{"id":"C1968A00030","name":"States Grants (Drought Reimbursement) Act 1968","slug":"states-grants-drought-reimbursement-act-1968","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"repealed","isInForce":false,"actNumber":"30 of 1968","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":5394,"registerId":"commonwealth-C1968A00030-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-30","status":"Repealed","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"States Grants (Drought Reimbursement) Act 1968","content":"States Grants (Drought Reimbursement)\n\nNo. 30 of 1968\n\nAn Act to make provision for the Grant of Financial Assistance to the States of Victoria and South Australia for the purpose of meeting the Cost of Measures for Alleviating the Effects of Drought.\n\n\\[Assented to 7 June 1968\\]\n\nBE it enacted by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows:—\n\nShort title.\n\n1. This Act may be cited as the States Grants (Drought Reimbursement) Act 1968.\n\nCommencement.\n\n2. This Act shall come into operation on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.\n\nInterpretation.\n\n3. A reference in this Act to the cost to a State of measures taken for the purpose of alleviating the effects of drought includes a reference to the amounts of loans made for that purpose by the State or out of moneys provided by the State.\n\nFinancial assistance before 1 July 1968.\n\n4.—(1.) Subject to this section, the Treasurer may authorize the payment to a State specified in the Schedule to this Act, by way of financial assistance, of amounts not exceeding in the aggregate the cost to the State, during the period to which this section applies, of measures taken for the purpose of alleviating the effects of drought.  \n\n(2.) Payments to a State under this section shall not exceed in the aggregate the amount specified in the Schedule to this Act opposite to the name of that State, less any other payments made by the Commonwealth to the State, by way of financial assistance for the purpose of meeting the cost of drought relief measures, during the period to which this section applies.\n\n(3.) Payments under this section, and advances in respect of such payments, shall be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, which is appropriated accordingly.\n\n(4.) In this section, “the period to which this section applies” means the period that commenced on the first day of October, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-seven, and ends on the thirtieth day of June, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-eight.\n\nFinancial assistance on or after 1 July 1968.\n\n5.—(1.) Subject to this section, the Treasurer may authorize the payment to a State specified in the Schedule to this Act, by way of financial assistance, of amounts not exceeding in the aggregate the cost to the State, on or after the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-eight, of measures taken for the purpose of alleviating the effects of drought.\n\n(2.) Payments to a State under this section in a financial year shall not exceed in the aggregate the sum of the amounts appropriated by the Parliament for the purposes of payments under this Act to that State during that financial year.\n\nConditions.\n\n6.—(1.) Payment of an amount (including an advance) to a State under this Act is subject to such conditions, if any, as the Treasurer determines.\n\n(2.) The conditions that may be determined by the Treasurer under the last preceding sub-section may include a condition as to repayment of the whole or a part of the amount.\n\nAdvances.\n\n7. The Treasurer may, at such times as he thinks fit, out of moneys lawfully available, make advances to a State of such amounts as he thinks fit on account of an amount that may become payable under section 4 or section 5 of this Act to that State.\n\nTHE SCHEDULE Sections 4 and 5.\n\n|                                   | $          |\n| --------------------------------- | ---------- |\n| Victoria.......................   | 10,000,000 |\n| South Australia.................. | 5,000,000  |","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"impossible_compliance","section":"Section 5(2)","severity":"high","reasoning":"Section 4(3) explicitly appropriates the Consolidated Revenue Fund for section 4 payments. Section 5 contains no equivalent appropriation. Section 5(2) instead defers to future parliamentary appropriations, but the Act never creates or references any such appropriation. This means the Treasurer is authorised under s5(1) to make payments that are simultaneously capped under s5(2) by amounts that do not exist within the Act, creating a structural funding void for all post-1 July 1968 payments — which is the ongoing operative section of the Act.","confidence":0.82,"description":"Section 5(2) caps payments to a State at the sum of amounts 'appropriated by the Parliament for the purposes of payments under this Act' — but no such specific annual appropriations are established anywhere in the Act itself. The Schedule dollar caps are expressly tied to section 4 only, leaving section 5 payments entirely dependent on future appropriations that may never materialise, effectively making section 5 an empty promise with no operative funding mechanism."