Federal Financial Relations (General Purpose Financial Assistance—2020-21 Payment No. 6) Determination 2020

This instrument, formally titled the Federal Financial Relations (General Purpose Financial Assistance,2020-21 Payment No. 6) Determination 2020 (s 1), records a specific Commonwealth determination of general purpose financial assistance to States. It is made under the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 (s 3) and, by the express Part 2 note, is a determination made under subsection 9(1) of that Act. Part 2 also records that a payment of the amounts determined is proposed to be made in December 2020. Mechanically, the operative content is a single table (s 5) that identifies recipient States and a determined amount of general purpose financial assistance for each listed item.

The table in s 5 lists nine items: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory, and a Total row. The only positive amounts shown in the table are $24,832,693.27 for Western Australia and $3,437,218.31 for the Australian Capital Territory. The other State rows display a dash, and the Total row aggregates to $28,269,911.58. The instrument does not include other operational terms such as conditions on use, reporting obligations, or offsetting adjustments within the instrument text itself; it simply "specifies an amount to be paid to the State mentioned in that item for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance to that State" (s 5).

Timing and commencement are set out in s 2. The instrument provides a commencement table and states that the whole of the instrument commences, or is taken to have commenced, on the day the instrument is registered. The table included in s 2 performs two functions: it fixes commencement as the registration day and it includes a note that the table relates only to the provisions as originally made and will not be amended in later published versions to reflect later amendments. Section 2(2) clarifies that any information placed in column 3 of the commencement table is not part of the instrument.

Finally, s 4 addresses definitions by reference. It adopts the Legislation Act 2003 rule that expressions have the same meaning in this instrument as in the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 (para 13(1)(b) of the Legislation Act), and it defines shorthand: "the Act means the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009." Taken together, the instrument is a narrowly focused fiscal determination: it fixes the monetary figures for one payment round of general purpose financial assistance, identifies the recipient States and the total sum, records commencement and registration treatment, and anchors meaning to the Federal Financial Relations Act and the Legislation Act.

The instrument relies on a small set of interlocking concepts drawn from the instrument text and the statutes it invokes. The primary concept is a determination of "general purpose financial assistance" to States, as expressed in s 5. The instrument does not define that term within its own text; instead s 4( Note) and s 4's cross-reference mechanism make the definitions in the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 applicable to this instrument. The instrument therefore operates inside the Federal Financial Relations framework: it is a determination made under subsection 9(1) of that Act (Part 2 Note 1).

"Determined amount" is the central numeric concept. Section 5 states that each table item "specifies an amount to be paid to the State mentioned in that item for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance." The instrument manifests the determined amounts in a single table. Two items record specified dollar figures, and other items show a dash character in the "Determined amount" column. The instrument does not supply an in-text legend explaining the dash; the instrument simply presents what it presents. The Total row is the arithmetic aggregate of the amounts recorded in the table and is shown as $28,269,911.58.

Commencement is another discrete concept. Section 2 contains a commencement table and provides that the whole of the instrument "commences, or is taken to have commenced" on the day of registration. Section 2(2) adds the interpretive point that column 3 of the commencement table is not legally part of the instrument. The combination of these provisions means that the instrument takes legal effect upon registration, subject to any express "taken to have commenced" language in the commencement table. In the present instrument the commencement entry is straightforward: the instrument commences on registration.

Notes appearing in Part 2 introduce procedural and temporal concepts but do not change the operative text. Note 1 identifies the statutory head of power for the determination, being subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act. Note 2 states a proposed payment timetable: "A payment of the amounts determined in this Part is proposed to be made in December 2020." That is a statement inside the instrument, but it is a note and not in the s 5 table. Finally, the instrument’s definition clause refers to the operation of para 13(1)(b) of the Legislation Act 2003 to import meanings from the Federal Financial Relations Act; readers must therefore consult that Act for the legal content of key terms used but not defined in this instrument.

