{"id":"C1936A00048","name":"Tasmania Grant Act 1936","slug":"tasmania-grant-act-1936","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"repealed","isInForce":false,"actNumber":"48 of 1936","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":3814,"registerId":"commonwealth-C1936A00048-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-30","status":"Repealed","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Tasmania Grant Act 1936","content":"TASMANIA GRANT.\n\nNo. 48 of 1936.\n\nAn Act to grant and apply out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund a sum for the purposes of Financial Assistance to the State of Tasmania.\n\n\\[Assented to 12th October, 1936.\\]\n\nPreamble.\n\nBE it enacted by the King’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 Tasmania Grant Act 1936.\n\n  \n\nPayment for financial assistance to Tasmania.\n\n2. There shall be payable, for the purposes of financial assistance to the State of Tasmania, during the year commencing on the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and thirty-six, the sum of Six hundred thousand pounds.\n\nMethod of payment.\n\n3. The amount payable under this Act shall be paid in equal monthly instalments.\n\nAppropriation.\n\n4. Payments in accordance with this Act shall be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, which is hereby appropriated accordingly.","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"3","severity":"high","reasoning":"Section 2 specifies the payment period as 'the year commencing on the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and thirty-six.' Section 3 requires payment in equal monthly instalments. The Act received Royal Assent on 12 October 1936 — more than three months into that financial year. The July, August, and September instalments had already passed before the Act existed, making strict compliance with the monthly instalment schedule a legal and temporal impossibility for at least the first quarter of the payment year. You cannot pay instalments on time under a law that does not yet exist.","confidence":0.95,"description":"£600,000 cannot be divided into 12 equal monthly instalments — it divides evenly to £50,000 per month, which is actually fine mathematically. However, the Act was assented to on 12 October 1936, meaning the year commencing 1 July 1936 was already over three months old. At least three monthly instalments (July, August, September) had already elapsed before the Act came into existence, making it retroactively impossible to pay those instalments on time."},{"type":"impossible_compliance","section":"2","severity":"medium","reasoning":"While currency conversion legislation (the Currency Act 1965) provides a general mechanism for converting pre-decimal obligations, the Act itself specifies 'Six hundred thousand pounds' with no mechanism for currency translation. The Act remains unrepealed, and its face terms cannot be complied with in the currency stated. This is a common artifact of pre-decimal Commonwealth legislation but is nonetheless a genuine compliance absurdity on the face of the Act.","confidence":0.8,"description":"The payment is denominated in pounds sterling. The Australian pound was replaced by the Australian dollar on 14 February 1966 at a rate of £1 = A$2. The Act was never repealed, meaning its operative provisions technically remain on the books denominated in a currency that no longer exists in Australia, making any future purported compliance with the Act impossible using the currency specified."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"high","section_a":"2","section_b":"3","confidence":0.92,"description":"Section 2 defines the payment period as the financial year commencing 1 July 1936, implying a fixed 12-month window. Section 3 requires payment in equal monthly instalments. Because the Act was assented to on 12 October 1936, the two sections are in tension: reading them together strictly requires that equal instalments be paid for all 12 months of a year that was already 25% elapsed at the moment of enactment. There is no provision for back-payment of missed instalments or adjustment of remaining instalments to absorb the shortfall, leaving it unclear whether Tasmania receives the full £600,000 across only the remaining ~9 months or loses the first 3 months' worth entirely."}]},"kimi_summary":{"_metrics":{"model":"kimi-k2.5","source":"moonshot-batch","completionTokens":1877},"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation remains a straightforward one-year financial appropriation for Tasmania, exactly as described in the preamble and title."},"complexity_factors":["Only 4 short sections with no subsections or schedules","No defined terms or interpretation section","Zero cross-references to other legislation","Simple linear structure without conditional logic, exceptions, or regulations","Single purpose: a one-line monetary appropriation with basic payment terms"],"plain_english_summary":"This Act authorizes a payment of **£600,000** (six hundred thousand pounds) to the State of Tasmania as financial assistance for the year starting 1 July 1936.\n\n**What it does:**\n- Transfers federal money to Tasmania to support the state's finances\n- The funds come from the *Consolidated Revenue Fund* (the Commonwealth government's main bank account)\n- The money is paid in **12 equal monthly instalments** throughout the year\n\n**Who is affected:**\n- **Tasmania**: receives the grant to help fund state services\n- **The Commonwealth**: must pay the money from federal revenue\n\n**Why it matters:**\nThis is a straightforward example of the federal government providing direct budget support to a state. During the economic difficulties of the 1930s, these 'special grants' were common mechanisms for the Commonwealth to assist states with weaker economic bases."},"summary":{"complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act has not changed in scope at all — it is a one-off, time-limited appropriation for a single financial year (1936–37). Its scope is entirely consistent with its original and only purpose: paying £600,000 to Tasmania in monthly instalments from federal revenue. There is no evidence of amendment or expansion beyond that original intent."},"complexity_factors":["Only 4 operative sections, each a single sentence","No defined terms whatsoever","No cross-references to other legislation","No conditional logic or exceptions","Single, straightforward purpose: appropriate and pay a fixed sum","No schedules, regulations, or delegated powers"],"plain_english_summary":"## Tasmania Grant Act 1936\n\nThis is a short, single-purpose Commonwealth law that **gives money to the State of Tasmania**.\n\n**What it does:**\n- It authorises the Australian federal government to pay **£600,000** (six hundred thousand pounds) to Tasmania as **financial assistance** — meaning a grant to help the state cover its expenses\n- The money is paid in **equal monthly instalments** over the financial year starting 1 July 1936\n- The funds come directly from the **Consolidated Revenue Fund** (the federal government's main bank account, into which taxes and other revenue are collected)\n\n**Who it affects:**\n- Primarily the State of Tasmania and the Commonwealth of Australia\n- Indirectly, Tasmanian residents who benefited from state government services funded by the grant\n\n**Why it matters:**\nThis Act is a historical example of **vertical fiscal equalisation** — the practice of the wealthier federal government redistributing money to states that cannot fully fund themselves through their own tax revenues. Tasmania, as a smaller and less economically powerful state, has historically relied on Commonwealth grants. This Act was one of many annual grant acts passed during the 1930s to support Tasmania's budget. While the dollar amount is modest by today's standards, it reflects an important and ongoing feature of Australian federalism: the Commonwealth collects most of the nation's tax revenue and shares it with the states."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/tasmania-grant-act-1936","history":"/api/acts/tasmania-grant-act-1936/history","analysis":"/api/acts/tasmania-grant-act-1936/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/tasmania-grant-act-1936/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/tasmania-grant-act-1936/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/tasmania-grant-act-1936/documents"}}