A “witness” is defined as a witness in an inquest (reg 3). The regulations distinguish between a “specified expense and allowance” and a “miscellaneous allowance”. The first means an item listed in Division 1 of Part 2 of Schedule 1, such as a professional or expert witness payment, an employed witness’s daily amount, or specified travel expenses. The second means an item listed in Division 2, including own-motor-vehicle travel and meal and accommodation allowances. That distinction matters because the two categories use different calculation rules: specified amounts can be indexed under reg 5(2), while miscellaneous allowances remain at the amounts or rates provided by the schedule and its incorporated award reference under reg 5(3).

For specified expenses and allowances, reg 5(2) fixes the amounts for the financial years ending 30 June 2026 and 30 June 2027. For subsequent financial years, it increases the preceding year’s amount by the defined percentage change in the Hobart CPI. The CPI comparison uses averages of four quarters ending on 31 December, comparing the period before the relevant financial year with the preceding four-quarter period. If that calculation would reduce an amount, the preceding year’s amount is retained. The text therefore provides for increases when the relevant index rises, but not a corresponding decrease when it falls.

A “fee unit” is used to state document-copy charges, but its value is not defined in these regulations. The definition of GST is imported from Commonwealth legislation, while the regulations simply declare the scheduled fees to be GST inclusive (regs 3 and 4). The Tasmanian State Service Award supplies rates for specified miscellaneous allowances, but the instrument does not reproduce those rates. The relevant versions and provisions of that award would need to be checked to determine the amounts in a particular case.

The regulations directly address people seeking copies of listed coronial materials, witnesses in inquests, the Chief Magistrate, and State Service employees or officers who attend as witnesses while entitled to full pay. They are administered in the Department of Justice, as stated in the instrument’s closing note.

For a person seeking a copy, the schedule identifies a fee for each listed kind of material. It does not expressly identify who must pay the fee, set out a process for requesting copies, or state whether any exemption, waiver, or alternative access rule applies. Those matters may be addressed elsewhere, including in the Coroners Act or other applicable instruments, but those sources are not set out here.

For witnesses, the schedule provides different amounts according to witness category and circumstance. A professional or expert witness has a stated payment structure based on attendance time, a daily maximum, and travel expenses other than travel in the witness’s own vehicle. An “other witness” has a daily or part-day amount and actual travel expenses where the travel is not in the witness’s own motor vehicle. The table qualifies the latter category with “if employed”. The regulations do not state in this text what payment, if any, applies to an unemployed witness or a witness outside the listed categories.

A professional or expert witness may be paid an amount above the scheduled amount if the Chief Magistrate makes a determination under reg 5(4). The provision does not extend that express power to the miscellaneous allowances of other witnesses. A State Service employee or officer is outside reg 5 where they are entitled to full pay during attendance under the State Service Act 2000, an award or industrial agreement, or their instrument of appointment (reg 6). This exception is framed around an entitlement to full pay, not merely a person’s employment status.

Regulation 4 prescribes the Schedule 1 Part 1 fees as fees payable under the Act for the matters listed, and requires them to be treated as GST inclusive. The rates are expressed in fee units, not dollars. The schedule differentiates between page-based charges and item-based charges: four categories are charged per page, photographs per photograph, and audio and audio-visual copies at a fixed 20 fee units. A transcript attracts the listed per-page fee only where it is “required by direction of the court”. The text does not explain how the fee-unit value is set or how a request or payment is processed.

For a professional or expert witness, the scheduled amount is $103 for four hours or less. For attendance exceeding four hours, it is $103 plus $26.70 for each additional hour or part of an hour, subject to a maximum of $205.65 per day, exclusive of other expenses or allowances payable (Schedule 1, Part 2, Division 1, item 1). Travel expenses other than travel in the witness’s own vehicle are listed as actual expenses incurred. Own-vehicle travel is addressed separately as a miscellaneous allowance, set by reference to specified clauses of the Tasmanian State Service Award.

For other witnesses, if employed, the schedule provides $77.70 per day or part of a day, plus actual travel expenses other than travel in the witness’s own motor vehicle. The own-vehicle travelling allowance is set by reference to the same award provisions as for professional or expert witnesses. Meal and accommodation allowances are also set by reference to the Tasmanian State Service Award (Schedule 1, Part 2, Division 2).

The Chief Magistrate may determine that a professional or expert witness receive an expense or allowance at least equal to the applicable scheduled amount and may determine the amount payable (reg 5(4)). That is an express discretion to set an equal or higher amount, not a power stated in this instrument to reduce the scheduled amount. Regulation 6 says regulation 5 does not apply to a State Service employee or officer entitled to full pay under one of its listed employment sources while attending as a witness.

