Towards Responsible Government The Report of the National Commission of Audit – Phase One Contents Letter of transmittal Commission members and Secretariat assisting the Commission Executive Summary Recommendations PART A: GOVERNMENT IN AUSTRALIA AND THE STATE OF THE FINANCES 1 – What is this audit about and why is it needed now? 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Outlook for spending 1.3 The fiscal strategy and outlook 1.4 Spending and fiscal pressures within the Federation 1.5 Principles of Good Government 2 – The role of government 2.1 What do Australians expect their governments to do? 2.2 What should governments do? 3 – What do governments do in Australia today? 3.1 What do governments do and who does what? 3.2 The operation of the Federation 3.3 The current Intergovernmental Agreement on Federal Financial Relations 3.4 How does the Commonwealth provide and fund its services? 4 – The state of the Commonwealth’s finances 4.1 Overview of the Commonwealth’s finances 4.2 The state of the balance sheet 4.3 Fiscal projections 4.4 Restoring the nation’s finances PART B: A WAY AHEAD 5 – Approach to government and new fiscal rules 5.1 Fiscal framework and rules 5.2 Better management of the Commonwealth’s balance sheet 5.3 Budget reporting and the Charter of Budget Honesty 6 – Reforming the Federation 6.1 Roles, responsibilities and duplication 6.2 Addressing vertical fiscal imbalance 6.3 Improving horizontal fiscal equalisation 6.4 Reforming financial arrangements – the quid pro quo 6.5 Reducing the administrative burden 7 – Managing expenditure growth 7.1 Age Pension 7.2 The National Disability Insurance Scheme 7.3 A pathway to reforming health care 7.4 The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme 7.5 Family Tax Benefits 7.6 Paid Parental Leave and child care 7.7 Schools funding 7.8 Defence 7.9 Aged care 7.10 Carer payments 7.11 Unemployment benefits and the minimum wage 7.12 The Disability Support Pension 7.13 Higher education arrangements 7.14 Reforming foreign aid 8 – Other programmes and spending 8.1 Industry assistance 8.2 Research and development 8.3 Indigenous programmes 8.4 Resourcing diplomacy and consular activities 8.5 Drought assistance 8.6 Programmes that duplicate State responsibilities 8.7 Other selected programmes 8.8 Grants programmes 9 – Rationalising and streamlining government bodies 9.1 Principal bodies 9.2 A central register and new guidelines for establishing bodies 9.3 Boards, committees and councils 10 – Improving government through markets and technology 10.1 Privatisations 10.2 Management of the Commonwealth property portfolio 10.3 Outsourcing, competitive tendering and procurement 10.4 Outsourcing of the Government Payments System 10.5 Data 10.6 e-Government 10.7 Cloud computing 10.8 Corporate services and systems 11 – Reform and restructure of the Australian Public Service 11.1 The Public Service Act and the Public Service Commission 11.2 Opportunities to improve public sector management 11.3 The Commission’s intended approach 12 – Financial Implications 13 – Conclusion 14 – Annexes Annex A: Terms of Reference Annex B: Modelling assumptions Annex C: Principal bodies for rationalisation Annex D: Grant programmes Annex E: Abbreviations Annex F: List of public submission