},{"type":"self_contradicting","section":"Section 5 and The Schedule","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Section 4(2) explicitly references 'the amount specified in the Schedule to this Act opposite to the name of that State' as the aggregate cap. Section 5(2) conspicuously does not do so, instead referencing annual appropriations. Yet the Schedule purports on its face to govern both sections. Either the Schedule cap was intended to apply to section 5 (in which case s5(2) is badly drafted) or it was not (in which case the Schedule heading is incorrect). Either way, a genuine drafting incoherence exists.","confidence":0.78,"description":"The Schedule is headed 'Sections 4 and 5' and lists dollar caps opposite each State's name. However, section 5(2) makes no reference to the Schedule amounts as a cap — it references annual parliamentary appropriations instead. The Schedule amounts therefore have no operative legal effect on section 5 payments, making the Schedule heading misleading and arguably creating a phantom cap that a reasonable reader would assume applies but legally does not."},{"type":"impossible_compliance","section":"Section 7","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Section 4(3) specifically appropriates the CRF for advances related to section 4 payments. Section 7, which covers advances for both sections 4 and 5, uses the vaguer phrase 'moneys lawfully available' without creating an appropriation. For section 4 this is backstopped by s4(3), but for section 5 there is no such backstop, leaving the funding authority for section 5 advances uncertain.","confidence":0.7,"description":"Section 7 authorises the Treasurer to make advances 'on account of an amount that may become payable under section 4 or section 5'. For section 5, however, no appropriation exists within the Act (see s5(2) analysis above). Advances under s7 are drawn from 'moneys lawfully available', yet there is no appropriation provision for section 5 advances equivalent to the s4(3) CRF appropriation. It is therefore unclear what 'moneys lawfully available' means in this context, and advances for future section 5 liabilities may lack a lawful funding source within the Act."},{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"Section 4 (heading and operative provisions)","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Section 6 allows the Treasurer to impose conditions on payments, including conditions as to repayment. Imposing forward-looking conditions on expenditure already incurred between October 1967 and June 1968 — before the Act existed — is logically problematic. The States could not have structured their drought relief spending to comply with conditions that had not yet been determined. While this may have been intentional (i.e. reimbursement of already-incurred costs), the application of s6 conditions to such payments creates a retroactive compliance paradox.","confidence":0.65,"description":"Section 4 is titled 'Financial assistance before 1 July 1968' and the Act received Royal Assent on 7 June 1968 — only 23 days before section 4's operative period ends. More significantly, section 4(4) defines the covered period as commencing 1 October 1967, meaning the Act retrospectively reimburses expenditure that had already occurred before the Act existed. While retrospective grants legislation is not unusual, the entire operative period of s4 (bar 23 days) is historical at the moment of enactment, making prospective compliance with any conditions under s6 practically impossible for the bulk of the covered expenditure."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Section 4(2)","section_b":"Section 5(2)","confidence":0.85,"description":"Section 4(2) caps aggregate payments by reference to the fixed dollar amounts in the Schedule. Section 5(2) caps aggregate payments by reference to annual parliamentary appropriations, not the Schedule. Despite the Schedule's heading explicitly citing both sections, the two sections apply materially different and mutually inconsistent capping mechanisms, creating ambiguity about whether the Schedule dollar figures are intended as a ceiling for section 5 or are irrelevant to it."},{"severity":"low","section_a":"Section 4(3)","section_b":"Section 7","confidence":0.6,"description":"Section 4(3) appropriates the Consolidated Revenue Fund specifically for payments and advances under section 4. Section 7 authorises advances for both section 4 and section 5, drawing on 'moneys lawfully available' rather than the CRF. For section 4 advances, this creates a tension between two potentially concurrent appropriation mechanisms — s4(3)'s specific CRF appropriation and s7's general 'moneys lawfully available' formula — raising a question about which provision governs section 4 advances."