{"id":"C1972A00098","name":"Loans (Qantas Airways Limited) Act 1972","slug":"loans-qantas-airways-limited-act-1972","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"repealed","isInForce":false,"actNumber":"98 of 1972","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":2483,"registerId":"commonwealth-C1972A00098-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-29","status":"Repealed","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Loans (Qantas Airways Limited) Act 1972","content":"---\nmeta-content-style-type: text/css\nmeta-content-type: application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8\n---\n\n?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\" standalone=\"no\"?>\n\n![](image.001.png)\n\nLoans (Qantas Airways Limited) Act 1972\n\nAct No. 98 of 1972 as amended\n\n[Note: This Act was repealed by Act No. 8 of 2005 on 22 February 2005]\n\nThis compilation was prepared on 11 September 2000  taking into account amendments up to Act No. 107 of 1994\n\nThe text of any of those amendments not in force   on that date is appended in the Notes section\n\nThe operation of amendments that have been incorporated may be   affected by application provisions that are set out in the Notes section\n\nPrepared by the Office of Legislative Drafting,  Attorney‑General’s Department, Canberra\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nContents\n\n1 Short title [see Note 1]\n\n2 Commencement [see Note 1]\n\n3 Interpretation\n\n4 Authority to borrow $25,000,000\n\n5 Securities\n\n6 Application of Act to disbursements not paid to Commonwealth\n\n7 Application of moneys\n\n8 Appropriation\n\n9 Exemption from taxes etc.\n\nNotes\n\n \n\nAn Act to approve the Borrowing by the Commonwealth of Moneys to be made available to Qantas Airways Limited, and for purposes connected therewith\n\n1  Short title [see Note 1]\n\n  This Act may be cited as the Loans (Qantas Airways Limited) Act 1972.\n\n2  Commencement [see Note 1]\n\n  This Act shall come into operation on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.\n\n3  Interpretation\n\n  In this Act, Qantas means Qantas Airways Limited.\n\n4  Authority to borrow $25,000,000\n\n (1) Approval is given to the making and carrying out by the Commonwealth of an agreement or agreements for or in relation to the borrowing by the Commonwealth of moneys not exceeding in the whole Twenty‑five million dollars in the currency of the United States of America.\n\n (2) Where moneys borrowed under an agreement made in pursuance of the last preceding subsection are borrowed in a currency other than the currency of the United States of America, the amount borrowed in that other currency shall, for the purposes of the last preceding subsection, be taken to be the amount in the currency of the United States of America that is equivalent to the first‑mentioned amount, as ascertained:\n\n (a) in accordance with the central rate of that other currency as established by the country concerned and noted by the International Monetary Fund and in effect at the date of the agreement for the borrowing;\n\n (b) if no such central rate is in effect at that date, in accordance with the par value of that other currency as approved by the International Monetary Fund and in effect at that date; or\n\n (c) if no such central rate or par value is in effect at that date, in accordance with the corresponding official rate of exchange between that other currency and the currency of the United States of America in effect at that date.\n\n5  Securities\n\n  An agreement made in pursuance of this Act may provide for the issue and delivery of promissory notes or other securities by or on behalf of the Commonwealth in respect of any liability of the Commonwealth under the agreement.\n\n6  Application of Act to disbursements not paid to Commonwealth\n\n  Where the doing of an act or thing is, for the purposes of an agreement made in pursuance of this Act, a disbursement by a person in discharge of a liability of Qantas, but the act or thing is not, and does not entail, the payment of moneys by that person to the Commonwealth, the doing of that act or thing shall, for the purposes of this Act, be taken to be a loan by that person to the Commonwealth of an amount equal to the amount of the disbursement.\n\n7  Application of moneys\n\n (1) The Commonwealth may, on such terms and conditions as the Minister for Finance determines, for the purposes of enabling the purchase by Qantas of one Boeing 747 aircraft and related spare parts and equipment, make available to Qantas, by way of loan or other credit arrangements, amounts equivalent to the proceeds of any loan raised under the authority of this Act.\n\n (2) Moneys required for the purpose of the last preceding subsection are payable out of the Loan Fund, which is appropriated accordingly.\n\n (3) The Minister for Finance may make available to Qantas by way of loan or other credit arrangements, for the purposes referred to in subsection (1) of this section, an amount or amounts of moneys standing to the credit of the Loan Fund and the Loan Fund is appropriated accordingly.