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Commonwealth act
This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.
What does this law do?
This is a short, targeted piece of legislation that authorises the Commonwealth (federal) government to hand money to each Australian State specifically to help university students who are doing it tough financially in 1973.
How does the money flow?
The funding works in a chain:
Who benefits?
Students enrolled at any of the 15 listed Australian universities who are struggling financially — specifically, students whom their university determines to be experiencing hardship due to their financial circumstances. The university itself decides who qualifies.
Which universities and how much?
The total pool is , distributed across 15 universities in six states:
Want the full deep dive?
Zoe can write the in-depth analysis on top of the summary above: how it works, who it affects and what each part actually does.
Direct links to the current provisions in States Grants (Universities) Act 1973.
Zoe has indexed the source text for search and analysis. Use the official register for the original document and download formats.
View on official registerSourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
Why does it matter?
This Act reflects the Whitlam Government's early push to expand access to higher education for Australians from lower-income backgrounds. It is a practical, one-year funding measure — not a permanent ongoing scheme — covering only the calendar year 1973. It also illustrates the constitutional mechanism Australia uses for federal education funding: because education is a State responsibility under the Constitution, the Commonwealth cannot fund universities directly without going through the States. The money must legally pass through State governments first.