. Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services vs. U.S Department of Health and Human Services).
• The name of a parent agency can be provided as the publisher. Multiple agencies are separated by commas.

Government web document

Government report with series or catalogue number

• If a report number, series number or catalogue number is available, place in brackets after the title.

Other government source types

Provide a description of the source format in square brackets after the title, but only where it might assist the reader in identifying less typical source types. For example: [Fact sheet], [Press release] or [White paper].

Please read this before citing legal sources in APA7

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association does not provide advice on how to provide references for Australian legislation or cases. This guide is based on the limited advice provided on US legal sources.

Examples of reference list entries for Australian cases and legislation in this guide are based on the Melbourne University Law Review Association’s Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed.).

For further examples of how to include Australian legal sources in a reference list, follow the advice in the Deakin Guide to Referencing: AGLC.

For further advice around citing legal sources in APA7, see:

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-00

In-text citation

• Include the title of the Act and the year.
• Italicise the title of the Act.

References

For Australian legislation, provide:

• The title of an Act including the year, both italicised.
• The jurisdiction, e.g. “Cth” = Commonwealth, “Vic” = Victoria.
• A pinpoint, which is a specific section in the Act – provide where relevant, e.g. “pt” = part, “sch” = schedule, “div” = division).  See Deakin’s AGLC for further examples of pinpoints.

In-text citation

• Include the case name and year.
• Italicise the case name.

References

• Case name
  Provide the full name of the case in italics.
• Year 
  Note that for cases both round and square brackets are used around the year. Copy the reference details as they appear in your source.  
  - Use square brackets if case has a unique court identifier or if law report volume is organised by year.  
  - Use round brackets if law report is organised by continuous volume numbers.
• Unique court identifier OR Law report series
  See Rule 2.3.1 and Appendix B of the AGLC for a list of unique court identifiers. 
  See Appendix A of the AGLC for abbreviations for law reports.
• Judgment number
  Include only if the case has a unique identifier and is not reported in a law report.
• Pinpoint
  If required, refer to the paragraph number if there is a unique court identifier; and refer to page number from a law report.

Case with a unique court identifier

Case without a unique court identifier (from a law report series) 

• Note: where a case does not use a unique court identifier in the citation, it has come from a law report series.