Tasmania Agreement (Launceston Precision Tool Annexe) Act 1980

No. 98 of 1980

An Act relating to an agreement between the Commonwealth and Tasmania in connection with the Launceston Precision Tool Annexe

[Assented to 6 June 1980]

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

Short title

1. This Act may be cited as the Tasmania Agreement (Launceston Precision Tool Annexe) Act 1980.

Commencement

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

Execution of agreement

3. The execution, on behalf of the Commonwealth, of an agreement between the Commonwealth and Tasmania substantially in accordance with the form of the agreement contained in the Schedule is authorized.

Appropriation

4. (1) The payments by the Commonwealth to Tasmania provided for in the agreement referred to in section 3, including advances by the Minister for Finance, may be made to Tasmania by way of financial assistance on the terms and conditions contained in the agreement.

(2) Payments referred to in sub-section (1) shall be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, which is appropriated accordingly.

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SCHEDULE                                                      Section 3

LAUNCESTON PRECISION TOOL ANNEXE AGREEMENT

AN AGREEMENT made the                                        day of                                      One thousand nine hundred and                                              between—

THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA (in this agreement called “the Commonwealth”) of the one part, and

THE STATE OF TASMANIA (in this agreement called “the State”) of the other part.

WHEREAS—

(a) a Precision Tool Annexe is operated by the Tasmanian Transport Commission on behalf of the State and located at the former Kelsall and Kemp complex, Mayne Street, Launceston;

(b) the Commonwealth and the State are agreed that it is desirable that facilities in the Annexe be provided to enhance its ability to operate as a commercially viable concern through improved productivity and efficiency, and to improve apprentice training and provide a service to manufacturing industry;

(c) the State has proposed a list of equipment considered necessary for the Annexe;

(d) the State has requested the Commonwealth to provide financial assistance to the State towards meeting the cost of the listed items of equipment;

(e) the Commonwealth Parliament has authorized the execution on behalf of the Commonwealth of an agreement with the State in the form of this agreement and the provision of financial assistance to the State to the extent and upon the terms and conditions set out in the agreement:

NOW IT IS HEREBY AGREED as follows:

1. (1) In this agreement, unless the contrary intention appears—

“clause” means clause of this agreement;

“financial year” means a period of twelve months ending on the thirtieth day of June;

“the Annexe” means the Precision Tool Annexe referred to in recital (a);

“the equipment” means the equipment described in the Schedule;

“the Minister” means the Minister for National Development and Energy of the Commonwealth;

“the Minister for Finance” means the Minister for Finance of the Commonwealth; and

“the Schedule” means the Schedule to this agreement and, in the event that the Schedule is at any time varied, means that Schedule as for the time being so varied.

(2) Where in this agreement a Minister is referred to, that reference shall be deemed to include any other Minister of the Commonwealth or of the State or any member of the Federal Executive Council or of the Executive Council of the State, as the case may be, who may for the time being be acting for and on behalf of the Minister referred to.

2. The Commonwealth will, in accordance with and subject to the provisions of this agreement, provide financial assistance to the State towards meeting expenditure on the equipment consisting of amounts which do not exceed in the aggregate Three hundred and forty three thousand dollars ($343,000).

3. For the purposes of this agreement expenditure on the equipment means expenditure by the State on or in connection with the purchase and installation of equipment for the Annexe on and after the first day of May, 1979 and includes planning, design and administrative expenses directly relating to installation of the equipment but does not include expenses that would have been or would be incurred whether or not the equipment were procured.

4. (1) The Minister for Finance may, at such times and in such amounts as he thinks fit, make advances on account of the payments that the Commonwealth may be requested to make under clause 6.

(2) An amount, or part of an amount, advanced by the Minister for Finance under this clause may be deducted by the Commonwealth from an amount that subsequently becomes payable under clause 6 or, if no further amounts will become payable under that clause, shall be refunded by the State to the Commonwealth at the request of the Minister for Finance.

5. The State shall ensure that an amount, or any part of an amount, advanced to the State and not refunded under the last preceding clause is not used or applied except for the purpose of meeting or of reimbursing to the State expenditure on the equipment.

6. The Commonwealth will, at the request of the State, from time to time and subject to the provisions of this agreement make payments to the State of the financial assistance to be provided to the State under this agreement in amounts equal to expenditure on the equipment.

SCHEDULE—continued

7. (1) The State shall furnish to the Minister for Finance such documents and other evidence to justify the making of an advance under clause 4 or to show how an amount, or any part of an amount, advanced under that clause has been used or applied, or to support a request by the State for a payment under clause 6, as the Minister for Finance may at any time reasonably request, whether the request by the Minister for Finance is made before or after the Commonwealth has made any relevant advance or payment.

(2) Any statement of expenditure by the State forwarded to the Commonwealth in connexion with a request for a payment under clause 6 shall be certified as to its correctness by the Auditor-General of the State.

8. (1) Subject to the provisions of clause 9, the State shall repay to the Commonwealth each of the advances made to the State under clause 4 and not refunded as provided in sub-clause (2) of that clause and each of the payments made to the State under clause 6 by twenty (20) equal consecutive half-yearly payments.

(2) The first payment by the State under sub-clause (1) of this clause shall, except as provided in sub-clause (3) of this clause, be payable on the 15th January 1981 and subsequent payments shall be payable on each succeeding fifteenth day of January and fifteenth day of July until the full amount that is repayable of the advance or payment has been paid.

