This instrument, entitled the Federal Financial Relations (General Purpose Financial Assistance) Determination No. 105 (December 2017), is a ministerial determination that specifies particular cash amounts to be paid to named jurisdictions for the purpose stated in the instrument. The instrument is made by the Assistant Minister to the Treasurer, Michael Sven Sukkar, and is expressly made under subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009, as recorded in the opening paragraphs. The determination contains three operative items: (1) the name and date, (2) a commencement clause stating the instrument commences on the day it is made, and (3) the operative determination that "The amounts specified in the following table are to be paid to the States for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance to those States" (clause 3 and the accompanying Table).

Mechanically, the Table records a schedule for payment "on 21 December 2017" and lists amounts by State or Territory. The table records non-zero, specific dollar amounts for Western Australia ($54,617,981.00) and the Australian Capital Territory ($3,296,804.93); all other listed jurisdictions show a dash, recorded as "-" in their table rows. The Table also records a total amount of $57,914,785.93. The instrument is dated 13 December 2017, and its commencement clause (clause 2) makes it effective on that date. The instrument therefore operates to set a payment schedule and amount, and to state the statutory purpose for those payments, namely general purpose financial assistance to the recipient jurisdictions (clause 3 and the Table).

The instrument contains no operational detail on payment mechanics beyond the date and amounts in the Table. It contains no express conditions on the use of the funds beyond the stated purpose of "making a grant of general purpose financial assistance to those States." The instrument does not include provisions addressing recovery, variation, review, administrative reporting by recipients, nor any express enforcement or penalty mechanism within the text of the determination.

The core legal concept in the determination is a ministerial direction to make specified payments to jurisdictions for the stated statutory purpose of general purpose financial assistance. The instrument operates through three discrete legal mechanics: authority, timing, and quantum. Authority is established by the opening statement that the Assistant Minister makes the determination under subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009. Timing is established by clause 2, which provides that the determination "commences on the day on which it is made", and by the Table, which states the payment date as 21 December 2017. Quantum is established by clause 3 and the Table which itemises the amounts to be paid and provides a total.

"General purpose financial assistance" is the stated statutory purpose. The instrument does not elaborate conditions attached to that purpose. The phrase in the instrument is a purpose statement only; the instrument explicitly ties the payments to that purpose without listing constraints or accountability obligations attached to funds in this determination. The Table is the operative schedule: it is the legal record of who receives funds and how much. It identifies recipient jurisdictions by name and lists a dollar amount for each; for most jurisdictions the Table shows a dash rather than a numeric amount, indicating no payment through this instrument to those jurisdictions for this scheduled payment.

A secondary concept observable in the instrument is its concentration of benefit and aggregate fiscal impact. The Table shows two jurisdictions receiving funds and records a precise aggregate total of $57,914,785.93. That total is the fiscal quantum that this determination commits to disburse, or to direct be disbursed, on the stated date. The instrument does not contain any contemporaneous explanation of selection criteria for recipients or the basis for the amounts; it only records the allocation and the statutory authority under which the allocation is made.

The instrument also demonstrates characteristics common to ministerial determinations: succinctness, reliance on a parent Act for decision authority, and reliance on existing public finance systems for execution. The determination delegates no new powers, prescribes no duties beyond the payment itself, and contains no implementation detail or cross-references to reporting, auditing or conditions in the text. It is therefore a narrow legal act whose substance is the allocation of a discrete set of funds to named jurisdictions for a stated purpose.

The instrument directly affects the named recipient jurisdictions and, indirectly, the entity that implements the payment. The Table specifies that Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory are to receive payments of $54,617,981.00 and $3,296,804.93 respectively, and records a combined total of $57,914,785.93 for payment on 21 December 2017. Those two jurisdictions are the direct financial beneficiaries within this determination. The remaining jurisdictions listed in the Table are New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory, each shown with a dash under "Amount of General purpose financial assistance" indicating no payment from this determination to those jurisdictions for this payment date. The instrument thus creates discrete, concentrated benefits for two jurisdictions while recording zero for the rest.

