Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

HOUSING ASSISTANCE ACT 1989 - SECT 13

             (1)  For the purposes of this section:

                     (a)  a State is not to be taken to be a State in a grant year if a housing agreement with the State was not made before that year; and

                     (b)  except for the purposes of subsection (5A), the Australian Capital Territory is not to be taken to be a State before 1 July 1993.

             (2)  Subject to sections 6 and 15, the Minister, in authorising untied grants to be made after the first grant year, is to ensure that the amounts of those grants are allocated among the States in accordance with this section.

             (3)  In each grant year, $146,000,000 is to be allocated among the States as far as practicable on an equal per capita basis but so that no State is allocated less than $7,300,000.

             (4)  In the second grant year, $208,038,000 is to be allocated among the States in accordance with Schedule 3.

             (5)  In the third grant year, $102,466,000 is to be allocated among the States in accordance with Schedule 3.

          (5A)  In the fourth grant year not more than $75,000,000 may be allocated to such of the States as the Minister considers appropriate, having regard to proposals for employment generation in the housing industry submitted by State Ministers.

          (5B)  In the fifth grant year not more than $25,000,000 may be allocated to such of the States as the Minister considers appropriate, having regard to proposals for employment generation in the housing industry submitted by State Ministers.

             (6)  Where, because of paragraph (1)(a), part of an amount referred to in subsection (4) or (5) is not allocated under the subsection in a grant year, the part may be allocated in the year among such of the States and, where a housing agreement with the Australian Capital Territory is in force in the year, that Territory, and in such proportions, as the Minister determines to be appropriate.

             (7)  Subject to subsection (7B), the balance of the amounts to be allocated in accordance with this section in each grant year is to be allocated among the States as far as practicable on an equal per capita basis.

          (7A)  If the operation of subsection (5A) or (5B) has resulted in a State gaining, in respect of the fourth or fifth grant year, a smaller or larger share of untied grants than the share to which it would otherwise have been entitled, subsection (7B) applies to that State.

          (7B)  The Minister is to ensure that the allocation of untied grants in respect of the sixth and seventh grant years is such as to ensure that the total amount of untied grants allocated to a State to which this subsection applies in respect of the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh grant years is as nearly as practicable what it would have been if subsections (5A) and (5B) had not operated.

             (8)  This section does not affect the operation of any priority provision in a housing agreement.