{"id":"C2004A01238","name":"National Residue Survey Customs Levy Rate Correction (Lamb Exports) Act 2004","slug":"national-residue-survey-customs-levy-rate-correction-lamb-exports-act-2004","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"repealed","isInForce":false,"actNumber":"3 of 2004","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":6150,"registerId":"commonwealth-C2004A01238-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-30","status":"Repealed","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"National Residue Survey Customs Levy Rate Correction (Lamb Exports) Act 2004","content":"---\nmeta-content-style-type: text/css\nmeta-content-type: application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8\n---\n\n?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\" standalone=\"no\"?>\n\n![](image.001.png)\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nNational Residue Survey Customs Levy Rate Correction (Lamb Exports) Act 2004\n\n \n\nNo. 3, 2004\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nAn Act to correct the rate of National Residue Survey Customs Levy on certain exports of lambs\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nContents\n\n1 Short title\n\n2 Commencement\n\n3 Definitions\n\n4 Value exceeding $75 per head—correction of rate of levy from 1 July 2000 to 30 May 2003\n\n \n\n \n\n![](image.001.png)\n\n \n\n \n\nNational Residue Survey Customs Levy Rate Correction (Lamb Exports) Act 2004\n\nNo. 3, 2004\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nAn Act to correct the rate of National Residue Survey Customs Levy on certain exports of lambs\n\n[Assented to 27 February 2004]\n\nThe Parliament of Australia enacts:\n\n1  Short title\n\n  This Act may be cited as the National Residue Survey Customs Levy Rate Correction (Lamb Exports) Act 2004.\n\n2  Commencement\n\n  This Act commences on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.\n\n3  Definitions\n\n  In this Act:\n\nlamb has the same meaning as it had in Schedule 5 to the Levy Act as in force immediately before 30 May 2003.\n\nLevy Act means the National Residue Survey (Customs) Levy Act 1998.\n\nLevy Regulations means the Primary Industries Levies and Charges (National Residue Survey Levies) Regulations 1998.\n\nvalue has the same meaning as it had for regulation 239 of the Levy Regulations as in force immediately before 30 May 2003.\n\n4  Value exceeding $75 per head—correction of rate of levy from 1 July 2000 to 30 May 2003\n\n (1) This section applies in relation to an export of lambs during the period starting on 1 July 2000 and ending immediately before 30 May 2003 if the value of the lambs was more than $75 per head.\n\n (2) For the purposes of subclause 3(1) of Schedule 5 to the Levy Act, the rate of levy on the export is taken to be, and always to have been, 8 cents per head.\n\n (3) Subsection (2) has effect despite the provisions of the Levy Act and the Levy Regulations as in force before 30 May 2003.\n\n \n\n [Minister’s second reading speech made in—\n\nHouse of Representatives on 26 November 2003\n\nSenate on 10 February 2004]\n\n(166/03)\n\n \n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"4","severity":"medium","reasoning":"A levy rate correction applied retrospectively to a closed period creates an impossible compliance situation for exporters: they cannot go back and restructure transactions, renegotiate contracts, or adjust prices for lamb already exported and sold years earlier. While retroactive fiscal legislation is not unprecedented in Australian law, the practical effect here is that liability is re-assessed for conduct that was entirely completed under a different (albeit erroneous) rate — meaning affected parties had no opportunity to comply with the 'corrected' rate at the time it nominally applied.","confidence":0.82,"description":"Section 4 purports to 'correct' the rate of levy for a period (1 July 2000 to 30 May 2003) that had already concluded nearly a year before the Act received assent in 2004. Affected parties cannot retroactively alter their conduct, pricing, or commercial decisions made during that historical window."},{"type":"other","section":"4","severity":"low","reasoning":"Australian primary industry levy legislation almost universally uses financial-year or calendar-month end dates (e.g. 30 June, 31 May). A terminus of 30 May is anomalous and may itself be a drafting error in an Act whose entire purpose is to correct a prior drafting error, which would be grimly ironic. If the correct end date should be 31 May 2003, there is a one-day gap in coverage; if it should be 30 June 2003, the gap is a full month.","confidence":0.65,"description":"The corrective period runs from '1 July 2000 to 30 May 2003' — an oddly specific end date of 30 May (not 31 May or 30 June, which would align with standard Australian financial or levy year boundaries). This raises the question of whether the period boundary is itself erroneous, potentially creating a one-day gap or overlap with whatever instrument it corrects."},{"type":"self_contradicting","section":"2","severity":"low","reasoning":"There is an inherent tension between a prospective commencement (2004) and a retrospective operative provision (2000–2003). While this is a known legislative technique, it creates a logical oddity: the Act did not exist when the conduct it regulates occurred, yet it purports to govern that conduct. The commencement section thus simultaneously defines when the Act exists and implicitly acknowledges it is regulating a period during which it did not exist.","confidence":0.6,"description":"The commencement provision of an Act whose sole operative section (s.4) applies retrospectively from 1 July 2000 means the Act formally commences in 2004 but purports to have legal effect reaching back almost four years. The Act corrects something that, by definition, was already wrong and cannot be un-wrong for the intervening period without retrospective force — yet the commencement section presumably does not itself commence on 1 July 2000."}],"contradictions":[]},"summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This Act does not expand or change the scope of the underlying levy legislation. It is a narrow, surgical correction to a specific rate error for a defined period and commodity. Its sole purpose is to validate what was intended all along — the correct levy rate on exported lamb valued over $75 per head. There is no evidence of scope creep or mission expansion."},"complexity_factors":["Very short Act — only 4 sections","Narrow and specific subject matter limited to one commodity (lamb exports)","Single defined terms section suggesting minimal definitional complexity","One operative provision (section 4) dealing with a single rate correction","Retrospective application adds a minor layer of legal nuance but does not create conditional logic or cross-referencing complexity","No apparent exceptions, exceptions to exceptions, or cascading conditions"],"plain_english_summary":"This Act fixes a drafting error that meant the National Residue Survey levy on exported lamb valued over $75 per head was calculated at the wrong rate for the period 1 July 2000 to 30 May 2003.  \n\nIt retrospectively validates the correct levy rate for that specific commodity, value threshold and date range, affecting affected lamb exporters and the Commonwealth’s prior collections."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/national-residue-survey-customs-levy-rate-correction-lamb-exports-act-2004","history":"/api/acts/national-residue-survey-customs-levy-rate-correction-lamb-exports-act-2004/history","analysis":"/api/acts/national-residue-survey-customs-levy-rate-correction-lamb-exports-act-2004/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/national-residue-survey-customs-levy-rate-correction-lamb-exports-act-2004/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/national-residue-survey-customs-levy-rate-correction-lamb-exports-act-2004/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/national-residue-survey-customs-levy-rate-correction-lamb-exports-act-2004/documents"}}