{"id":"C1968A00023","name":"Supply Act (No. 2) 1968-69","slug":"supply-act-no-2-1968-69","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"repealed","isInForce":false,"actNumber":"23 of 1968","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":5388,"registerId":"commonwealth-C1968A00023-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-30","status":"Repealed","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Supply Act (No. 2) 1968-69","content":"Supply (No. 2) 1968-69\n\nNo. 23 of 1968\n\nAn Act to make interim provision for the appropriation of moneys out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund for certain expenditure in respect of the year ending on the thirtieth day of June, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine.\n\n\\[Assented to 22 May 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 Supply Act (No. 2) 1968-69.\n\nCommencement.\n\n2. This Act shall come into operation on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.\n\nIssue, application and appropriation of $250,268,000.\n\n3.—(1.) The Treasurer may issue out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund and apply for the services specified in the Schedule to this Act in respect of the financial year ending on the thirtieth day of June, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine, the sum of Two hundred and fifty million two hundred and sixty-eight thousand dollars.\n\n(2.) The Consolidated Revenue Fund is appropriated to the extent necessary for the purposes of the last preceding sub-section.\n\nTHE SCHEDULE Section 3.\n\n—\n\nABSTRACT\n\n| —                                                                  | Total       |\n| ------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------- |\n| Part 1.—Departments and Services—Other than Business Undertakings— | $           |\n| DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AVIATION....................................   | 3,250,000   |\n| COMMONWEALTH SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH ORGANIZATION...    | 498,000     |\n| DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE............................    | 4,795,000   |\n| DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS.................................    | 2,383,000   |\n| DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL TERRITORIES.............................    | 200,000     |\n| DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH..........................................     | 1,082,000   |\n| DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING.........................................     | 20,415,000  |\n| DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION.....................................     | 1,920,000   |\n| DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR......................................   | 27,099,000  |\n| DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT............................     | 12,945.000  |\n| DEPARTMENT OF PRIMARY INDUSTRY.................................    | 1,888,000   |\n| PRIME MINISTER’S DEPARTMENT.....................................   | 5,000       |\n| DEPARTMENT OF SHIPPING AND TRANSPORT...........................    | 11,047,000  |\n| DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES...................................   | 768,000     |\n| DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY...............................    | 14,000      |\n| DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY.....................................    | 4,257,000   |\n| ADVANCE TO THE TREASURER.......................................    | 20,000,000  |\n| DEPARTMENT OF WORKS...........................................     | 26,344,000  |\n| Total Part 1...............................................        | 138,910,000 |\n| Part 2.—Business Undertakings—                                     |             |\n| COMMONWEALTH RAILWAYS.......................................       | 4,400,000   |\n| POSTMASTER-GENERAL’S DEPARTMENT...............................     | 103,758,000 |\n| BROADCASTING AND TELEVISION SERVICES............................   | 3,200,000   |\n| Total Part 2...............................................        | 111,358,000 |\n| TOTAL..................................................            | 250,268,000 |","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This Act is entirely consistent with its original and stated purpose: making interim provision for government expenditure pending full budget appropriation. It does nothing beyond authorising a fixed sum to be drawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for specified departments and services within a defined financial year. There is no scope creep, no regulatory additions, and no departure from the standard Supply Act template used repeatedly across Commonwealth history."},"complexity_factors":["Very short — only 3 operative sections plus a schedule","Minimal defined terms — no interpretation section required","Single conditional mechanism: Treasurer 'may' issue funds, with the Fund appropriated to the necessary extent","No cross-references to other legislation","No exceptions, carve-outs, or nested conditions","Schedule is a straightforward numerical table with no conditional logic","Dual-part structure in the Schedule (Departments vs Business Undertakings) adds trivial organisational complexity only"],"plain_english_summary":"## What This Law Does\n\nThis is a **Supply Act** — a short-term government funding law that allows the Commonwealth (federal) government to keep spending money while waiting for the full annual budget to be passed by Parliament.\n\nThink of it like a **financial bridging loan for the government**. Before the full Appropriation Acts (the laws that formally approve the entire year's budget) are enacted, the government still has bills to pay — public servants need salaries, departments need to keep the lights on, services need to continue. A Supply Act authorises this interim spending so the government doesn't grind to a halt.\n\n---\n\n### What Specifically This Law Does\n\n- It authorises the **Treasurer** (the minister responsible for the nation's finances) to draw **$250,268,000** (roughly $250 million) from the **Consolidated Revenue Fund** (the main government bank account, fed by taxes and other revenue) for government operations during the **financial year ending 30 June 1969**.\n- The money is allocated across **two broad categories**:\n  - **Part 1 – Regular Departments and Services** (~$138.9 million), covering 18 departments and agencies including:\n    - Department of the Interior: $27 million\n    - Department of Works: $26.3 million\n    - Department of Housing: $20.4 million\n    - An **Advance to the Treasurer** of $20 million (a flexible reserve for unexpected expenses)\n    - Smaller allocations to departments like Health, Immigration, Education, External Affairs, and others\n  - **Part 2 – Business Undertakings** (~$111.4 million), covering government-run commercial operations:\n    - Postmaster-General's Department (running postal and telephone services): $103.8 million — by far the largest single allocation\n    - Commonwealth Railways: $4.4 million\n    - Broadcasting and Television Services: $3.2 million\n\n---\n\n### Who Does This Affect?