{"id":"C1973A00012","name":"Appropriation Act (No. 3) 1972-73","slug":"appropriation-act-no-3-1972-73","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"repealed","isInForce":false,"actNumber":"12 of 1973","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":2528,"registerId":"commonwealth-C1973A00012-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-29","status":"Repealed","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Appropriation Act (No. 3) 1972-73","content":"Appropriation Act (No. 3) 1972–73\n\nNo. 12 of 1973\n\nAN ACT\n\nTo appropriate a sum out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, additional to the sum appropriated by the Appropriation Act (No. 1) 1972–73, for the service of the year ending on 30th June, 1973.\n\n\\[Assented to 31 March 1973\\]\n\nBE IT ENACTED by the Queen, the Senate and the House of Representatives of Australia, as follows:—\n\nShort title.\n\n1. This Act may be cited as the Appropriation Act (No. 3) 1972–73.\n\nCommencement.\n\n2. This Act shall come into operation on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.\n\nIssue and application of $56,050,000.\n\n3. The Treasurer may issue out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund and apply for the services specified in the Schedule to this Act in respect of the year ending on 30th June, 1973, the sum of Fifty-six million and fifty thousand dollars.\n\n  \nValidation.\n\n4. (1) In this section—\n\n“Appropriation Act” means the Appropriation Act (No. 1) 1972–73;\n\n“Department” means a Department of State;\n\n“original Department” means a Department specified in the Second Schedule to the Appropriation Act;\n\n“relevant date” means 20th December, 1972;\n\n“relevant period” means the period that commenced on the relevant date and ended on 28th February, 1973.\n\n(2) The authority conferred on the Treasurer by section 3 of the Appropriation Act to issue out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, and apply, moneys referred to in that section in respect of—\n\n(a) salaries, and payments in the nature of salaries, of persons employed in an original Department;\n\n(b) administrative expenses of an original Department; or\n\n(c) any other services related to a function of an original Department, being a function that became, during the relevant period, a function of another Department,\n\nshall, by force of this sub-section, be deemed to have extended to the issuing, during the relevant period, out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, and the application, of those moneys in respect of—\n\n(d) salaries and payments in the nature of salaries of persons employed in another Department in connexion with the performance of a function of the other Department that, immediately before the relevant date, was a function of the original Department;\n\n(e) administrative expenses of another Department that are connected with the performance of such a function; or\n\n(f) services related to a function of another Department, being a function that, during the relevant period, became a function of the other Department,\n\nrespectively.\n\n(3) The authority conferred on the Treasurer by section 3 of the Appropriation Act to issue out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, and apply, moneys referred to in that section in respect of rent, or furniture and fittings, for an original Department, or repairs and maintenance connected with an original Department, shall, by force of this sub-section, be deemed to have extended to the issuing, during the relevant period, out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, and the application, of those moneys in respect of rent, or furniture and fittings, for any other Department, or repairs and maintenance connected with any other Department, respectively.\n\n  \n\nTHE SCHEDULE Section 3.\n\nABSTRACT\n\n| Department                                                            | Total      |\n| --------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- |\n|                                                                       | $          |\n| department of aboriginal affairs.................................     | 12,394,500 |\n| attorney-general’s department..................................       | 1,067,400  |\n| department of education......................................         | 4,073,700  |\n| department of the environment and conservation.....................   | 297,400    |\n| department of the media......................................         | 72,200     |\n| department of science.......................................          | 702,700    |\n| department of secondary industry...............................       | 474,100    |\n| department of services and property..............................     | 5,228,000  |\n| department of social security..................................       | 13,816,100 |\n| department of the special minister of state.......................... | 104,100    |\n| department of tourism and recreation.............................     | 108,600    |\n| advance to the treasurer......................................        | 15,000,000 |\n| department of urban and regional development.......................   | 283,200    |\n| department of works........................................           | 2,428,000  |\n| TOTAL............................................                     | 56,050,000 |","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"Section 4(2) and 4(3)","severity":"high","reasoning":"The validation clause attempts to retroactively cure what was almost certainly unlawful expenditure — moneys were issued from the Consolidated Revenue Fund and applied to departments that had no appropriation authority at the time, because machinery-of-government changes had shifted functions between departments after the original Appropriation Act (No. 1) was passed. By the time this Act assented on 31 March 1973, the relevant period (ending 28 February 1973) was already over. No one could 'comply' with or rely on this authority prospectively; it is entirely retrospective legal fiction. While retrospective validation is a known parliamentary technique, it is logically absurd in the sense that the authority it 'deems' to have existed patently did not exist at the time the spending occurred — the Act is rewriting history.","confidence":0.92,"description":"Retroactive extension of Treasurer's authority: The Act purports to deem that a legal authority 'shall be deemed to have extended' to expenditures that had already occurred during the relevant period (20 December 1972 to 28 February 1973). The Act received Royal Assent on 31 March 1973 — over a month after the relevant period had already ended. Parliament is essentially declaring, after the fact, that spending which may have been unauthorised at the time was always authorised."