What it does
The Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Payroll Levy Act 1992 is an imposition statute. Its substantive operation is contained in four operative provisions that together establish a compulsory exaction on a defined class of wage payments. Section 4 imposes the levy on eligible wages paid to eligible employees after the commencement of the Act. The temporal limitation is absolute: no levy arises on wages paid before the commencement date fixed by Proclamation or, failing that, on the first day after the 12-month period following Royal Assent (s 2).
Section 5 fixes the quantum of the levy by reference to “the prescribed percentage” of the eligible wages paid. The statute itself does not stipulate a numerical rate; instead, the percentage is left to be prescribed by regulation (s 8(1)). Before any such regulation is made, the Governor-General must take into consideration any advice given to the Minister by the Corporation under the Administration Act (s 8(2)). This procedural safeguard links the levy rate to expert industry input without conferring a veto power.
Section 6 identifies the person liable. The levy is payable by “the person who paid those wages”. Liability therefore follows the act of payment rather than the identity of the employer of record or the entity that ultimately benefits from the labour. This drafting choice avoids disputes about agency, labour-hire arrangements or group structures common in the coal industry.
The Act is only six pages in its current compilation. Its brevity is deliberate: it performs one function only—to impose the levy—while the machinery for assessment, collection, recovery, exemptions, record-keeping and audit is supplied by the incorporated Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Payroll Levy Collection Act 1992 (s 3). Because the two statutes must be read as one, s 4 of the Levy Act is not a freestanding charging provision; it operates in tandem with the definitions, assessment and payment rules contained in the Collection Act.