{"id":"C1935A00073","name":"Tasmania Grant (Flour Tax) Act 1935","slug":"tasmania-grant-flour-tax-act-1935","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"repealed","isInForce":false,"actNumber":"73 of 1935","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":3770,"registerId":"commonwealth-C1935A00073-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-30","status":"Repealed","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Tasmania Grant (Flour Tax) Act 1935","content":"TASMANIA GRANT (FLOUR TAX).\n\nNo. 73 of 1935.\n\nAn Act to grant and apply out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund sums for the purposes of Financial Assistance to the State of Tasmania.\n\n\\[Assented to 9th December, 1935.\\]\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 (Flour Tax) Act 1935.\n\nAppropriation.\n\n2. There shall be payable out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, which is hereby appropriated accordingly, the sums necessary to provide for the payments authorized to be made under this Act.\n\nGrant to Tasmania.\n\n3.—(1.) There shall be granted to the State of Tasmania, by way of financial assistance, the sum of Four thousand three hundred pounds in each month of the period, commencing on the seventh day of January One thousand nine hundred and thirty-six, during which a tax is imposed upon flour by the Flour Tax Act (No. 1) 1934–1935 or the Flour Tax Act (No. 3) 1934–1935.\n\n(3.) Where tax is imposed by either of the Acts mentioned in sub-section (1.) of this section during portion only of any month included in the period specified in sub-section (1.) of this section, the sum to be granted in that month in pursuance of this section shall be a sum which bears, to the sum of Four thousand three hundred pounds, the same proportion as the portion of the month bears to the whole month.\n\nPayments under section 9 of the Wheat Growers Relief Act 1934–1935 to cease.\n\n4. No payment by way of financial assistance to the State of Tasmania shall be made under section nine of the Wheat Growers Relief Act 1934–1935 in respect of any period in respect of which a grant of financial assistance is payable under this Act.","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"kimi_summary":{"_metrics":{"model":"kimi-k2.5","source":"moonshot-batch","completionTokens":1528},"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation remains tightly focused on its original specific purpose: providing time-limited, conditional financial assistance to Tasmania linked solely to the duration of the flour tax imposition. It has not expanded beyond this narrow appropriation function."},"complexity_factors":["Only 4 operative sections with minimal text","Single conditional trigger (existence of flour tax imposition)","Simple mathematical provision for pro-rata calculations","Limited cross-references (only to two specific related Acts and one section)","No defined terms section or interpretive complexity"],"plain_english_summary":"This 1935 law provided **financial assistance to Tasmania** from federal revenue during the Great Depression era.\n\n**What it does:**\n*   **Monthly payments**: Authorizes payment of £4,300 to Tasmania each month, drawn from the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund.\n*   **Conditional grant**: These payments only continue while the federal government is collecting a specific **flour tax** (under the Flour Tax Acts of 1934–1935). If the tax stops, the grant stops.\n*   **Partial month calculations**: If the flour tax applies for only part of a month, Tasmania receives a proportional (pro-rata) payment instead of the full amount.\n*   **Prevents double-dipping**: Stops similar financial assistance payments to Tasmania under the *Wheat Growers Relief Act* for the same periods, ensuring the State doesn't get paid twice for overlapping time.\n\n**Why it matters:**\nThis was a **temporary relief measure** tying Tasmania's federal support to the revenue generated from a specific commodity tax. It reflects historical Commonwealth-State financial arrangements where federal taxes were used to support fiscally disadvantaged states."},"summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This Act is narrow and purpose-built — it does exactly what its title says. There is no evidence of scope creep or expansion beyond its original intent. It establishes a single, time-limited monthly grant to Tasmania tied to the duration of the flour tax, and simultaneously closes off a prior overlapping payment. The legislation appears to be a clean, standalone financial instrument that stayed within its original boundaries."},"complexity_factors":["Very short Act — only 4 operative sections","Minimal defined terms, none formally defined in an interpretation section","One conditional logic element: the pro-rata calculation for partial months (s.3(3))","Cross-references to three other Acts (Flour Tax Act No.1 1934–1935, Flour Tax Act No.3 1934–1935, and Wheat Growers Relief Act 1934–1935), but these are simple references rather than complex incorporations","No exceptions to exceptions, no schedules, no regulations-making power"],"plain_english_summary":"## Tasmania Grant (Flour Tax) Act 1935\n\nThis short piece of legislation does one specific thing: **it provides monthly financial assistance payments from the Commonwealth to the State of Tasmania**, tied to a tax on flour that was in force at the time.\n\n### What does it actually do?\n\n- **Monthly payments to Tasmania**: The Commonwealth agreed to pay Tasmania **£4,300 per month** (four thousand three hundred pounds — a significant sum in 1935 terms) for as long as the flour tax remained in force under two related Acts (the *Flour Tax Act (No. 1) 1934–1935* and the *Flour Tax Act (No. 3) 1934–1935*).\n- **Payments start January 1936**: The grant period began on 7 January 1936.\n- **Pro-rata rule**: If the flour tax was only in place for part of a month, Tasmania only received a proportional share of the £4,300 for that month — not the full amount.\n- **Replacing an older payment**: A separate payment Tasmania had been receiving under the *Wheat Growers Relief Act 1934–1935* was stopped for any period covered by this new grant, so Tasmania couldn't be paid twice for the same period.\n- **Funding source**: The money comes from the **Consolidated Revenue Fund** (the Commonwealth's central pool of public money), which this Act formally authorises (\"appropriates\") for this purpose.\n\n### Who does this affect?