Overview

In 2018–19, the department was appropriated $23.5m as specified in the Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Act (No.1) 2018–19. The department ended the financial year with an operating surplus of $0.37m (excluding depreciation). This result was due to lower than budgeted employee expenditure, largely attributed to reduced activity and leave taken during the 2019 election period.

Expense impacts

The department’s total expense for 2018–19 was $26.0m (excluding depreciation). The majority of the department’s expenditure is on employee related expenses ($21.2m), followed by infrastructure ($0.60m) and travel ($0.66m). All staff are based in Canberra. Staff travel to various interstate locations largely to support the work of Senate committees. The types of expenses are shown in the following figure:

Figure 18: Expense by type 2018–19

Financial position

Most of the department’s assets and liabilities at 30 June 2019 are of a financial nature. The department has $14.9m of assets, the majority of which are appropriation receivables. The department has $7.4m of liabilities primarily relating to employee provisions ($6.9m) and the remainder to year end payables ($0.5m). The department has sufficient financial reserves to meet all current and non-current liabilities.

Entity resource statement

The entity resource statement provides additional information about the funding sources that the department had access to during the year. Appendix 1 details the resources available to the department during 2018–19 and sets out a summary of total expenses for Outcome 1.

Sustainability

The department’s financial performance for the past five years is demonstrated below:

Figure 19: Financial performance 2014-15 to 2018–19

The department budgets to remain financially sustainable into the forward estimates, and continues managing resources to operate within the allocated funding envelope.