{"id":"tas:sr-2023-031","name":"Proclamation under the Vehicle and Traffic Amendment (Driver Distraction and Speed Enforcement) Act 2022","slug":"proclamation-under-the-vehicle-and-traffic-amendment-driver-distraction-and-speed-enforcement-act-20","collection":"regulation","jurisdiction":"tas","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":"31 of 2023","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":179273,"registerId":"tas-tas:sr-2023-031-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-05","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Proclamation under the Vehicle and Traffic Amendment (Driver Distraction and Speed Enforcement) Act 2022","content":"> Proclamation under the Vehicle and Traffic Amendment (Driver Distraction and Speed Enforcement) Act 2022\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-2022-027#GS2@EN) [Vehicle and Traffic Amendment (Driver Distraction and Speed Enforcement) Act 2022](/view/html/inforce/2026-04-12/act-2022-027) fix 23 June 2023 as the day on which that Act commences.\n\n19 June 2023\n\nB. BAKER\n\nGovernor\n\nBy Her Excellency's Command,\n\nMICHAEL DARREL JOSEPH FERGUSON\n\nMinister for Infrastructure and Transport\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 23 June 2023\n\nThis proclamation is administered in the Department of State Growth.","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"A proclamation is a narrow administrative instrument with one purpose — to commence legislation. There is no indication of scope change; it appears to activate the 2022 Act as intended by Parliament."},"complexity_factors":["Document is a procedural proclamation only — it activates another Act rather than containing substantive legal rules itself","Very limited text available for analysis; the underlying Act's full detail is not reproduced here","No complex definitions, schedules, or cross-referencing structures present in the proclamation itself","Single, straightforward legal function: commencement of an amending Act"],"plain_english_summary":"This Proclamation formally brought the Vehicle and Traffic Amendment (Driver Distraction and Speed Enforcement) Act 2022 into force on 23 June 2023. It activates new Tasmanian law strengthening rules on driver distraction (e.g. mobile phone use) and expanding speed enforcement.\n\nIt affects all drivers in Tasmania — commuters, tourists and commercial drivers — because the Act’s penalties and enforcement measures became legally operational on that date."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"Version/Currency Information","severity":"medium","reasoning":"A legislative instrument cannot authoritatively record its own future access date as a static embedded fact. The currency note says 'current from 23 June 2023 to date (accessed 5 April 2026 at 14:36)' — this timestamp either reflects metadata corruption or a date well beyond any plausible contemporaneous access, raising questions about the authenticity or currency of the version being analysed.","confidence":0.72,"description":"The document states it was 'accessed 5 April 2026 at 14:36' but was authored and last modified on 23 June 2023. The access date of 2026 appears in a document that is being analysed now, creating a temporal impossibility — either the access timestamp is fabricated/erroneous, or the document purports to record a future access event as a present fact embedded in the instrument itself."},{"type":"other","section":"Document Structure / Title","severity":"low","reasoning":"While likely a rendering/formatting artefact, a Proclamation is a formal statutory instrument whose operative text must be unambiguous. Duplicated headings could, in an adversarial reading, create uncertainty about document integrity and whether the published version matches the executed instrument.","confidence":0.55,"description":"The title of the instrument is repeated verbatim at least four times across the document (as both heading and sub-heading at multiple levels), and the Status Information section headings are each duplicated immediately after themselves (e.g., 'Currency of version Currency of version', 'Authorisation Authorisation'). A legally operative proclamation that cannot coherently identify itself without structural self-duplication raises questions about which instance of the title is the authoritative one."},{"type":"impossible_compliance","section":"Substantive Operative Provisions","severity":"high","reasoning":"A Proclamation is exclusively an instrument of commencement or declaration. Without any operative text specifying what is being proclaimed (e.g., 'I proclaim that [provisions] commence on [date]'), the instrument has no legal effect. Any person or court seeking to determine whether provisions of the 2022 Act are in force cannot do so from this document. The instrument is self-defeating — it exists to proclaim something but proclaims nothing.","confidence":0.88,"description":"The instrument purports to be a Proclamation under the Vehicle and Traffic Amendment (Driver Distraction and Speed Enforcement) Act 2022, yet contains zero operative provisions — no commencement date is proclaimed, no sections of the Act are brought into force, and no schedule or operative clause is present. A Proclamation with no proclaimed content is a legal nullity: it cannot perform the function for which it exists."