{"id":"C2004A04570","name":"Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (Environmental Management Charge—General) Act 1993","slug":"great-barrier-reef-marine-park-environmental-management-charge-general-act-1993","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":"15 of 1993","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":26858,"registerId":"commonwealth-C2004A04570-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-01","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Short title [see Note 1]","content":"#### 1 Short title \\[see Note 1\\]\n\n  This Act may be cited as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (Environmental Management Charge—General) Act 1993.","sortOrder":0},{"sectionNumber":"2","sectionType":"section","heading":"Commencement [see Note 1]","content":"#### 2 Commencement \\[see Note 1\\]\n\n  This Act commences, or is taken to have commenced, as the case requires, on the commencement of Part VA of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975.","sortOrder":1},{"sectionNumber":"3","sectionType":"section","heading":"Application of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975","content":"#### 3 Application of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975\n\n  Sections 4 and 5 of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975 apply in relation to this Act in a corresponding way to the way in which they apply in relation to that Act.","sortOrder":2},{"sectionNumber":"4","sectionType":"section","heading":"Imposition of charge","content":"#### 4 Imposition of charge\n\n  (1) Charge payable in accordance with section 39B of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975 is imposed.\n  (2) This section imposes charge only so far as that charge is neither a duty of customs nor a duty of excise within the meaning of section 55 of the Constitution.","sortOrder":3}],"analysis":{"summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act does exactly what its title suggests — it imposes the environmental management charge (general category) as contemplated by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975. There is no evidence of scope creep or deviation from its original, narrow purpose of providing the constitutional and legislative authority to collect this charge."},"complexity_factors":["Very short Act with only 4 sections — minimal content to interpret","Relies heavily on a separate Act (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975) for substantive detail, requiring cross-referencing","Includes a constitutional law reference (section 55 of the Constitution regarding duties of customs and excise) that requires background knowledge to fully understand","Incorporates provisions of another Act by reference rather than spelling them out directly"],"plain_english_summary":"## Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (Environmental Management Charge—General) Act 1993\n\nThis is a short, technical piece of legislation that **officially imposes a fee** on certain activities in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.\n\n### What does it do?\nIt gives legal authority to collect an **Environmental Management Charge** — essentially a user fee paid by people and businesses who hold permits to operate commercially in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (think tour operators, charter boat companies, and similar businesses).\n\nThe actual rules about *who* pays, *how much*, and *when* are set out in a separate, larger law — the **Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975**. This Act simply pulls the trigger to make that charge legally valid and collectible.\n\n### The constitutional fine print\nThe Act includes a clause (section 4(2)) clarifying that this charge is **not a customs or excise duty** — those are specific types of taxes under the Australian Constitution (section 55) that must be handled differently by Parliament. This wording is a standard legal safeguard to make sure the charge holds up if ever challenged in court.\n\n### Who does this affect?\n- **Commercial operators** in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (e.g., tourism and dive operators) who hold permits and pay this charge\n- **The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority**, which collects and uses these funds to help manage and protect the reef\n- **Everyday Australians and tourists** benefit indirectly, as the charge funds reef protection\n\n### Why does it matter?\nWithout this Act, the environmental management charge couldn't be legally collected. It's the formal legal 'on switch' for a key funding mechanism that helps protect one of Australia's most iconic natural assets."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"circular_definition","section":"2","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Section 2 provides that this Act commences on the commencement of Part VA of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975. If Part VA never commences, or was repealed before commencement, this Act would never commence and the charge imposed by section 4 would never be validly imposed. The phrase 'is taken to have commenced' suggests retrospective operation is anticipated, but no mechanism is provided within this Act to determine when or whether that condition is satisfied. The Act's operative effect is entirely hostage to external legislative events with no internal resolution mechanism.","confidence":0.72,"description":"Circular/contingent commencement tied to an external Act's Part commencement with no fallback"},{"type":"other","section":"4(2)","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Section 4(2) carves out any amount that constitutes a duty of customs or excise under s55 of the Constitution. However, the Act provides no companion legislation that imposes the charge to the extent it IS a duty of customs or excise. If the charge is characterised (in whole or in part) as a customs or excise duty, that portion is simply not imposed by any Act, meaning the obligation created by s39B of the parent Act would be partially or wholly unenforceable. The drafters appear to have assumed a companion Act exists or will exist, but this Act itself leaves that gap unaddressed internally.","confidence":0.78,"description":"Self-limiting imposition clause creates potential enforcement vacuum"},{"type":"other","section":"3","severity":"low","reasoning":"Section 3 applies