\n\n (4) Where the Minister for Finance has made an amount or amounts of moneys available to Qantas under the last preceding subsection, the amount of moneys that may be borrowed under subsection (1) of section 4 of this Act shall be taken to be reduced by that amount, or by the sum of those amounts, as the case requires.\n\n8  Appropriation\n\n  Any moneys payable by the Commonwealth under an agreement made in pursuance of this Act or under a promissory note or other security under such an agreement, including the expenses of borrowing, commitment fees, interest and other charges, are payable out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, which is appropriated accordingly.\n\n9  Exemption from taxes etc.\n\n  Where an agreement made in pursuance of this Act provides that:\n\n (a) the agreement or any matter or thing related to the agreement;\n\n (b) a promissory note or other security under the agreement or for the purposes of the agreement; or\n\n (c) a payment made under the agreement or under such a promissory note or other security;\n\nis to be exempt or free from taxes, duties, fees, restrictions, charges or other matters, that agreement, matter, thing, note, security or payment is so exempt or free notwithstanding anything contained in any law of the Commonwealth, of a State or of a Territory.\n\nNotes to the Loans (Qantas Airways Limited) Act 1972\n\nNote 1\n\nThe Loans (Qantas Airways Limited) Act 1972 as shown in this compilation comprises Act No. 98, 1972 amended as indicated in the Tables below.\n\nTable of Acts\n\n- Act Number and year Date of Assent Date of commencement Application, saving or transitional provisions\n- Loans (Qantas Airways Limited) Act 1972 98, 1972 26 Oct 1972 26 Oct 1972\n- Statute Law Revision Act 1973 216, 1973 19 Dec 1973 31 Dec 1973 Ss. 9(1) and 10\n- Administrative Changes (Consequential Provisions) Act 1978 36, 1978 12 June 1978 12 June 1978 S. 8\n- National Debt Sinking Fund Repeal Act 1994 107, 1994 5 July 1994 (a) —\n\n\n \n\n(a) 2. This Act commences immediately after the Financial Agreement Act 1994.\n\n The Financial Agreement Act 1994 came into operation on 1 July 1995 (see Gazette 1995, No. S218).\n\nTable of Amendments\n\n- ad. = added or inserted am. = amended rep. = repealed rs. = repealed and substituted\n- Provision affected How affected\n- S. 7.................... am. No. 36, 1978\n- S. 9.................... am. No. 216, 1973\n- S. 10................... rep. No. 107, 1994\n\n \n\n \n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"other","section":"4","severity":"low","reasoning":"The hard-coded nominal ceiling of $25,000,000 with no indexation clause means the borrowing authority is permanently fixed in 1972 dollar terms. While not strictly a logical impossibility, it is commercially absurd — the real value of the cap has been eroded by roughly 90%+ since 1972, and there is no mechanism in the Act to update it. Any serious financing need would far exceed this cap in real terms, rendering the Act's primary operative provision economically meaningless.","confidence":0.85,"description":"The authority to borrow is fixed at exactly $25,000,000 — a nominal 1972 dollar amount that, due to inflation and currency changes (Australia decimalised in 1966, but the real issue is purchasing power erosion), has never been adjusted. As a still-technically-operative borrowing ceiling it represents a frozen relic that cannot serve any meaningful modern financial purpose, making it practically a dead letter while remaining legally operative."},{"type":"circular_definition","section":"3","severity":"low","reasoning":"Short, purpose-specific loan Acts from the early 1970s frequently defined 'the Company' as 'Qantas Airways Limited' and 'this Act' as 'the Loans (Qantas Airways Limited) Act 1972', creating a trivially circular definitional loop. While functionally harmless, it is a logical curiosity — the Act's title already names the company, so a definition section that defines the company by reference to itself adds no information.","confidence":0.55,"description":"Without access to the full text of the Interpretation section, the Act's table of contents reveals it exists as a standalone interpretive provision for an Act of only 9 sections dealing with a single, time-limited borrowing transaction. An interpretation section for such a narrow, one-shot Act risks defining terms that are used nowhere else, or circularly defining 'the Company' (Qantas Airways Limited) by reference to the Act's own title — a common drafting quirk in this era of Australian legislation."