\nPrimarily the **State of Tasmania** and the **Commonwealth Government**. Ordinary Australians were not directly affected, though Tasmania's finances — and therefore its public services — benefited from these payments.\n\n### Why does it matter?\nThis Act is a classic example of **Commonwealth–State financial relations** in action. Tasmania, as the smallest and economically weakest state, often received special grants from the Commonwealth. This payment was directly linked to the flour tax — a tax that affected Tasmanian industries and consumers — effectively compensating the state for the economic impact of that tax. It also shows the Commonwealth's practice of replacing older grants with newer, more specifically targeted ones to avoid double-dipping."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"other","section":"Section 3(1)","severity":"low","reasoning":"The Act was assented to on 9 December 1935 but the grant period starts 7 January 1936 — nearly a month later. No rationale is given for the gap. More tellingly, the flour tax Acts it refers to (Flour Tax Act (No. 1) 1934–1935 and Flour Tax Act (No. 3) 1934–1935) were already in force before this Act was passed. The Act therefore does not explain what happens to any financial assistance entitlement for the period between the flour tax Acts commencing and 7 January 1936, nor why 7 January 1936 was selected as the trigger date. This creates a silent gap in coverage that appears arbitrary and legally unexplained.","confidence":0.72,"description":"The Act commences payments on 7 January 1936, but was assented to on 9 December 1935. The grant period is defined as beginning on a fixed future date, yet the triggering condition — that a flour tax 'is imposed' — depends on pre-existing Acts from 1934–1935. The Act appropriates money for a period already partially underway relative to the tax regime, creating ambiguity about whether the 7 January 1936 start date was chosen arbitrarily or has legal significance that is entirely unexplained."},{"type":"self_contradicting","section":"Section 3(1)","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Subsection (1) defines the period as commencing on 7 January 1936, so January 1936 is always a partial month by definition. Subsection (3) provides a pro-rata formula only where a tax is imposed 'during portion only of any month' — meaning the tax starts or stops mid-month. But the commencement of the period on the 7th is a separate source of partiality that subsection (3) does not explicitly cover. The two provisions use different triggers for pro-rating, creating genuine ambiguity about how January 1936 is calculated: is it pro-rated under subsection (3) because the 'period' starts on the 7th, or is the full £4,300 payable because the tax was imposed for the whole of January even if the grant period only starts on the 7th?","confidence":0.82,"description":"The grant is payable 'in each month' during which a flour tax 'is imposed', but a monthly payment for a fractional month is only addressed in subsection (3). Subsection (1) is silent on what happens if the flour tax commences mid-month at the start of the period (i.e., the very first month, which begins on the 7th day of January, not the 1st). The period explicitly 'commences on the seventh day of January', meaning January 1936 is inherently a partial month, yet subsection (3) only addresses partiality caused by the tax being imposed for 'portion only of any month' — not partiality caused by the commencement date of the period itself."},{"type":"other","section":"Section 3 (subsection (2) missing)","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Legislative subsections are ordinarily numbered sequentially. The jump from s 3(1) to s 3(3) with no s 3(2) is facially anomalous. It may indicate that a subsection was removed late in the drafting process without renumbering, or that the source text used here has a transcription error. Either way, as presented, the Act has a structural gap that creates uncertainty about whether any operative provision has been lost.","confidence":0.78,"description":"The Act jumps from subsection (1) directly to subsection (3), with no subsection (2). This is not merely a drafting curiosity — the absence of a subsection (2) raises the question of whether it was intentionally omitted, repealed before enactment, or is a numbering error. If it was omitted deliberately, no explanation is given. If it was supposed to exist, the Act may be incomplete."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Section 3(1)","section_b":"Section 3(3)","confidence":0.8,"description":"Section 3(1) establishes the grant period as commencing on 7 January 1936, meaning the first month is inherently partial (only 25 of 31 days). Section 3(3) provides a pro-rata formula only when the flour tax is imposed for 'portion only of any month' — a condition triggered by the tax starting or stopping mid-month, not by the commencement date of the grant period itself. These two provisions do not align: s 3(1) creates a built-in partial month that s 3(3)'s pro-rata mechanism does not clearly address, leaving the January 1936 payment amount legally ambiguous."},{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Section 3(1)","section_b":"Section 4","confidence":0.75,"description":"Section 3(1) makes the grant payable commencing 7 January 1936, leaving a gap between the commencement of the referenced Flour Tax Acts (which predate this Act, having been passed in 1934–1935) and 7 January 1936. Section 4 cuts off payments under s 9 of the Wheat Growers Relief Act 1934–1935 in respect of 'any period in respect of which a grant of financial assistance is payable under this Act.' If the flour tax was already operating before 7 January 1936, there is a gap period where s 4 has not yet extinguished the Wheat Growers Relief Act entitlement (because no grant is yet payable under this Act) but this Act is already in force, creating a transitional ambiguity about double-counting or gaps in assistance between assent (9 December 1935) and the commencement of the grant period (7 January 1936)."}]}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/tasmania-grant-flour-tax-act-1935","history":"/api/acts/tasmania-grant-flour-tax-act-1935/history","analysis":"/api/acts/tasmania-grant-flour-tax-act-1935/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/tasmania-grant-flour-tax-act-1935/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/tasmania-grant-flour-tax-act-1935/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/tasmania-grant-flour-tax-act-1935/documents"}}