Who pays and who decides are signalled but not fully specified in operational terms. The instrument is made by the Assistant Minister to the Treasurer under subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009. That identifies the decision-maker and the statutory power exercised. The instrument directs that specified amounts "are to be paid to the States" for the stated purpose, which on its face obliges some paying agency or appropriation mechanism to effect the transfers. The determination does not name the paying department or account in the text. Practically, a Commonwealth treasury, payments office or equivalent agency would implement the payment instructions, but the determination itself does not specify that agency.

There is a secondary, indirect affected group: accounting, audit and compliance personnel in the recipient jurisdictions. The payment is recorded as "for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance", which has implications for how recipient treasuries will record, reconcile and report the receipt within their financial statements and budgets. The instrument imposes no reporting or usage conditions in its text, so recipient agencies may record the funds as general purpose assistance in line with their own budgetary frameworks. Similarly, Commonwealth accounts staff charged with executing the payment will be affected by the need to schedule and discharge a specific cash transfer on the stated date.

Finally, the instrument affects political and administrative decision-making in a narrow manner. It signals an executive allocation of Commonwealth funds to specific jurisdictions at a fixed date, which can affect immediate cash flows, short-term budget balances and the ability of the recipient jurisdictions to plan payments for end-of-year obligations. The instrument’s lack of attached conditionality means recipient decision-makers retain discretion over the use of funds within the broad stated purpose.

The determination itself creates a limited set of duties and rights because it is a short, purpose-specific instrument. The principal right created is the entitlement of the named jurisdictions to receive the amounts specified in the Table. Clause 3 states that "The amounts specified in the following table are to be paid to the States for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance to those States." That language creates an operative expectation that the listed amounts will be transferred to the listed jurisdictions on the stated payment date. The Table specifies the amounts and the payment date as 21 December 2017.

The document places a duty on the decision-maker implicitly reflected by the instrument. The Assistant Minister, in exercising power under subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009, has made the allocation. The instrument does not set out duties for the recipient jurisdictions regarding use, reporting, or accountability for the funds. The determination does not contain express conditions, express notice or reporting obligations, nor clawback provisions. In that absence, there is no statutory duty within this instrument that prescribes how recipients must use the funds beyond the general purpose statement.

The instrument does not state any rights of third parties or private actors; it is a public law instrument that allocates public funds to subnational governments. It does not create enforceable rights for suppliers, contractors, or individuals vis-a-vis the Commonwealth or the recipient States. It does not specify administrative review rights or appeal rights in relation to the determination itself. Neither does it specify a mechanism for recipients to decline the grants, or for the Commonwealth to vary the amounts through the determination once commenced.

Operational duties that are likely to arise in practice are absent from the determination text. For example, the instrument does not set any obligation on Commonwealth officials to make the payment by electronic funds transfer, to provide remittance advices, or to notify recipient Treasurers, but such duties typically arise from administrative practice rather than the instrument content. The determination also does not confer rights to auditing agencies within the instrument; any auditing rights would derive from general audit and public finance statutes or practices, not from this determination.

In sum, the determination establishes a right to payment for the named recipients and records the statutory authority relied upon, but it imposes no statutory duties on recipients within its text beyond the stated ostensible purpose of the payment. The practical duties and rights that follow from the transfer are therefore reliant on external administrative frameworks, not on express provisions in the instrument.

The determination contains no penalty, sanction, enforcement mechanism or recovery clause within its text. It is narrowly drafted to specify amounts, recipients, and a payment date, and it does not create express remedial or enforcement provisions if funds are misapplied, not disbursed, or if other contingencies occur. Clause 3 binds the instrument to its accountability phrase "for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance to those States", but the instrument does not set enforcement tools such as repayment obligations, interest on overdue repayments, administrative penalties, or referral mechanisms to enforcement agencies.

Because the instrument is made under subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009, any enforcement, review, or remedy connected to non-compliance with the parent Act or with broader Commonwealth financial law would need to be found in that Act or in other statutes or administrative processes. The determination itself does not state how disputes about the payment, timeliness, or amount would be resolved. The instrument similarly omits any provision that would allow unilateral variation or revocation of the amounts or payment date within the text; it simply states commencement on the day made and specifies the payment date.

From a compliance management perspective, the absence of internal enforcement provisions means that administrative routines must supply enforcement and remedial functions. For example, if a payment were not made on the specified date, the instrument does not itself provide a statutory route to compel payment or to declare a breach; recourse would be via the broader administrative and legal framework governing Commonwealth financial management and the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009. The instrument does not cite any procedural pathways for recipient grievances or audits in relation to the funds.