},{"type":"circular_definition","section":"Section 3 and The Schedule","severity":"low","reasoning":"The Advance to the Treasurer mechanism exists to cover urgent unforeseen expenditure pending a proper appropriation. Including it within a supplementary appropriation Act somewhat undermines its purpose — the Act is both the retrospective cure for past unauthorised spending (s.4) and a forward-looking blank cheque (the Advance) within the same instrument. The Advance item ($15M, the single largest line item at ~26.8% of the total) is being appropriated without any specification of services, which sits in tension with s.3's requirement to 'apply for the services specified in the Schedule'. The Advance has no specified service.","confidence":0.75,"description":"'Advance to the Treasurer' of $15,000,000 — a circular appropriation. The Schedule appropriates $15,000,000 as an 'Advance to the Treasurer', which is a standing mechanism that allows the Treasurer to spend money and then seek retrospective parliamentary approval. However, this entire Act is itself an appropriation Act seeking approval for expenditure. Appropriating money as an 'Advance to the Treasurer' within a supplementary appropriation Act creates a logical loop: Parliament is pre-approving future spending by the Treasurer within an Act that is itself meant to be the authorising instrument."},{"type":"circular_definition","section":"Section 4(2)(c) and 4(2)(f)","severity":"low","reasoning":"The input condition in (c) and the output condition in (f) are mirror images of each other. A function that 'became a function of another Department' during the relevant period is the same event described in both. This creates a logical circularity: (c) is the condition trigger and (f) is the deemed extension, but both describe the same functional shift. In a strict reading, (c) and (f) together could be read as authorising spending that was authorised under the original Act and spending that wasn't — the boundary is unclear and potentially tautological.","confidence":0.65,"description":"Overlapping and potentially circular coverage of transferred functions. Section 4(2)(c) covers 'any other services related to a function of an original Department, being a function that became, during the relevant period, a function of another Department', while 4(2)(f) deems the authority to extend to 'services related to a function of another Department, being a function that, during the relevant period, became a function of the other Department'. These two provisions appear to describe the same transaction from opposite ends, potentially authorising the same expenditure twice under the same section."},{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"Section 2","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Section 2 provides a standard prospective commencement on Royal Assent. But the substantive heart of the Act — the validation in s.4 — relates entirely to a past period ending 28 February 1973. Section 3's appropriation is 'for the year ending on 30th June, 1973', so there is some prospective operation. However, the commencement clause creates a mild absurdity: the Act 'operates' from 31 March 1973 but its validation provisions purport to govern legal authority during a period more than a month before operation commenced. The Act is simultaneously prospective in commencement and retroactive in substantive effect.","confidence":0.8,"description":"Commencement on Royal Assent (31 March 1973) for an Act whose operative validation clause applies exclusively to a period that had already ended (28 February 1973). The Act legally 'comes into operation' after the entire period it is principally concerned with has passed."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Section 3","section_b":"The Schedule (Advance to the Treasurer line item)","confidence":0.82,"description":"Section 3 authorises the Treasurer to issue and apply funds 'for the services specified in the Schedule'. The Advance to the Treasurer ($15,000,000) is not a specified 'service' — it is an unallocated reserve fund. This creates a direct tension: s.3 requires services to be specified, but the largest single line item in the Schedule specifies no service whatsoever."},{"severity":"low","section_a":"Section 4(1) — definition of 'relevant date' (20 December 1972)","section_b":"Section 4(2)(d)","confidence":0.7,"description":"Section 4(1) defines the 'relevant date' as 20 December 1972, and the relevant period as commencing on that date. Section 4(2)(d) then deems the Treasurer's authority to extend to salaries of persons employed in 'another Department' in connection with functions that 'immediately before the relevant date' were functions of the original Department. This means the cut-off for determining which functions are covered is the moment immediately before 20 December 1972 — but the relevant period itself starts on 20 December 1972. There is no provision addressing what happens to functions that transferred on exactly 20 December 1972 (i.e., on the relevant date itself rather than during the relevant period), creating a potential gap or overlap at the boundary."},{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Section 4(2) — validation of authority under Appropriation Act (No. 1) 1972-73","section_b":"Section 3 — new appropriation under this Act","confidence":0.68,"description":"The Act simultaneously (a) appropriates new money under s.3 for the year ending 30 June 1973, and (b) retroactively deems that existing money under a different Act (Appropriation Act No. 1) was always validly spent on different departments under s.4. If the s.4 validation is effective, some expenditure is doubly authorised — once retrospectively under Appropriation Act No. 1 (as re-deemed) and potentially again if re-submitted under this Act's Schedule. The Act contains no mechanism to prevent double-counting or double appropriation of the same expenditure."}]},"summary":{"complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation stays firmly within its original and stated purpose: appropriating additional funds for the 1972–73 financial year and validating spending that occurred during a machinery-of-government restructure. The validation clause in Section 4 is a procedural housekeeping measure directly connected to the same financial year and the same appropriation framework — it does not expand the law into new policy territory. The scope is narrow, time-limited, and self-contained."},"complexity_factors":["Small number of operative provisions (4 sections total)","Section 4 contains moderately complex retrospective validation logic with nested conditions across subsections (2) and (3)","6 defined terms in Section 4(1), but they are narrow and context-specific","Cross-references to external legislation (Appropriation Act No. 1 1972–73 and its Second Schedule) requiring readers to consult another Act","Temporal conditionality — spending authority is deemed to apply only within a specific 'relevant period' (20 December 1972 to 28 February 1973)","Parallel list structure in Section 4(2) pairing original department functions (a–c) with new department equivalents (d–f), which requires careful reading to follow"],"plain_english_summary":"This supplementary budget law authorises $56,050,000 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund to top up departmental spending for the 1972–73 year, funding areas like social security, Aboriginal affairs, education and an advance to the Treasurer. It also retrospectively validates payments and administrative costs made by newly created or reorganised departments during the Whitlam Government’s reshuffle (20 Dec 1972–28 Feb 1973), ensuring those expenditures are legally authorised."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/appropriation-act-no-3-1972-73","history":"/api/acts/appropriation-act-no-3-1972-73/history","analysis":"/api/acts/appropriation-act-no-3-1972-73/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/appropriation-act-no-3-1972-73/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/appropriation-act-no-3-1972-73/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/appropriation-act-no-3-1972-73/documents"}}