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Because of its length and the length of the comments that it makes necessary (see General Comment), this Chapter is split into three files.

Table of Provisions

Section
[First file]
81. Consolidated Revenue Fund
82. Expenditure charged thereon
83. Money to be appropriated by law
84. [Transfer of officers]
85. [Transfer of property of State]
[Second file]
86. [Customs, excise, and bounties]
87. [Revenue from customs and excise duties]
88. Uniform duties of customs
89. [Payment to States before uniform duties]
90. Exclusive power over customs, excise, and bounties
91. Exceptions as to bounties
92. Trade within the Commonwealth to be free
93. [Payment to States for five years after uniform tariffs]
94. [Distribution of surplus]
95. [Customs duties of Western Australia]
96. Financial assistance to States
[Third file]
97. Audit
98. Trade and commerce includes navigation and State railways
99. Commonwealth not to give preference
100. Nor abridge right to use water
101. [Inter-State Commission]
102. [Parliament may forbid preferences by State]
103. [Commissioners' appointment, tenure, and remuneration]
104. [Saving of certain rates]
105. Taking over public debts of States
105A. Agreements with respect to State debts

Consolidated Revenue Fund
81. All revenues or moneys raised or received by the Executive Government of the Commonwealth shall form one Consolidated Revenue Fund, to be appropriated for the purposes of the Commonwealth in the manner and subject to the charges and liabilities imposed by this Constitution.
[Unaltered]

Expenditure charged thereon
82. The costs, charges, and expenses incident to the collection, management, and receipt of the Consolidated Revenue Fund shall form the first charge thereon...
[Edited; see Comment]

Money to be appropriated by law
83. No money shall be drawn from the Treasury of the Commonwealth except under appropriation made by law.
[Unaltered]

[Sections 84, 85 deleted; see Comment]

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Comments to Chapter 4

A General Comment on Chapter 4

The drafters devoted much attention to the way in which the new customs regime would be phased in, and to accomodating the conflicting demands of the colonies with high customs revenue and those with less. As a result, this Chapter has by far the greatest proportion of transitional provisions of any of the Parts or Chapters in the Constitution. Indeed the middle part, from about sections 84-96, is mainly a step-by-step prescription for getting the federation going, and the parts that were to have permanent effect seem almost incidental - though in fact they are very significant. It's almost like picking up something called "Guide to Sydney" and finding that most of it is about how to get to Sydney, with just a sentence or two saying "By the way, don't miss the Opera House."

Further, some of the presuppositions - that there would be a "surplus" of Commonwealth revenue, and that there would be continuing controversies over railway freight charges, have been disproved by the passage of time; see the comments to sections 89, 93 and 94, and to sections 101-104. This is why the "contemporary" Chapter 4 is so much shorter than the original, and the comments are so long.

[Return to Table of Provisions]

Comment on Section 82

...and the revenue of the Commonwealth shall in the first instance be applied to the payment of the expenditure of the Commonwealth.

Well, I hear you ask, what else would Commonwealth revenue be spent on? The reason for the inclusion of the words is that other sections refer to "surplus" revenue which was to be paid to the States. For the reasons explained in the comment on sections 89, 93 and 94, there has been no surplus revenue for many years, nor is there ever likely to be. In that case the above words are stating the obvious. At least the words "in the first instance" can be deleted, and in fact no meaning is lost by deleting all of them.

[Return to Section 82]

Comment on Sections 84-85

These sections provide:

Transfer of officers.
84. When any department of the public service of a State becomes transferred to the Commonwealth, all officers of the department shall become subject to the control of the Executive Government of the Commonwealth.

Any such officer who is not retained in the service of the Commonwealth shall, unless he is appointed to some other office of equal emolument in the public service of the State, be entitled to receive from the State any pension, gratuity, or other compensation, payable under the law of the State on the abolition of his office.

Any such officer who is retained in the service of the Commonwealth shall preserve all his existing and accruing rights, and shall be entitled to retire from office at the time, and on the pension or retiring allowance, which would be permitted by the law of the State if his service with the Commonwealth were a continuation of his service with the State. Such pension or retiring allowance shall be paid to him by the Commonwealth; but the State shall pay to the Commonwealth as part thereof, to be calculated on the proportion which his term of service with the State bears to his whole term of service, and for the purpose of the calculation his salary shall be taken to be that paid to him by the State at the time of the transfer.

Any officer who is, at the establishment of the Commonwealth, in the public service of a State, and who is, by consent of the Governor of the State with the advice of the Executive Council thereof, transferred to the public service of the Commonwealth, shall have the same rights as if he had been an officer of a department transferred to the Commonwealth and were retained in the service of the Commonwealth.

Transfer of property of State.
85. When any department of the public service of a State is transferred to the Commonwealth--

(i.)All property of the State of any kind, used exclusively in connexion with the department, shall become vested in the Commonwealth; but, in the case of the departments controlling customs and excise and bounties, for such time only as the Governor-General in Council may declare to be necessary:

(ii.)The Commonwealth may acquire any property of the State, of any kind used, but not exclusively used in connexion with the department; the value thereof shall, if no agreement can be made, be ascertained in, as nearly as may be, the manner in which the value of land, or of an interest in land, taken by the State for public purposes is ascertained under the law of the State in force at the establishment of the Commonwealth:

(iii.)The Commonwealth shall compensate the State for the value of any property passing to the Commonwealth under this section; if no agreement can be made as to the mode of compensation, it shall be determined under laws to be made by the Parliament:

(iv.)The Commonwealth shall, at the date of the transfer, assume the current obligations of the State in respect of the department transferred.

As seen in the comments on Chapter 2, section 69 provided for five named departments of the colonial public services to be transferred to the Commonwealth, upon or soon after federation, though in fact only three departments were transfered. The above sections are simply consequential upon that transfer.

Though on their face the sections could apply to transfers of State public service departments to the Commonwealth other than those under section 69, dicta in High Court cases suggest (correctly, in my respectful opinion) that they were intended to apply only to those initial transfers. Once the Commonwealth existed it could make agreements or pass laws to the same effect as sections 84 and 85, but sections dealing with the initial transfers had to be in the Constitution because there was no Commonwealth to make those agreements or laws before 1 January 1901. Any public servant whose rights were preserved by section 84 must now be 110 years old, and section 85's only relevance is by way of historical explanation of the Commonwealth's title to some former colonial buildings. [It is intriguing to note the special provision for return of former colonial customs and excise properties, but the return is entirely optional, and in any case the Commonwealth has ample powers to give property to the States, should it feel generous!]

[Return to space left by Sections 84-85]