Therefore, the legal enforceability of rights and remedies connected to this instrument is not created de novo within the determination; instead, any enforcement implications must be located in external statutes, regulations, or administrative policies that the instrument invokes implicitly through its reliance on the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 and routine public finance mechanisms.

The determination expressly states its legal provenance: it is made under subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009. That is the sole statutory cross-reference contained in the instrument. The instrument therefore operates as an exercise of power conferred by that parent Act. Beyond that explicit reference, the determination does not itself cite other statutes, regulations, or instruments. The text of the determination does not reproduce or summarise any duties or processes that might be contained in the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009, nor does it reproduce or reference appropriation or public finance legislation, audit statutes or Treasury instructions.

In practice, a ministerial determination of this type intersects with a range of external laws and administrative instruments, but the determination itself only establishes a direction to pay specified amounts to named jurisdictions and records the statutory authority relied upon. Any interaction with appropriation law, consolidated revenue or payment processing, accounting standards, audit processes, or other compliance frameworks must be effected through those external instruments. The determination does not attempt to define, modify, or override external accountability regimes.

Because the instrument makes payments "for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance", recipients and administrators will need to reconcile this determination with their respective budget, accounting and legal frameworks. The exact manner of reconciliation, including whether the funds are treated as specific-purpose or general-purpose in underlying accounting frameworks, will depend on the law and policies external to this determination. The instrument does not, for example, state whether the payments are to be treated as payments under a particular schedule to the parent Act or whether any separate acceptance, acquittal or reporting is required.

The absence of cross-reference to other legal instruments in this determination means that it is a narrowly framed record of allocation, not a composite legal instrument that amends or interacts in detail with administrative rules. Any legal effects beyond the transfer direction will depend on the operation of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 and on general Commonwealth and State financial management law and practice, which are not reproduced in the text of this determination.

The text provided records a single instrument titled Federal Financial Relations (General Purpose Financial Assistance) Determination No. 105 (December 2017), dated 13 December 2017, and commencing on the day it was made. The determination text, as provided, contains internal duplication: the title, commencement and determination provisions appear repeated in subsequent blocks. The instrument as presented does not record or attach any amending instrument, and it does not contain a schedule of previous versions or an explicit section labelled "amendment history."

The instrument itself is self-contained and does not state that it replaces, revokes or supersedes any earlier determinations. It also does not include a clause authorising future amendment or specifying any transitional arrangements. Its clause 2 provides for immediate commencement "on the day on which it is made", which means the instrument took legal effect on the date shown. The absence of an express revocation clause or cross-reference to other determinations means that any amendment, revocation or variation would need to be achieved by a subsequent determination or by action under the same statutory power referenced in the instrument, namely subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009.

The duplication present in the provided text suggests a document assembly or formatting artefact rather than an amendment record. The instrument repeats the title, commencement clause and the table. The operative content of both repetitions is identical in substance: name of instrument, commencement clause, clause 3 setting out the amounts and the Table with identical figures. No separate "Amendment No." entries are present and no dates other than 13 December 2017 and the payment date 21 December 2017 appear.

If later amendments were to be made to these payments, they would likely appear as subsequent determinations under the parent Act or as a replacement determination, but the instrument as provided contains no trace of subsequent amendment, revocation or consolidation. Any user seeking a full amendment history should therefore consult the official legislative instrument register or the record of determinations maintained by the relevant Commonwealth registry to confirm whether later determinations altered or repealed No. 105. That investigation falls outside the text provided here.

The determination document contains no reference to litigation, legal proceedings, or judicial decisions. The text does not record any challenge to the instrument, and it does not cite any case law or judicial interpretations. There are no notices of dispute, references to tribunals or panels, nor any annotations indicating that the instrument has been the subject of judicial review or other litigation.

Because the instrument is a discrete ministerial determination that specifies payments and does not create substantive regulatory obligations, the likelihood of litigation based solely on the instrument's content is limited to disputes over entitlement to, or execution of, the payments. The instrument contains no procedural or remedial clauses; therefore any dispute as to whether the payments were made, the timing of the payments, or the lawful authority for the payments would require resort to external legal avenues, such as judicial review of administrative action under general administrative law principles or to statutory remedies available under the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 or related public finance statutes. The determination itself does not identify any such avenues.

