{"id":"C1939A00033","name":"States Grants Act 1939","slug":"states-grants-act-1939","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"repealed","isInForce":false,"actNumber":"33 of 1939","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":4088,"registerId":"commonwealth-C1939A00033-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-30","status":"Repealed","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"States Grants Act 1939","content":"STATES GRANTS.\n\nNo. 33 of 1939.\n\nAn Act to grant and apply out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund sums for the purposes of Financial Assistance to the States of South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.\n\n\\[Assented to 26th September, 1939.\\]\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 States Grants Act 1939.\n\nCommencement.\n\n2. This Act shall come into operation on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.\n\nPayment for financial assistance to States.\n\n3. There shall be payable, for the purposes of financial assistance to the States of South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, during the year commencing on the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and thirty-nine, the sum of Two million and twenty thousand pounds.\n\nAllocation of grant.\n\n4. The amount payable to each State under this Act shall be the amount shown in the following table opposite the name of that State:—\n\n|                                         | £         |\n| --------------------------------------- | --------- |\n| South Australia........................ | 995,000   |\n| Western Australia...................... | 595,000   |\n| Tasmania............................    | 430,000   |\n|                                         | 2,020,000 |\n\nMethod of payment.\n\n5. The amount payable to any State under this Act shall be paid to that State in equal monthly instalments.\n\nAppropriation.\n\n6. 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":2175},"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation remains strictly limited to its original purpose as a one-year, fixed-sum grant to three specific states. There is no expansion into regulatory frameworks, ongoing administrative schemes, or broader policy mechanisms beyond the simple appropriation of funds for the 1939-1940 financial year."},"complexity_factors":["Only 6 short sections with no subsections or schedules","No defined terms or interpretation provisions","No cross-references to other legislation","Simple fixed-sum appropriation without conditions, triggers, or exceptions","Linear structure: set total amount, allocate via table, specify monthly payment method, authorise from Consolidated Revenue Fund"],"plain_english_summary":"**What this law does**\n\nThis Act authorises the federal government to pay money from the national budget (the Consolidated Revenue Fund) to three Australian states—South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania—to help them with their finances during the year starting 1 July 1939.\n\n**The money breakdown**\n- **South Australia**: £995,000\n- **Western Australia**: £595,000\n- **Tasmania**: £430,000\n- **Total**: £2,020,000\n\n**How it works**\nThe Commonwealth pays each state in equal monthly instalments over the year. The Act simply sets the amounts, names the states, and approves taking the money from the federal government's main account.\n\n**Why it matters**\nThis was \"financial assistance\"—federal funding to support smaller or less wealthy states that found it harder to raise their own revenue. It represents an early form of horizontal fiscal equalisation, where the Commonwealth redistributes resources to ensure all states can provide basic services."},"summary":{"complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act does exactly what its title and preamble promise — no more, no less. It grants a fixed sum to three named states for one financial year. There is no evidence of scope creep, amendment, or expansion beyond its original and singular purpose."},"complexity_factors":["Only 6 operative sections, all brief and self-contained","No defined terms or interpretation section","No conditional logic, exceptions, or qualifications","No cross-references to other legislation","A single, fixed financial allocation with no discretionary elements","Straightforward payment mechanism (equal monthly instalments) with no carve-outs"],"plain_english_summary":"## States Grants Act 1939 — Plain English Summary\n\nThis is a short, straightforward piece of legislation that does one simple thing: **it authorises the Commonwealth government to pay a total of £2,020,000 to three Australian states** — South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania — as financial assistance for the 1939–40 financial year.\n\n### Who gets what?\nThe money is divided as follows:\n- **South Australia** — £995,000\n- **Western Australia** — £595,000\n- **Tasmania** — £430,000\n\n### How is it paid?\nEach state receives its share in **equal monthly instalments** across the financial year (starting 1 July 1939).\n\n### Where does the money come from?\nThe funds are drawn from the **Consolidated Revenue Fund** — essentially the Commonwealth's main pool of public money, collected through taxes and other revenue. This Act formally authorises (or \"appropriates\") that spending, which is a constitutional requirement before the government can legally pay money out.