{"id":"C1976A00134","name":"States Grants (Schools) Amendment Act 1976","slug":"states-grants-schools-amendment-act-1976","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"repealed","isInForce":false,"actNumber":"134 of 1976","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":2581,"registerId":"commonwealth-C1976A00134-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-29","status":"Repealed","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"States Grants (Schools) Amendment Act 1976","content":"STATES GRANTS (SCHOOLS) AMENDMENT\n\nACT 1976\n\nNo. 134 of 1976\n\nAn Act to amend the States Grants (Schools) Act 1972 and the States Grants (Schools) Act 1976.\n\nBE IT ENACTED by the Queen, and the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows:—\n\nPART I—PRELIMINARY\n\nShort title\n\n1. This Act may be cited as the States Grants (Schools) Amendment Act 1976\n\nCommencement.\n\n2. This Act shall come into operation on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.\n\nPART II—AMENDMENTS OF THE STATES GRANTS (SCHOOLS) ACT 1972\n\nPrincipal Act.\n\n3. The States Grants (Schools) Act 1972 is in this Part referred to as the Principal Act.\n\nGrants to States for building projects in connexion with schools.\n\n4. Section 8 of the Principal Act is amended by omitting sub-sections (4) and (5) and substituting the following sub-sections:—\n\n“(4) The Minister shall not, before 1 July 1977, authorize payments to the States under this Part, in respect of building projects in connexion with government schools, that, together with such payments authorized before the commencement of the States Grants (Schools) Amendment Act 1976, exceed, in the aggregate, $143,818,000.\n\n“(5) The Minister shall not, before 1 July 1977, authorize payments to the States under this Part, in respect of building projects in connexion with non-government schools, that, together with such payments authorized before the commencement of the States Grants (Schools) Amendment Act 1976, exceed, in the aggregate, $41,383,000.”.\n\n  \n\nSchedule.\n\n5. The Principal Act is amended by omitting the Schedule and substituting the following Schedule:—\n\nSCHEDULE Section 8\n\nLIMITS OF GRANTS FOR CAPITAL EXPENDITURE\n\n| Column 1                                 | Column 2                                                      | Column 3                                                          | Column 4             |\n| ---------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------- |\n| Name of State                            | Maximum Grants for Capital Expenditure for Government Schools | Maximum Grants for Capital Expenditure for Non-Government Schools | Total Maximum Grants |\n|                                          | $                                                             | $                                                                 | $                    |\n| New South Wales.......................   | 65,089,500                                                    | 19,262,000                                                        | 84,351,500           |\n| Victoria.............................    | 50,178,500                                                    | 16,863,000                                                        | 67,041,500           |\n| Queensland...........................    | 25,362,500                                                    | 7,834,500                                                         | 33,197,000           |\n| South Australia........................  | 19,593,000                                                    | 3,265,500                                                         | 22,858,500           |\n| Western Australia....................... | 14,911,000                                                    | 3,806,000                                                         | 18,717,000           |\n| Tasmania............................     | 6,639,000                                                     | 1,194,000                                                         | 7,833,000            |\n| Totals...........................        | 181,773,500                                                   | 52,225,000                                                        | 233,998,500          |\n\nFormal amendments.\n\n6. The Principal Act is amended as set out in the following table:—\n\n| Provision                                              | Amendment                                                                                                     |\n| ------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |\n| Section 4(1) (definition of “qualified accountant”)    | Omit “of this Act”.                                                                                           |\n| Section 4(1) (definition of “the schools census date”) | Omit “Commonwealth Statistician”, substitute “Australian Statistician”.                                       |\n| Section 5...............                               | Omit “the first day of July”, substitute “1 July”.                                                            |\n| Section 6...............                               | (a) Omit “the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and seventy-three” substitute “1 July 1973”.       |\n|                                                        | (b) Omit “the thirtieth day of June, One thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight”, substitute “30 June 1978”. |\n| Section 9(1).............                              | Omit “of this Act”.                                                                                           |\n| Section 9(2).............                              | (a) Omit “of this Act”.                                                                                       |\n|                                                        | (b) Omit “of this sub-section”.                                                                               |\n| Section 9(3).............                              | Omit “of this section”.                                                                                       |\n| Section 10(1)............                              | Omit “thirtieth day of June”, substitute “30 June”.                                                           |\n| Section 10(2)............                              | Omit “the thirtieth day of June, One thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight”, substitute “30 June 1978”.     |\n| Part III................                               | Repeal.                                                                                                       |\n\n  \n\nPART III—AMENDMENTS OF STATES GRANTS (SCHOOLS) ACT 1976\n\nPrincipal Act.\n\n7. The States Grants (Schools) Act 1976 is in this Part referred to as the Principal Act.\n\nLimit on grants under sections 47 and 48.\n\n8. Section 49 of the Principal Act is amended by omitting the figures “$400,000” and substituting the figures “$459,500”.\n\nLimit on grants under sections 50 and 51.\n\n9. Section 52 of the Principal Act is amended by omitting the figures “$860,000” and substituting the figures “$986,500”.\n\nLimit on grants under sections 54 and 55.\n\n10. Section 56 of the Principal Act is amended by omitting the figures “$3,587,000” and substituting the figures “$4,119,500”.\n\nSchedules.\n\n11. The Principal Act is amended by omitting the Schedules and substituting the following Schedules:—\n\nSCHEDULE 1 Sections 7 and 13\n\nGOVERNMENT SCHOOLS—BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT PROJECTS AND RECURRENT EXPENDITURE\n\n| Column 1                                   | Column 2                        | Column 3              | Column 4    |\n| ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------- | --------------------- | ----------- |\n| Name of State                              | Building and Equipment Projects | Recurrent Expenditure | Totals      |\n|                                            | $                               | $                     | $           |\n| New South Wales..........................  | 25,195,500                      | 68,357,000            | 93,552,500  |\n| Victoria................................   | 22,218,000                      | 56,195,000            | 78,413,000  |\n| Queensland..............................   | 13,782,000                      | 25,096,500            | 38,878,500  |\n| South Australia........................... | 7,235,500                       | 17,325,000            | 24,560,500  |\n| Western Australia......................... | 6,511,500                       | 13,669,000            | 20,180,500  |\n| Tasmania...............................    | 1,779,500                       | 5,175,000             | 6,954,500   |\n| Totals.............................        | 76,722,000                      | 185,817,500           | 262,539,500 |\n\nSCHEDULE 2 Section 9\n\nNON-GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS—BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT PROJECTS\n\n| Column 1                                                         | Column 2   |\n| ---------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- |\n| Name of State                                                    | Amounts    |\n|                                                                  | $          |\n| New South Wales...............................................   | 4,192,500  |\n| Victoria......................................................   | 4,325,000  |\n| Queensland...................................................    | 1,999,000  |\n| South Australia................................................. | 806,500    |\n| Western Australia............................................... | 868,000    |\n| Tasmania.....................................................    | 257,000    |\n| Total......................................................      | 12,448,000 |\n\n  \n\nSCHEDULE 3 Paragraph 11(2)(a) and section 20\n\nRECURRENT EXPENDITURE—MIGRANT EDUCATION\n\n| Column 1                              | Column 2           | Column 3               | Column 4   |\n| ------------------------------------- | ------------------ | ---------------------- | ---------- |\n| Name of State                         | Government schools | Non-government schools | Totals     |\n|                                       | $                  | $                      | $          |\n| New South Wales....................   | 5,824,000          | 1,938,500              | 7,762,500  |\n| Victoria...........................   | 8,423,500          | 2,329,000              | 10,752,500 |\n| Queensland........................    | 441,500            | 90,000                 | 531,500    |\n| South Australia...................... | 1,315,000          | 815,500                | 2,130,500  |\n| Western Australia.................... | 525,000            | 1,144,000              | 1,669,000  |\n| Tasmania..........................    | 323,500            | 11,500                 | 335,000    |\n| Totals.........................       | 16,852,500         | 6,328,500              | 23,181,000 |\n\nSCHEDULE 4 Sections 14 and 17\n\nRECURRENT EXPENDITURE—LEVELS OF ASSISTANCE FOR NON-GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS\n\n| Column 1                                        | Column 2                          | Column 3                            |\n| ----------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- |\n| Level of assistance                             | Amount per primary school student | Amount per secondary school student |\n|                                                 | $                                 | $                                   |\n| 1.............................................. | 76                                | 113                                 |\n| 2.............................................. | 105                               | 162                                 |\n| 3.............................................. | 134                               | 210                                 |\n| 4.............................................. | 164                               | 258                                 |\n| 5.............................................. | 193                               | 307                                 |\n| 6.............................................. | 223                               | 355                                 |\n\nSCHEDULE 5 Sections 23 and 28\n\nDISADVANTAGED SCHOOLS\n\n| Column 1                                 | Column 2           | Column 3               | Column 4   |\n| ---------------------------------------- | ------------------ | ---------------------- | ---------- |\n| Name of State                            | Government schools | Non-government schools | Totals     |\n|                                          | $                  | $                      | $          |\n| New South Wales........................  | 5,482,000          | 871,500                | 6,353,500  |\n| Victoria..............................   | 5,643,000          | 1,032,000              | 6,675,000  |\n| Queensland............................   | 1,582,500          | 137,500                | 1,720,000  |\n| South Australia......................... | 1,548,000          | 206,500                | 1,754,500  |\n| Western Australia....................... | 906,000            | 114,500                | 1,020,500  |\n| Tasmania.............................    | 321,000            | 46,000                 | 367,000    |\n| Totals............................       | 15,482,500         | 2,408,000              | 17,890,500 |\n\n  \n\nSCHEDULE 6 Section 33\n\nSPECIAL SCHOOLS\n\n| Column 1                               | Column 2           | Column 3               | Column 4   |\n| -------------------------------------- | ------------------ | ---------------------- | ---------- |\n| Name of State                          | Government schools | Non-government schools | Totals     |\n|                                        | $                  | $                      | $          |\n| New South Wales.....................   | 3,360,500          | 1,310,000              | 4,670,500  |\n| Victoria...........................    | 2,480,000          | 1,171,500              | 3,651,500  |\n| Queensland.........................    | 1,388,000          | 610,000                | 1,998,000  |\n| South Australia......................  | 1,032,000          | 97,500                 | 1,129,500  |\n| Western Australia..................... | 888,000            | 127,000                | 1,015,000  |\n| Tasmania..........................     | 367,000            |                        | 367,000    |\n| Totals..........................       | 9,515,500          | 3,316,000              | 12,831,500 |\n\nSCHEDULE 7 Section 38\n\nSPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER TRAINING COURSES AND RELATED TEACHER REMUNERATION OR REPLACEMENT\n\n| Column 1                               | Column 2                   | Column 3                                     | Column 4  |\n| -------------------------------------- | -------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | --------- |\n| Name of State                          | Special education training | Teacher remuneration and teacher replacement | Totals    |\n|                                        | $                          | $                                            | $         |\n| New South Wales.....................   | 314,500                    | 2,318,000                                    | 2,632,500 |\n| Victoria...........................    | 250,000                    | 1,882,000                                    | 2,132,000 |\n| Queensland.........................    | 139,000                    | 985,000                                      | 1,124,000 |\n| South Australia......................  | 86,000                     | 633,000                                      | 719,000   |\n| Western Australia..................... | 74,500                     | 555,000                                      | 629,500   |\n| Tasmania..........................     | 33,500                     | 244,500                                      | 278,000   |\n| Totals.........................        | 897,500                    | 6,617,500                                    | 7,515,000 |\n\nSCHEDULE 8 Section 44\n\nDEVELOPMENT AND SERVICE ACTIVITIES\n\n| Column 1                              | Column 2                                    | Column 3                                     | Column 4  |\n| ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | --------- |\n| Name of State                         | Approved development and service activities | Teacher remuneration and teacher replacement | Totals    |\n|                                       | $                                           | $                                            | $         |\n| New South Wales.....................  | 2,431,500                                   | 780,000                                      | 3,211,500 |\n| Victoria...........................   | 2,064,500                                   | 631,000                                      | 2,695,500 |\n| Queensland.........................   | 988,500                                     | 322,500                                      | 1,311,000 |\n| South Australia...................... | 694,000                                     | 212,000                                      | 906,000   |\n\n  \n\nSCHEDULE 8–continued\n\n| Column 1                                | Column 2                                    | Column 3                                     | Column 4  |\n| --------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | --------- |\n| Name of State                           | Approved development and service activities | Teacher remuneration and teacher replacement | Totals    |\n|                                         | $                                           | $                                            | $         |\n| Western Australia...................... | 538,000                                     | 175,500                                      | 713,500   |\n| Tasmania............................    | 260,500                                     | 79,000                                       | 339,500   |\n| Totals...........................       | 6,977,000                                   | 2,200,000                                    | 9,177,000 |\n\nDirections under Principal Act.\n\n12. Any directions given under sub-section 7(3) or 33(4) of the Principal Act shall, by force of this section, cease to have effect upon the commencement of this Act, but this section shall not be taken to affect the previous operation of those directions.","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"summary":{"complexity_score":4,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This amendment does not expand the scope of the original legislation. It stays firmly within the established purpose of providing Commonwealth grants to states for schools. The changes are purely administrative in nature — updating dollar amounts, replacing funding schedules with revised figures, cleaning up drafting language, and cancelling superseded ministerial directions. All funding categories amended (building projects, recurrent expenditure, migrant education, disadvantaged schools, special schools, teacher training) were already established in the parent Acts. No new program types, new recipients, or new ministerial powers are introduced."},"complexity_factors":["Amends two separate parent Acts simultaneously across three Parts, requiring cross-referencing between this Act and both the 1972 and 1976 Acts","Eight replacement schedules containing extensive state-by-state funding tables with multiple columns, increasing the volume of content significantly","Section 12 includes a temporal savings provision (directions cease on commencement but prior operation preserved), which introduces conditional legal logic","Funding caps involve aggregation mechanics — new limits must be read together with payments already authorised before commencement, requiring mental arithmetic across instruments","Formal amendment table in section 6 makes multiple granular textual changes to individual subsections of the 1972 Act, which are unreadable without the parent Act in hand","References to multiple cross-cutting grant categories (building, recurrent, migrant education, disadvantaged, special schools, teacher training, development activities) that are defined and governed elsewhere"],"plain_english_summary":"## States Grants (Schools) Amendment Act 1976 — Plain English Summary\n\n### What does this law do?