Operationally, the instrument is purely allocative. It does not in itself create conditions, reporting duties, repayment obligations, or offsets. It does not contain a schedule of distribution mechanics beyond specifying the recipient State and the dollar figure. Any procedural steps necessary to effect payment, any required Commonwealth appropriations, or any further qualifications will lie in the Federal Financial Relations Act or other administrative instruments, none of which are reproduced here. Within its four operative provisions , name (s 1), commencement (s 2), authority (s 3), and the determination table (s 5), with definitions (s 4) , the instrument executes a monetary allocation and anchors that allocation to the Federal Financial Relations regime.

Directly affected parties are the States named in the s 5 table and the Commonwealth decision maker who makes payments under the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009. The instrument nominates nine items corresponding to the usual State and Territory recipients under the financial relations regime: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory, and a Total row (s 5). Of those, only two items carry positive dollar figures: Western Australia ($24,832,693.27) and the Australian Capital Territory ($3,437,218.31). The Total row aggregates those entries to $28,269,911.58. The other jurisdictions in the list are recorded with a dash in the "Determined amount" column.

Who pays. The instrument is made under the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 (s 3) and the Part 2 note locates the determination under subsection 9(1) of that Act. While the instrument does not itself recite the paying agency or the appropriation mechanics, the legislative authority in s 3 situates the payment function within the Commonwealth’s Federal financial relations framework. Practitioners reading this instrument should treat it as an internal Commonwealth determination that directs a grant payment to the named States under the statutory power cited.

Who receives. The two named recipients of the positive amounts are Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. For those two, the instrument is the legal text that "specifies an amount to be paid" for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose assistance (s 5). The other listed States and Territories appear as items, but no amount is specified for them in this instrument.

Secondary affected parties. State treasuries and finance departments will be the immediate operational counterparts in receipt and banking of the funds. Commonwealth finance agencies or the department responsible for administering the Federal Financial Relations Act will be responsible for effecting the payment in line with the instrument, including attention to commencement timing (s 2) and the note that payment is proposed to occur in December 2020 (Part 2 Note 2). Auditors, accountants and compliance officers on both sides will need to record the transaction and reconcile the determined amounts with internal ledgers. Legal advisers for States and the Commonwealth may also be engaged to confirm statutory authority, interpretation of the dash entries, and to coordinate timing against year-end processes.

Those not receiving funds. Importantly, several jurisdictions are named but not allocated an amount in this instrument. For those jurisdictions the immediate effect is nil under this instrument alone. That does not foreclose other determinations or payments under other instruments or schedules, but this particular instrument does not provide funds to them.

The instrument is compact and allocative; it primarily confers an entitlement to receive money by specifying determined amounts and sets the mechanics for when the instrument takes legal effect. The clearest right created by the instrument is the right of the State listed in an item to receive the "amount to be paid" for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance (s 5). That is the operative allocation: where a dollar figure is specified for a State, the instrument establishes that figure as the determined amount for that payment round.

Duties created in the instrument itself are very limited. Section 2 prescribes commencement mechanics: the whole instrument commences on the day it is registered, and column 3 of the commencement table is declared not part of the instrument (s 2(2)). Those provisions place a procedural obligation on those implementing the instrument to confirm registration as the trigger for effect. Section 3 identifies the legislative authority under which the instrument is made, the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009. The Act will contain substantive payment powers, conditions, and procedural rules; those are not re-stated in the instrument, but s 3 and the Part 2 note anchor this instrument to that statutory regime.

The instrument does not prescribe conditions on the use of the funds, reporting obligations, repayment obligations, or clawback powers within its text. It is therefore silent as to those duties and rights. Practitioners should note that the absence of such terms in the instrument does not necessarily mean none exist elsewhere. Because s 4 imports meanings from the Federal Financial Relations Act by operation of para 13(1)(b) of the Legislation Act 2003, duties and rights that attach to general purpose financial assistance more generally are to be sought in that Act and related instruments. The instrument itself does not specify those cross-cutting obligations.

