Commonwealth legislation

Federal Financial Relations (National Partnership) Determination No.161 (February 2020)

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Commonwealth

Collection

legislative instrument

Plain English Summary

6/10 complexity

This determination directs the Commonwealth to pay $436,600,498.58 to the States on 7 February 2020, listing amounts by State and by program in Schedule 1. The payments are for making grants “to support the delivery of specified outputs or projects, to facilitate reforms, or to reward nationally significant reforms” (s3).

Who pays and who receives: the Commonwealth pays; the States receive specified sums. Why it matters: it converts program headings (education, skills, infrastructure, environment, community services, other, contingent) into concrete, payment‑linked obligations and associated compliance/reporting tasks for the States.

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What it does

This Determination (Federal Financial Relations (National Partnership) Determination No.161 (February 2020)) authorises and records a discrete set of Commonwealth-to-State National Partnership payments for a single payment run dated 7 February 2020. Clause 2 provides that the instrument "commences on the day on which it is made." Clause 3 directs that "the amounts specified in the following table are to be paid to the States specified in that table for the purpose of making a grant of financial assistance to" support the delivery of specified outputs or projects in Schedule 1, to facilitate the reforms specified in Schedule 1, or to reward States for nationally significant reforms specified in Schedule 1. In short, the Determination mechanically does three things: it fixes the recipients (the States listed in the table), it fixes the amounts for each recipient, and it links those amounts to the program/ purpose labels and breakdowns set out in Schedule 1.

The document contains a single payment table (Table 1) that lists the amounts to be paid on 7 February 2020 by State: New South Wales $130,978,762.00; Victoria $131,933,983.00; Queensland $50,228,430.35; Western Australia $50,379,164.43; South Australia $35,782,435.00; Tasmania $13,953,572.00; Australian Capital Territory $5,735,453.76; Northern Territory $17,608,698.04; the total of those payments is $436,600,498.58. Schedule 1 supplies the program-level allocation under broad headings (Education, Skills, Community Services, Affordable Housing, Infrastructure, Environment, Other, Contingent Payments) and the state-by-state splits for many individual program lines. The Schedule sums by program and by State reconcile to the Table 1 totals.

Mechanically, therefore, the Determination functions as an instruction authorising the Commonwealth to transfer specified sums to specified States for the program purposes listed in Schedule 1 on the date specified. The instrument does not itself set out detailed performance conditions, reporting obligations, enforcement mechanisms, or the statutory enabling provision within its text; those matters are not in the body of this Determination as provided. The legal and administrative effect of the Determination depends on where it sits within the broader Federal financial relations framework, and whether there are accompanying National Partnership Agreements, schedules, or administrative arrangements that impose further terms; none of those supporting documents are included in the text provided.

Current sections

Direct links to the current provisions in Federal Financial Relations (National Partnership) Determination No.161 (February 2020).

Federal Financial Relations (National Pa