\n\nThis Act makes targeted financial and administrative changes to two earlier laws that govern Commonwealth grants (funding payments) to Australian states for schools: the **States Grants (Schools) Act 1972** and the **States Grants (Schools) Act 1976**. In short, it **updates the dollar amounts** the Commonwealth can pay to the states for school-related building projects and programs, and tidies up some technical wording in those earlier laws.\n\n---\n\n### Who does it affect?\n\n- **State governments** — they receive the grant money from the Commonwealth\n- **Government and non-government (private/Catholic) schools** across all six states — the funding ultimately flows to them\n- **Students** in those schools, particularly those in disadvantaged schools, schools for students with disabilities (\"special schools\"), and schools with migrant education needs\n\n---\n\n### What are the key changes?\n\n**Part II — Changes to the 1972 Act:**\n- **Increases the cap** on what the Commonwealth Minister can authorise in payments to states for school building projects before 1 July 1977:\n  - Government schools: up to **$143.8 million** in total\n  - Non-government schools: up to **$41.4 million** in total\n- **Replaces the funding schedule** — each state's maximum building grant is updated with new dollar figures (e.g. NSW gets up to ~$84.4 million total; Tasmania ~$7.8 million)\n- **Cleans up language** in the 1972 Act — for example, replacing \"Commonwealth Statistician\" with \"Australian Statistician\" (a name change for that official), converting wordy date formats like \"the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and seventy-three\" to simply \"1 July 1973\", and removing redundant phrases like \"of this Act\"\n- **Repeals Part III** of the 1972 Act entirely\n\n**Part III — Changes to the 1976 Act:**\n- **Increases several funding caps**, including:\n  - A cap raised from $400,000 to **$459,500**\n  - Another from $860,000 to **$986,500**\n  - Another from $3.587 million to **$4.119 million**\n- **Replaces all eight funding schedules** with updated figures covering:\n  - Building and equipment grants for government schools (~$262.5 million nationally)\n  - Building grants for non-government schools (~$12.4 million)\n  - Migrant education recurrent funding (~$23.2 million)\n  - Per-student assistance rates for non-government schools (ranging from $76–$223 per primary student and $113–$355 per secondary student, depending on the school's funding level)\n  - Disadvantaged schools programs (~$17.9 million)\n  - Special schools (for students with disabilities) (~$12.8 million)\n  - Special education teacher training (~$7.5 million)\n  - Development and service activities (~$9.2 million)\n- **Cancels any existing directions** (administrative instructions) made under two specific provisions of the 1976 Act, effective immediately upon this Act commencing — but without undoing anything those directions had already done\n\n---\n\n### Why does it matter?\n\nThis law is essentially a **funding update** — it adjusts the money the Commonwealth promises to send to the states for their schools. Because the figures in the original Acts were fixed at specific dollar amounts, Parliament needed to pass this amendment to increase them (likely to account for inflation and growing school populations). It also reflects a **broadening of school funding policy** by including categories like migrant education, disadvantaged schools, and special education — programs that go beyond simple building grants."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"self_contradicting","section":"Section 4 (substituted s.8(4) and s.8(5) of the 1972 Act) and Schedule (substituted Schedule to the 1972 Act)","severity":"high","reasoning":"The substituted sub-sections impose a hard aggregate ceiling before 1 July 1977 that is materially lower than the Schedule's stated maximum grant limits. The Schedule is expressed as an absolute ceiling on grants to each State, while ss.8(4)/(5) impose a separate, lower aggregate ceiling on the Minister's authorisation power. Because payments already authorised before commencement count toward the caps in ss.8(4)/(5), and those caps are well below the Schedule totals, States can never receive the full Schedule amounts — the two provisions are structurally irreconcilable.","confidence":0.82,"description":"The aggregate caps imposed by substituted ss.8(4) and (5) are dramatically lower than the total maximums in the substituted Schedule. Section 8(4) caps government school building payments at $143,818,000 (aggregate including prior payments), and s.8(5) caps non-government school building payments at $41,383,000 — yet the new Schedule sets total maximum grants for government schools at $181,773,500 and for non-government schools at $52,225,000. The Schedule figures exceed the caps by approximately $37,955,500 and $10,842,000 respectively, making the upper rows of the Schedule permanently unreachable if the caps in ss.8(4)/(5) operate as written."