{"id":"C1972A00137","name":"Customs Tariff Validation Act (No. 2) 1972","slug":"customs-tariff-validation-act-no-2-1972","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"repealed","isInForce":false,"actNumber":"137 of 1972","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":2519,"registerId":"commonwealth-C1972A00137-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-29","status":"Repealed","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Customs Tariff Validation Act (No. 2) 1972","content":"Customs Tariff Validation (No. 2)\n\nNo. 137 of 1972\n\nAn Act to provide for the Validation of Collections of Duties of Customs under Customs Tariff Proposals.\n\n\\[Assented to 2 November 1972\\]\n\nBE it enacted by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows:—\n\nShort title.\n\n1. This Act may be cited as the Customs Tariff Validation Act (No. 2) 1972.\n\nCommencement.\n\n2. This Act shall come into operation on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.\n\nValidation of collections under Customs Tariff Proposals.\n\n3. All duties of Customs demanded or collected before the thirtieth day of June, One thousand nine hundred and seventy-two, pursuant to Customs Tariff Proposals introduced into the House of Representatives on the twenty-fifth day of May, One thousand nine hundred and seventy-two or on the fifteenth day of August, One thousand nine hundred and seventy-two, shall be deemed to have been lawfully imposed and lawfully demanded or collected.","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"kimi_summary":{"_metrics":{"model":"kimi-k2.5","source":"moonshot-batch","completionTokens":2206},"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation maintains its narrow, original scope of validating specific historical customs duty collections from 1972, exactly as described in the title and preamble."},"complexity_factors":["Only 3 operative sections","No definitions or interpretation provisions","Single, straightforward validation mechanism","No cross-references to other Acts","Clear date-based conditions with no nested exceptions"],"plain_english_summary":"**What this law does**\n\nThis Act validates (declares lawful) customs duties that were collected in mid-1972 under temporary parliamentary proposals, ensuring those tax collections cannot be legally challenged.\n\n**Who it affects**\n\n- **Businesses and importers** who paid customs duties between May and June 1972\n- The **Australian Government**, which collected these revenues\n\n**Why it matters**\n\nUnder normal procedures, customs duties must be set by formal legislation. However, the government sometimes collects duties based on \"Customs Tariff Proposals\" (temporary announcements in Parliament) before the formal laws are passed. This Act removes any legal doubt about those collections by deeming them **lawfully imposed and collected**.\n\n**Specific coverage**\n\nThe validation applies to duties:\n- **Collected before** 30 June 1972\n- Collected under proposals introduced on **25 May 1972** or **15 August 1972**"},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"Section 3","severity":"high","reasoning":"Section 3 creates a temporal paradox: it purports to validate duties demanded or collected before 30 June 1972, where some of those duties were supposedly collected pursuant to Customs Tariff Proposals introduced on 15 August 1972. The August proposals post-date the June collection deadline by 46 days. It is a logical impossibility for duties collected before 30 June 1972 to have been collected 'pursuant to' proposals that were not introduced until 15 August 1972. No duty collector could act pursuant to a legal instrument that did not yet exist. The provision either (a) inadvertently sweeps in the August proposals through drafting error when it meant only the May proposals, or (b) attempts a legal fiction so strained as to be meaningless — you cannot retrospectively create the causal link of 'pursuant to' between a collection and a later-introduced proposal.","confidence":0.95,"description":"The Act validates duties collected before 30 June 1972 pursuant to Customs Tariff Proposals introduced on 15 August 1972 — a date that had not yet occurred when the earlier collection deadline passed. Duties cannot have been collected 'pursuant to' proposals that did not yet exist at the time of collection."}],"contradictions":[]},"summary":{"complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This Act does exactly what its title says — nothing more, nothing less. It validates a specific, narrowly defined set of customs duty collections tied to two specific Tariff Proposals over a fixed historical period. There is no evidence of scope creep or expansion beyond the original validating purpose."},"complexity_factors":["Only 3 operative sections","Single substantive clause (section 3) with no conditions, exceptions, or cross-references","No defined terms beyond the Act's short title","No conditional logic or nested provisions","Plain declaratory language with no ambiguity"],"plain_english_summary":"This validating Act retroactively confirms that customs duties charged under temporary Customs Tariff Proposals tabled on 25 May and 15 August 1972 (and collected up to 30 June 1972) were lawfully imposed and collected. It removes any legal ground for importers to challenge or seek refunds for those charges and secures the Commonwealth’s revenue by curing the temporary gap between announced tariff changes and their formal enactment."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/customs-tariff-validation-act-no-2-1972","history":"/api/acts/customs-tariff-validation-act-no-2-1972/history","analysis":"/api/acts/customs-tariff-validation-act-no-2-1972/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/customs-tariff-validation-act-no-2-1972/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/customs-tariff-validation-act-no-2-1972/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/customs-tariff-validation-act-no-2-1972/documents"}}