This instrument is the Federal Financial Relations (General Purpose Financial Assistance) Determination No. 125 (July 2019). It is a ministerial determination made under subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009, the authority expressly cited by the instrument. The determination is dated 16 July 2019 and signed by Michael Sukkar, Minister for Housing and Assistant Treasurer (the instrument records “Dated: 16 July 2019”). The determination states that it commences on the day it is made (clause 2).

Mechanically, the determination performs three connected tasks. First, it identifies itself by name and serial number (clause 1). Second, it declares its commencement timing, that is immediate effect from the date it is made (clause 2). Third, and substantively, it specifies amounts that “are to be paid to the States for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance to those States” (clause 3). The instrument therefore creates an express instruction about specified payments and the stated purpose of those payments.

The operative content is contained in the table headed “General purpose financial assistance for payment on 22 July 2019”. The table lists the States and Territories and sets monetary amounts against certain jurisdictions. The amounts recorded in the table are as follows: Western Australia, $879,975,447.52; Australian Capital Territory, $3,389,761.64; Northern Territory, $252,131,155.05. All other jurisdictions shown in the table,New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania,are displayed with a dash in the amount column, indicating no payment is specified for the 22 July 2019 payment round in this determination. The table also records a total amount of $1,135,496,364.21.

The determination therefore creates an entitlement or instruction for the Commonwealth to pay the listed amounts on the stated payment date, and it does so without attaching conditions or further explanatory text in the instrument itself. The document repeats its name and some of the clauses, but the operative clauses remain clause 1 (name), clause 2 (commencement), and clause 3 (determination specifying amounts). The instrument does not within its text specify any formula, allocation methodology, conditions on State use of funds, reporting obligations, or penalties. It identifies the payment date in the table heading as 22 July 2019.

For practitioners, the immediate, concrete effect is that on and from its making the Minister has exercised the cited power to specify that the Commonwealth should pay the amounts in the table to the relevant States Territory entities for the stated purpose of general purpose financial assistance, with the payment to be effected for the date shown in the table.

The determination uses a small set of legal and financial concepts, presented plainly in its text. The principal concept is “general purpose financial assistance”, used in the phrase “the amounts specified... are to be paid to the States for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance to those States” (clause 3). The instrument itself does not define that term; it operates by identifying the purpose of the payments as general purpose financial assistance and by specifying the monetary amounts and recipient jurisdictions.

Another central concept is the source of authority. The instrument is made under subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009, a statutory power referenced in the opening paragraph of the instrument where the Minister states that he makes the determination under that subsection. The determination therefore rests on a delegated statutory power exercised by the Minister in a particular instance to fix amounts and payment timing.

Temporal concepts appear in two places. Clause 2 states that the instrument “commences on the day on which it is made”, so the determination has immediate legal effect on signature. Separately, the table heading identifies “payment on 22 July 2019”, which sets the operational payment date for the specified amounts.

The table format embodies the allocation concept. It lists jurisdictions (labelled “State” but including territories) and an “Amount of General purpose financial assistance”. For several jurisdictions the amount cell contains a dash, indicating no amount is specified in this determination for that payment round. For three jurisdictions monetary amounts are provided to the cent, and a “Total” row aggregates those amounts.

The instrument is administrative rather than regulatory. It does not purport to create ongoing obligations for recipients, set expenditure conditions, or establish compliance or reporting frameworks. It is a one-off specification of amounts and a payment date. It does not include a formula, allocation criteria, or explanatory memorandum within the text provided, so the allocation mechanics are not disclosed in the determination itself.

Finally, the instrument is numbered and dated, identifying it as Determination No. 125 (July 2019). The numbering and dating function as administrative metadata that situates the instrument in the sequence of determinations made under the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009. The instrument is signed and dated, which is the formal requirement for ministerial determinations of this kind as shown in the opening signature block.

Direct recipients: The immediate legal and financial recipients named in the instrument are the jurisdictions listed in the table. On the payment date 22 July 2019 the Commonwealth is directed, by this determination, to pay the amounts specified for Western Australia ($879,975,447.52), the Australian Capital Territory ($3,389,761.64) and the Northern Territory ($252,131,155.05). The table’s “Total” row records the aggregate of those specified payments as $1,135,496,364.21. The remaining jurisdictions listed,New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania,are shown with a dash in the amount column and therefore receive no payment under this specific determination for the 22 July 2019 round.

