Statute law
Statute law is made by parliament. In the Australian Parliament, a bill is a proposal for a new law or a change to an existing one. A bill becomes a law after it has been passed in the same form by the House of Representatives and the Senate and is given Royal Assent by the Governor-General. It is then called an Act of Parliament.
For a bill to be passed, it must be agreed to by a majority vote in both houses of Parliament. A bill may also be sent to a parliamentary committee for further investigation before being voted on by the Parliament.
Common law
Common law is made by judges in a court, using precedent – decisions made in previous similar cases – to decide how they will judge a case before them. If no past cases with similar circumstances exist, a new decision is made, which would then become a precedent for a future similar case. If no statute law applies to cover a particular situation, common law will apply; however, statute law always overrides common law.
Australia inherited its system of common law from Britain. The name comes from the idea that common law applied to everyone in society, not just those—such as religious ministers—who had particular rules relating to them.