Behind the headlines : an analysis of Australian Commonwealth, State and Territory budget balance numbers

The introduction of accrual accounting principles for government reporting in recent years has been complicated by the presence of two alternative financial reporting frameworks, the Government Finance Statistics (GFS) framework and the Australian professional accounting standard rules. This paper presents the findings from a study of the 2004-05 and 2005-06 annual budgets prepared by the Australian Commonwealth government and the governments of the six Australian States and the two Australian Territories. The study examined the basis for the budget balance numbers (government surplus or deficit) headlined in the budgets of each of the nine governments over the two year period. Findings indicate the adoption of varying measurement bases and a resultant lack of inter-governmental and inter temporal comparability. A number of departures from the measurements
prescribed in the reporting frameworks were also observed.