{"id":"C2004A01239","name":"National Residue Survey Excise Levy Rate Correction (Lamb Transactions) Act 2004","slug":"national-residue-survey-excise-levy-rate-correction-lamb-transactions-act-2004","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"repealed","isInForce":false,"actNumber":"4 of 2004","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":6155,"registerId":"commonwealth-C2004A01239-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-30","status":"Repealed","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"National Residue Survey Excise Levy Rate Correction (Lamb Transactions) 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 Excise Levy Rate Correction (Lamb Transactions) Act 2004\n\n \n\nNo. 4, 2004\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nAn Act to correct the rate of National Residue Survey Excise Levy on certain sales of lambs\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nContents\n\n1 Short title\n\n2 Commencement\n\n3 Definitions\n\n4 Sale price 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 Excise Levy Rate Correction (Lamb Transactions) Act 2004\n\nNo. 4, 2004\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nAn Act to correct the rate of National Residue Survey Excise Levy on certain sales 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 Excise Levy Rate Correction (Lamb Transactions) 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 15 to the Levy Act as in force immediately before 30 May 2003.\n\nLevy Act means the National Residue Survey (Excise) Levy Act 1998.\n\nLevy Regulations means the Primary Industries Levies and Charges (National Residue Survey Levies) Regulations 1998.\n\nsale has the same meaning as it had for regulation 240 of the Levy Regulations as in force immediately before 30 May 2003.\n\nsale price has the same meaning as it had for regulation 240 of the Levy Regulations as in force immediately before 30 May 2003.\n\n4  Sale price 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 a sale of lambs during the period starting on 1 July 2000 and ending immediately before 30 May 2003 if the sale price of the lambs was more than $75 per head.\n\n (2) For the purposes of paragraph 3(1)(a) of Schedule 15 to the Levy Act, the rate of levy on the sale is taken to be, and always to have been:\n\n (a) for a sale on or after 1 July 2000 and before 16 November 2001—4 cents per head; or\n\n (b) for a sale on or after 16 November 2001 and before 30 May 2003—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(161/03)\n\n \n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This Act does not expand or alter the scope of the National Residue Survey levy framework. It is a precise, retrospective technical correction to a single levy rate for a single commodity over a defined historical period. Its purpose is entirely consistent with the original intent of the NRS levy legislation — ensuring the correct rate is applied to lamb transactions. No new policy objectives, regulated parties, or enforcement mechanisms were introduced."},"complexity_factors":["Very short Act — only 4 sections in total","Narrow, single-purpose scope limited to one levy rate correction","Applies to one specific commodity (lamb) and one price threshold ($75 per head)","Fixed historical time window (1 July 2000 to 30 May 2003) with no ongoing conditional logic","Minimal defined terms — only a small definitions section (s.3)","No cross-referencing to complex regulatory schemes beyond the parent levy legislation","Retrospective operation adds a minor layer of legal technicality but does not significantly complicate the text"],"plain_english_summary":"The Act is a narrow, retrospective fix that corrects an error in the National Residue Survey excise levy rate applied to lamb sales over $75 per head between 1 July 2000 and 30 May 2003. It affects lamb sellers and levy administrators by clarifying the legally correct historical levy amount, with potential refund or recovery implications."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"4","severity":"high","reasoning":"Transactions occurring between 1 July 2000 and 30 May 2003 were completed years before this Act came into force. Livestock sellers and buyers who transacted lamb above $75 per head during that window had already either paid or not paid the levy at the original rate. While retrospective legislation is not per se unlawful in Australia, purporting to 'correct' a rate retroactively creates an impossible compliance situation: affected parties cannot go back in time to pay at the corrected rate, and the mechanism for clawback or refund (if any) is entirely absent from the visible text of the Act, making the correction unenforceable as a practical matter.","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 approximately 9 months before the Act received assent in early 2004. The Act cannot retroactively alter the legal obligations that existed during that period for parties who had already complied, paid, or been assessed under the original rate."},{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"2","severity":"medium","reasoning":"A commencement provision ordinarily triggers the Act's legal effect going forward. Here, 100% of the substantive operative period (1 July 2000 – 30 May 2003) predates commencement. The Act has no prospective operation whatsoever — it exists solely to alter completed historical facts. While this is legally possible through retrospective legislation, the interaction between s.2 (commencement) and s.4 (the operative period) reveals the structural oddity that the Act, the moment it commences, is already entirely spent.","confidence":0.75,"description":"The commencement provision of an Act whose sole operative section (s.4) applies exclusively to a period ending 30 May 2003 — roughly nine months before the Act's own commencement — means the Act commences after all the events it regulates have already occurred. The Act is operationally stillborn: it begins to operate at a point in time when there is nothing left for it to prospectively govern."},{"type":"other","section":"4","severity":"medium","reasoning":"A levy rate correction that does not state the corrected rate, or that defines it solely by reference to an external instrument that may itself have been amended, creates a circular or indeterminate obligation. Persons seeking to comply with or audit past transactions under the corrected rate would have no self-contained legal instrument to consult.","confidence":0.55,"description":"The section heading references a threshold of '$75 per head' for lamb transactions, but without the full legislative text being available, it is impossible to determine whether the corrected rate itself is defined within the Act or cross-referenced to another instrument. If the rate is not specified on the face of the Act, the 'correction' is legally incomplete — parties cannot know what rate they were supposed to have paid."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"high","section_a":"2","section_b":"4","confidence":0.78,"description":"Section 2 (Commencement) brings the Act into force in 2004, while Section 4 (the sole operative provision) applies exclusively to a historical period ending 30 May 2003. These two sections are in irreconcilable temporal tension: the Act commences after every single event it purports to regulate has already occurred, meaning commencement triggers no prospective legal effect whatsoever. The corrective purpose of s.4 is undermined by the absence of any mechanism in the Act to give retrospective effect to the rate correction — such as a repayment, recovery, or reassessment scheme — making the interplay between commencement and operative effect internally inconsistent."}]}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/national-residue-survey-excise-levy-rate-correction-lamb-transactions-act-2004","history":"/api/acts/national-residue-survey-excise-levy-rate-correction-lamb-transactions-act-2004/history","analysis":"/api/acts/national-residue-survey-excise-levy-rate-correction-lamb-transactions-act-2004/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/national-residue-survey-excise-levy-rate-correction-lamb-transactions-act-2004/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/national-residue-survey-excise-levy-rate-correction-lamb-transactions-act-2004/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/national-residue-survey-excise-levy-rate-correction-lamb-transactions-act-2004/documents"}}