These regulations do not create or specify an offence, penalty, infringement notice, prosecution process, or enforcement procedure. They prescribe fees and witness payments, but do not say what consequence follows if a fee is unpaid, a payment is disputed, or a person supplies inaccurate information in connection with a claim. The text also does not set out a review or appeal mechanism for a fee or witness-payment decision.

Regulation 5(4) gives the Chief Magistrate authority to determine higher payments for professional or expert witnesses. It does not state criteria for exercising that power, a decision-making process, reasons requirements, or a review pathway. The absence of those matters from this instrument should not be read as establishing that no such requirements or pathways exist elsewhere. The Coroners Act and other relevant sources are not reproduced here, so their provisions cannot be described on the basis of this text.

The regulations refer to fees as payable “under the Act” (reg 4), and to witness expenses and allowances payable “under the Act” (reg 5). That wording situates the prescribed amounts within the Act’s framework, but these regulations alone do not explain how a fee is collected, who administers a payment, or how a disagreement is resolved. Nor do they describe the consequences of a failure to comply with any wider statutory process.

For practical analysis, it is important to separate a prescribed amount from an enforcement mechanism. The schedules identify amounts and calculation methods; they do not, by themselves, explain every procedural or remedial consequence. Establishing those consequences would require examination of the relevant provisions of the Coroners Act and any other sources that apply to the particular issue. No such additional sources are included in the supplied material.

The regulations are made under the Coroners Act 1995, and repeatedly refer to fees, expenses, and allowances payable under that Act. The Act is therefore the central statutory context for the prescribed amounts. Its substantive provisions are not included in the supplied text, so the regulations do not provide enough material to explain the Act’s wider access, payment, or inquest procedures.

Several definitions incorporate meanings from other legislation. “Chief Magistrate” has the meaning given in the Magistrates Court Act 1987; “motor vehicle” has the meaning given in the Vehicle and Traffic Act 1999; and “GST” has the meaning given in the Commonwealth A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 (reg 3). Those cross-references define terms, but do not reproduce the relevant provisions of those Acts.

The witness-allowance rules also interact with the Tasmanian State Service Award. The award supplies the amounts for own-motor-vehicle travel allowances and meal and accommodation allowances. Regulation 3 identifies the award as one made under the Industrial Relations Act 1984 in respect of State Service employees and officers. The regulations do not set out the relevant award rates, so those rates cannot be calculated from this instrument alone.

Regulation 6 links the witness-payment scheme to employment pay arrangements. It disapplies reg 5 for a State Service employee or officer who is entitled to full pay during witness attendance under the State Service Act 2000, an award or industrial agreement, or the person’s instrument of appointment. The provision does not itself define “full pay” or resolve how competing employment documents interact.

Finally, the fee and CPI definitions refer to Commonwealth statistical and tax legislation. The Hobart CPI figure is the Consumer Price Index (All Groups) Number for Hobart published by the Australian Statistician under the Census and Statistics Act 1905 (reg 5(1)). The detailed operation of any referenced legislation or award is beyond what this instrument states.

The supplied instrument identifies itself as the Coroners (Fees, Expenses and Allowances) Regulations 2026. It records that the Governor made the regulations on 9 June 2026, that they take effect on 22 June 2026 (reg 2), and that they were notified in the Gazette on 17 June 2026. The text also states that the regulations are administered in the Department of Justice. Those details establish the instrument’s stated making, commencement, notification, and administrative information.

No earlier version, amending regulation, repeal provision, commencement-by-stage provision, or amendment history is included in the supplied text. It is therefore not possible from this source alone to describe whether the 2026 regulations replace a previous instrument, alter existing rates, preserve prior decisions, or make consequential changes. The title and date do not establish those matters.

The instrument contains an automatic adjustment mechanism for specified witness expenses and allowances after the financial year ending 30 June 2027 (reg 5(2)). That is a future indexation rule within the regulations, not evidence of a later amendment. It applies the defined Hobart CPI percentage change to the previous financial year’s amount, with a floor preventing a reduction. Miscellaneous allowances are treated differently: reg 5(3) specifies that their amounts are those in Division 2 of Part 2 of Schedule 1, whose rates are in some cases determined by reference to the Tasmanian State Service Award.

A complete amendment history would require authoritative material beyond this supplied text, such as later amending instruments or an official point-in-time legislative record. No amendments after the instrument’s stated making and notification dates can be confirmed from the text provided. Accordingly, this section describes only the history recorded in the instrument itself, not whether it remains the current version at a later date.

