{"id":"tas:sr-1999-150","name":"Proclamation under the New Tax System Price Exploitation Code (Tasmania) Act 1999","slug":"tas-sr-1999-150","collection":"regulation","jurisdiction":"tas","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":"150 of 1999","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":318956,"registerId":"tas-tas:sr-1999-150-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-08","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Proclamation under the New Tax System Price Exploitation Code (Tasmania) Act 1999","content":"> Proclamation under the New Tax System Price Exploitation Code (Tasmania) Act 1999\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(2) of the](/view/html/inforce/2026-04-12/act-1999-081#GS2@EN) [New Tax System Price Exploitation Code (Tasmania) Act 1999](/view/html/inforce/2026-04-12/act-1999-081) fix 10 December 1999 as the day on which the provisions of that Act, except Part 1, commence.\n\n8 December 1999\n\nG. S. M. GREEN\n\nGovernor\n\nBy His Excellency's Command,\n\nDAVID CREAN\n\nTreasurer\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 9 December 1999\n\nThis proclamation is administered in the Department of Treasury and Finance.","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"other","section":"Status Information - Currency of version","severity":"low","reasoning":"A proclamation under a GST-era price exploitation code remaining 'current' and unmodified in substance from 1999 to 2026 is facially plausible but suspicious. The GST itself has undergone enormous change. A file modification date of 2025 with no substantive amendment noted creates an unexplained discrepancy between form and substance.","confidence":0.55,"description":"The legislation states it is 'current from 9 December 1999 to date (accessed 8 April 2026 at 3:20)' yet the file was 'last modified 25 February 2025'. This creates a logical tension: if the legislation has been unmodified since 1999 but accessed in 2026, it implies either amendments exist (contradicting apparent stasis) or the modification date refers to a metadata/formatting change rather than substantive legislative content, which is not disclosed."},{"type":"other","section":"Proclamation under the New Tax System Price Exploitation Code (Tasmania) Act 1999 - general instrument","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Proclamations fixing commencement dates are spent upon the date passing. If this Proclamation's sole purpose was to bring the Price Exploitation Code into force in December 1999, it ceased to have operative effect on that date. Listing it as continuously 'current to date' in 2026 misrepresents its legal status and could mislead users about the living body of Tasmanian law.","confidence":0.72,"description":"The instrument is a Proclamation, not an Act or Regulation. Proclamations typically serve a single operational purpose (e.g., fixing a commencement date). A Proclamation that remains 'current from 1999 to date' with no substantive provisions visible in the text raises the question of what operative legal effect it continues to have 26 years after proclamation. A spent proclamation remaining on the active legislation register as 'current' is a formal absurdity."},{"type":"self_contradicting","section":"Status Information - update policy","severity":"low","reasoning":"The promise of currency within 3 working days is contradicted by an unexplained modification date with no corresponding amendment entry. Users relying on the currency guarantee are given false assurance.","confidence":0.5,"description":"The site states legislation is 'usually updated within 3 working days after a change to the legislation' yet the file modification date (25 February 2025) does not correspond to any disclosed amending instrument in the Table of Amendments. This means either an undisclosed change occurred or the modification date reflects non-legislative administrative action presented within a legislative publication, undermining the reliability assurance the update policy is meant to convey."},{"type":"impossible_compliance","section":"Entire instrument - substantive content","severity":"high","reasoning":"Compliance with a legal instrument requires knowing what it requires. An instrument whose entire reproduced text consists of administrative metadata and duplicated headings imposes no discernible obligations, grants no rights, and fixes no dates in any verifiable way from the text alone. Any purported legal effect is untraceable from the instrument as presented.","confidence":0.85,"description":"The instrument as reproduced contains no operative provisions whatsoever. There are no clauses, articles, schedules, or substantive text beyond metadata, status information, and repeated headings. A legal instrument with no operative text is a formal legal absurdity — it either binds nobody to anything or it is so incomplete as to be incapable of legal interpretation."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"low","section_a":"Status Information - 'current from 9 December 1999 to date (accessed 8 April 2026)'","section_b":"Authorisation - 'File last modified 25 February 2025'","confidence":0.6,"description":"The currency statement implies no substantive change since 1999, while the file modification date of 25 February 2025 indicates the instrument was altered in some way approximately 26 years after enactment. These two statements cannot both be fully accurate without an explanation of what was modified in 2025 and why that modification does not constitute a legislative change requiring disclosure in the Table of Amending Instruments."},{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Table of Amending Instruments - (implicitly empty or non-disclosed)","section_b":"Authorisation - 'File last modified 25 February 2025'","confidence":0.65,"description":"The Table of Amending Instruments contains no disclosed amendments, yet the file was modified in 2025. If the modification was substantive, it should appear in the amending instruments table. If it was not substantive, the modification date should not appear in the authorisation block of a legislative instrument, as it creates a false impression of legal change."