{"id":"tas:act-1999-28A","name":"National Electricity (Tasmania) Law","slug":"national-electricity-tasmania-law","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"tas","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":"28A of 1999","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":105902,"registerId":"tas-act-1999-28A-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-03","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Commencement","content":"### 1 Commencement\n\n> The provisions of the [National Electricity Law](/view/html/inforce/2026-04-12/act-1999-28A) were applied as a law of Tasmania on 29 May 2005.","sortOrder":0},{"sectionNumber":"2","sectionType":"section","heading":"Further information","content":"### 2 Further information\n\n> The full text of the National Electricity Law is set out in the Schedule to the *National Electricity (South Australia) Act 1996* of South Australia (click on INFORMATION for a link to South Australian legislation). See the [Electricity - National Scheme (Tasmania) Act 1999](/view/html/inforce/2026-04-12/act-1999-028) for modifications to the National Electricity Law as it applies in Tasmania.","sortOrder":1}],"analysis":{"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The instrument does not change the scope of the NEL itself; it simply applies the NEL as a law of Tasmania (s 1) and directs readers to the source text and Tasmanian modifications (s 2). Any substantive scope effects flow from the referenced NEL and the Tasmania Act that modifies it, not from this instrument."},"complexity_factors":["Very short instrument (two clauses) with no substantive provisions of its own","Incorporation by reference to the National Electricity Law in the South Australian Act requires cross-referencing external legislation","Application depends on separate Tasmanian modifications in the Electricity - National Scheme (Tasmania) Act 1999","Legal effect and interpretation hinge on text and amendments of the referenced NEL and SA Act schedule rather than this instrument","Potential hidden complexity arises from future amendments to the referenced Acts and interaction between jurisdictions"],"plain_english_summary":"This instrument makes the National Electricity Law (NEL) part of Tasmanian law, effective 29 May 2005, so the NEL’s rules apply in Tasmania. The full NEL text is contained in the Schedule to the National Electricity (South Australia) Act 1996, and Tasmania’s own Electricity - National Scheme (Tasmania) Act 1999 lists how the NEL is modified for use in Tasmania.\n\nIt affects Tasmanian electricity businesses, consumers and regulators by shifting compliance and operational decisions to the national law as modified for Tasmania."},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This legislation has remained true to its original purpose as an application statute. It was always intended to be a brief mechanism for adopting the National Electricity Law in Tasmania, not to contain substantive regulatory content itself."},"complexity_factors":["Only 2 operative provisions, both purely informational","No defined terms","No substantive rules — entirely refers to external legislation","No conditional logic, exceptions, or cross-references within the text itself","Functions as a legislative pointer rather than a regulatory scheme"],"plain_english_summary":"This is a **short reference law** that brings Tasmania into Australia's national electricity market.\n\n**What it does:**\n- **Adopts** the National Electricity Law (a set of rules governing Australia's electricity market) and makes it apply in Tasmania as if it were Tasmanian law.\n- **Points you elsewhere** for the actual rules — the full detailed law lives in South Australia's *National Electricity (South Australia) Act 1996*, and any special Tasmanian tweaks are in Tasmania's *Electricity - National Scheme (Tasmania) Act 1999*.\n\n**Who it affects:**\n- Tasmanian electricity generators, networks, retailers, and large consumers who participate in the National Electricity Market (NEM).\n- Anyone wanting to understand electricity regulation in Tasmania — though they'll need to look at the South Australian and Tasmanian modification laws to get the full picture.\n\n**Why it matters:**\nWithout this law, Tasmania wouldn't be part of the national electricity market. This \"application law\" is the legal mechanism that allows one state's laws (South Australia's) to operate in another state (Tasmania) under Australia's cooperative federalism arrangements. It's essentially a legal adaptor plug."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"self_contradicting","section":"Status Information / Notes","severity":"medium","reasoning":"A document cannot credibly claim currency 'to date' (April 2026) if the underlying file was last modified in July 2017. The site's own disclaimer that legislation is 'usually updated within 3 working days after a change' is rendered meaningless if the file itself has not been modified in approximately nine years, suggesting either the document has genuinely not changed (plausible but unverifiable from this text) or the currency claim is unreliable.","confidence":0.72,"description":"The legislation claims to be 'current from 29 May 2005 to date (accessed 3 April 2026 at 13:47)' while the file is stated to have been 'last modified 5 July 2017'. This means the legislation purports to be current and up-to-date through 2026, yet the authoritative file has not been touched since 2017, creating a near-decade gap where currency cannot be verified."