No litigation entries are present within the text. The instrument offers no history of challenges, and no consolidated references to judicial decisions are provided. Users seeking to know whether this specific instrument has been the subject of litigation must consult external court records, legal databases or the administrative records of the Commonwealth. Those sources are outside this determination text. The instrument as provided therefore shows no litigation history within its own content.

Several practical and legal "gotchas" are visible from the instrument as drafted. First, the Table lists dollar amounts for only two jurisdictions. Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory are allocated $54,617,981.00 and $3,296,804.93 respectively. All other jurisdictions in the table are shown with a dash in the amount column. The dash is not defined in the determination, but the surrounding context and the total indicate that it should be read as no payment via this determination for that payment date. Practitioners should not assume that the dash indicates an omitted or negotiable amount; in this instrument it correlates with a specific total that matches the two numeric entries. That creates a concentrated benefit profile and a discrete fiscal commitment totalling $57,914,785.93.

Second, the instrument contains no conditions, constraints or reporting obligations attached to the funds. Clause 3 states that the amounts are "to be paid to the States for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance to those States" but does not prescribe what recipients must do with the funds, what reporting is required, or whether the funds are subject to audit or clawback. Users should not assume that the determination by itself imposes any ac-quittal requirement. Any accountability obligations would derive from external statutes, intergovernmental agreements, or administrative practice, none of which are described in the instrument.

Third, the determination commences immediately on the day it is made, dated 13 December 2017, while the payment is scheduled for 21 December 2017. That timing compresses the administrative window for processing the payment. Finance officers should note that the instrument’s immediate commencement does not itself discharge the payment; the payment depends on implementation by the relevant payor agency. The short interval between commencement and payment date can create operational risk if systems, appropriation authority or internal approvals are not aligned.

Fourth, the instrument contains duplicated blocks of text and repeated table material. This duplication may be an artefact of document assembly and does not change the operative allocations. However, users should ensure they refer to authoritative instrument records (for example the official legislative instrument register) when relying on the determination, to avoid confusion caused by formatting repetition.

Fifth, the determination does not name the paying authority or specify the account, appropriation line or ledger entries to be used. That omission means that implementing agencies must rely on internal finance procedures and the parent Act to identify the lawful source and mechanism for the payment. Practitioners should therefore verify the payment's legal basis and appropriation path with the relevant Commonwealth finance authority before disbursing funds.

For Commonwealth implementing officers

• Treat the instrument as a binding payment instruction made under subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 and dated 13 December 2017. Clause 3 and the Table should be used as the operative schedule for payment. The Table names the recipient jurisdictions and the precise dollar amounts to be paid on 21 December 2017. Ensure internal payment approval processes, appropriation checks and account coding reflect the instrument title and number so that the disbursement is traceable to Determination No. 105 (December 2017).

• Confirm appropriation authority before payment. The determination itself does not identify the appropriation or account to be debited. Finance officers must therefore identify the correct appropriation line or supply authority under the Commonwealth’s public finance framework to authorise the transfer. Do not rely on the determination alone as a substitute for appropriation compliance.

• Use the exact figures from the Table when preparing payment files: Western Australia $54,617,981.00 and Australian Capital Territory $3,296,804.93, total $57,914,785.93. Treat the dash entries for other jurisdictions as zero for this payment event. Record the payment date as 21 December 2017 and ensure remittance advice and ledger entries reference the instrument title and date.

• Complete internal documentation and chain of authority. Because the instrument contains no ancillary conditions or reporting requirements, internal records should capture the payment’s purpose as "general purpose financial assistance" per clause 3 and should include copies of the instrument text, signatures, and any internal approval memoranda that evidence compliance with payment protocols.

For State and Territory recipients

• Record the receipt as general purpose financial assistance. The determination states the purpose in clause 3. In the absence of further conditions in the determination, treat this receipt as a general purpose grant for budgetary and accounting purposes, consistent with internal financial management frameworks and any existing Commonwealth-State financial arrangements.

• Verify payment and reconciliation. Match the payment received on or about 21 December 2017 against the amounts recorded in the Table. If the federal payment does not match the instrument amounts, raise the discrepancy with the originating Commonwealth payments office and ensure reconciliation documents are retained.