{"id":"C1936A00023","name":"Wool Tax Act 1936","slug":"wool-tax-act-1936","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"repealed","isInForce":false,"actNumber":"23 of 1936","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":3794,"registerId":"commonwealth-C1936A00023-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-30","status":"Repealed","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Wool Tax Act 1936","content":"WOOL TAX.\n\nNo. 23 of 1936.\n\nAn Act to impose a tax on Wool grown in Australia and shorn on or after the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and thirty-six.\n\n\\[Assented to 28th May, 1936.\\]\n\nBE it enacted by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows :—\n\nShort title.\n\n1\\. This Act may be cited as the Wool Tax Act 1936.\n\n  \n\nIncorporation.\n\n2. The Wool Tax Assessment Act 1936 shall be incorporated and read as one with this Act.\n\nImposition of tax.\n\n3. A tax is imposed on all wool—\n\n(a) grown in Australia, and\n\n(b) shorn on or after the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and thirty-six.\n\nRate of tax.\n\n4. The rates of the tax shall be as prescribed by the regulations, but shall not exceed the rates specified in the Schedule to this Act.\n\nRegulations.\n\n5. The Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with this Act, for prescribing the rates of the tax imposed on wool by this Act.\n\nTHE SCHEDULE.\n\nRATES OF TAX.\n\n|                                                          | s.  | d.  |\n| -------------------------------------------------------- | --- | --- |\n| For each bale of wool................................    | 0   | 6   |\n| For each fadge or butt of wool.......................... | 0   | 3   |\n| For each bag of wool................................     | 0   | 1   |","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act is extremely focused and has not expanded beyond its original purpose. It does exactly what its title and enacting clause promise: it imposes a tax on Australian wool shorn from a fixed date, sets maximum rates, and delegates rate-setting to regulations. There is no evidence of scope creep — the legislation remains a narrow, single-purpose taxing measure consistent with its 1936 intent."},"complexity_factors":["Very short — only 5 operative sections plus a Schedule","Minimal defined terms — relies on the companion Wool Tax Assessment Act 1936 for definitions and machinery","Single cross-reference to the Wool Tax Assessment Act 1936 via an incorporation clause","Simple conditional logic: tax applies if wool is (a) grown in Australia AND (b) shorn on or after 1 July 1936","Rate-setting mechanism adds a minor layer: regulations set the rate, but capped by the Schedule","Currency expressed in pre-decimal shillings and pence, which may cause minor interpretive confusion for modern readers"],"plain_english_summary":"## Wool Tax Act 1936\n\nThis is a short, sharp piece of legislation from 1936 that does one thing: **it imposes a tax on wool grown in Australia**.\n\n### Who does it affect?\nAnyone involved in the production or handling of Australian wool that was shorn (cut from sheep) on or after **1 July 1936**.\n\n### What does it actually do?\n\n- **Imposes the tax**: Any wool grown in Australia and shorn from that date forward is subject to a tax.\n- **Sets maximum tax rates**: The maximum amounts are locked into a Schedule (a table attached to the Act) and are expressed in the old pre-decimal currency (shillings and pence):\n  - A **bale** of wool: 6 pence\n  - A **fadge or butt** (other types of large wool containers): 3 pence\n  - A **bag** of wool: 1 penny\n- **Allows regulations to set the actual rate**: The Governor-General (effectively the Federal Cabinet) can make regulations to set the tax rate — but it can never go *higher* than the maximums listed above.\n- **Links to a companion Act**: This Act works together with the *Wool Tax Assessment Act 1936*, which handles the administrative machinery — things like who collects the tax, how it's calculated, and enforcement. The two Acts are read together as if they were one law.\n\n### Why does it matter?\nThis Act is a founding piece of Commonwealth taxation of the wool industry — one of Australia's most economically significant industries in the 1930s. It established the legal authority to levy (charge) a tax on wool production, with Parliament retaining control over the ceiling rate while giving the executive government flexibility to set the actual rate below that ceiling."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"Section 3 read with Preamble/Long Title","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Section 3 imposes tax from 1 July 1936. Section 4 sets the rate 'as prescribed by the regulations'. Section 5 empowers the Governor-General to make those regulations. Regulations cannot be made until after assent (28 May 1936), and in practice take further time to gazette. Any wool shorn on or after 1 July 1936 but before the regulations were gazetted is subject to a tax with no lawfully prescribed rate — it cannot be calculated, assessed, or paid. The Act provides no default fallback to the Schedule rates alone; s.4 says the rate 'shall be as prescribed by the regulations', making the Schedule a ceiling, not a standalone operative rate.","confidence":0.82,"description":"The Act imposes tax on wool 'shorn on or after the first day of July, 1936', yet it was not assented to until 28th May 1936 — meaning the operative taxing date precedes Royal Assent by only about 5 weeks. While not strictly retroactive, the practical effect is that wool shorn between 1 July 1936 and the date regulations were actually made under s.5 would be taxed at a rate that had not yet been prescribed, creating a window where tax is imposed but no valid rate exists."