The supplied regulations do not mention any court case, tribunal decision, judicial interpretation, or challenge to their validity. No litigation history can therefore be established from this instrument alone. It would be inaccurate to infer from the absence of case references in the text that no relevant litigation exists.

The provisions most likely to require interpretation in a dispute are identifiable from their wording, but the regulations do not record how a court has treated them. For example, the professional or expert witness formula provides $103 for attendance of four hours or less, then adds $26.70 for each additional hour or part hour, while also imposing a daily maximum of $205.65 (Schedule 1, Part 2, Division 1, item 1). The text does not explain how the formula and cap are to be administered in every possible attendance pattern. No judicial answer to that issue is supplied.

Other possible points of interpretation include how the fee-unit value is determined, the effect of the condition that a transcript be required by court direction, and how “full pay” is assessed for the State Service exclusion in reg 6. The schedule’s use of “if employed” for other witnesses also leaves questions about persons outside that stated category. These are questions raised by the text, not findings that any dispute has occurred.

The regulations give the Chief Magistrate a discretion to set equal or higher payments for professional or expert witnesses (reg 5(4)), but do not state review procedures or criteria. Whether other legislation governs review or administrative decision-making cannot be determined from the supplied instrument. A litigation assessment would require relevant cases and the applicable statutory context, neither of which is provided here.

The fee schedule is expressed in fee units, not dollar amounts. Although reg 4 says the fees are GST inclusive, the regulations do not state the monetary value of a fee unit. The actual dollar charge therefore cannot be calculated from this instrument alone. The text also does not set out any exemptions, waivers, payment deadlines, or rules about who must pay.

The professional or expert witness calculation includes both an hourly formula and a daily cap. For attendance above four hours, the listed formula is $103 plus $26.70 for each additional hour or part hour, while the maximum payable per day is $205.65, exclusive of other expenses or allowances. The formula reaches more than the cap once enough additional time is counted. The instrument does not spell out the calculation process where applying the formula would exceed the cap, beyond specifying the maximum.

The commencement date is 22 June 2026, but reg 5(2) separately states amounts for the financial years ending 30 June 2026 and 30 June 2027. The instrument does not provide a detailed transitional rule explaining how those annual amounts apply to attendance around commencement. The relationship between the short period from commencement to 30 June 2026 and the stated 2026 financial-year amount may require interpretation in context.

Indexation is not identical across allowance types. Specified expenses and allowances are indexed in later financial years, with no reduction if the CPI calculation is negative. Miscellaneous allowances instead refer to fixed schedule descriptions or rates in the Tasmanian State Service Award. The applicable award provision and rate may need to be identified for the relevant time.

Finally, the regulations do not reproduce the Coroners Act, the award, or the other referenced legislation. They do not answer every question about eligibility, access to documents, payment administration, exceptions, or review. Those omissions from this instrument should not be treated as proof that the wider legal framework contains no relevant rules.

The regulations identify the amounts and references that an administrator or witness would need to consider, but they do not provide a complete procedural manual. For a document-copy charge, the relevant schedule entry depends on the type of material and, for some items, its unit of measurement. The schedule distinguishes per-page charges for findings, post-mortem reports, other investigation documents, and court-directed transcripts; per-photograph charges for post-mortem and scene photographs; and fixed charges for audio and audio-visual copies. The fee is stated in fee units, and reg 4 says it includes GST.

For witness payments, the relevant category, time attended, travel method, and type of expense affect which schedule entry applies. A professional or expert witness’s time-based payment is subject to the daily maximum. Travel in a personal vehicle is handled through the award-referenced miscellaneous allowance, while other travel is stated as actual expenses incurred. For an employed “other witness”, the schedule provides a daily or part-day amount and actual expenses for travel other than in the witness’s own motor vehicle. Meal and accommodation rates are also award-referenced. The applicable award rate is not reproduced in the regulations.

An assessment also needs to account for the annual rules. Specified amounts are fixed for the financial years ending 30 June 2026 and 30 June 2027, with CPI adjustment in later years and a floor preventing reductions. The State Service full-pay exclusion should be considered where the witness is a State Service employee or officer, because reg 6 says regulation 5 does not apply in the stated circumstances. A higher payment for a professional or expert witness depends on a determination by the Chief Magistrate under reg 5(4).

The instrument does not give the fee-unit value, relevant award rates, complete eligibility rules, or procedures for claims and disputes. Those matters require the relevant external sources and facts. This is general legal information, not legal advice; Zoe can make mistakes, and a qualified Australian lawyer should check it before you act on it, rely on it, or use any draft.