Statistics, public accountability and
the Federation
NatStats 2010 Conference
Thursday 16 September 2010
Mr Paul McClintock AO
Chairman, COAG Reform Council
www.coagreformcouncil.gov.au
Intergovernmental Agreement on Federal Financial
Relations
Key reforms:
1. Rationalisation of payments
2. Development of National Agreements
3. National Partnership payments and
agreements
4. Strengthened public accountability
COAG Reform Council
Mission:
To assist COAG to drive its reform agenda
by strengthening public accountability of the
performance of governments through
independent and evidence-based
monitoring, assessment and reporting
Leadership federalism
Professor Greg Craven
Two important elements:
1. historical shift of the Commonwealth’s
involvement in policy areas over which
technically it has no power
2. maintains the advantage of federal systems
that allow decisions to be made by
governments closest to the people affected by
them
Public accountability
Mark Bovens, The Oxford Handbook of Public
Management:
‘Public accountability is the hallmark of modern
democratic governance. Democracy remains a
paper procedure if those in power cannot be held
accountable in public for their acts and omissions,
for their decisions, their policies, and their
expenditures.’
COAG Reform Council reports
Baseline performance reports on:
– Healthcare
– Education
– Skills and workforce development
– Disability services
– Affordable housing
– Indigenous reform
Improving the performance reporting framework
The Intergovernmental Agreement on Federal
Financial Relations states:
‘As the success of the new framework for federal
financial relations depends crucially on the
development of robust performance indicators and
benchmarks, the Parties will continually improve
performance data…’
Improving the performance reporting framework
The COAG Reform Council is urging significant
improvements in five areas:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Strong conceptual frameworks
The availability of adequate data
The timeliness of data
The ability to monitor and report change over
time
5. The use of administrative data
Summary
• Public accountability for the performance of
governments is a hallmark of a robust federation
• This requires access to data on performance—
from key administrative and survey data
sets—that are meaningful, timely, accurate, and
comparable across jurisdictions
• The shift to a focus on outcomes calls for an
equally bold reassessment of the priorities for data
development and collection
www.coagreformcouncil.gov.au