},{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"Section 2","severity":"low","reasoning":"An amendment Act that commences on Royal Assent and amends another Act of the same year creates a sequencing risk. If the States Grants (Schools) Act 1976 had not yet received Royal Assent or had only just done so, the amendment could theoretically operate on a non-existent or not-yet-commenced principal Act. In practice the 1976 principal Act likely preceded this amendment Act, but the drafting creates a non-trivial temporal ambiguity.","confidence":0.55,"description":"The Act amends the States Grants (Schools) Act 1976 (Part III), yet the commencement provision states the Act commences on Royal Assent. If both Acts received assent on or near the same date, the amending Act could potentially commence simultaneously with or even before the principal 1976 Act it purports to amend, raising the question of whether there is anything to amend at the moment of commencement."},{"type":"other","section":"Schedule 6 (Special Schools — Tasmania, Non-Government Schools column)","severity":"low","reasoning":"Every other State has explicit dollar figures in both the government and non-government columns. Tasmania's blank non-government cell could mean zero (consistent with the total) or it could be a printing error masking a positive amount. The internal arithmetic ($367,000 + $0 = $367,000) only works if blank = $0, but the national non-government total of $3,316,000 must be verified against the individual State entries — if Tasmania's non-government figure is truly nil, that total still needs to hold across all States.","confidence":0.75,"description":"The Schedule 6 entry for Tasmania under 'Non-government schools' is blank (no figure), yet Tasmania's 'Total' column shows $367,000 — which exactly equals the Government schools figure of $367,000. This implies the non-government schools amount is $0, but a blank cell is used rather than '$0' or 'Nil', creating arithmetical ambiguity: either the total is wrong, or the blank is intended as zero but is inconsistently formatted compared to all other entries."},{"type":"self_contradicting","section":"Section 12","severity":"medium","reasoning":"The savings clause ('shall not be taken to affect the previous operation') is standard legislative practice, but the combination with prospective cessation creates ambiguity for obligations that straddle the commencement date — particularly multi-year reporting or acquittal conditions attached to those directions. The provision does not address partly-performed directions, leaving the legal status of ongoing obligations uncertain.","confidence":0.65,"description":"Section 12 declares that directions given under ss.7(3) or 33(4) of the States Grants (Schools) Act 1976 'shall cease to have effect upon the commencement of this Act' but simultaneously provides 'this section shall not be taken to affect the previous operation of those directions.' This is internally strained: if directions are voided from commencement, any grants or obligations that arose under those directions in the period between the 1976 Act and this amendment remain effective, yet any ongoing compliance or reporting obligations under those directions would simultaneously cease. Entities mid-way through complying with a direction would have unclear obligations."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"high","section_a":"Section 4 (substituted s.8(4) of the States Grants (Schools) Act 1972)","section_b":"Section 5 (substituted Schedule to the States Grants (Schools) Act 1972 — Government Schools totals column)","confidence":0.82,"description":"Section 8(4) as substituted sets an aggregate authorisation cap of $143,818,000 for government school building projects (inclusive of all prior authorisations). The substituted Schedule sets a total maximum grant for government schools across all States of $181,773,500. These two figures cannot be reconciled: the Schedule promises States up to $181.8M in total, but the Minister is legally barred from authorising more than $143.8M in the aggregate. The Schedule's limits are thus notionally available but practically unattainable under the cap."},{"severity":"high","section_a":"Section 4 (substituted s.8(5) of the States Grants (Schools) Act 1972)","section_b":"Section 5 (substituted Schedule to the States Grants (Schools) Act 1972 — Non-Government Schools totals column)","confidence":0.82,"description":"Identically, s.8(5) caps aggregate non-government school building payments at $41,383,000, while the Schedule's non-government schools total across all States is $52,225,000 — a discrepancy of over $10.8M. The Schedule sets out State-by-State entitlements that in aggregate exceed what the Minister is permitted to authorise."}]}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/states-grants-schools-amendment-act-1976","history":"/api/acts/states-grants-schools-amendment-act-1976/history","analysis":"/api/acts/states-grants-schools-amendment-act-1976/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/states-grants-schools-amendment-act-1976/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/states-grants-schools-amendment-act-1976/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/states-grants-schools-amendment-act-1976/documents"}}