STATES GRANTS.

No. 76 of 1959.

An Act to grant Financial Assistance to the States.

[Assented to 1st December, 1959.]

BE it enacted by the Queen’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:—

Short title.

1. This Act may be cited as the States Grants Act 1959.

Commencement.

2. This Act shall come into operation on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.

Repeal and saving.

3.—(1.) The following Acts are repealed:—

States Grants (Tax Reimbursement) Act 1946

States Grants (Tax Reimbursement) Act 1947

States Grants (Tax Reimbursement) Act 1948.

(2.) Any advance made to a State under the Acts repealed by this section during the year that commenced on the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine and before the commencement of this Act shall be deemed to be an advance made under section eight of this Act in respect of the grant payable to that State under this Act during that year.

Interpretation.

4.—(1.) In this Act, “year” means financial year.

(2.) For the purposes of this Act—

(a) the average wages per person employed, in relation to a year, is the amount determined by dividing the aggregate of wages and salaries shown in the returns lodged throughout the Commonwealth by employers for the purpose of the Pay-roll Tax Assessment Act 1941–1957 as having been paid in respect of periods ending in that year by the sum of the mean number of males and three-fifths of the mean number of females shown by those returns as having been employed by those employers during that year; and

(b) the population of a State shall be taken not to include members of the Defence Force serving beyond the Commonwealth or full-blooded aboriginal natives of Australia.

Grants to States.

5.—(1.) There is payable to each State, during the year that commenced on the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine, for the purpose of financial assistance, the amount specified in the following table opposite to the name of that State:—

(2.) There is payable to each State, during each year subsequent to the year that commenced on the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine, for the purpose of financial assistance, an amount calculated—

(a) by dividing the amount of the grant under this section payable to that State during the year preceding the year concerned by the population of that State on the first day of that preceding year and by multiplying the result by the population of that State on the first day of the year concerned; and

(b) if the average wages per person employed in the year preceding the year concerned exceed the average wages per person employed in the year next before the year preceding the year concerned—by increasing the amount ascertained under the last preceding paragraph by one and one-tenth times the percentage by which the first-mentioned average wages exceed the second-mentioned average wages.

Statistical calculations, &c.

6.—(1.) All statistical and mathematical calculations and determinations required for the purposes of this Act, including the calculation or determination of—

(a) the population of a State on the first day of a year; and

(b) the average wages per person employed in a year,

shall be made, not later than the thirty-first day of December in the year in respect of which the calculations and determinations are required, by the Commonwealth Statistician, after consultation, where practicable, with the official Statisticians of the States.

(2.) For the purposes of a calculation or determination under the last preceding sub-section, the population of a State on the first day of a year shall, subject to the next succeeding sub-section, be taken to be the population of the State on the previous day, as shown by the statistics in relation to population last published by the Commonwealth Statistician before the day on which the calculation or determination is made.

(3.) If—

(a) a census is taken during the month of June in any year, the population of a State on the first day of the next succeeding year; or

(b) a census is taken during the month of July in any year, the population of a State on the first day of that year,

shall be taken to be the population of that State as shown by the results of the returns of that census last published by the Commonwealth Statistician before the day on which the calculation or determination is made.

(4.) All calculations and determinations made by the Commonwealth Statistician in pursuance of this section shall, for all purposes of this Act, be conclusively presumed to be correct.

Review of grants.

7.—(1.) The Government of the Commonwealth shall, at the request of a State, or may, if it considers it desirable to do so, enter into consultation with the Governments of the States with a view to determining whether any change is desirable in the provisions of this Act, in so far as they relate to a year subsequent to the year ending on the thirtieth day of June, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-five, and to submitting to the Parliament legislation to give effect to any changes that the Government of the Commonwealth considers to be desirable as a result of that consultation.

(2.) If there has occurred, or there is proposed to be, a change in the relations between the Commonwealth and any State or States having a major effect on the finances of that State or those States, the Government of the Commonwealth may review the provisions of this Act in consultation with the States with a view to submitting to the Parliament legislation to give effect to any changes that it considers to be desirable as a result of that review.

Payment of grant.

8. The Treasurer may, in any year, make monthly or other advances to any State, for the purpose of financial assistance, of portions of the grant to which it appears to him that the State will be entitled under this Act in respect of that year.

Appropriation.

9. Payments in accordance with this Act shall be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, which is appropriated accordingly.