Navigating the Budget

Budget papers

The Treasury's Budget page contains the most recent budget papers. It also includes data and annexes that can be accessed online.

The Treasury also maintains an Archive of previous budgets. These cover the period from 1901—02 to the most recent Budget.

Guidance on reading the Budget and related papers

Parliamentary Library guidance

Our quick guides to assist understanding the Budget:

• Appropriations and the powers of the Senate: a quick guide
• The Commonwealth Budget: a quick guide 

We also provide a series of short training videos to assist in navigating individual budget papers (network access required):

• Budget Paper 1 – Budget strategy and outlook (8min, 11sec)
• Budget Paper 2 – Budget measures (5min, 15sec)
• Budget Paper 3 – Federal financial relations (4min, 44sec)

Parliamentary Budget Office guides

The Parliamentary Budget Office aims to improve transparency around fiscal and budget policy issues in addition to its costing service. Some helpful PBO guidance material includes:

• an online budget glossary that explains key budget terms.
• a series of Budget Explainers that provide guidance on specialised budget topics.

Chamber guides

House of Representatives Practice is the comprehensive and authoritative text on the procedure and practice of the House of Representatives. The seventh edition was published in June 2018 and has a dedicated chapter of guidance on financial legislation.

Odgers' Australian Senate Practice is an equivalent guide for the Senate, currently in its 14th edition (with updates added 30 June 2022). It likewise provides a dedicated chapter of guidance on financial legislation.

Legal and administrative framework for the Budget and related papers

Particular requirements for a Budget and subsequent appropriations are regulated by the Constitution, legislation and other guidance:

• The Constitution sets out taxation powers, requirements for appropriations and other matters such as payments to the states and territories.
• The Charter of Budget Honesty Act 1998 sets out requirements that must be met by the government in presenting certain budget related material.
• The Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) sets out the system of governance and accountability, including a performance framework, for Commonwealth entities. The PGPA Act is supported by the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014 which contains more specific details. Combined, the PGPA Act, rules and instruments made under the PGPA Act and appropriation acts are known as ‘finance law’.

The Department of Finance provides the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act Flipchart as a reference of all non-corporate and corporate Commonwealth entities and companies (those government bodies subject to the PGPA Act).

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' Australian System of Government Finance Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods is a key guide that sets out how different reporting segments within the Budget are defined, such as the ‘general government', ‘public non-financial corporations’ and ‘public financial corporations’ sectors. It also serves as a manual for government finance statistics.

Official accounting policy and treatments are based upon Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) standards. The key standard is the Whole of Government and General Government Sector Financial Reporting standard.

To understand practical management issues, the Department of Finance provides the Managing Commonwealth Resources portal to aid in learning about the Commonwealth operational policies towards resource management.

Budget Insights

Framing the Budget

Parliamentary Library curated insights

We hold a pre-Budget lecture to consider current budget issues. We also hold other relevant lectures throughout the year:

• Setting the context for the Federal Budget: a pre-Budget forum (1hr, 16min)
  Speakers: Professor Renée Fry-McKibbin and Dr Jenny Gordon
• The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU): 5 year economic outlook (1hr, 22min)
  Speaker: Dr Simon Baptist

Parliamentary Budget Office insights

Budget Bites are short insights into fiscal policy issues and updates to analysis previously published by the PBO.

Build your own budget is a tool, currently in consultation, that allows interested parties to vary aspects of the Budget and see what impact they would have on the Budget's bottom line.

Community expectations

Submissions made to government to inform the Budget: 2023—24 pre-Budget submissions.

Prevailing conditions from expert views

Major agency views

The Reserve Bank's Statement on Monetary Policy ;sets out the bank's assessment of current domestic and international economic conditions which drive the Bank's board decisions and impact on budget parameters.

The International Monetary Fund's Fiscal Monitor ;is a twice-yearly report put out by the IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department and includes fiscal projections for individual countries. The Fiscal Monitor draws from the same database that is used to produce the IMF's World Economic Outlook and the Global Financial Stability Report.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's tax topic portal is the OECD's collated database of all its tax-related publications. The OECD maintains both generalised issue-oriented articles about taxation, as well as country-specific articles.

The Commonwealth Grants Commission Update of GST Relativities is an annual report for the Treasurer from the Commonwealth Grants Commission to update the relativities used to distribute revenue from the GST pool to state and territory governments.

The 2022 Election commitments report is published by the Parliamentary Budget Officer after each general election and details and aggregates the budget impacts of the election commitments made by political parties.

Matters locked into the Budget

The Commonwealth Grants Commission Update of GST Relativities is an annual report for the Treasurer from the Commonwealth Grants Commission to update the relativities used to distribute revenue from the GST pool to state and territory governments.

The 2022 Election commitments report is published by the Parliamentary Budget Officer after each general election and details and aggregates the budget impacts of the election commitments made by political parties.