},{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Nature of instrument as a Proclamation (single-use, commencement-fixing instrument)","section_b":"Status designation as continuously 'current' legislation from 1999 to 2026","confidence":0.7,"description":"A Proclamation fixing a commencement date is spent upon the date arriving. Designating a spent proclamation as continuously 'current' legislation contradicts the fundamental legal nature of the instrument type. A spent instrument cannot be simultaneously current in any operative legal sense."}]},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This proclamation does not change the Act’s substantive scope. It solely fixes the commencement date for the Act’s provisions (except Part 1), altering only when affected parties must comply, and identifies the administering agency."},"complexity_factors":["Narrow, procedural purpose: it only sets a commencement date rather than substantive rules.","Short, single-issue instrument with minimal provisions to interpret.","Relies on a cross-reference to section 2(2) of the principal Act, requiring readers to consult that provision to confirm legal authority.","Excludes Part 1, so understanding exact legal effect requires checking which provisions are in Part 1 of the Act.","Low administrative discretion: decision recorded as made by Governor with Executive Council, administration assigned to Department of Treasury and Finance.","Affects compliance timing for regulated parties (businesses/traders); legal effect depends on coordinating implementation steps in the administering department."],"plain_english_summary":"This proclamation fixes 10 December 1999 as the day the New Tax System Price Exploitation Code (Tasmania) Act 1999 takes effect, except for Part 1. It was made by the Governor on the advice of the Executive Council and is administered by the Department of Treasury and Finance.\n\nMechanically it changes only timing: businesses and traders who will be regulated by the Act must comply from that date; the proclamation does not alter the Act’s substantive provisions."},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This is a commencement proclamation, which by its nature serves a single, narrow administrative purpose. It has not expanded beyond its original intent of bringing the parent Act into force on a specified date."},"complexity_factors":["Single operative provision fixing a commencement date","No defined terms within the instrument itself","No conditional logic or exceptions beyond the simple exclusion of Part 1","Extremely short (under 200 words)","No cross-references to other legislation except the parent Act citation"],"plain_english_summary":"This is a short official notice (called a 'proclamation') made by the Governor of Tasmania in December 1999. It sets the start date for a law called the *New Tax System Price Exploitation Code (Tasmania) Act 1999*.\n\n**What it does:**\n- **Fixes the commencement date:** The law comes into force on **10 December 1999**.\n- **Excludes Part 1:** The very first part of the Act (which typically contains definitions and preliminary matters) started earlier or separately—everything else starts on this date.\n\n**Why it matters:**\nThis was part of Australia's big tax changes in 1999–2000 (the introduction of the GST). The 'Price Exploitation Code' was designed to stop businesses from using the new tax system as an excuse to unfairly jack up prices. This proclamation simply flips the switch to make the Tasmanian version of those consumer protection rules active.\n\n**Who made it:**\n- The Governor of Tasmania (G. S. M. Green), acting on advice from the Executive Council\n- Signed off by the Treasurer (David Crean)\n- Published in the official government Gazette on 9 December 1999"},"summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"Based on the available text, there is no indication that the scope changed from the original intent. The proclamation appears to have been a standard commencement or activation instrument consistent with the purpose of the New Tax System Price Exploitation Code (Tasmania) Act 1999 — that is, protecting consumers from price exploitation during the GST transition. No amendments to the substantive provisions are evident from the metadata provided."},"complexity_factors":["The document provided is a proclamation (an instrument activating legislation) rather than substantive legislation itself, meaning most of the actual legal content exists in the parent Act and the federal model code","The text as provided is largely metadata and formatting rather than operative legal provisions, limiting meaningful analysis","The underlying subject matter — GST price exploitation rules — involved multi-layered federal-state cooperative legislative schemes, which adds some complexity in principle","However, the purpose and operation of the proclamation itself is straightforward: it simply commences or gives effect to the parent Act"],"plain_english_summary":"This proclamation invoked Tasmania’s New Tax System Price Exploitation Code in 1999 to stop businesses using the GST rollout as a pretext to raise prices unfairly. It applied to Tasmanian consumers and businesses during the GST transition.\n\nIt is historically limited to that period and has no practical effect today—a time‑bound consumer protection measure tied to the GST introduction."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/tas-sr-1999-150","history":"/api/acts/tas-sr-1999-150/history","analysis":"/api/acts/tas-sr-1999-150/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/tas-sr-1999-150/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/tas-sr-1999-150/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/tas-sr-1999-150/documents"}}