{"id":"tas:sr-2004-170","name":"Proclamation under the Sentencing Amendment Act 2002","slug":"proclamation-under-the-sentencing-amendment-act-2002","collection":"regulation","jurisdiction":"tas","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":"170 of 2004","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":318119,"registerId":"tas-tas:sr-2004-170-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-08","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Proclamation under the Sentencing Amendment Act 2002","content":"> Proclamation under the Sentencing Amendment Act 2002\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-2002-025#GS2@EN) [Sentencing Amendment Act 2002](/view/html/inforce/2026-04-12/act-2002-025) fix 29 December 2004 as the day on which [section 7](/view/html/inforce/2026-04-12/act-2002-025#GS7@EN) of that Act commences.\n\n22 December 2004\n\nW. J. E. COX\n\nGovernor\n\nBy His Excellency's Command,\n\nJUDY JACKSON\n\nMinister for Justice and Industrial Relations\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 29 December 2004\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 substantive scope of the Sentencing Amendment Act 2002; it solely designates the commencement date for section 7 under the authority of section 2. Any change in who is covered or what duties apply depends on the content of section 7, not on this proclamation."},"complexity_factors":["Single, discrete action: fixes a commencement date for one provision rather than altering substantive law (low complexity).","Legal authority is straightforward: issued under section 2 of the Act (source text cites s2).","Outcome depends on the substantive content of section 7, which this instrument does not detail—requires cross-reference to assess substantive impact.","Decision-making is executive (Governor acting with Executive Council), a formal but routine administrative step.","No direct compliance rules or enforcement mechanisms are created by the proclamation itself—administrative implementation risk lies with agencies tasked by the Act."],"plain_english_summary":"This proclamation, made by the Governor with the Executive Council under section 2 of the Sentencing Amendment Act 2002, sets 29 December 2004 as the day on which section 7 of that Act begins to operate. It does not itself change the substance of the Act; its effect is to fix timing. Who is affected, what costs arise and what behaviour must change depend entirely on the content of section 7 (the provision commenced)."},"summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"A proclamation of this type has a fixed and narrow purpose: to bring an existing Act into force on a specified date. There is no indication of any expansion or contraction of the original legislative intent. It operates strictly within the scope envisaged by the Sentencing Amendment Act 2002."},"complexity_factors":["The document is purely procedural — it is a commencement proclamation with no substantive legal rules of its own","Very limited text is available; the document is largely metadata and status information rather than operative legal content","No schedules, definitions, or exceptions to interpret","Complexity is low but non-zero because understanding its legal purpose (commencement mechanism) requires basic knowledge of how Australian legislation operates"],"plain_english_summary":"This proclamation is the Governor’s formal announcement bringing the Sentencing Amendment Act 2002 (Tas.) into force on 29 December 2004. It doesn’t change law content — it simply makes the 2002 sentencing reforms legally operative in Tasmania. It affects anyone sentenced by Tasmanian courts because those sentencing rules began to apply from that date."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"other","section":"Status Information - Currency of version","severity":"medium","reasoning":"A proclamation under a sentencing amendment act is typically a commencement instrument - it serves a single purpose of bringing provisions into force on a specified date. Once that function is exhausted, the instrument is legally spent. Hosting and maintaining a spent proclamation as 'current legislation' for over 20 years (2004-2026) with no substantive content visible beyond administrative metadata is an absurdity of legislative housekeeping, potentially misleading practitioners about the operative legal landscape.","confidence":0.72,"description":"The instrument states it is 'current from 29 December 2004 to date (accessed 8 April 2026 at 2:48)' while the file was 'last modified 4 September 2018'. A proclamation under an amending act that has remained unmodified for over 5 years yet purports to be current to 2026 raises the question of whether the underlying amending act has long since been fully spent, rendering the proclamation a legal zombie."},{"type":"impossible_compliance","section":"Document structure - entire instrument","severity":"high","reasoning":"A proclamation that omits its operative provision (the commencement date or the specific provisions being commenced) cannot fulfil its legal function. Any person seeking to rely on the proclamation to determine whether specific provisions of the Sentencing Amendment Act 2002 are in force cannot do so from this document. If the operative text has been lost or omitted from the consolidated version, the instrument as published is legally unintelligible.","confidence":0.85,"description":"The entire substantive operative content of the proclamation - namely the date upon which the Sentencing Amendment Act 2002 provisions were proclaimed to commence - is absent from the document as presented. The instrument consists almost entirely of duplicated metadata headings and administrative status information, with no operative legal text whatsoever."},{"type":"other","section":"Status Information - Currency of version (repeated headers)","severity":"low","reasoning":"While likely a technical/rendering artefact rather than a drafting flaw in the legislation itself, the duplication means the authoritative published form of this instrument on the official Tasmanian legislation website presents a structurally incoherent document. For an instrument whose currency and authority depends on its official publication, a corrupted publication format undermines confidence in the instrument's integrity.","confidence":0.95,"description":"Every heading and section in the document is duplicated verbatim, appearing to be a systematic rendering or encoding error. Section titles such as 'Proclamation under the Sentencing Amendment Act 2002', 'Status Information', 'Currency of version', 'Table of Amending Instruments', 'Responsible Minister and Department', and 'Authorisation' each appear twice in immediate succession."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"low","section_a":"Status Information - File last modified 4 September 2018","section_b":"Status Information - Currency of version: current from 29 December 2004 to date (accessed 8 April 2026 at 2:48)","confidence":0.65,"description":"The instrument claims to be continuously 'current' up to April 2026 yet was last modified in September 2018. If the file has not been modified since 2018, it cannot meaningfully reflect currency 'to date' in 2026 unless the instrument is entirely spent and static - in which case describing it as having ongoing currency is misleading."}]},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This is a standard commencement instrument performing exactly the function intended — bringing a specific section into force. No scope creep."},"complexity_factors":["Single operative provision: fixes one commencement date for one section","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 specific part of a law into force on a particular date.\n\n**What it does:**\n- The Governor of Tasmania (acting on ministerial advice) has declared that **section 7 of the Sentencing Amendment Act 2002** will start operating on **29 December 2004**.\n\n**Why this matters:**\n- Laws often pass through Parliament in one piece, but different sections start at different times. This proclamation \"switches on\" section 7 nearly two years after the Act was passed (2002 → 2004).\n- This is common with criminal law reforms — governments sometimes delay commencement to allow courts, prisons, or legal practitioners time to prepare for the changes.\n\n**Who it affects:**\n- Anyone involved in Tasmania's criminal justice system — judges, lawyers, defendants, and victims — because sentencing laws determine what penalties can be imposed for crimes.\n\n**Key detail:**\n- Only **section 7** is being commenced here. Other sections of the Amendment Act may have already started, or may still be waiting to be proclaimed."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-sentencing-amendment-act-2002","history":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-sentencing-amendment-act-2002/history","analysis":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-sentencing-amendment-act-2002/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-sentencing-amendment-act-2002/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-sentencing-amendment-act-2002/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-sentencing-amendment-act-2002/documents"}}