State and Territory treasuries: Practically, State and Territory treasury departments and the Commonwealth’s treasury and payments agencies are affected. The instrument creates an administrative obligation within the Commonwealth’s payment processes to disburse the specified sums. On the State side, treasury and accounting systems will need to receive, record and reconcile the incoming amounts. The determination does not specify conditions or use restrictions in its text, but recipients will handle those funds under their own budget and accounting frameworks.

Federal administrative actors: The Minister named as making the determination is Michael Sukkar, Minister for Housing and Assistant Treasurer. The signature and date indicate ministerial approval and the initiation point for Commonwealth administrative action. The determination routes funding decisions authorised under subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 into the Commonwealth’s financial management and payments machinery.

Budgetary stakeholders: Although not named, Commonwealth budget officers, central agencies and Parliament’s appropriation processes are peripherally affected. The instrument specifies payments but the determination text does not itself set out appropriations; officials will need to align the payment with appropriation authorities and processes. The determination’s specification of a total amount provides a figure that will be reflected within budgeting, cash management and possibly public accounts.

Ultimate beneficiaries: The end beneficiaries are the residents and institutions within the receiving jurisdictions insofar as the payments are used by those States and Territories for general purpose purposes. The determination delegates no express uses or conditions; therefore which programs or activities benefit depends on each jurisdiction’s internal allocation decisions. The instrument does not include reporting obligations that would make visible how funds are spent.

Duty to pay: The determination creates an instruction that specified amounts “are to be paid to the States for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance to those States” (clause 3). That wording imposes the Commonwealth-side administrative duty to pay the amounts listed in the table. The payment date in the table heading is 22 July 2019, so the instruction is to effect payment for that payment round. The instrument does not include execution-level detail such as bank account details, payment mechanisms or appropriation references; those procedural details are left to the relevant Commonwealth payment authorities.

Ministerial power exercised: The Minister made the determination under subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009, as stated in the instrument’s opening paragraph. The exercise of that power is a duty of decision-making by the Minister, or their delegate, to specify the amounts and payment timing. The instrument records the Minister’s signature and the date, which satisfies the formal exercise of that statutory power in this instance.

Entitlement of recipients: The named jurisdictions have a right to receive the specified sums. The determination, by its terms, identifies the recipients and their amounts. The instrument does not qualify, suspend or condition the receipt; it therefore creates an entitlement to payment in the amount specified subject to the Commonwealth’s internal payment processes.

No conditions on use are specified: The determination does not impose conditions, reporting obligations, or expenditure constraints within its text. It frames the payments as “for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance to those States” (clause 3) but does not further circumscribe State behaviour. The practical implication is that States receive unconstrained general purpose funds under this instrument, subject to their own budgetary systems.

Absence of duties on States in the instrument: The determination itself does not set out duties that States must perform in exchange for the funds. It does not require statements, acquittals or matching funding. Any obligations on States would need to be imposed by other instruments, agreements or legislation; they are not found in this determination’s text.

Administrative record-keeping duty: While not stated, the instrument’s signature, date and table structure imply an administrative expectation that payment records trace back to Determination No. 125 (July 2019). Practically, Commonwealth payment agencies and State treasuries will record ledger entries referencing the determination. The determination provides the core legal authority for those entries because it is an exercise of the statutory power referenced in the opening paragraph.

The determination does not contain substantive penalty, sanction or enforcement provisions. Its text comprises a naming clause, a commencement clause and a determinative clause specifying payment amounts in a table. There are no clauses in the instrument that create criminal, civil, administrative or financial penalties for non-compliance with the determination’s terms. Consequently, any enforcement mechanism relevant to these payments must be found in the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 itself, in other Commonwealth statutes, in intergovernmental agreements, or in the administrative arrangements of the relevant departments. The instrument does not identify those mechanisms.

Practical enforcement realities: Because the determination instructs that specified amounts “are to be paid to the States” (clause 3), non-payment on the Commonwealth side would ordinarily be a failure of executive action rather than a breach subject to a contractual penalty specified in the instrument. Remedies for an aggrieved recipient, if payment were not made, would depend on applicable public law remedies, parliamentary remedies, political remedies and Commonwealth internal controls, none of which are detailed in the determination.

Audit and oversight: The determination does not itself create audit rights, reporting requirements or conditions that would enable direct enforcement of how the funds are used by States. Any oversight over expenditure of the funds must therefore rest on separate statutory audit powers, intergovernmental arrangements or each State’s own accountability and auditing regimes. The instrument’s silence on these matters means the determination is purely allocative in form; oversight must be pursued through other legal and administrative avenues.

