{"id":"C1936A00049","name":"South Australia Grant Act 1936","slug":"south-australia-grant-act-1936","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"repealed","isInForce":false,"actNumber":"49 of 1936","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":3816,"registerId":"commonwealth-C1936A00049-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-30","status":"Repealed","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"South Australia Grant Act 1936","content":"SOUTH AUSTRALIA GRANT.\n\nNo. 49 of 1936.\n\nAn Act to grant and apply out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund a sum for the purposes of Financial Assistance to the State of South Australia.\n\n\\[Assented to 12th October, 1936.\\]\n\nPreamble.\n\nBE it enacted by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, for the purpose of appropriating the grant originated in the House of Representatives, as follows:—\n\nShort title.\n\n1. This Act may be cited as the South Australia Grant Act 1936.\n\nPayment for financial assistance to South Australia.\n\n2. There shall be payable, for the purposes of financial assistance to the State of South Australia, during the year commencing on the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and thirty-six, the sum of One million three hundred and thirty thousand pounds.\n\nMethod of payment.\n\n3. The amount payable under this Act shall be paid in equal monthly instalments.\n\nAppropriation.\n\n4. Payments in accordance with this Act shall be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, which is hereby appropriated accordingly.","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"kimi_summary":{"_metrics":{"model":"kimi-k2.5","source":"moonshot-batch","completionTokens":1646},"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act maintains its original narrow scope—a specific, time-limited appropriation for financial assistance to South Australia. It has not expanded beyond this single grant purpose."},"complexity_factors":["Only 4 short sections","No definitions or interpretation provisions","Single appropriation with straightforward payment mechanism","No conditional logic, exceptions, or cross-references to other statutes"],"plain_english_summary":"This Act authorizes a one-off federal payment to South Australia during the 1936-37 financial year.\n\n**What it does:**\n*   **Grants £1,330,000** (over one million pounds) to the State of South Australia as \"financial assistance\"\n*   **Pays it in instalments**: The money is distributed in 12 equal monthly payments throughout the year\n*   **Sources the funds**: The payment comes from the Commonwealth's main bank account, the Consolidated Revenue Fund (the central pool of government money)\n\n**Why it matters:**\nThis was Depression-era legislation. In 1936, during the economic hardship of the Great Depression, the federal government provided direct financial support to South Australia to help the state manage its finances and public services. It represents an early example of the Commonwealth using its financial power to assist struggling states."},"summary":{"complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This Act is exactly what it says on the tin — a one-year financial grant to South Australia. It has not grown beyond its original intent at all. It is a standalone, time-limited appropriation Act covering a single financial year (1936–37) with no amendments or expansions recorded. Its scope is as narrow as legislation gets."},"complexity_factors":["Only 4 operative sections total","No defined terms whatsoever","No cross-references to other legislation","No conditional logic or exceptions","Single, unconditional payment obligation with a fixed amount and straightforward payment method","Plain and archaic but unambiguous language"],"plain_english_summary":"## South Australia Grant Act 1936\n\nThis is a short, straightforward piece of Commonwealth legislation with one simple purpose: **to send money to South Australia**.\n\n### What does it do?\nThe Commonwealth government agreed to pay the State of South Australia **£1,330,000** (one million, three hundred and thirty thousand pounds) as **financial assistance** — essentially a grant, with no strings attached beyond the payment terms.\n\n### How is the money paid?\n- The total amount is split into **equal monthly instalments** over the financial year starting **1 July 1936**\n- The money comes directly from the **Consolidated Revenue Fund** (the Commonwealth's main pool of public money, collected from taxes and other sources)\n\n### Who does it affect?\n- **The State of South Australia**, which receives the funds\n- **Commonwealth taxpayers**, whose tax contributions fund the payment\n\n### Why does it matter?\nDuring the 1930s, Australia was still recovering from the **Great Depression**. Smaller states like South Australia often struggled to balance their budgets and relied on Commonwealth grants to fund essential services. This Act is a classic example of **vertical fiscal imbalance** (a situation where the Commonwealth collects more tax revenue than it needs, while the states spend more than they collect) — a feature of Australian federalism that continues to this day. This kind of legislation laid the groundwork for the modern system of Commonwealth financial support to the states."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"impossible_compliance","section":"3","severity":"low","reasoning":"In the pre-decimal currency of 1936 (pounds, shillings, pence, farthings), £1,330,000 is not evenly divisible by 12. £1,330,000 ÷ 12 = £110,833 6s 8d exactly, so this is actually resolvable in shillings and pence — however the Act provides no mechanism for handling any rounding discrepancy in the final instalment, leaving it technically non-compliant with strict 'equal' instalments if the arithmetic does not resolve cleanly. On closer inspection, £1,330,000 ÷ 12 = £110,833.3333..., meaning each instalment would be £110,833 6s 8d, but 12 × £110,833 6s 8d = £1,329,999 16s 0d — leaving a shortfall of 4s 0d unaccounted for by the Act. Strict compliance with 'equal monthly instalments' is therefore mathematically impossible without a residual adjustment provision.","confidence":0.72,"description":"The Act requires payment of £1,330,000 in 'equal monthly instalments' over a year, but £1,330,000 divided by 12 months yields £110,833.33 recurring — a sum that cannot be expressed in exact pre-decimal pounds, shillings, and pence without an infinite remainder."},{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"2","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Section 2 defines the payment period as the full financial year beginning 1 July 1936. Section 3 requires payment in equal monthly instalments, implying instalments were due from July 1936 onward. However, the Act received Royal Assent on 12 October 1936, meaning the July, August, and September instalments predate the Act's legal authority to appropriate funds. The Consolidated Revenue Fund appropriation in s.4 only operates from the date of Assent. There is no retrospective payment or catch-up mechanism provided, making strict compliance with the monthly instalment schedule retroactively impossible for those first three months.","confidence":0.88,"description":"The Act purports to authorise payment 'during the year commencing on the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and thirty-six,' yet it was not assented to until 12th October 1936 — three and a half months into that financial year. The first three monthly instalments (July, August, September) would have fallen due before the Act even existed."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"low","section_a":"2","section_b":"3","confidence":0.68,"description":"Section 2 specifies a fixed total sum (£1,330,000) payable during a defined 12-month year, while Section 3 mandates 'equal monthly instalments' with no provision for rounding or a residual final instalment. Since £1,330,000 cannot be divided into 12 perfectly equal instalments in pre-decimal currency (the result is £110,833 6s 8d per month, summing to £1,329,999 16s 0d — 4 shillings short), the two sections create an irreconcilable tension: paying exactly equal instalments means the full sum is never paid, but paying the full sum means one instalment must differ from the rest."},{"severity":"high","section_a":"2","section_b":"4","confidence":0.85,"description":"Section 2 contemplates payments falling due from 1 July 1936, but Section 4 appropriates funds from the Consolidated Revenue Fund only upon and after the Act's commencement (12 October 1936). For the period 1 July – 11 October 1936, there is both a statutory obligation to pay (s.2 read with s.3) and no valid appropriation to support that payment (s.4 not yet in force), creating a direct conflict between the payment obligation and the lawful source of funds."}]}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/south-australia-grant-act-1936","history":"/api/acts/south-australia-grant-act-1936/history","analysis":"/api/acts/south-australia-grant-act-1936/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/south-australia-grant-act-1936/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/south-australia-grant-act-1936/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/south-australia-grant-act-1936/documents"}}