Who must act. The text requires, as a practical matter, that the Commonwealth administrative arm responsible for effecting payments under the Federal Financial Relations Act prepare to make the payment. The instrument states that a payment of the amounts is "proposed to be made in December 2020" (Part 2 Note 2), which signals a timetable for operational action. For recipients, the instrument gives a concrete figure to reflect in budgets and accounts; however the instrument does not set out any action required from the recipient States to trigger the payment, such as claims, certificates, or conditions.

Accounting and audit consequences. Given the detail to the cent in the s 5 table, the instrument creates clear ledger items for both the payer and the recipient. The presence of precise amounts suggests an expectation of one-off payments rather than provisional estimates. Auditors and accountants will therefore treat these figures as the authorised determinations to be recorded once the payment is made.

The instrument contains no express penalty regime, enforcement provisions, sanction clauses, or administrative consequence mechanisms within its four operative sections and notes. It is an allocative determination: it identifies amounts "to be paid" for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance (s 5) and specifies commencement, authority and definitions. There are no provisions that impose fines, civil penalties, or criminal offences, nor are there any technical enforcement mechanisms included in this instrument text.

Because the instrument is made under the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 (s 3) and the Part 2 note cites subsection 9(1) of that Act as the head of power for the determination, any enforcement or penalty mechanisms relevant to general purpose financial assistance would be found in that Act or in other instruments made under that Act. Those provisions are not reproduced here and therefore any penalties or remedies they provide cannot be inferred from this instrument alone. Practitioners should consult the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 for the statutory enforcement architecture that governs grants in this regime.

The instrument’s silence on enforcement has practical implications. The only remedial text in the instrument is the registration-based commencement mechanism in s 2, which is procedural rather than punitive. The instrument does not, for example, specify conditions that could be breached and attract a sanction. It does not specify repayment terms or clawback triggers. If a recipient State were to act in a manner inconsistent with expectations for the use of funds, any corrective measures would therefore need to be grounded in the Federal Financial Relations Act, in other written agreements between the Commonwealth and the State, or in ordinary administrative law processes.

Administrative enforcement. Administrative action to effect or withhold payment in accordance with this instrument would be undertaken by the Commonwealth agency authorised to administer general purpose financial assistance. The instrument itself does not name that agency. Any internal departmental compliance checks, approvals or certifications that the paying agency requires before effecting the transfer would be administrative steps external to the instrument.

Judicial enforcement. The instrument does not create a private right of action, nor does it provide an express judicial enforcement pathway. If a dispute arose over whether the Commonwealth had complied with this instrument, the relevant legal challenge would engage questions of statutory power under the Federal Financial Relations Act and general principles of administrative law. Again, those matters are beyond the four corners of this instrument and not specified here.

This instrument sits explicitly within at least two other statutory frameworks, as the instrument itself states. First, s 3 records that the instrument is made under the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009. Second, s 4 invokes paragraph 13(1)(b) of the Legislation Act 2003 to import meanings from the Federal Financial Relations Act into this instrument. The Part 2 note further identifies subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act as the specific statutory head of power for the determination. Those cross-references are the primary legal interactions disclosed in the instrument.

Practical legal consequences of those interactions. Because the instrument imports definitions and sits under the head of power in the Federal Financial Relations Act, the legal effect and practical operation of the amounts it determines will be shaped by the Act. That means that the precise legal nature of "general purpose financial assistance", any qualification for receipt, reporting obligations, use restrictions, offsets against other payments, and any enforcement mechanisms are located in the Federal Financial Relations Act and associated instruments. This instrument does not restate or displace those provisions; it performs the specific function of recording the monetary determination for a particular payment round.

Commencement and legislative form. Section 2 makes a formal commencement declaration and includes a commencement table. That table, and s 2(2)’s treatment of column 3, follows the conventions of the Legislation Act for commencement specifications. The instrument’s reliance on registration day as the commencement trigger aligns the instrument with the broader publishing and operation rules in the Legislation Act and related legislative drafting conventions.

