{"id":"C1969A00089","name":"States Grants (Independent Schools) Act 1969","slug":"states-grants-independent-schools-act-1969","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"repealed","isInForce":false,"actNumber":"89 of 1969","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":5395,"registerId":"commonwealth-C1969A00089-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-30","status":"Repealed","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"States Grants (Independent Schools) Act 1969","content":"States Grants (Independent Schools)\n\nNo. 89 of 1969\n\nAn Act to grant Financial Assistance to the States in relation to Independent Schools.\n\n\\[Assented to 27 September 1969\\]\n\n\\[Date of commencement 25 October 1969\\]\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 (Independent Schools) Act 1969.\n\nInterpretation.\n\n2.—(1.) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears—\n\n“independent school” or “school” means a school or institution in a State, other than a school or institution conducted by the State, at which primary education or secondary education is, or both are, provided, but does not include a school conducted for the profit, direct or indirect, of an individual or individuals;\n\n“primary education” means full time education of a kind similar to that provided for pupils in primary classes in schools conducted by the State concerned;\n\n“qualified accountant”, in relation to the furnishing of a statement referred to in section 4 of this Act, means—\n\n(a) a person who is registered as a company auditor or public accountant under the law of a State or Territory of the Commonwealth;\n\n(b) a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia or of the Australian Society of Accountants; or\n\n(c) a person approved by the Minister as a person competent to furnish such statements;\n\n“recurrent expenditure”, in relation to an independent school, means expenditure, other than capital expenditure, incurred for purposes related to the provision of primary education or secondary education at the school;\n\n“school authority”, in relation to an independent school, means the person or body conducting the school;\n\n“secondary education” means full time education of a kind similar to that provided for pupils in secondary classes in schools conducted by the State concerned.\n\n  \n\n“the schools census date”, in relation to schools in a State, means the date in the relevant year as at which the Commonwealth Statistician compiles statistics in relation to the numbers of pupils in schools in that State;\n\n“year” means the year One thousand nine hundred and seventy or a subsequent year.\n\n(2.) A reference in this Act to primary education or secondary education shall, in relation to pupils who, by reason of physical or mental handicap or for any other reason, require special educational treatment, be read as including a reference to such education of those pupils as, in the opinion of the Minister, should be treated as primary education or secondary education, as the case may be, for the purposes of this Act.\n\nGrants to States.\n\n3.—(1.) There is payable to each State, in respect of each year, by way of financial assistance to the State, an amount in respect of each independent school in the State, being an amount calculated at the rates of—\n\n(a) Thirty-five dollars for each pupil receiving primary education; and\n\n(b) Fifty dollars for each pupil receiving secondary education,\n\nat the school on the schools census date.\n\n(2.) Payments to a State under this section shall be made at such times, and in such instalments, as the Minister determines.\n\nConditions of payments.\n\n4.—(1.) The financial assistance to a State constituted by a payment of moneys (including an advance) under this Act to the State in respect of an independent school in respect of a year is granted on the conditions that—\n\n(a) subject to the next succeeding paragraph, the State will pay to the school authority, without undue delay, an amount equal to those moneys and will describe the amount as a payment in respect of that school in respect of that year out of moneys provided to the State by the Commonwealth;\n\n(b) the payment to the school authority will not be made unless the school authority agrees with the State, before or at the time of accepting that payment, to be bound by the following conditions:—\n\n(i) the school authority will ensure that amounts equal to the total of all payments made by the State to the school authority in respect of the school in accordance with this section in the year in which the payment is made (less any amount that has become repayable to the State by the school authority in respect of those payments) are applied, in that year or not later than three months after the end of that year, for the purposes of recurrent expenditure in respect of the school;\n\n  \n\n(ii) the school authority will cause to be furnished to the Minister, not later than six months after the end of the year in which the payment is made, a statement in writing signed by a qualified accountant to the effect that he has satisfied himself that the condition referred to in the last preceding sub-paragraph has been complied with; and\n\n(iii) if the total of the amounts paid by the State to the school authority and described as payments in respect of that school, in respect of the year in which the payment is made, out of moneys provided to the State by the Commonwealth exceeds the amount calculated in respect of the school in respect of that year in accordance with sub\\-section (1.) of section 3 of this Act, the school authority will repay to the State the amount of the excess;\n\n(c) if the State does not fulfil the conditions to be observed by the State in relation to the payment under the preceding paragraphs of this sub-section, or the school authority does not agree to be bound by the conditions referred to in sub-paragraphs (i), (ii) and (iii) of the last preceding paragraph, the State will repay to the Commonwealth an amount equal to the payment; and\n\n(d) the State will repay to the Commonwealth amounts equal to so much of any amounts paid by the State to the school authority in accordance with this section as are repaid to the State by, or recovered by the State from, the school authority.