\n\n- **Every Australian** who relies on government services — from postal services to health, immigration, housing, and scientific research.\n- **Public servants** across the listed departments, whose wages and operating costs are funded through this authority.\n- **The Treasurer**, who is given the legal authority (and obligation) to manage these funds within the limits set.\n\n---\n\n### Why Does It Matter?\n\nWithout a Supply Act, the government has **no legal authority** to spend money — even on essential services — until a full budget is passed. This Act is a routine but constitutionally important mechanism that keeps the country running. It is **not** the full budget; it is a temporary measure to cover a portion of expected expenditure until proper appropriation laws are in place."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"other","section":"Section 1 (Short Title) and Title Block","severity":"low","reasoning":"This is not strictly absurd — supply acts routinely appropriate funds for an upcoming financial year before it commences. However, the 'No. 2' designation is curious: being enacted in May 1968, before the 1968-69 financial year even begins on 1 July 1968, it is labelled the *second* supply act for that year. This implies a 'Supply Act (No. 1) 1968-69' must have preceded it, also enacted before the financial year commenced. The numbering convention creates a superficial oddity where both 'No. 1' and 'No. 2' for a future financial year exist before that year begins.","confidence":0.55,"description":"The Act is titled 'Supply Act (No. 2) 1968-69' and numbered 'No. 23 of 1968', yet it received Royal Assent on 22 May 1968 — meaning it is a 1968 Act that purports to be a '1968-69' Act, covering expenditure for a financial year that had not yet begun at the time of assent."},{"type":"other","section":"Schedule — Department of National Development","severity":"high","reasoning":"Every other monetary figure in the Schedule uses a comma as a thousands separator (e.g. '3,250,000'). The National Development entry alone uses a full stop: '12,945.000'. On its face, this could be read as $12,945 with three decimal places (i.e. exactly $12,945.00), which would be a trivially small sum for a government department and inconsistent with the scale of other allocations. The totals in the Schedule only reconcile to approximately $250,268,000 if this figure is read as $12,945,000. The typographical error creates a legal ambiguity in the operative appropriation instrument — the Schedule has the force of law and specifies the 'services' to which funds may be applied under s.3.","confidence":0.92,"description":"The allocation for the Department of National Development is listed as '$12,945.000' — using a full stop rather than a comma as a thousands separator, inconsistent with every other entry in the Schedule which uses commas (e.g. '$12,945,000'). This creates genuine ambiguity: is the appropriation $12,945 (twelve thousand, nine hundred and forty-five dollars) or $12,945,000 (twelve million, nine hundred and forty-five thousand dollars)?"},{"type":"other","section":"Section 3(1) and Schedule (Totals)","severity":"medium","reasoning":"The operative provision in s.3(1) states a specific lump sum of $250,268,000. The Schedule must reconcile to that figure. Working backwards: Part 1 items sum to $138,910,000 only if National Development = $12,945,000. If the full-stop is read literally as a decimal point (making the figure $12,945.00), Part 1 would sum to approximately $125,965,000 and the grand total would fall ~$12,932,055 short of the s.3(1) figure. The Act is therefore self-consistent only under one reading of an ambiguous typographical convention, which is a latent drafting flaw in an appropriation instrument.","confidence":0.88,"description":"The Schedule's sub-totals do not arithmetically sum to the total appropriation of $250,268,000 stated in s.3(1) — unless the National Development figure is read as $12,945,000. Part 1 total ($138,910,000) plus Part 2 total ($111,358,000) = $250,268,000. This arithmetic is internally consistent only if the ambiguous '12,945.000' entry is treated as $12,945,000. However, confirming that interpretation requires the reader to resolve the typographical inconsistency before the Act makes arithmetical sense."},{"type":"other","section":"Section 3(1) — 'Advance to the Treasurer'","severity":"low","reasoning":"This is a longstanding and well-understood parliamentary appropriation mechanism (a 'Treasurer's Advance' for unforeseen expenditure), so it is not a legal absurdity in practice. However, read literally and in isolation, the provision has the Treasurer issuing money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund under s.3(1) and then listing themselves as a payee in the Schedule. It is a structural quirk that, without surrounding context, has the appearance of circularity: the Treasurer appropriates money and advances it to the Treasurer.","confidence":0.6,"description":"The Schedule appropriates $20,000,000 as an 'Advance to the Treasurer' — meaning the Treasurer is both the officer authorised to issue funds under s.3(1) and the recipient of a scheduled 'advance' from those same funds. The Treasurer is, in effect, advancing money to themselves."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"high","section_a":"Section 3(1) — stated appropriation of $250,268,000","section_b":"Schedule — 'DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT' entry ('12,945.000')","confidence":0.88,"description":"Section 3(1) unambiguously states the total appropriation as '$250,268,000'. The Schedule, which is given operative force by s.3 and specifies the services to which funds may be applied, contains a typographically ambiguous figure for the Department of National Development ('12,945.000'). If read literally as a decimal figure ($12,945.00 rather than $12,945,000), the Schedule items cannot sum to the s.3(1) total, creating a direct numerical contradiction between the body of the Act and its Schedule."}]}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/supply-act-no-2-1968-69","history":"/api/acts/supply-act-no-2-1968-69/history","analysis":"/api/acts/supply-act-no-2-1968-69/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/supply-act-no-2-1968-69/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/supply-act-no-2-1968-69/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/supply-act-no-2-1968-69/documents"}}