Media Release

43/2008
9 December 2008

Review of Operation Sunlight – Overhauling Budgetary Transparency

Today the Rudd Government released the Review of Operation Sunlight: Overhauling Budgetary Transparency undertaken by the former Senator Andrew Murray.

Andrew Murray conducted a non-partisan review of Budget transparency issues prior to the completion of his term as a Senator in June 2008.

The Government also released its detailed response to Andrew Murray’s recommendations today. The review contained 45 recommendations on ways to improve transparency and the Government’s relationship with Parliament.

Lindsay Tanner, Minister for Finance and Deregulation said: “I asked Andrew Murray to review our reform agenda under Operation Sunlight, and to provide me with advice on how these reforms could be further improved.

“The Government has considered Andrew Murray’s recommendations, the vast majority of which we are either taking up in their entirety or incorporating the underlying themes into other initiatives.”

“Operation Sunlight is a long-term investment in greater accountability for this and future governments. Parliament and Australian taxpayers have a right to know how their taxes are being spent.

“Recognising the importance of the Operation Sunlight agenda, the Government has provided funding to portfolio departments to assist with the implementation of these reforms within each portfolio”.

Some of the future reforms recommended by Andrew Murray and which are now incorporated under Operation Sunlight include:

The Government will require agencies to report expenditure and non-financial information at the program level in their Portfolio Budget Statements from the 2009-10 Budget (Recommendation 9);
The Department of Finance and Deregulation (Finance), in consultation with the Australian National Audit Office and other stakeholders, will issue revised guidance on the Administered/Departmental classification system to improve transparency and consistency in budgeting and accounting (Recommendation 10);
Further transparency on the use of Special Accounts will be provided through the inclusion of a register and the provision of financial estimates in Budget Paper 4 from the 2009-10 Budget. This will complement the end of financial year audited financial information that is already reported to Parliament (Recommendation 13);
The current practice of providing funding for depreciation will be phased out from the 2009-10 Budget (recommendation 15);
A new and more comprehensive report to the Parliament on the use of the Advance to the Finance Minister and the Advance to the Presiding Officer will be introduced commencing from the 2008-09 financial year (Recommendation 18);
The Intergenerational Report will be produced once per parliamentary term (Recommendation 26); and
Agencies will implement newly devised or revised outcome statements for the 2009-10 Budget to provide more meaningful descriptions of the outcomes that are to be achieved from Government programs (Recommendation 40).

The Government as part of its Operation Sunlight initiative has already made a number of significant improvements to Budget transparency and accountability including:

recognising, for the first time, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as a Commonwealth tax commencing with the 2006-07 Consolidated Financial Statements and the 2007-08 Final Budget Outcome (Recommendation 24);
producing a single set of financial statements under Australian Accounting Standard AAS1049 and including the statements in the Budget Papers for 2008-09, replacing three financial statements prepared on different bases that were published in Budget Papers in previous years (Recommendation 24); and
improving and redesigning the Portfolio Budget Statements presented to Parliament (Recommendation 14).

Lindsay Tanner said: “Andrew Murray has been a leading campaigner on parliamentary accountability and reform, and I greatly appreciate his contribution to reviewing and improving the Operation Sunlight transparency and accountability reforms.”

Andrew Murray’s full report, together with the Government’s response, and the updated Operation Sunlight document can be found at www.finance.gov.au

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Media Contact:	Website:
Nardia Dazkiw - 0418 144 690	www.financeminister.gov.au