The year in review

The demands associated with the 2016 general election heavily influenced the Parliamentary Budget Office’s (PBO) activities during 2015–16.

Requests from parliamentarians for policy costings and budget analyses built up rapidly over the course of the year as parliamentary parties and independent parliamentarians developed their election policy platforms. The PBO responded to 3,251 requests for policy costings and budget analyses in 2015–16. This was more than double the volume of responses prepared during 2013–14, the previous election year.

On the basis of this growth in demand it is clear that, through its provision of independent and non-partisan policy costings and budget analyses, the PBO has become an integral part of the democratic process. In particular, non-government parliamentary parties have come to rely on the PBO to cost their policy options from the formative stages of policy development through to their final policy positions.

The 2016 election was the first time that all three major parliamentary parties (the Coalition, the Australian Labor Party and the Australian Greens) released costed consolidated election platforms prior to polling day. The Coalition, as the government of the day, relied on the Treasury and the Department of Finance for its costings. The non-government parties were heavily reliant on costings prepared by the PBO.

The PBO released the 2016 post-election report of election commitments on 5 August 2016. The report stands as a comprehensive public record of the budget impacts of the election commitments of the major parliamentary parties. It also confirmed the accuracy of the costings of each of the parties’ election platforms.

Since the establishment of the PBO four years ago, each of the major parliamentary parties has had access to publicly funded policy costing services throughout the entire election cycle. It is, therefore, reasonable for the voting public to expect the costed election platforms of the major parties to be released prior to polling day, in sufficient time to be taken into account by the public in their voting intentions.

Excluding the costings included in the 2016 post-election report of election commitments, the greater majority of costings prepared by the PBO in 2015–16 were provided on a confidential basis at the direction of the requesting parliamentarians. The exceptions were 86 costings that the PBO published during the caretaker period (85 for the Australian Greens and one for Senator Jacqui Lambie) and one costing each for Senators Peter Whish-Wilson and David Leyonhjelm prior to the caretaker period, that were made public at their request.

Many of the PBO’s costings were drawn on by parliamentarians throughout the year to support their policy announcements. Only a small number of the PBO’s costings were published in full by the requesting parliamentarians. Under the PBO’s legislation, costings prepared at the request of parliamentarians outside of the caretaker period may be confidential, and the decision to make them public is a matter for the requesting parliamentarian.

In addition to its work associated with the 2016 general election, the PBO assisted a number of parliamentary committees with their inquiries and published a series of reports under its self-initiated research program.

The PBO made submissions to the following committees at their request:

• the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue inquiry into the Tax Expenditures Statement
• the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics inquiry into tax deductibility
• the Senate Select Committee on Health.

The PBO’s submissions to these inquiries are available on the PBO’s website.

Factors that impinge on the sustainability of the budget over the medium term continued to be the main focus of the PBO’s program of self-initiated research. The program aims to enhance the transparency and public understanding of the budget and fiscal policy settings.

During the year the PBO published the following research reports and other analyses:

Alcohol taxation in Australia

• Medicare Benefits Schedule: Spending trends and projections
• Goods and Services Tax: Distributional analysis and indicative reform scenarios
• National fiscal outlook: As at 2015–16 mid-year fiscal updates
• Higher Education Loan Programme: Impact on the budget
• Impact of policy decisions and parameter variations on Australian Government revenue and spending estimates
• 2015–16 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook—charts
• 2016–17 Budget—charts
• Unlegislated measures carried forward in the Budget—various updates.

The PBO’s work was subject to regular citation in the media in the context of contemporary public policy debates. The PBO’s publications were also frequently accessed via the PBO website.

Download the full annual report above.