{"id":"tas:sr-2014-017","name":"Proclamation under the Evidence (Children and Special Witnesses) Amendment Act 2013","slug":"proclamation-under-the-evidence-children-and-special-witnesses-amendment-act-2013","collection":"regulation","jurisdiction":"tas","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":"17 of 2014","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":187444,"registerId":"tas-tas:sr-2014-017-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-05","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Proclamation under the Evidence (Children and Special Witnesses) Amendment Act 2013","content":"> Proclamation under the Evidence (Children and Special Witnesses) Amendment Act 2013\n\nI, the Governor in and over the State of Tasmania and its Dependencies in the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Executive Council, by this my proclamation made under [section 2 of the](/view/html/inforce/2026-04-12/act-2013-063#GS2@EN) [Evidence (Children and Special Witnesses) Amendment Act 2013](/view/html/inforce/2026-04-12/act-2013-063) fix 1 March 2014 as the day on which all the provisions of that Act commence.\n\n3 February 2014\n\nPETER G. UNDERWOOD\n\nGovernor\n\nBy His Excellency's Command,\n\nBRIAN WIGHTMAN\n\nMinister for Justice\n\nDisplayed and numbered in accordance with the *[Rules Publication Act 1953](/view/html/inforce/current/act-1953-050)*.\n\nNotified in the *Gazette* on 12 February 2014\n\nThis proclamation is administered in the Department of Justice.","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The proclamation does not alter the content or scope of the Evidence (Children and Special Witnesses) Amendment Act 2013; it only fixes the commencement date for all provisions under the Act’s section 2 authority, making the Act operative from 1 March 2014."},"complexity_factors":["Single-purpose instrument: fixes a single commencement date for an existing Act","Legal authority explicitly referenced (s.2 of the Act) reducing interpretive ambiguity","No substantive or technical amendments to policy or operative text within the proclamation","Administrative execution required (Governor’s proclamation, ministerial notification and Gazette publication)","Practical implementation burden lies with courts, practitioners and agencies rather than the proclamation itself"],"plain_english_summary":"This proclamation, made by the Governor with the Executive Council’s advice under section 2 of the Evidence (Children and Special Witnesses) Amendment Act 2013, fixes 1 March 2014 as the day every provision of that Act starts in Tasmania. It affects courts, legal practitioners, agencies and parties who use child or other special witnesses by making the Act’s procedures legally operative from that date. The Executive decided the timing; those subject to the law must comply and adjust procedures from 1 March 2014, bearing any implementation costs."},"summary":{"complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"A Proclamation of this type has no scope of its own beyond activating the commencement of the parent Act. There is no indication of any change from the original intent — it straightforwardly brings the Evidence (Children and Special Witnesses) Amendment Act 2013 into force as intended by the Tasmanian Parliament."},"complexity_factors":["The document is purely administrative — it contains no substantive legal provisions of its own","Its sole function is to set a commencement date for another Act","No definitions, conditions, obligations or penalties are created by the Proclamation itself","The underlying Act it activates is moderately complex, but that complexity is not present in this document"],"plain_english_summary":"This Proclamation brings the Evidence (Children and Special Witnesses) Amendment Act 2013 (Tas.) into force on 12 February 2014, making its updated rules legally effective. It affects children and other vulnerable “special witnesses,” and the courts and legal practitioners who handle their evidence — for example by enabling alternative ways of giving testimony (such as by video link) and enforcing added protections for those witnesses."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"other","section":"Status Information - Currency of version","severity":"low","reasoning":"A proclamation that has not been modified since 2017 being described as 'current to date' in 2026 is not necessarily an absurdity in legal terms — it may simply mean it has not been repealed — but it creates a superficial tension between 'last modified 2017' and 'current to 2026' that could mislead readers about whether the instrument reflects current law.","confidence":0.45,"description":"The document states it is 'current from 12 February 2014 to date (accessed 5 April 2026 at 18:32)' while simultaneously stating 'File last modified 5 July 2017'. If the file was last modified in 2017, it cannot genuinely be 'current to date' in 2026 without some mechanism of automatic currency that is unexplained."},{"type":"other","section":"Document Structure - Entire Document","severity":"medium","reasoning":"A proclamation is a legal instrument that must contain operative content — specifically, a commencement date or dates for provisions of the parent Act. This document as presented contains no operative legal content at all, only repeated metadata headers. If this represents the complete instrument, it is legally meaningless as a proclamation and fails its sole statutory purpose of bringing provisions into force.","confidence":0.85,"description":"Every heading, section title, and substantive metadata element appears verbatim twice or more throughout the document (e.g., 'Status Information Status Information', 'Currency of version Currency of version', 'Authorisation Authorisation'). The document contains no operative proclamation text whatsoever — only duplicated administrative metadata."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"low","section_a":"Status Information - 'Version current from 12 February 2014 to date (accessed 5 April 2026 at 18:32)'","section_b":"Authorisation - 'File last modified 5 July 2017'","confidence":0.5,"description":"The instrument is described as current and operative as of 5 April 2026, yet the file underpinning it was last modified on 5 July 2017. This creates a contradiction between the claimed currency of the legal instrument and the static nature of its underlying file, raising a question as to whether the 'current' status reflects the actual state of the law or simply the absence of an update to the file."}]},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This is a procedural commencement instrument with no substantive scope. It performs exactly the function intended: bringing the parent Act into force on a specified date."},"complexity_factors":["Single operative provision: fixes one commencement date","No defined terms","No cross-references to other legislation (except citation of the parent Act)","No conditional logic or exceptions","Standard proclamation format — essentially a template with blanks filled in"],"plain_english_summary":"This is a **commencement proclamation** — a formal government notice that brings a law into effect.\n\n**What it does:**\n- The Tasmanian Governor (acting on ministerial advice) has officially declared that **all provisions** of the *Evidence (Children and Special Witnesses) Amendment Act 2013* will start operating on **1 March 2014**.\n\n**Why this matters:**\n- Laws passed by Parliament don't always take effect immediately. This document fixes the exact date when the new rules about how children and vulnerable witnesses give evidence in court actually become enforceable.\n\n**Who it affects:**\n- Courts, lawyers, police, and anyone involved in criminal or civil proceedings where children or special witnesses (such as people with cognitive impairments or victims of trauma) need to give evidence. From 1 March 2014, the amended rules about things like video links, screens, and support persons became legally available."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-evidence-children-and-special-witnesses-amendment-act-2013","history":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-evidence-children-and-special-witnesses-amendment-act-2013/history","analysis":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-evidence-children-and-special-witnesses-amendment-act-2013/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-evidence-children-and-special-witnesses-amendment-act-2013/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-evidence-children-and-special-witnesses-amendment-act-2013/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-evidence-children-and-special-witnesses-amendment-act-2013/documents"}}