},{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Section 6(1)","section_b":"Section 4 (retrospective period)","confidence":0.67,"description":"Section 6(1) provides that payment is subject to conditions the Treasurer 'determines', implying conditions are set prospectively before or at time of payment. Section 4 covers expenditure retrospectively from 1 October 1967 — eight months before the Act existed. Imposing meaningful compliance conditions on expenditure already spent is directly in tension with the forward-looking conditionality framework in section 6, as the States had no opportunity to structure their conduct around undetermined conditions."}]},"summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act is tightly scoped to its original purpose from start to finish — reimbursing Victoria and South Australia for drought relief spending in a specific period (from October 1967 onwards). There is no evidence of scope creep or expansion beyond the original intent. The only forward-looking provision (section 5, covering spending from 1 July 1968) is a natural extension of the same purpose, not a broadening of it. The Schedule locks in the named states and dollar caps, further constraining the Act's reach."},"complexity_factors":["Very short Act — only 7 sections plus a one-page Schedule","Minimal defined terms — only one interpretive clause (section 3) clarifying that state loans count as costs","Simple conditional logic — payments capped by Schedule amounts or annual appropriations","Only two states and two time periods to consider, with no complex eligibility criteria","No cross-referencing to other legislation","Straightforward appropriation from the Consolidated Revenue Fund with no procedural complexity","Conditions clause (section 6) is open-ended but not itself complex in drafting"],"plain_english_summary":"## States Grants (Drought Reimbursement) Act 1968\n\nThis Act allows the Commonwealth (federal) government to provide **financial assistance to Victoria and South Australia** to help cover the costs those states incurred in responding to drought conditions in the late 1960s.\n\n### What does it actually do?\n\n- **Reimbursement for drought relief spending**: The Commonwealth agrees to pay back (reimburse) money that Victoria and South Australia spent on measures to help people and communities deal with the effects of drought — things like emergency loans to farmers and rural communities.\n- **Two time periods covered**:\n  - **Before 1 July 1968**: Covers drought relief spending from **1 October 1967 to 30 June 1968**. Victoria can receive up to **$10 million**, and South Australia up to **$5 million**, minus any other Commonwealth drought funding already received in that period.\n  - **From 1 July 1968 onwards**: Further payments can be made, capped at whatever Parliament appropriates (sets aside in the budget) for each state in each financial year.\n- **Loans count too**: If a state lent money to farmers or others for drought relief (rather than just handing out grants), those loan amounts are still counted as part of the state's costs and can be reimbursed.\n- **Conditions apply**: The Commonwealth Treasurer (the federal minister responsible for the budget) can attach whatever conditions they see fit to these payments — including requiring that some or all of the money be paid back to the Commonwealth.\n- **Advances allowed**: The Treasurer can also pay money to the states early (before the full entitlement is calculated) as an advance, giving states cash flow while the final amounts are being worked out.\n\n### Who does it affect?\n\n- Primarily **the governments of Victoria and South Australia**, who were dealing with significant drought at the time.\n- Indirectly, it benefits **farmers, rural communities, and others** in those states who received drought assistance funded by state governments.\n\n### Why does it matter?\n\nThis is a classic example of **cooperative federalism** — where the Commonwealth steps in to support state governments managing a natural disaster. It reflects the reality that states often have limited financial capacity to handle large-scale disasters alone, and the federal government can back them up through targeted grants. The Act is narrowly focused on a specific drought event and is largely of **historical significance** today."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/states-grants-drought-reimbursement-act-1968","history":"/api/acts/states-grants-drought-reimbursement-act-1968/history","analysis":"/api/acts/states-grants-drought-reimbursement-act-1968/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/states-grants-drought-reimbursement-act-1968/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/states-grants-drought-reimbursement-act-1968/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/states-grants-drought-reimbursement-act-1968/documents"}}