},{"type":"other","section":"Notes / Section 6 of the Electricity - National Scheme (Tasmania) Act 1999","severity":"medium","reasoning":"While inter-jurisdictional adoption of legislation is a known and intentional cooperative legislative technique, adopting a law 'as in force from time to time' means the content of Tasmanian law is ambulatory and controlled entirely by the South Australian Parliament. Any amendment South Australia makes automatically becomes Tasmanian law. This raises a logical tension: Tasmanian citizens are bound by laws they had no democratic input into, and the Tasmanian Parliament cannot be said to have meaningfully enacted the specific rules that actually bind Tasmanians at any given future point.","confidence":0.65,"description":"The Tasmanian law does not actually contain any substantive legal content of its own. It is entirely a shell that adopts, by reference, South Australian legislation 'as in force from time to time'. This means the operative law of Tasmania in this domain is perpetually and automatically determined by a foreign jurisdiction's legislature without any further Tasmanian parliamentary act, creating a situation where Tasmanian law changes without Tasmanian legislative action."},{"type":"other","section":"Document Structure / All Headings","severity":"low","reasoning":"While this is likely a rendering or formatting artefact rather than a substantive legal defect, a published version of legislation with duplicated headings throughout creates genuine ambiguity about document integrity and raises questions about whether the published version accurately reflects the enacted instrument. For a document whose currency and accuracy is itself the subject of a formal disclaimer, this structural failure undermines confidence in the authoritative nature of the text.","confidence":0.85,"description":"Every heading and section title in the document is duplicated verbatim (e.g., 'Status Information Status Information', 'Currency of version Currency of version', 'Notes Notes'). The document is structured such that it is impossible to determine which instance of any heading is authoritative."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Currency of version — 'Version current from 29 May 2005 to date (accessed 3 April 2026 at 13:47)'","section_b":"Authorisation — 'File last modified 5 July 2017'","confidence":0.75,"description":"The document simultaneously asserts it is current as of April 2026 and that the file was last modified in July 2017. If the file has not been modified since 2017, the claim of currency through 2026 is unsupported. If amendments have occurred since 2017, the file modification date is wrong. Both claims cannot be simultaneously true if any legislative change occurred in the intervening ~9 years."},{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Currency disclaimer — 'Legislation on this site is usually updated within 3 working days after a change to the legislation'","section_b":"Notes — 'the National Electricity Law, as in force from time to time, set out in the Schedule to the National Electricity (South Australia) Act 1996 of South Australia, applies'","confidence":0.68,"description":"The site promises updates within 3 working days of legislative changes. However, because the operative content of this law is the South Australian Schedule 'as in force from time to time', any South Australian amendment instantly becomes part of Tasmanian law by operation of the adopting provision — before the Tasmanian site could possibly update. The 3-working-day update promise is therefore structurally impossible to honour with respect to the actual operative content of this law."}]},"summary":{"complexity_score":7,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation appears to have remained true to its original intent: to apply the National Electricity Law as a law of Tasmania by reference to the South Australian Act. It has been in continuous force since 29 May 2005 with amendments tracked separately, but the core mechanism — adopting the national scheme with modifications — has not changed in scope."},"complexity_factors":["Referential/ambulatory legislation — the law doesn't stand alone but continuously incorporates a separate South Australian Act by reference, meaning readers must consult multiple documents across two jurisdictions","Automatic updating mechanism — because Tasmania's law adopts the South Australian law 'as in force from time to time', the content of Tasmania's law changes whenever South Australia's changes, without a separate Tasmanian parliamentary process","Tasmanian modifications layer — unspecified modifications apply on top of the South Australian base law, requiring readers to identify and reconcile differences","Underpins a highly complex technical regulatory regime — the National Electricity Market involves intricate rules on pricing, dispatch, network access, and market ancillary services","Multiple regulatory bodies involved — AEMO, AER, AEMC and state-specific bodies all have overlapping roles, which this legislation feeds into","Intergovernmental cooperative scheme — the law is part of a broader Council of Australian Governments (COAG) energy reform framework, adding constitutional and intergovernmental complexity","Limited standalone content — this document is largely a status/pointer document, making it difficult to understand the actual law without accessing the South Australian source and the National Electricity Rules"],"plain_english_summary":"Tasmania has adopted South Australia’s National Electricity Law (with local tweaks), making the national electricity rulebook apply in Tasmania so the state participates in the shared eastern–southern grid.  \n\nThat change binds Tasmanian generators, network operators, retailers and consumers to the national framework, giving consistent regulation, national oversight (AEMO/AER) and uniform market rules for pricing, reliability and competition."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/national-electricity-tasmania-law","history":"/api/acts/national-electricity-tasmania-law/history","analysis":"/api/acts/national-electricity-tasmania-law/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/national-electricity-tasmania-law/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/national-electricity-tasmania-law/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/national-electricity-tasmania-law/documents"}}