\n\n### Why does this matter?\nSouth Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania were smaller, less populous states that had historically struggled to generate sufficient revenue of their own. Commonwealth grants like this were a vital lifeline, helping these states fund essential services. This Act reflects the broader Commonwealth practice of redistributing national revenue to support fiscal (financial) equity between the states — a tradition that continues today through mechanisms like the GST distribution."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"Section 3 & Section 2","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Section 2 provides that the Act commences on the day of Royal Assent (26 September 1939). Section 3 directs payments 'during the year commencing on the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and thirty-nine.' This means the Act purports to authorise payments for a period (1 July – 25 September 1939) during which it did not yet legally exist. Any instalments that would have fallen due in July, August, and most of September could not lawfully have been made under this Act's authority at the time they were due. This creates a retroactive impossibility for the early instalments of the financial year.","confidence":0.92,"description":"The Act appropriates funds for the financial year commencing 1 July 1939, but did not receive Royal Assent (and therefore did not commence) until 26 September 1939 — nearly three months into that financial year."},{"type":"impossible_compliance","section":"Section 5","severity":"medium","reasoning":"A financial year has 12 months. Equal monthly instalments would ordinarily require 12 payments of equal size across the year starting 1 July 1939. However, because the Act only commenced on 26 September 1939 (Section 2), three months of instalments had already passed before the Act existed. It is mathematically impossible to pay 12 equal monthly instalments across a full year when legal authority to pay only arose in the fourth month of that year. The Commonwealth would have had to either (a) make larger catch-up payments (not 'equal'), (b) skip the first three months entirely (leaving the year's total underpaid), or (c) compress equal payments into the remaining ~9 months — all of which breach the literal requirement of 'equal monthly instalments' across the year.","confidence":0.88,"description":"The requirement to pay in 'equal monthly instalments' is impossible to satisfy in full given that the Act commenced partway through the financial year it covers."},{"type":"other","section":"Section 4","severity":"low","reasoning":"The total in Section 3 (£2,020,000) and the sum of the table in Section 4 (£995,000 + £595,000 + £430,000 = £2,020,000) are consistent here, so no actual conflict exists in this Act. However, the Act provides no rule of construction for which figure prevails if they ever diverged (e.g., due to a typographical error in one provision). This is a low-severity drafting gap rather than a present absurdity, but it is worth noting.","confidence":0.65,"description":"The individual State allocations in the table sum to exactly £2,020,000, which matches Section 3 — however the table presents this as an arithmetic total rather than a defined allocation, creating a minor drafting redundancy where the total is both prescribed by Section 3 and re-stated in the table, leaving no mechanism to resolve a discrepancy if the figures ever conflicted."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"high","section_a":"Section 2 (Commencement)","section_b":"Section 3 (Payment for financial assistance to States)","confidence":0.91,"description":"Section 2 provides the Act commences on the date of Royal Assent (26 September 1939), but Section 3 directs payment 'during the year commencing on the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and thirty-nine.' The Act therefore purports to govern a period that predates its own legal existence by nearly three months, creating a direct tension between when the Act has legal force and the period for which it appropriates funds."},{"severity":"high","section_a":"Section 3 (Payment for financial assistance to States)","section_b":"Section 5 (Method of payment)","confidence":0.87,"description":"Section 3 fixes the total payable 'during the year commencing on the first day of July 1939' (a full 12-month year), while Section 5 requires payment in 'equal monthly instalments.' Because the Act only came into force on 26 September 1939, applying both provisions literally simultaneously is impossible: equal instalments across 12 months cannot be paid when the Act's authority only covers approximately 9 of those months. One provision must yield to the other, but the Act provides no guidance on which prevails."}]}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/states-grants-act-1939","history":"/api/acts/states-grants-act-1939/history","analysis":"/api/acts/states-grants-act-1939/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/states-grants-act-1939/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/states-grants-act-1939/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/states-grants-act-1939/documents"}}