},{"type":"impossible_compliance","section":"Section 4 read with Section 5 and the Schedule","severity":"high","reasoning":"Section 3 imposes the tax. Section 4 says the rate 'shall be as prescribed by the regulations'. This is a mandatory prescription — the rate IS what the regulations say, not what the Schedule says. The Schedule only caps the maximum. If the Governor-General never makes regulations (s.5 uses the permissive 'may'), the rate is simply never prescribed and the tax, while legally imposed, is arithmetically incalculable. A taxpayer cannot comply with an obligation to pay an amount that has no legal definition. This is not a theoretical concern — 'may make regulations' creates no duty to do so.","confidence":0.88,"description":"The rate of tax is simultaneously defined by reference to regulations (s.4) AND capped by the Schedule, but if no regulations are ever made, the rate is undefined and no tax can be quantified — despite s.3 clearly imposing it. The Act creates a tax obligation with no self-executing fallback rate."},{"type":"other","section":"Section 5","severity":"medium","reasoning":"A rate of 0s. 0d. per bale does not exceed 0s. 6d. per bale and is therefore within the Schedule ceiling. Regulations prescribing nil rates would be 'not inconsistent with this Act' and within the Governor-General's power. The tax would be validly imposed under s.3, validly rated under s.4 and s.5, and produce no revenue whatsoever. The Act contains no minimum rate or purpose-driven constraint to prevent this outcome.","confidence":0.75,"description":"The power to make regulations is limited to 'prescribing the rates of the tax imposed on wool by this Act', but s.4 requires those rates to not exceed the Schedule. This means the regulation-making power is constrained to producing numbers within a ceiling — but the Act gives no guidance on minimum rates or differentiation criteria, meaning regulations could lawfully prescribe a rate of zero pence for all categories, effectively nullifying the tax entirely while technically complying with both ss.4 and 5."},{"type":"other","section":"The Schedule","severity":"medium","reasoning":"The taxing event under s.3 is 'shorn' wool — but the rate mechanism in the Schedule is keyed to packaging format. Wool that has been shorn but not yet baled, fadged, butted, or bagged has no applicable rate. If the regulations also only prescribe rates by container type (as the Schedule implies they should), freshly shorn loose wool falls into a gap: it is taxable under s.3 but has no rate applicable to it under either the Schedule or any regulation made in conformity with the Schedule's structure.","confidence":0.7,"description":"The Schedule prescribes rates per 'bale', 'fadge or butt', and 'bag' — physical container types — but Section 3 imposes tax on 'wool' as a commodity, with no definition of what happens to wool not packed in any of these containers (e.g. wool still on the sheep's back at point of assessment, loose wool in a truck, or wool in a container type not listed). The Schedule is therefore potentially incomplete as a rate ceiling for all taxable wool."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"high","section_a":"Section 4","section_b":"Section 5","confidence":0.9,"description":"Section 4 states the rate 'shall be as prescribed by the regulations' (mandatory), while Section 5 states the Governor-General 'may make regulations' (permissive/discretionary). These two provisions are in direct tension: s.4 creates a mandatory dependency on regulations existing, while s.5 imposes no obligation to ever create them. The result is a mandatory tax rate that is contingent on a discretionary act that need never occur."},{"severity":"high","section_a":"Section 3","section_b":"Section 4 and Section 5","confidence":0.85,"description":"Section 3 imposes a tax in clear, unqualified terms ('A tax is imposed on all wool...'). Sections 4 and 5 together make the quantification of that tax dependent on the Governor-General choosing to exercise a discretionary regulation-making power. An unqualified statutory tax obligation is contradicted by a rate mechanism that may never be activated, meaning the tax is imposed in theory but may be permanently uncollectable in practice."}]},"kimi_summary":{"_metrics":{"model":"kimi-k2.5","source":"moonshot-batch","completionTokens":1414},"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation remains strictly limited to its original purpose of imposing a tax on Australian wool production, with no expansion into broader agricultural taxation or regulatory schemes."},"complexity_factors":["Only 5 operative sections","Single external cross-reference (to the Wool Tax Assessment Act 1936)","Simple conditional trigger (grown in Australia + shorn after 1 July 1936)","No defined terms section","Straightforward rate caps in Schedule with no exceptions or exemptions"],"plain_english_summary":"This Act introduces a tax on wool produced in Australia, applying to wool shorn (cut from sheep) on or after 1 July 1936.\n\n**Who it affects:** Wool growers in Australia.\n\n**How it works:**\n- The Act imposes the tax, but the actual rates are set by regulations (rules made by the Governor-General).\n- However, the Act caps how high those rates can go:\n  - **6 shillings** per bale (large bundle)\n  - **3 shillings** per fadge or butt (smaller bundles)\n  - **1 shilling** per bag\n\n**Partner legislation:** This Act works together with the *Wool Tax Assessment Act 1936*, which handles the mechanics of assessing and collecting the tax. Together, these Acts form the complete tax rules.\n\n*(Note: This Act uses pre-decimal Australian currency. The tax is charged per container type rather than by weight or value.)*"}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/wool-tax-act-1936","history":"/api/acts/wool-tax-act-1936/history","analysis":"/api/acts/wool-tax-act-1936/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/wool-tax-act-1936/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/wool-tax-act-1936/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/wool-tax-act-1936/documents"}}