Political accountability: In practice, enforcement and remedy for disputes about quantum, timing or entitlement may also be exercised through political mechanisms. Parliament, Senate estimates, budget processes, and intergovernmental forums can provide scrutiny and create pressure to rectify settlement or payment issues. Those are not enforcement mechanisms contained within the determination, but they are the realistic channels for addressing failures to execute the instruction it contains.

Risk of administrative error and internal remedies: Because the instrument provides precise amounts to the cent, administrative non-compliance would likely be handled through internal remedial processes,reconciliation, adjustment in future cash flows, or ministerial direction. If a payment were overpaid, the Commonwealth’s internal financial management rules and other legislation would govern recovery. The determination itself does not set out recovery or correction mechanisms.

Statutory basis: The determination expressly records that it is “made under subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009”. That is the primary legal hook within the instrument itself. The Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 therefore provides the statutory authority for the Minister’s action; the determination is a specific exercise of that authority. The instrument does not reproduce subsection 9(1) or other provisions of the Act; it simply cites the subsection as the basis for the Minister’s power to make the determination.

Interaction with Commonwealth financial administration: The determination specifies amounts and a payment date, but it does not detail appropriation or payment mechanics. Payment of Commonwealth funds must ordinarily be effected in accordance with existing Commonwealth financial management and appropriation frameworks. Those frameworks are set by other statutes and administrative rules. The determination does not itself identify appropriation items or account numbers, so the operational interaction with appropriation law and the Commonwealth’s payments systems is not described in the instrument.

Relationship to State laws and budgets: The funds are specified to be paid to the States and Territories “for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance to those States” (clause 3). How a State or Territory treats the receipt in its own budget, how it credits and spends the funds under its financial management legislation and how it complies with relevant audit and reporting obligations are governed by State and Territory laws and practices rather than by this instrument. The determination does not create or alter State-level legal duties; it allocates Commonwealth funding that is then managed under each jurisdiction’s governance.

Absence of conditionality: The instrument contains no cross-reference to conditions, agreements, national frameworks or specific program legislation. That means it does not invoke or amend other Commonwealth statutory schemes within its text. If conditions or counterpart obligations apply to these payments, they would need to be found in separate agreements, memoranda between jurisdictions, or other determinations and instruments not reproduced in this determination.

Potential interfaces with intergovernmental agreements: Payments of general purpose financial assistance often interact with intergovernmental fiscal frameworks and agreements. The determination does not identify any such agreements. Practitioners seeking to understand the full legal environment for these funds should therefore consult the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009, relevant intergovernmental agreements and any appropriation instruments that authorised the underlying expenditure.

The instrument identifies itself as Federal Financial Relations (General Purpose Financial Assistance) Determination No. 125 (July 2019). The text includes repeated headings and repeated copies of the name, commencement clause and the payment table. The provided text contains no amendment clauses, no repeal or savings clauses, and no record within the instrument of amendments made after signature. The instrument also includes the signature block showing ministerial signing and the date “16 July 2019”.

On its face, the determinate provisions are immediate and fixed as of the date of signature because clause 2 provides that the determination “commences on the day on which it is made”. The instrument does not state an expiry date or a review requirement. Any amendment or revocation would therefore require a subsequent determination or other legal action made under the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 or other applicable authority.

No statutory amendment record in instrument: The instrument does not include a schedule of prior amendments, nor does it cite any previous determinations it replaces. It therefore reads as a self-contained determination for the 22 July 2019 payment round. If the determination replaced or superseded earlier determinations, that relationship is not recorded in the provided text.

Practical update mechanism: In practice, determinations under the Federal Financial Relations Act are amended, revoked or replaced by further determinations made under the same statutory power. The instrument contains no mechanism for automatic updating or indexing. To track any subsequent changes, practitioners should consult the Commonwealth’s Federal Register of Legislation or the relevant departmental legislative databases for later determinations or for a revocation instrument.

Record-keeping and version control: The duplication of part of the instrument’s content in the provided text indicates potential editorial repetition. Practitioners relying on the instrument should ensure they reference the formally registered version on the official legislation register to confirm whether any later determinations amend, supersede or revoke Determination No. 125 (July 2019). The instrument’s signature date is the operative timestamp for the commencement clause and for assessing amendment chronology.

The provided determination text contains no references to litigation, judicial review, or case law. It does not record any legal disputes, challenges, or court determinations concerning this instrument. The instrument itself is an administrative allocation of funds and does not, within its text, identify any contested legal issues.