Interaction with appropriations and financial management statutes. The instrument does not mention appropriation or departmental financial management requirements. It does not itself appropriate money. The instrument’s placement under the Federal Financial Relations Act implies that payments will be effected under the statutory grant-making regime of the Act and under any applicable appropriation acts and financial management rules. Those connected statutes are not part of this instrument, so the instrument’s operational effect will depend on those other laws remaining satisfied. Practitioners should note that the instrument alone does not create the bookkeeping authority to debit Commonwealth accounts; appropriations and internal accounting rules would govern the mechanics of transfer.

Interaction with State law. The instrument makes an allocation to States and Territories. It does not purport to alter State law or to create State-level statutory obligations. The treatment of the funds once received will be subject to each receiving jurisdiction’s internal budget, appropriation and accounting laws and processes. This instrument does not prescribe those State-level interactions.

The instrument contains internal statements about commencement and about how its published text should be treated but does not record any subsequent amendments in the text provided. Section 2 includes a commencement table and an explicit caution that "This table relates only to the provisions of this instrument as originally made. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this instrument." That text indicates that any published version of the instrument that appears later should not expect the commencement table to be retrospectively updated to reflect later amendments. In other words, the commencement material documents the instrument as originally registered.

There is no text in this instrument that records later amending instruments, repeals, or supersessions. The instrument’s own Part 1 and Part 2 structure and the four operative sections (s 1 to s 5) present the instrument as a single, complete determination as it was made. The instrument does not include a schedule of amendments or a history of prior versions within the provided text.

Section 2(2) provides that "Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this instrument. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this instrument." That clause contemplates editorial amendment of column 3 material in published versions for informational purposes, but it expressly separates that editorial content from the instrument’s legal text. Practitioners relying on the instrument should therefore treat column 3 editorial matter as non‑legal and seek the register entry or the instrument’s formal text for the authoritative version.

Because the instrument was made under the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 and commences on registration (s 2), any formal amendment or repeal would itself require an appropriate amending instrument or a statutory action under the enabling laws. No such amending instrument appears in the text provided. Therefore the amendment history, as reflected in the instrument itself, is: original instrument made, registered and commenced on the registration day; the instrument expects that column 3 editorial material may be changed in subsequent published versions but that such edits do not alter the legal instrument. No later amendments are recorded in this text.

If practitioners require a record of amendments occurring after registration, they must consult the official instrument register or consolidated legislation publications. The instrument’s own warning about the non-updating of the commencement table suggests that registries and publishers will maintain editorial histories separately and that the instrument itself does not attempt to provide a running amendment log.

The text of this instrument does not record, reference or summarise any litigation. There are no cases, proceedings, or judicial determinations cited in the instrument. The instrument is an administrative fiscal determination and, in the text provided, contains no historical note of dispute or challenge.

The absence of litigation material in the instrument does not mean that the determination could not be subject to judicial review or other legal challenge; it simply reflects that the instrument itself does not contain any litigation history. Any litigation that might have arisen from this determination would be recorded in external sources: court files, judgments and legal databases. Those materials are not part of the instrument text provided and therefore are outside the instrument’s contents.

Because the instrument is made under the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 and purports to authorise payments for general purpose financial assistance, if a party were to challenge the instrument’s validity the legal questions would likely focus on: whether the making of the determination and the specified amounts are authorised by subsection 9(1) of the Act; whether correct procedures were followed in making and registering the instrument; and whether administrative law constraints, such as jurisdictional error or failure to observe procedural fairness where relevant, were implicated. None of those matters are engaged or decided within the instrument itself.

Practitioners seeking litigation history should examine Court and Tribunal records for proceedings that contest Commonwealth determinations of grants or that challenge the administrative processes related to the Federal Financial Relations Act. The instrument itself provides no pointer to any such litigation in the material it contains.

The instrument’s brevity contains several features that can cause misreads if attention is not paid to form and cross-references.