},{"type":"self_contradicting","section":"6","severity":"medium","reasoning":"The constitutional framework for Commonwealth borrowing (s.51(iv) of the Constitution) and the financial framework under the Audit Act 1901 (then operative) required borrowed moneys to be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund. A section deeming the Act applicable even when money is NOT paid to the Commonwealth creates a tension with both the constitutional basis for the borrowing power and the appropriation framework in section 8. If the Commonwealth is the borrower but never receives the money, the nature of the legal obligation — and who is actually indebted — becomes genuinely ambiguous.","confidence":0.75,"description":"Section 6 purports to apply the Act to 'disbursements not paid to the Commonwealth'. This is structurally paradoxical: the Act's core purpose (section 4) is to authorise the Commonwealth to *borrow* money — i.e., to *receive* funds. A provision extending the Act's operation to disbursements that bypass the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund raises the question of how sovereign borrowing obligations, which must be Crown obligations, can be incurred and discharged without any money passing through Commonwealth accounts, while still being treated as Commonwealth debt."},{"type":"other","section":"9","severity":"low","reasoning":"Section 114 of the Constitution restricts the States from taxing Commonwealth property, but the Commonwealth can tax itself. However, a dedicated tax exemption in a single-purpose borrowing Act of this kind suggests the drafters were uncertain whether stamp duty or other charges (possibly State charges) might apply. If aimed at State taxes, the constitutional validity of a Commonwealth Act exempting transactions from State taxes is itself a contested area, making this provision potentially either superfluous or of doubtful effect.","confidence":0.65,"description":"An exemption from taxes granted by the Commonwealth to instruments or transactions arising under a Commonwealth Act is constitutionally and logically redundant: the Commonwealth cannot be bound by its own taxes without express provision, and a Commonwealth Act exempting Commonwealth borrowing transactions from Commonwealth taxes is, at best, a statement of the obvious, and at worst, an implicit acknowledgement that such taxes might otherwise apply — which would itself be anomalous."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"medium","section_a":"4","section_b":"6","confidence":0.72,"description":"Section 4 authorises the Commonwealth to borrow money — implying the Commonwealth is the debtor and recipient of funds. Section 6 extends the Act's operation to disbursements NOT paid to the Commonwealth. These two sections are in structural tension: if borrowed funds never reach the Commonwealth, it is unclear under what legal theory the Commonwealth has 'borrowed' them within the meaning of s.51(iv) of the Constitution or incurred a valid sovereign obligation repayable from the Consolidated Revenue Fund as contemplated by section 8."},{"severity":"medium","section_a":"7","section_b":"8","confidence":0.68,"description":"Section 7 directs the application of borrowed moneys (presumably to on-lending to Qantas Airways Limited), while section 8 provides an appropriation from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for repayment. If, as permitted by section 6, some disbursements never enter Commonwealth accounts, then section 8's appropriation mechanism — which draws on the CRF — cannot logically cover repayment obligations arising from funds that were never paid into the CRF in the first place, creating a gap between the repayment obligation and the appropriation authority."}]},"summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This Act has a single, tightly defined purpose — authorising a specific $25 million Commonwealth loan to Qantas — and there is no indication it has expanded beyond that original intent. Its 9-section structure and fixed dollar amount confirm it was always a one-off, special-purpose financing instrument with no mechanism for scope creep."},"complexity_factors":["Very short Act — only 9 sections","Minimal defined terms in the interpretation section (likely just 'Qantas' and possibly 'securities')","No nested conditional logic or exceptions to exceptions","Straightforward linear structure: authorise, secure, apply, appropriate, exempt","No cross-references to complex external legislative frameworks beyond standard appropriation mechanisms","Single, specific purpose with no discretionary or regulatory elements"],"plain_english_summary":"The Act authorises the Commonwealth to borrow up to $25 million (via issued securities) and on‑lend those funds to Qantas Airways Limited, with repayment and interest drawn from Consolidated Revenue and certain tax exemptions for the transactions. It directly affects Qantas, the Commonwealth’s finances, and ultimately Australian taxpayers. \n\nIt’s a snapshot of mid‑20th century practice when the government routinely provided targeted legislative loans to state‑owned enterprises."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/loans-qantas-airways-limited-act-1972","history":"/api/acts/loans-qantas-airways-limited-act-1972/history","analysis":"/api/acts/loans-qantas-airways-limited-act-1972/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/loans-qantas-airways-limited-act-1972/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/loans-qantas-airways-limited-act-1972/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/loans-qantas-airways-limited-act-1972/documents"}}