},{"type":"other","section":"Currency/Update Policy vs. Static Timestamp","severity":"low","reasoning":"The presence of a 'Table of Amending Instruments' hyperlink implies amendments may exist, but no amendment content is visible. The 3-working-day update promise creates a representation that may conflict with the static 2023 modification date if any amendments have occurred in the intervening period to 2026.","confidence":0.5,"description":"The document simultaneously asserts that 'Legislation on this site is usually updated within 3 working days after a change' AND presents a static 'file last modified 23 June 2023' date. If the instrument has never been amended (as implied by a single modification date), the update policy statement is surplusage within the instrument itself — and if amendments exist (as implied by the presence of a 'Table of Amending Instruments' link), those amendments are not reflected in the body of the document, creating a potential gap between the consolidated version and its actual current state."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Currency statement: 'Version current from 23 June 2023 to date (accessed 5 April 2026 at 14:36)'","section_b":"Authorisation: 'File last modified 23 June 2023'","confidence":0.68,"description":"The currency statement asserts the version is current 'to date' with an access timestamp of 5 April 2026, implying the document reflects the law as of that future date. However, the file modification date is 23 June 2023 and no amendments are visible in the document body. These two statements contradict each other: either the document is current to 2026 (in which case it should reflect nearly three years of potential amendments) or it was last modified in June 2023 and is not necessarily current to 2026."},{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Table of Amending Instruments heading (implying amendments exist)","section_b":"Substantive body of the instrument (containing no operative or amended provisions)","confidence":0.6,"description":"The document includes a 'Table of Amending Instruments' section (with a hyperlink), which structurally implies that one or more amending instruments have been made in relation to this Proclamation. However, the body of the Proclamation contains no operative provisions whatsoever that could logically be the subject of amendment. One cannot amend a document that contains nothing. This is an internal structural contradiction."}]},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This proclamation only determines the commencement date under s 2 of the Act; it does not change the Act’s substantive scope, duties, penalties, or regulatory content. The legal operation of the Act simply begins on 23 June 2023."},"complexity_factors":["Single-purpose instrument fixing a commencement date (straightforward legal operation)","No substantive amendments or new regulatory text in the proclamation itself","Primary effects depend on the underlying Act’s content rather than the proclamation","Limited and identifiable stakeholders: drivers, affected businesses, and State agencies","Discretionary initiation executed by Governor on Executive Council advice (s 2)"],"plain_english_summary":"This proclamation brings the **Vehicle and Traffic Amendment (Driver Distraction and Speed Enforcement) Act 2022** into force on 23 June 2023. It is made by the Governor on the advice of the Executive Council under s 2.\n\nMechanically, the commencement makes the Act’s rules enforceable from that date; regulated drivers and businesses bear compliance costs, while the State bears enforcement and administration costs and retains discretion over timing (s 2)."},"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 fixing a commencement date","No defined terms","No cross-references to other legislation (except citation of the enabling Act)","No conditional logic or exceptions","Standard proclamation format — essentially a template document"],"plain_english_summary":"This is a **commencement proclamation** — a formal government notice that brings a specific law into effect.\n\n**What it does:**\n- Sets **23 June 2023** as the date when the *Vehicle and Traffic Amendment (Driver Distraction and Speed Enforcement) Act 2022* starts operating.\n\n**Who it affects:**\n- Tasmanian drivers, who became subject to new rules about mobile phone use while driving and speed enforcement from that date.\n- Police and transport authorities, who gained new powers to enforce these rules.\n\n**Why it matters:**\n- Laws passed by Parliament don't automatically take effect immediately. This proclamation is the \"switch\" that turns the law on. Without it, the Act would sit unused.\n- The delay between passing (2022) and commencement (June 2023) likely allowed time for setting up camera technology, training police, and public education about the new driver distraction rules."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-vehicle-and-traffic-amendment-driver-distraction-and-speed-enforcement-act-20","history":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-vehicle-and-traffic-amendment-driver-distraction-and-speed-enforcement-act-20/history","analysis":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-vehicle-and-traffic-amendment-driver-distraction-and-speed-enforcement-act-20/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-vehicle-and-traffic-amendment-driver-distraction-and-speed-enforcement-act-20/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-vehicle-and-traffic-amendment-driver-distraction-and-speed-enforcement-act-20/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/proclamation-under-the-vehicle-and-traffic-amendment-driver-distraction-and-speed-enforcement-act-20/documents"}}