\n\n(2.) If the Minister is satisfied that a school authority has failed to fulfil a condition applicable to a payment made by a State to the school authority in accordance with this Act in respect of any year, the Minister may direct that an amount equal to the whole or a part of the payments made by the State to the school authority in accordance with this Act in respect of that year shall be deducted from further amounts becoming payable to the State under this Act in respect of that school.\n\n(3.) Where—\n\n(a) the last preceding sub-section is applicable in relation to a school authority (whether or not a direction is given under that sub-section); or\n\n(b) a school authority has failed to accept the conditions upon which, in accordance with paragraph (b) of sub-section (1.) of this section, a payment to the school authority was proposed to be made by a State,\n\nthe Minister may direct that further payments to the State in respect of that school shall not be made until the Minister is satisfied that the school authority will accept and observe the conditions upon which payments to the school authority by the State in accordance with this section are required to be made.\n\n  \n\n(4.) An amount repayable by a State to the Commonwealth in accordance with the condition contained in paragraph (c) or (d) of sub\\-section (1.) of this section is a debt due by the State to the Commonwealth.\n\nAdvances.\n\n5. The Minister and the Treasurer may make arrangements for the making by the Treasurer to a State, by way of financial assistance to the State, of advances of specified amounts in respect of specified independent schools on account of the respective amounts that are expected to become payable to the State under this Act in respect of those respective schools in respect of the year in which the advances are made.\n\nAppropriation.\n\n6. Amounts payable to a State under this Act are payable out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, which is appropriated accordingly.\n\nAnnual statement by Minister.\n\n7. As soon as practicable after the end of each year, the Minister shall cause a statement to be laid before each House of the Parliament setting out—\n\n(a) the names of the schools in each State in respect of which payments to the State have been made under this Act in respect of that year and, in respect of each school, the amount paid by reference to pupils receiving primary education and the amount paid by reference to pupils receiving secondary education; and\n\n(b) the totals of the amounts paid to each State under this Act in respect of that year by reference to pupils receiving primary education and by reference to pupils receiving secondary education, respectively.","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"summary":{"complexity_score":4,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This Act is short, tightly focused, and internally consistent with its stated purpose: providing per-pupil Commonwealth grants to States for independent (non-government, non-profit) schools. Every provision — the grant formula, the conditions, the advances mechanism, the repayment rules, and the parliamentary reporting requirement — directly serves that single objective. There is no evidence of scope creep or expansion beyond the original intent. The Act does exactly what its title and preamble say it will do."},"complexity_factors":["Moderate number of defined terms (8 definitions in section 2), including nuanced distinctions like 'recurrent expenditure' vs capital expenditure","Multi-level conditional payment structure: Commonwealth → State → school authority, each with separate obligations","Nested conditions in section 4(1): conditions on the State that themselves contain sub-conditions binding the school authority","Cross-referencing between sections (e.g. section 4 references section 3(1), subsections reference each other within section 4)","Ministerial discretion provisions with multiple trigger scenarios (section 4(2) and 4(3)) creating branching conditional logic","Repayment and debt recovery mechanics adding procedural complexity","Three-tier compliance and enforcement chain (accountant sign-off → State repayment → Commonwealth deduction/freeze)"],"plain_english_summary":"## States Grants (Independent Schools) Act 1969\n\n**What this law does**\n\nThis Act sets up a system for the Commonwealth (federal) government to provide direct financial assistance to the States, specifically to help fund **non-government, non-profit schools** — what we'd today call independent or private schools. The money flows from the Commonwealth → to each State → and then directly to the individual school.\n\n---\n\n**Who it affects**\n\n- **Independent schools** — any school in a State that is:\n  - Not run by the State government itself, **and**\n  - Not run for private profit\n  - This includes schools for students with physical or mental disabilities, as long as the Minister considers their education equivalent to primary or secondary schooling\n- **State governments**, who act as the \"middleman\" receiving and passing on the money\n- **School authorities** (the people or bodies running the schools), who must agree to conditions before they can receive the funds\n\n---\n\n**How the money works**\n\nThe Act sets fixed per-pupil grants for each year from 1970 onwards:\n- **$35 per primary school student** (counted on a specific census date each year)\n- **$50 per secondary school student** (same census date)\n\nThe Commonwealth pays the State, and the State **must** pass that money on to the school — describing it clearly as a Commonwealth-sourced payment. The Minister decides the timing and instalments of payments. Advances can also be made to States ahead of time if needed.