Policy determination

Passenger transport policy determinations are advisory documents setting out the Department of Transport and Main Roads' policy on a particular issue. The department makes determinations to ensure a consistent approach to administering particular aspects of the passenger transport legislation.

Policy determinations are only statements of the department's policy. Policy determinations are not restatements of the law and should not be used as a reference to a point of law.

Determinations are intended to apply to a range of factual situations and are, necessarily, general in nature. The department's approach will be that a person who relies on a ruling is complying with the law, as long as that person:

• exercises due care in acting in reliance on the determination – for example, a person who carelessly misreads the text of a determination will not be entitled to rely on that misreading
• relies on the determination in good faith – for example, the Department of Transport and Main Roads will not allow a person to frustrate the intent of the determination by adopting an extreme or contrived interpretation of the words of the determination that results in consequences that were clearly unintended by the department at the time the determination was issued
• only relies on the clear statements of fact and policy in the determination – for example, the determination is completely self contained and does not permit any additional interpretation of the relevant law, or application of the policy to different fact situations.