Absence of recorded judicial consideration: There is no statement in the instrument that it has been subject to or is the subject of litigation. The instrument does not cite any decisions or legal authorities other than the statutory subsection (subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009) under which it is made. There are no internal notes on appeals, reviews or declaratory relief in the text.

Practical litigation considerations: Theoretically, a party affected by a failure to implement the determination could seek review or relief through administrative law channels if there were an arguable breach of statutory duties under the Federal Financial Relations Act or other applicable legislation. Those potential avenues are not documented in the instrument; they arise from external legal frameworks. Because the determination contains no enforcement or dispute-resolution clauses, any legal proceedings would be grounded in other statutes or in judicial review principles rather than in the text of this instrument.

Where to check for litigation: Practitioners interested in any litigation touching this determination should consult court registries, administrative law reports and legal databases for any cases that identify Determination No. 125 (July 2019) in their facts or holdings. The instrument itself provides no litigation history or cross-reference to judicial decisions.

1. Concentrated allocations, limited transparency: The table specifies payments for only three jurisdictions,Western Australia, Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory,while the larger states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania) show a dash. The determination does not explain the allocation criteria or formula. The instrument therefore provides the quantum and recipients but supplies no rationale or methodology. Practitioners seeking to understand why funds were concentrated in certain jurisdictions will not find that explanation in this instrument.

2. Precise sums but no appropriation reference: The amounts are given to the cent and the table records a total. However, the determination does not include appropriation references, account numbers or departmental advice about how the payments fit into broader Commonwealth appropriations. Users should not assume the determination itself is a substitute for appropriation authority. The instrument is silent on funding source mechanics.

3. Commencement versus payment date: Clause 2 makes the determination commence on its date of signature. The payment is scheduled for 22 July 2019 as shown in the table heading. Because commencement is immediate, the instrument is legally effective even if the nominated payment date is later. Practitioners should note this temporal separation and ensure internal payment processes and cash management reconcile those dates.

4. No conditions, no reporting obligations: The determination describes payments as “for the purpose of making a grant of general purpose financial assistance” (clause 3) but does not set any conditions, reporting requirements or acquittal clauses. That means the Commonwealth has not, in this instrument, required specific accountability or use restrictions as part of the payment. Users should take care to check whether separate agreements or instruments impose conditions.

5. Repeated text and potential drafting ambiguity: The provided text contains repeated headings and repeated copies of the table. While this appears to be editorial duplication, in practice one should rely on the version published on the official legislation register to avoid confusion. Confirm the definitive version before relying on any procedural deadlines or amounts.

6. No enforcement text: The determination contains no penalties, recoupment provisions, or dispute resolution mechanisms. If either side disputes payment amounts or timing, the instrument provides no in-built mechanism for resolving that dispute. Remedies would therefore come from other legal avenues or administrative action.

For Commonwealth payment officials

• Treat Determination No. 125 (July 2019) as the legal authority specified to effect payments under subsection 9(1) of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009. The instrument begins on the date of signature (clause 2) and therefore authorises action consistent with its terms from that date.

• Effect payment of the amounts listed in the table on or before the payment date of 22 July 2019, in the amounts specified: Western Australia $879,975,447.52; Australian Capital Territory $3,389,761.64; Northern Territory $252,131,155.05. Record payments against the instrument’s identification (Determination No. 125 (July 2019)) and the dated signature (16 July 2019) to create an auditable trail.

• Ensure appropriation and cash-management compliance before payment. Although the determination specifies amounts, it does not itself show appropriation lines or account numbers. Confirm that an appropriation or other lawful source of funds authorises the outflow before executing payments.

• Maintain a payment file that includes the determination text, ministerial signature, advice from legal and financial branches, and the payment instruction. Reconcile ledger entries to the exact cents shown in the table and to the total $1,135,496,364.21.

For State and Territory treasuries

• Expect receipt of the amounts specified on or about 22 July 2019, and prepare internal accounting entries to recognise the amounts. Treat the funds as general purpose financial assistance unless and until separate conditions or directions are communicated by the Commonwealth or by intergovernmental agreement.

• Create an internal auditable trail linking the incoming funds to Determination No. 125 (July 2019) and the signature date (16 July 2019). This acts as documentary support for budget and audit reviews.

• Review whether any other instruments, agreements, or public statements impose conditions or reporting obligations on these funds. The determination itself is silent on conditions, so do not assume external terms are absent; confirm with Commonwealth counterparts or departmental releases.

For auditors and oversight bodies

• Use the determination as the primary legal instrument for the payment round specified. Verify that Commonwealth payments to the jurisdictions match the amounts and the payment date in the table.