\n\n---\n\n**Strings attached (conditions)**\n\nThe funding comes with strict conditions at every level:\n\n- **School authorities must agree** (before or when accepting money) to:\n  - Spend the money on **day-to-day (recurrent) school expenses** — not buildings or capital works — either in the same year or within 3 months of year's end\n  - Have a **qualified accountant** (a registered auditor or member of a recognised accounting body) sign off that the money was spent correctly, within 6 months of year end\n  - **Repay any overpayment** back to the State\n\n- **States must agree** to:\n  - Pass the money on promptly to schools\n  - Repay the Commonwealth if a school refuses the conditions or if the State itself doesn't follow the rules\n  - Pass back to the Commonwealth any money refunded by a school\n\n- **If a school breaks the rules**, the Minister can:\n  - Deduct equivalent amounts from future payments to the State for that school\n  - Freeze all further payments to the State for that school until satisfied things are back on track\n\n- Any money owed by a State back to the Commonwealth is treated as a **formal debt** (legally recoverable).\n\n---\n\n**Transparency**\n\nAfter each year, the Minister must table a report in **both Houses of Parliament** listing every school that received money, how much was paid for primary students and how much for secondary students, with State-by-State totals.\n\n---\n\n**Why it matters**\n\nThis Act was a landmark piece of federal involvement in school funding, extending Commonwealth financial support beyond government schools to the independent (non-government, non-profit) school sector for the first time in a structured, recurring way. It established the principle that the federal government would fund independent schools on a per-student basis — a model that underpins Australian school funding policy to this day."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"other","section":"Section 2(1) — definition of 'year'","severity":"medium","reasoning":"The Act was assented to on 27 September 1969 and commenced 25 October 1969. Section 3 ties all grant payments to 'each year', which by definition cannot include 1969. This means the Act was in force for over two months in 1969 with no operative effect whatsoever — schools census dates, conditions, and appropriations all hang off 'year', and 1969 is excluded. While this may have been a deliberate drafting choice to avoid partial-year complexity, it creates an odd legal situation where the Act exists but cannot do anything in the year it commenced.","confidence":0.9,"description":"The definition of 'year' means 'the year One thousand nine hundred and seventy or a subsequent year.' The Act commenced on 25 October 1969, yet no payment mechanism exists for 1969 itself. The Act is operative for a period during 1969 but explicitly excludes 1969 from the definition of 'year', meaning no grants can be paid for the year in which the Act actually commenced."},{"type":"other","section":"Section 4(1)(b)(i)","severity":"low","reasoning":"The three-month spending window closes at the end of March (for a calendar year). The six-month certification window closes at the end of June. On the face of it, this allows sufficient time — the accountant certifies after the spending window closes. However, the accountant must certify that the condition 'has been complied with', which requires the spending to have occurred. If a school authority spends funds in February or March (within the allowed window), the accountant can still certify by June. The sequencing technically works, but the close interplay creates a genuine risk of premature certification if the accountant acts early. The severity is low as compliance is technically achievable.","confidence":0.65,"description":"The expenditure condition requires that amounts paid by the State to the school authority in the year of payment must be applied 'in that year or not later than three months after the end of that year' for recurrent expenditure. However, section 4(1)(b)(ii) then requires a qualified accountant's statement confirming compliance to be furnished 'not later than six months after the end of the year.' If funds can still be spent up to three months after year-end, the accountant cannot certify compliance at the moment the statement is due — the spending window and the certification window are misaligned, potentially requiring certification of compliance with an obligation that may not yet be complete."},{"type":"impossible_compliance","section":"Section 4(1)(b)(iii) read with Section 3(1)","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Section 5 expressly contemplates advances before the final amount is determined. Section 4(1)(b) requires the school authority to agree to conditions — including the repayment condition tied to the final calculated amount — before or at the time of accepting payment. Since the 'amount calculated in respect of the school' under s3(1) depends on the census date count, which may not yet have occurred when an advance is accepted, the school authority is agreeing to repay an amount that is, at that moment, an unknown variable. Agreeing to repay a sum that cannot be calculated at the time of agreement is an unusual legal commitment, though courts would likely imply it applies to the future-determined figure.","confidence":0.75,"description":"The repayment condition in section 4(1)(b)(iii) requires the school authority to repay any excess amount paid to it. However, the amount calculated under section 3(1) is based on pupil numbers 'on the schools census date' — a date that occurs during the year. If advances are made under section 5 before the census date, the correct grant amount is unknowable at the time of payment. The school authority is thus bound to a repayment condition for an amount that is mathematically indeterminate at the time they must 'agree' to be bound by it (per s4(1)(b))."