UTS does use the WAM to calculate the final grade for your course, if applicable (such as Pass, Credit or Distinction degree). Most of the time, your first year core subjects and any elective subjects are excluded (but its different for each course!).
So for my old course (BSc in IT), only the 2nd and 3rd year CORE IT subjects would be included in the WAM calculation to work out the final grade for the course.
As for my new course, the Computing side is the same as above. As for Business, I'm not too sure, but I believe its only your major subjects and not the first year core subjects, but I'll have to check on that.
I'll have to check about the "year" thing at UTS in terms of WAM, but I don't think they would use it at UTS, considering my above example. The core IT subjects are spread across a number of different IT courses, and a particular subject could be done in either 3rd, 4th, 5th or even 6th year depending on your course. Same goes for my Accounting major. I can pretty much do the subjects in any order provided I meet the prerequisites and there is not much stopping me in terms of that so people are doing different major subjects who are in the same major each year, so it would unfair to use a "year" thing in that sense since some people could be penalised for doing harder subjects in an earlier year, or vice versa.