Statistics, public accountability and the Federation

NatStats 2010 ConferenceThursday 16 September 2010Mr Paul McClintock AOChairman, COAG Reform Council

www.coagreformcouncil.gov.au

Intergovernmental Agreement on Federal Financial Relations

Key reforms:1.Rationalisation of payments2.Development of National Agreements3.National Partnership payments and

agreements4.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 CravenTwo 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. Strong conceptual frameworks2. The availability of adequate data3. The timeliness of data4. The ability to monitor and report change over

time5. 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