{"id":"C1953A00067","name":"States Grants Act 1953","slug":"states-grants-act-1953","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"repealed","isInForce":false,"actNumber":"67 of 1953","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":4550,"registerId":"commonwealth-C1953A00067-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-30","status":"Repealed","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"States Grants Act 1953","content":"STATES GRANTS.\n\nNo. 67 of 1953.\n\nAn Act to grant and apply out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund sums for the purpose of Financial Assistance to the States of South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.\n\n\\[Assented to 28th October, 1953.\\]\n\nBE it enacted by the Queen’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 1953.\n\n  \n\nCommencement.\n\n2. This Act shall come into operation on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.\n\nPayment of financial assistance to States.\n\n3. There is payable to the States of South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, during the year which commenced on the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and fifty-three, for the purpose of financial assistance, the sum of Fifteen million four hundred thousand pounds.\n\nAllocation of grant.\n\n4. The amount payable to each State under this Act is the amount shown in the following table opposite to the name of that State:—\n\n|                                                      | £          |\n| ---------------------------------------------------- | ---------- |\n| South Australia..................................... | 6,100,000  |\n| Western Australia................................... | 7,800,000  |\n| Tasmania.........................................    | 1,500,000  |\n|                                                      | 15,400,000 |\n\nAppropriation.\n\n5. Payments in accordance with this Act shall be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, which is appropriated accordingly.","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"Section 3","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Section 2 states the Act commences on the day of Royal Assent (28 October 1953). Section 3 purports to authorise payments 'during the year which commenced on the first day of July, 1953.' This means the Act is attempting to govern a period (1 July – 28 October 1953) during which it had no legal existence. Any payments made in that prior period had no statutory authority under this Act at the time they were made, even though the Act retrospectively implies they should have been made. The Act neither explicitly validates prior payments nor provides a mechanism to address the gap.","confidence":0.92,"description":"The Act purports to make a payment 'during the year which commenced on the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and fifty-three', but it did not receive Royal Assent until 28th October 1953 — nearly four months into that financial year. Approximately one-third of the payment year had already elapsed before the Act legally existed."},{"type":"other","section":"Section 4 (Table)","severity":"low","reasoning":"Section 3 refers to a payment 'during the year' but neither Section 3, 4, nor 5 specifies whether the sum is payable as a lump sum, in instalments, or on a particular date. Combined with the retroactive impossibility identified above, the Commonwealth could theoretically argue the full sum need not be paid until 30 June 1954, or alternatively that it was due on 1 July 1953 before the Act existed. This creates administrative ambiguity, though in practice such grants were typically paid periodically.","confidence":0.65,"description":"The individual State allocations in the table sum correctly to £15,400,000, which matches Section 3. This is not itself an absurdity, but the Act provides no mechanism, timeline, or instalment schedule for how or when the lump sum is to be paid to each State within the financial year, making compliance administration unclear."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"high","section_a":"Section 2","section_b":"Section 3","confidence":0.91,"description":"Section 2 provides that the Act commences on the date of Royal Assent (28 October 1953), yet Section 3 imposes an obligation to pay grants 'during the year which commenced on the first day of July, 1953.' This creates a direct tension: the payment obligation is anchored to a period that predates the Act's legal commencement by approximately four months. The Act cannot simultaneously commence on 28 October 1953 and have governed conduct from 1 July 1953."}]},"kimi_summary":{"_metrics":{"model":"kimi-k2.5","source":"moonshot-batch","completionTokens":1802},"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation remains tightly focused on its original purpose of making a specific one-year financial grant to three named States. There is no evidence of scope expansion beyond the initial appropriation intent."},"complexity_factors":["Only 5 operative sections with no subsections or schedules","No definitions section or technical legal terms requiring interpretation","Simple appropriation mechanism without conditions, reporting requirements, or ongoing obligations","Single-purpose legislation covering one financial year only","Clear allocation table leaving no discretion in distribution"],"plain_english_summary":"**What this law does:**\n\nThis Act authorises the federal government to pay a total of £15.4 million (in 1953 currency) to three specific states—South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania—as general financial assistance for the 1953-54 financial year.\n\n**Who gets what:**\n- **South Australia:** £6,100,000\n- **Western Australia:** £7,800,000  \n- **Tasmania:** £1,500,000\n\n**Where the money comes from:**\nThe payments come from the *Consolidated Revenue Fund* (the Commonwealth government's main bank account, where taxes and revenue are held).\n\n**Why it matters:**\nThis is a straightforward \"no strings attached\" cash transfer to help these particular states balance their budgets. Unlike grants for specific projects (like hospitals or roads), this money can be used by the states for whatever they need. The Act only covers the single financial year starting 1 July 1953 and operates as a simple one-off payment."},"summary":{"complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act is entirely consistent with its original purpose. It is a narrow, single-year appropriation to provide financial assistance grants to three specific states. There is no evidence of scope creep — no amendments, no expansion of beneficiaries, no new conditions or mechanisms added. It does exactly what its title and preamble say it does, nothing more."},"complexity_factors":["Only 5 sections in total","No defined terms","No cross-references to other legislation","No conditional logic or exceptions","Single fixed payment to three named states with hard-coded amounts in a simple table","Covers a single financial year only"],"plain_english_summary":"The Act authorises the Commonwealth to pay £15,400,000 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund as one-off financial assistance to South Australia (£6,100,000), Western Australia (£7,800,000) and Tasmania (£1,500,000). It is a single-year appropriation for the financial year beginning 1 July 1953.\n\nIt affects those three states and their residents by bolstering state finances; it matters as an example of federal redistribution where Canberra supplements states that lack sufficient revenue."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/states-grants-act-1953","history":"/api/acts/states-grants-act-1953/history","analysis":"/api/acts/states-grants-act-1953/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/states-grants-act-1953/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/states-grants-act-1953/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/states-grants-act-1953/documents"}}