Sorry but you are out of date, if you read those threads you will find that all the states have rescinded their laws and passed responsibility to the Commonwealth (have a look at my posts).
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Markis10, looks like you have a poor understanding of the topic. Allow me, the poor public servant who has to deal with matters legislative day in and day out give you a quick education
If you'd read the first post properly, you would see that it refers to the
Trade Measurement Act 2006 (WA), which clearly remains in force.
The antiquated
Weights and Measures Act 1915 (WA) and subsidiary regulations to which you incorrectly referred were repealed on 1 Jun 2007, and replaced by the aforementioned WA legislation.
I don't have time to look into how far along each state is on their transition to the national legislation and framework under the COAG reforms, best look this up yourselves if you are interested.
WA's slow movement to the national scheme
There is currently
a bill before the state's upper house to amend and repeal various acts to effect the changes forseen under
National Measurement Amendment Act 2008 (Cwlth), which as of mid last month is before the Standing Committee on Uniform Legislation and Statutes Review per house standing orders.
Until such a time as the legislation passes, receives the Governor's assent, and either an earlier date for expiry gazetted/proclaimed or reaches 1 July 2013 (known as the transition day within the bill, whichever comes first), the state legislation to which is referred remains in force.
Further, once the bill becomes an act, a provision is made for offences committed prior to the transition day, for which authority to prosecute remains with the state under the aforementioned act, up until 12 months after the offence was deemed to have been committed.
So what are the related offences under the national scheme (if and/or when) it comes into force in your state...
Now, looking forward to the
National Measurement Act 1960 (Cwlth). For those of us who love going blind looking at legislation...
Section 18GA deals with verification of measuring instruments used for trade
Measuring instruments used for trade to be verified
Offence requiring fault element
(1) A person commits an offence if:
(a) the person uses a
measuring instrument for trade; and
(b) the
measuring instrument is not verified.
Penalty: 100 penalty units.
Strict liability offence
(2) A person commits an offence if:
(a) the person uses a
measuring instrument for trade; and
(b) the
measuring instrument is not verified.
Penalty: 20 penalty units.
From memory, a Commonwealth penalty has a monetary value of AUD110.
Strict liability is defined in the
Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cwlth) as:
(2) If a law that creates an offence provides that strict liability applies to a particular physical element of the offence: (a) there are no fault elements for that physical element; and
(b) the defence of mistake of fact under section 9.2 is available in relation to that physical element.
Inaccurate use of measuring instruments is covered in
Sect 18GD of the National Measurement Act. This section provides for monetary penalties between 40 to 200 penalty units for offences of this class.
So there we go, a quick refresher and clarification of offences on the WA and Commonwealth books relating to trade measurement. I hope you hated reading it, as much as I hated writing it.
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