List of Recommendations

Recommendation 1

2.62

The Committee recommends, in line with Recommendation 1, Australian National Audit Office, Report No. 25 (2018-19), Efficiency of the Processing of Applications for Citizenship by Conferral, that the Department of Home Affairs:

reintroduce externally reported key performance indicators of the time taken to decide applications for citizenship by conferral; and

expand its published processing times to also report the time being taken to decide applications for citizenship by conferral per month, including decisions to refuse citizenship.

Recommendation 2

2.63

The Committee recommends that the Department of Home Affairs implement an electronic system in which applicants may track the progress of their application for citizenship by conferral remotely, and that this system be updated weekly, to ensure that timely advice is provided to applicants on the status of their application.

Recommendation 3

4.70

The Committee recommends that the Department of Finance review the Cost Recovery Guidelines to:

provide clear advice to entities on what activities can be funded with cost-recovered monies and;

prescribe that entities update risk ratings within six months of changes to charging guidelines being introduced, or biennially in the absence of changes to cost recovery practice.

Recommendation 4

4.71

The Committee recommends that the Department of Finance facilitate a working group to encourage and support benchmarking activities by cost recovery entities. The working group should also examine methods to encourage information sharing in respect of benchmarking results for the purposes of cost recovery activities. The findings of the working group should be reported back to the Committee within 6 months.

Recommendation 5

5.53

The Committee recommends that the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) consistently apply a clear definition of the term small business within the ATO to improve data analysis.

Recommendation 6

5.54

The Committee recommends that the ATO develop systems so it can separately report on debt arising from compliance activities, to help assess the effectiveness, efficiency and consistency of its end-to-end debt management processes.

Recommendation 7

7.46

The Committee recommends that the Department of Social Services implement a risk management plan for the final delivery of the Fourth Action Plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022, and any successive plans that the department delivers.

Recommendation 8

7.47

The Committee recommends that the Department of Social Services:

Expand its Annual Report and Portfolio Budget Statements to provide information as to how the outcome being reported against was either ‘met’ or ‘not met’ against specific metrics regarding the National Plan, and;

Publicly report in the Annual Progress Reports for the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022 and for any successive plans on outcomes and achievements. This should include evidence on actions taken by governments and achievements of actions relating to each of the six National Outcomes.

Monitor and publicly report their progress against the Implementation Plan for the Fourth Action Plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022.

Recommendation 9

8.55

The Committee recommends that the Department of Agriculture examine whether the Farm Management Deposits Scheme is meeting its policy objective of 'improved self-reliance’ through a range of methods including its proposed evaluation, and assess alternative options of achieving the objective if the results do not demonstrate that the policy objective is being met. The findings should be reported back to the Minister, with an update provided to the Committee.

Recommendation 10

8.56

The Committee recommends that the Department of Agriculture and the Australian Taxation Office implement specific key performance indicators in order to measure the performance of the Farm Management Deposits Scheme, and for the results to be published in Annual Reports.

Recommendation 11

8.57

The Committee recommends that the Australian Taxation Office undertake a new risk assessment of the Farm Management Deposits Scheme with input from the Department of Agriculture, including matters such as compliance and policy changes, and to issue a new risk rating if required.

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