},{"type":"other","section":"Section 2(1) — definition of 'independent school'","severity":"medium","reasoning":"The profit-exclusion clause uses 'individual or individuals', which in ordinary legal usage refers to natural persons, not corporations. A company is not an 'individual'. Therefore, a for-profit proprietary company running a school would facially meet the definition of 'independent school' and receive grants, while an identical school run by a natural person as a sole trader would be excluded. This appears to be a drafting oversight that creates an irrational distinction based purely on the legal form of the operator rather than the for-profit character of the enterprise.","confidence":0.8,"description":"The definition of 'independent school' excludes 'a school conducted for the profit, direct or indirect, of an individual or individuals.' This exclusion refers only to individuals (natural persons) and would not exclude a school conducted for the profit of a corporation. A school run as a for-profit company would technically qualify as an 'independent school' and be eligible for grants, while the same school run by a sole trader would not. This creates an arbitrary distinction that could be circumvented by simple incorporation."},{"type":"other","section":"Section 7 — Annual statement by Minister","severity":"low","reasoning":"While toothless reporting obligations are common in legislation of this era, the 'as soon as practicable' standard is internally weak — it creates a legal duty with no legal consequence for breach. The Minister could lay the statement before Parliament years late and face no statutory consequence. This is a low-severity drafting weakness rather than a true absurdity, but it is worth flagging as the accountability mechanism is effectively unenforceable.","confidence":0.7,"description":"Section 7 requires the Minister to lay a statement before Parliament 'as soon as practicable after the end of each year.' The definition of 'year' means 1970 or a subsequent year. Since the Act itself has no sunset provision, this obligation continues indefinitely into the future — including for all years after the Act may have been effectively superseded or repealed. More practically, the obligation to act 'as soon as practicable' is wholly unenforceable: there is no sanction, no deadline, and no mechanism to compel compliance, making the accountability provision largely aspirational."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Section 4(1)(b) — conditions must be agreed before or at time of accepting payment","section_b":"Section 5 — advances may be made before final amounts are determined","confidence":0.78,"description":"Section 4(1)(b) requires a school authority to agree to conditions — including repayment of any excess over the amount calculated under s3(1) — 'before or at the time of accepting' a payment. Section 5 allows advances to be made on account of 'amounts that are expected to become payable' before the final figure is known. These two provisions pull in opposite directions: s4 demands agreement to a fixed, calculated repayment condition, while s5 contemplates payment before that calculation is possible, creating structural tension about when and to what exactly the school authority is agreeing."},{"severity":"high","section_a":"Section 4(1)(a) — State must pay school authority 'without undue delay'","section_b":"Section 4(1)(b) — payment to school authority must not be made unless the school authority first agrees to conditions","confidence":0.85,"description":"Section 4(1)(a) obliges the State to pay the school authority 'without undue delay', creating a positive obligation to pay promptly. Section 4(1)(b) expressly prohibits that payment being made unless the school authority first agrees to a set of conditions. If a school authority is slow to agree, or refuses to agree, the State is simultaneously obliged to pay promptly (s4(1)(a)) and prohibited from paying (s4(1)(b)). The State cannot comply with both obligations simultaneously when a school authority is unco-operative, placing the State in an impossible position through no fault of its own."},{"severity":"low","section_a":"Section 4(2) — Minister may direct deduction from future State payments in respect of a specific school","section_b":"Section 4(3) — Minister may direct that further payments to the State in respect of that school shall not be made","confidence":0.7,"description":"Sections 4(2) and 4(3) provide two overlapping but distinct remedies for school authority non-compliance: deduction from future amounts (s4(2)) and suspension of further payments (s4(3)). Both can apply to the same facts — s4(3)(a) expressly triggers where s4(2) 'is applicable... whether or not a direction is given under that sub-section.' This means both remedies can operate simultaneously on the same school, potentially resulting in the State being directed both to have amounts deducted from future payments and to receive no further payments at all in respect of the same school. While not a strict contradiction, the double-remedy creates an ambiguity about which mechanism prevails and whether both can be applied cumulatively."}]}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/states-grants-independent-schools-act-1969","history":"/api/acts/states-grants-independent-schools-act-1969/history","analysis":"/api/acts/states-grants-independent-schools-act-1969/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/states-grants-independent-schools-act-1969/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/states-grants-independent-schools-act-1969/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/states-grants-independent-schools-act-1969/documents"}}