Under the Construction Contracts Act 2004 (WA), an adjudicator's power under s 31(2)(b) is confined to determining liability in respect of the specific payment claim whose rejection or disputation constituted the payment dispute. A counterclaim raised by the respondent in its response is a separate payment claim giving rise to a separate payment dispute, and the adjudicator cannot make a determination requiring the applicant to pay the respondent based on that counterclaim. Parties wishing to have their own payment claims adjudicated must make separate adjudication applications within the 28-day time limit. An adjudication determination affected by jurisdictional error is void in its entirety and cannot be severed.
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