STATES (PERSONAL INCOME TAX SHARING) AMENDMENT ACT 1978

No. 85 of 1978

An Act to amend the States (Personal Income Tax Sharing) Act 1976.

BE IT ENACTED by the Queen, and the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows:

Short title, &c.

1. (1) This Act may be cited as the States (Personal Income Tax Sharing) Amendment Act 1978.

(2) The States (Personal Income Tax Sharing) Act 1976 is in this Act referred to as the Principal Act.

Commencement

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

State entitlements

3. Section 7 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) by omitting “each year to which this Act applies” and substituting “the year that commenced on 1 July 1976”; and

(b) by adding at the end thereof the following sub-sections:

“(2) Each State is entitled to the payment, in respect of the year that commenced on 1 July 1977, by way of financial assistance, of an amount that bears to $4,336,100,000 the same proportion as the adjusted population figure of the State for the year bears to the total of the adjusted population figures of all States for that year.

“(3) Each State is entitled to the payment, in respect of a year (in this sub-section referred to as the ‘relevant year’) subsequent to the year that commenced on 1 July 1977, by way of financial assistance, of an amount that bears to 39.87 per centum of the base figure for the year immediately preceding the relevant year the same proportion as the adjusted population figure of the State for the relevant year bears to the total of the adjusted population figures of all States for the relevant year.”.

Determination of population of a State

4. Section 9 of the Principal Act is amended by omitting from subsection (2) “7 August” and substituting “10 June”.

Review of Act

5. Section 13 of the Principal Act is amended by adding at the end thereof the following sub-sections:

“(3) The Minister shall before 30 June 1981 arrange, and, after consultations between the Government of the Commonwealth and the Governments of the States, may periodically after that date arrange, for the question whether any change is desirable in the State factors to be referred to the Commonwealth Grants Commission for inquiry and report by a Division of the Commission constituted in accordance with section 19a of the Commonwealth Grants Commission Act 1973—

(a) on the basis of the principle that the respective payments to which the States are entitled under this Act should enable each State to provide, without imposing taxes and charges at levels appreciably different from the levels of the taxes and charges imposed by the other States, government services at standards not appreciably different from the standards of the government services provided by the other States;

(b) taking account of—

(i) differences in the capacities of the States to raise revenues; and

(ii) differences in the amounts required to be expended by the States in providing comparable government services; and

(i) the matters that influenced the determination of the State factors; and

(ii) any events that have occurred since those State factors were determined that, in the opinion of the Commission, affect the appropriateness of the continued application of those factors.

“(4) For the purposes of sub-section (3), the State factors are—

(a) in the case of a State other than Victoria—the number by which the estimated population of the State on 31 December in a year is, by virtue of the definition of ‘adjusted population figure’ in sub-section 4 (1), required to be multiplied for the purpose of ascertaining the adjusted population figure of that State in respect of that year; and

(b) in the case of Victoria—the number one.”.