

Principality of Hutt River - johnny9822
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Hutt_River

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jluxenberg
Interesting hack: _" Casley styled himself His Majesty Prince Leonard I of
Hutt to take advantage of the British Treason Act 1495; that a self-proclaimed
monarch could not be guilty of any offence against the rightful ruler, and
that anyone who interfered with that monarch's duties could be charged with
treason"_

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jacques_chester
The _Treason Act_ of 1495 was extensively modified before 1788 (when
Australian law forked from British law). Furthermore, every State and
Territory has extensive legislation repealing ancient laws such as these.
Sometimes you find Acts that just repeal old laws (usually Imperial Repeal or
similar), or the old laws are repealed as part of the some other Act (eg
various criminal codes, property legislation etc).

Reading a history book doesn't make you a lawyer.

~~~
jacques_chester
Replying to self because I'm past the edit deadline.

Calling this a "hack" is silly.

If I said I'd defeated Microsoft by discovering a backdoor into MULTICS I'd be
correctly laughed off HN. The claim above is analogous.

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leohutson
See also:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Whangamomona](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Whangamomona)

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retrogradeorbit
I've been to Hutt River Province. No one is going to invade that country any
time soon. There are no spoils to be had.

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jacques_chester
It's not an independent nation within Australia's borders. It's a bit of
showmanship to turn a few bucks on merchandising.

~~~
xyzzy123
The story of the bureaucratic cat-and-mouse, legal escalation and especially
the part where PHR _declares war on Australia_ cracks me up every time.

The PHR doesn't pay taxes to the ATO; that seems like quite an achievement for
a micronation. I think it genuinely qualifies as more than just "a bit of
showmanship".

I'd like to believe that the reason they're left alone is not just because of
the legal hassle, but because someone in the Australian government had a sense
of humour.

~~~
jacques_chester
> _The PHR doesn 't pay taxes to the ATO_

I can't find a source for this other than claims made by the promoters. The
ATO clearly consider Hutt River to be a scam[1].

Sending income tax returns of the form "I earned $0" doesn't mean you've
"won". It just means you've committed a Commonwealth crime by lying on your
tax form.

Plus they pay GST anyhow.

[1]
[http://www.ato.gov.au/atp/content.aspx?doc=/content/62019.ht...](http://www.ato.gov.au/atp/content.aspx?doc=/content/62019.htm)

~~~
xyzzy123
You're right, the the references to PHR residents being classed as "non
residents of Australia for tax purposes" are derived from assertions made
by... the PHR.

On the other hand, it really does seem like the government are happy to leave
them alone as long as people don't try to "take the piss" and turn it into
wide-scale tax avoidance scheme.

~~~
jacques_chester
If it ever spread, I imagine the ATO would crush it like the fist of an angry
god. They have enormous powers of investigation, assessment and judgement.

Plus it's passed into folk legend. It'd be bad politics to stamp on it. I
imagine that they're waiting for the owners to die or sell up and they'll
collect their pound of flesh from the estate.