(3) In the event that an advance or a payment is made by the Commonwealth to the State on or after the 15th January 1981 the first payment by the State in respect of that advance or payment shall be payable on the fifteenth day of January or the fifteenth day of July next succeeding the date on which the advance or payment was made by the Commonwealth.

9. The State may at any time after giving to the Minister for Finance notice of at least one month of its intention to do so, repay the whole, or a part not being less than One hundred thousand dollars ($100,000), of so much of an advance or payment as is repayable by the State to the Commonwealth under clause 8 as remains unrepaid, together with interest on the amount repaid accrued to the date of payment in accordance with clause 10.

10. (1) Interest payable by the State to the Commonwealth shall accrue on the amount of each advance or payment to the State repayable to the Commonwealth by the State as has not for the time being been repaid or, in the case of an advance, repaid or refunded to the Commonwealth, calculated from the date on which the advance or payment was made by the Commonwealth at the long-term bond rate in respect of the advance or payment.

(2) The State shall pay the interest for the time being accrued under this clause on the fifteenth day of January and the fifteenth day of July in each year.

(3) For the purposes of this clause, “the long-term bond rate”, in respect of an advance or payment, shall be the rate of yield to maturity of the loan of the longer or longest term of the last loan raising by the Commonwealth of Australia for public subscription prior to the date upon which the advance or payment was made by the Commonwealth.

11. The State shall ensure that the equipment is both procured and installed efficiently and in conformity with sound financial and engineering practices.

12. To the extent that it is necessary for or more conducive to the fulfilment of the objectives of this agreement the Schedule may be varied in such manner as is at any time proposed in writing by the State to the Commonwealth and is approved by the Minister.

13. The State may, at its own expense, procure and install in conjunction with the procurement and installation of the equipment such other equipment in addition to the equipment as the State considers necessary or desirable for the purposes of the fulfilment of the objectives of this agreement.

14. The State shall—

(a) keep full accounts and records of all financial transactions, work done, and plant, stores, materials and equipment used or disposed of, in connexion with the procurement and installation of the equipment; and

(b) furnish to the Minister for Finance, as soon as possible, after the completion of each financial year in which there is expenditure on the procurement and installation of equipment, financial statements showing expenditure on the equipment up to the preceding thirtieth day of June, the latest estimate of the complete cost of the equipment, and the estimated amounts of annual expenditure necessary to complete the procurement and installation of the equipment.

15. (1) The accounts, books, vouchers, documents and other records of the State relating to the procurement and installation of the equipment shall be subject to audit by the Auditor-General of the State.

SCHEDULE—continued

(2) Until such time as the total amount of the financial assistance to be provided to the State under this agreement has been provided by the Commonwealth and supporting evidence to the satisfaction of the Minister for Finance in relation to all amounts paid or advanced is furnished by the State, a report on the audits and on the financial statements in respect of each financial year shall be furnished by the Auditor-General of the State to the Minister for Finance as soon as possible after the completion of the financial year, indicating, inter alia—

(a) whether the financial statements are based on proper accounts and records and are in agreement with those accounts and records; and

(b) whether the expenditure of moneys is in accordance with this agreement,

and including reference to such other matters arising out of the audits and financial statements as the Auditor-General of the State considers should be reported to the Minister for Finance.

16. Any notice, request or other communication given or made to the State for the purposes of this agreement on behalf of the Commonwealth or by a Commonwealth Minister shall be a sufficient notice if it is in writing signed by the appropriate Commonwealth Minister or a person authorized in writing by him, and any notice, application, request or other communication given or made to the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth Minister for the purposes of this agreement on behalf of the State shall be a sufficient notice if it is in writing signed by the appropriate State Minister or any person thereunto authorized in writing by him.

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SCHEDULE                                                        Clause 1

The Equipment

The equipment to be procured for the Launceston Precision Tool Annexe and installed therein comprises:

1. Universal Milling Machine (Huron Type) (order of cost $70,000).

2. Internal Grinder (large diameter, 715 millimetres swing) (order of cost $30,000).

3. Universal (610 millimetres between centres and 225 millimetres swing) (order of cost $18,000).

4. Two Grit Blasting Machines and Cabinets, one for grit, one for glass beads (order of cost $3,200 each).

5. Vapour Degreasing Unit, totally enclosed type (order of cost $6,000).

6. Rectifier Alternating Current—Direct Current for electroplating, 1,500 ampere 15 volt output, water cooled, Westinghouse or similar (order of cost $3,000).

7. Two Cranes, swivelling through 360 degrees, one tonne capacity (order of cost $9,000 each).

8. Three small universal milling machines (Deckel type) suitable for production work and apprentice training (order of cost $30,000 each).

9. Three centre lathes (standard Harrison or Colchester type) suitable for apprentice training and production work (order of cost $10,000 each).

10. Hydraulic Guillotine, 2,450 millimetres by 16 gauge for sheet metal cutting (order of cost $12,000).

11. Computer facilities for time keeping, job costing, pay roll management, sales ledger and inventory keeping, and invoicing and for use in conjunction with Numerically Controlled Machine Tools, for programme preparation, revision, storage and retrieval (cost not to exceed $60,000).

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, &c.