Locales
“Applies in Australia” is not precise enough to configure anything
Some Australian obligations are federal and the same everywhere. Others are state obligations with a different threshold, a different scheme and a different instrument in each jurisdiction, which means an employer operating across a border is running two rules rather than one rule twice. This is the layer under Local-AU.
Changes by state
Australian, but federal
Local-AU with no jurisdictions is a statement, not a gap: there is nothing to vary.
The eight
What is worth checking, and why
Payroll tax
A state tax with its own threshold, rate and grouping rules. An employer over the line in more than one state registers, lodges and pays in each of them.
Long service leave
A state entitlement. Accrual, qualifying period and what counts as continuous service all vary, and the payroll system has to hold the rule that applies to where the employee works.
Portable schemes
In some industries the entitlement follows the worker rather than the employer, and the employer owes returns and levies to the scheme regardless of whether anyone has taken leave.
Workers compensation
A different scheme, a different premium basis and a different declaration in every jurisdiction. The wage definition the premium is calculated on rarely matches the one payroll reports elsewhere.
Procurement framework
For a public entity this governs approval, disclosure and often what has to be bought locally or from particular suppliers. The system has to evidence it, not just permit it.
Public finance legislation
What a public entity reports under, and where the internal control and attestation obligations come from. It shapes the close calendar and the evidence the system retains.
Auditor-general
Audits the entity and tests the controls. Access design and segregation of duties will be examined by this office rather than described to it.
Economic regulator
Where prices are determined rather than charged, cost allocation has to be defensible to this body, which makes it a chart of accounts input.
On numbers
Thresholds, rates and dates are deliberately not recorded here. They change at least annually, and a figure published on this page would be wrong before it was useful. What is recorded is which body, which act and which scheme — go to the named source for the current number. Practitioner corrections on any of it are especially welcome.