Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

WOOL SERVICES PRIVATISATION ACT 2000 - SECT 31

Funding contract

             (1)  The Minister, on behalf of the Commonwealth, may enter into a contract with the research body (or with the research body and other persons) that provides for the Commonwealth to make payments of the following kinds to the research body:

                     (a)  payments in relation to wool levy ( category A payments );

                     (b)  payments per financial year in relation to research and development ( category B payments ).

             (2)  Before entering into the contract, the Minister must be satisfied that the terms of the contract make adequate provision to ensure that:

                     (a)  category A payments are spent by the research body on research and development activities, other activities or both, for the benefit of Australian woolgrowers; and

                     (b)  category B payments are spent by the research body on research and development activities for the benefit of Australian woolgrowers and the Australian community generally.

             (3)  The contract does not have to oblige the Commonwealth to pay the full amounts that could be paid out of the money appropriated by this section.

Appropriation for payments under funding contract

             (4)  The Consolidated Revenue Fund is appropriated for the purposes of payments by the Commonwealth under this section.

Overall limit on appropriation for category A payments

             (5)  For category A payments, the total limit on the appropriation is the total amount of wool levy received by the Commonwealth. For this purpose, amounts received by the Commonwealth as penalties for late payment of wool levy are to be treated as amounts of wool levy.

Overall limit on appropriation for category B payments

             (6)  For category B payments, the total limit on the appropriation is the total amount of wool levy received by the Commonwealth. For this purpose, amounts received by the Commonwealth as penalties for late payment of wool levy are not to be treated as amounts of wool levy.

Annual limit on appropriation for category B payments

             (7)  For category B payments in respect of a financial year, the limit on the appropriation is the lesser of:

                     (a)  0.5% of the amount determined by the Minister to be the gross value of eligible wool produced in Australia in that financial year; and

                     (b)  50% of the amount spent by the research body in that financial year on activities that qualify, under the contract, as research and development activities.

             (8)  For the purposes of subsection (7), the regulations may prescribe the manner in which the Minister is to determine the gross value of eligible wool produced in Australia in a financial year.

          (8A)  If there is an unmatched R&D excess for a financial year that started or starts on or after 1 July 2001, the amount spent by the research body in the following financial year on activities that qualify, under the funding contract, as research and development activities is taken, for the purposes of this section (including for the purposes of this subsection and subsection (8B)), to be increased by the amount of the unmatched R&D excess.

Note:          This means that research and development expenditure that is not "50% matched" in one financial year because of the cap in subsection (6) or paragraph (7)(a) can be carried forward into later years.

          (8B)  For the purposes of subsection (8A), there is an unmatched R&D excess for a financial year if:

                     (a)  the research body spends a particular amount (the R&D spend amount ) in the financial year on activities that qualify, under the funding contract, as research and development activities; and

                     (b)  because of the operation of subsection (6) or paragraph (7)(a), the category B payments in respect of the financial year are less than 50% of the R&D spend amount;

and the amount of the unmatched R&D excess is:

             (9)  In this section:

"eligible wool" has the meaning given by the regulations.