1. Dash entries in the table. The s 5 table shows dash marks for several States and Territories. The instrument does not add an in-text legend to explain the dash. Readers should not assume a meaning beyond what the instrument says: the table "specifies an amount to be paid" and, as shown, only two items carry explicit monetary figures. The legal effect of a dash is to be read in context; the instrument does not elaborate. Do not assume the dash is decorative, a typographical omission, or that it necessarily equals some unstated allocation. The only positive amounts for this instrument are those given numerically.

2. Note versus operative text distinction. Part 2 contains two notes. Note 1 states the determination is made under subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act. Note 2 states the payment of amounts is "proposed to be made in December 2020." These are notes and, while informative, practitioners should be clear about whether they are operative provisions or explanatory material. The s 5 table is operative. The "proposed" payment timing in Note 2 signals intent but is not framed as an operative statutory command within this instrument’s table.

3. Commencement editorial material. Section 2 includes a commencement table and explicitly disclaims that information in column 3 is not part of the instrument (s 2(2)). The instrument also warns that the commencement table relates only to the instrument as originally made and "will not be amended to deal with any later amendments." Publishers sometimes add editorial material to column 3; that material is not law. Confirm the registration date on the official register to establish exactly when this instrument commenced.

4. Definitions are imported. Section 4 does not define "general purpose financial assistance" or related terms. It imports meanings by reference to the Federal Financial Relations Act via the Legislation Act mechanism. That means the substantive legal content of the terms used is not contained in this instrument. Practitioners must consult the Federal Financial Relations Act for the operative definitions and any limitations or qualifications on general purpose financial assistance.

5. No conditions or enforcement text. The instrument does not set out conditions on the use of funds, reporting requirements, or enforcement measures. Absence of those terms in the instrument does not necessarily mean there are no conditions: those may be contained in the Federal Financial Relations Act or in other administrative instruments. Relying solely on this instrument to determine rights and obligations may miss cross‑cutting statutory or policy obligations elsewhere.

This instrument prescribes a specific allocation of funds; compliance, in practice, will depend on the roles of the Commonwealth paying agency and the recipient State agencies. Below are precise, instrument-grounded steps and items for legal, accounting and administrative teams to address in order to give effect to, and to account for, the determination.

1. Confirm commencement date. Section 2 provides that "The whole of this instrument" commences on the day it is registered. Before any payment is effected, receiving and paying agencies should confirm the registration date on the official Federal register of instruments. That registration date is the legal commencement trigger for this determination.

2. Treat the s 5 amounts as the authorised figures. The table in s 5 sets fixed monetary figures for the relevant items. For Western Australia, record $24,832,693.27. For the Australian Capital Territory, record $3,437,218.31. The Total is $28,269,911.58. These are the determinative amounts authorised by this instrument; accounting entries should reflect them precisely.

3. Do not rely on column 3 editorial material. Section 2(2) states that information in column 3 of the commencement table is not part of the instrument. If published copies of the instrument include descriptive date material or publication notes in column 3, those are editorial. Use the formal register entry for authoritative commencement and instrument text.

4. Check for external conditions in the Federal Financial Relations Act. Section 4 imports definitions and legal meanings by reference to the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 and the Legislation Act 2003. This instrument is silent on user conditions, reporting, requirements for claims, or clawbacks. Before relying on the instrument as a standalone authority for payment, the paying agency should review the Federal Financial Relations Act to confirm whether any statutory prerequisites or conditions attach to the disbursement of general purpose financial assistance.

5. Plan for the proposed payment date. Part 2 Note 2 states a payment of the amounts determined "is proposed to be made in December 2020." Treat that note as a timetable indication and align internal payment scheduling and cash management processes to enable transfer in that window, subject to confirmation of registration and any departmental or appropriation requirements.

6. Confirm appropriation and internal authority. The instrument itself does not contain appropriation language. Paying agencies must verify internal delegation and appropriation authority to make the transfers. While this instrument authorises the determination of amounts, effecting payment will typically require appropriate appropriations and departmental approvals. The instrument does not state those steps; they are practical prerequisites outside the instrument’s text.