sections 4 and 5 of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975 'in a corresponding way' to this Act without specifying what correspondence means in context. If sections 4 or 5 of the parent Act are amended or repealed, the content of section 3 of this Act changes silently and without any parliamentary scrutiny of this Act. This creates a logical flaw where the operative content of a provision of this Act is entirely determined by external and changeable legislative text.","confidence":0.65,"description":"Incorporation by reference of undefined operational scope"}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"medium","section_a":"2","section_b":"4(1)","confidence":0.68,"description":"Section 4(1) imposes a charge in mandatory terms ('is imposed'), yet section 2 conditions the entire Act's commencement on the commencement of Part VA of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975. If Part VA commenced retrospectively or with a delay, there is a logical tension between the unconditional language of imposition in s4(1) and the contingent commencement in s2 — the charge purports to exist absolutely but the Act creating it may not legally exist at the relevant time without the retrospective savings phrase doing considerable unacknowledged work."}]},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"Based on the text of this Act alone, the legislative scope is narrow and specific: it imposes the environmental management charge set out in section 39B of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975, applies sections 4 and 5 of that Act in a corresponding way, and excludes any operation that would amount to a customs or excise duty under the Constitution (s 4, s 3, s 4(2)). The Act itself contains no indication that its scope has been altered from any prior or original provision; it functions as a focused statutory instrument that brings the charge into effect subject to the referenced limits and commencement condition (s 2)."},"complexity_factors":["Short length with few operative provisions, making the core rule simple (imposition of charge) (s 4).","Cross‑references to external provisions: it relies on section 39B of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975 for the substantive liability and on sections 4 and 5 of that Act for procedural application, requiring consultation of other statutes to understand full operation (s 4, s 3).","Reference to constitutional limitation (duty of customs or excise under section 55 of the Constitution) introduces legal interpretive complexity beyond the Act's text (s 4(2)).","Commencement is tied to another Part of a separate Act (Part VA of the 1975 Act), so timing of effect depends on external commencement events (s 2)."],"plain_english_summary":"The Act makes payable the “environmental management charge” set out in section 39B of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975, taking effect when Part VA of that Act commences. It imports the procedural application of sections 4 and 5 of the 1975 Act and expressly excludes the charge to the extent it would be a customs or excise duty.\n\nIt therefore imposes a statutory payment obligation on the persons liable under s39B, shifting direct costs to those payers while administration and enforcement follow the 1975 Act’s rules."},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This legislation has remained tightly focused on its original purpose since 1993. It was always intended as a technical companion statute to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975, existing solely to validly impose the environmental management charge under constitutional constraints. There is no evidence of scope creep; the Act contains no substantive policy provisions, only the charge imposition mechanism."},"complexity_factors":["Extremely short — only 4 operative sections","No defined terms section; relies entirely on definitions in the parent 1975 Act","Single substantive provision (section 4) with straightforward conditional limitation","No nested exceptions or complex cross-referencing beyond the single reference to section 39B of the 1975 Act and section 55 of the Constitution","Purpose is purely technical/constitutional — imposes charge while explicitly excluding customs/excise duties to satisfy s 55 of the Constitution"],"plain_english_summary":"This law creates a **fee system** for people and businesses using the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.\n\n**What it does:**\n- **Imposes a charge** (basically a fee or tax) on certain activities in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park\n- The charge is collected under rules set out in a different law — the *Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975*\n- This specific law exists for a technical constitutional reason: to make sure the charge is legally valid under Australia's Constitution\n\n**Why the constitutional fuss?**\nSection 55 of the Australian Constitution says that laws imposing taxes must only deal with one type of tax at a time. This law carefully limits itself to charges that are **not** customs duties or excise duties (types of taxes on imports and goods). This separation ensures the charge doesn't accidentally breach constitutional rules.\n\n**Who it affects:**\n- Tourists and tourism operators using the Marine Park (through permit fees)\n- Anyone else required to pay the environmental management charge under the 1975 Act\n\n**Why it matters:**\nThe money raised helps fund the protection and management of the Great Barrier Reef — one of Australia's most important natural assets. Without this law, there would be no secure legal basis to collect those fees."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/great-barrier-reef-marine-park-environmental-management-charge-general-act-1993","history":"/api/acts/great-barrier-reef-marine-park-environmental-management-charge-general-act-1993/history","analysis":"/api/acts/great-barrier-reef-marine-park-environmental-management-charge-general-act-1993/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/great-barrier-reef-marine-park-environmental-management-charge-general-act-1993/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/great-barrier-reef-marine-park-environmental-management-charge-general-act-1993/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/great-barrier-reef-marine-park-environmental-management-charge-general-act-1993/documents"}}