Annual reports (No. 2 of 2016)


12 October 2016

© Commonwealth of Australia 2016

View the report as a single document - (PDF 30KB)

This is the second Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee (the committee) report on annual reports for 2016. Annual reports inform the Parliament, stakeholders and other interested parties of the operations and performance of public sector departments, agencies and companies. They are a primary accountability mechanism. Additionally, annual reports are important reference documents and form part of the historical record.[1]

Senate Standing Order 25(20) requires that annual reports tabled by 31 October each year are reported on by the tenth sitting day of the following year. Annual reports tabled by 30 April each year are to be reported on by the tenth sitting day after 30 June of that year. For the 2014-2015 reporting year all annual reports for the Health and Social Services Portfolios (including Human Services) were tabled by 30 November 2015. The committee examined all tabled reports in the Report on Annual Reports (1 of 2016) which was tabled in the Senate on 2 March 2016. This included the examination of 21 annual reports tabled during the period 1 May 2015 to 31 October 2015 and five reports tabled after 31 October 2015 but before the tabling of the committee's report.

The committee is not obliged to examine reports on the operation of Acts, reports of Royal Commissions, statements of corporate intent, policy papers, budget documents or corporate plans. Accordingly, the following documents were also referred to the committee but not examined:

  • Australian Sports Commission, Corporate Plan 2016-20
  • Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Operations of Private Health Insurers 2014-2015
  • National Health and Medical Research Council, Corporate Plan 2016-2017
  • Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, Quarterly report, October-December 2015
  • National Health and Medical Research Council Embryo Research Licensing Committee, Report to the Parliament of Australia, for the period 1 March 2015 to 31 August 2015
  • Department of Health, Report on the Third Review of the Dental Benefits Act 2008
  • Ernst and Young, Independent review of the NDIS Act, December 2015
  • Australian Government Actuary, Fifth report on the costs of Australian Government's Run-off Cover Scheme for midwife professional indemnity insurers
  • Australian Government Actuary, Eleventh report on the costs of Australian Government's Run-off Cover Scheme for midwife professional indemnity insurers
  • Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Australia's Health 2016, Fifteenth biennial report
  • Medical Training Review Panel, Report for 2014-15
  • National Health and Medical Research Council, Report on the operation of the Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002 for the period 1 September 2015 to 29 February 2016.

Senator Jonathon Duniam
Committee Chair

[1]        Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Requirements for Annual Reports for Departments, Executive Agencies, and other Non-Corporate Commonwealth Entities, 25 June 2015, p. 3.