Under section 168 of the Act, a person must not emit, or permit the emission of, noise that is prescribed to be aggravated noise. The measurement methods for unreasonable noise in the Noise Protocol also apply to the assessment of aggravated noise. 

Noise emitted from commercial, industrial and trade premises is prescribed to be aggravated noise if the effective noise level exceeds the noise limit by 15 dB or exceeds the specified noise for the corresponding operating time period (day, evening or night) as specified in regulation 121 (whichever is lower). This is shown in Table 2. Noise from sources listed in regulation 117 should not be taken into account when assessing prescribed aggravated noise emissions under Part 5.3, Division 3 of the Regulations. These sources will instead be assessed under paragraph (a) of the definition of unreasonable noise. 

Table 2: Level of Aggravated noise

Period	Aggravated noise
Day	Noise emitted from commercial, industrial and trade premises is aggravated noise if it exceeds the lower of: 75 dB(A) noise limit plus 15 dB
Evening	Noise emitted from commercial, industrial and trade premises is aggravated noise if it exceeds the lower of: 70 dB(A) noise limit plus 15 dB
Night	Noise emitted from commercial, industrial and trade premises is aggravated noise if it exceeds the lower of: 65 dB(A) noise limit plus 15 dB

The aggravated noise provisions provide additional penalties for the most serious occurrences of noise.