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Commonwealth act
This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.
What this law does
This 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.
Who it affects
How the money works
The Act sets fixed per-pupil grants for each year from 1970 onwards:
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Direct links to the current provisions in States Grants (Independent Schools) Act 1969.
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View on official registerSourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
The 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.
Strings attached (conditions)
The funding comes with strict conditions at every level:
School authorities must agree (before or when accepting money) to:
States must agree to:
If a school breaks the rules, the Minister can:
Any money owed by a State back to the Commonwealth is treated as a formal debt (legally recoverable).
Transparency
After 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.
Why it matters
This 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.