The year in summary
This year has seen the Parliamentary Budget Office refocus its work program in response to the deteriorating fiscal situation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has been reflected in our published research and budget analysis. Given the traditional post-election fall in demand for costings, we have taken steps throughout the year to enhance our staff capabilities, data, models and website.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we continued to work from home and the office to serve the Parliament with costing responses, and analysis that aims to be timely, transparent and relevant to the continually evolving fiscal position. We published two research reports on medium-term COVID-19 fiscal scenarios and two reports on Government Finances, which tracked the effect of COVID-19 on the Commonwealth’s fiscal position on a monthly basis.
The PBO developed the internal capability to provide parliamentarians with budget analysis against a medium-term scenario that takes account of the impact of COVID-19 on their policy proposals. This was particularly relevant for parliamentarians in the months leading up to the 2020–21 Budget due to the high degree of uncertainty associated with the budget baseline.
We also published a major report on Alternative financing of government policies: Understanding the fiscal costs and risks of loans, equity injections and guarantees. This report seeks to explain trends in the use of loans, equity injections and guarantees, along with the budget reporting of these arrangements.
A total of 12 reports were published including regular reports such as the 2019–20 medium term fiscal projections, and an information paper on behavioural assumptions. Our publications continue to be widely cited by the media and in discussions on fiscal and budget policy.
Our website has been updated with the addition of an online budget glossary which explains 63 key terms related to Commonwealth Government budget in a non technical way and aims to assist with public understanding of the budget and financial reporting documentation in the context of the broader economy. We added a data portal page comprising a consolidated list of datasets published with each PBO research report for ease of access and to support transparency around fiscal and budget policy issues.
We continued to receive support from our panel of expert advisors to help shape our work program, review our publications and provide technical input into costings.
The upgrade to our workflow management system and ICT capability is well underway which will improve our operational effectiveness.
Download the full report above.