Chapter 2Review of selected annual reports
2.1This chapter examines selected annual reports in greater detail in accordance with standing orders. The committee has selected the annual reports of the following Commonwealth entities for examination:
Bundanon Trust; and
National Archives of Australia.
2.2In accordance with standing orders, the following summaries of reports examined draw attention to significant matters relating to the operations and performance of bodies during the year under review.
Communications and the Arts portfolio
Bundanon Trust
2.3The Bundanon Trust annual report for 2022-23 was tabled in the House of Representatives and the Senate on 7 February 2024.
2.4In his review, Chair Samuel Edwards and Chief Executive Officer Rachel Kent highlighted that this is the 30th anniversary of the gifting of Bundanon to the Australian people by Arthur and Yvonne Boyd. They also outlined the activities and key milestones of the Bundanon Trust following the delivery of the Riversdale Masterplan including:
Restoration of Bundanon’s 1866 historic homestead, which was relaunched in May 2023 and houses many artefacts from the Boyd family;
Two major awards were received in relation to Bundanon’s architecture. On 1 July 2022, Krestin Thompson Architects was awarded the Sulman Medal, and on 3 November 2022, they were also awarded the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture in the Australian National Architecture Awards;
The Bundanon Trust delivered three major exhibitions in 2022-23: Parallel Landscapes, Siteworks: From a Deep Valley and Fantastic Forms.
An increase in Commonwealth funding that boosts the average staffing level from 34 to 50, allowing the Bundanon Trust to expand its team and increase its skillset on the new site.
Performance Reporting
2.5The Bundanon Trust’s purpose for the reporting period was to ‘celebrate the importance of the arts and the Australian landscape in the lives of all Australians’.
2.6The Bundanon Trust assessed its performance in 2022-23 against 4 measures:
Advance Bundanon as a powerful cultural and educational destination;
Conserve and share Bundanon’s collection, including the art collection and the Boyd archive;
Protect and share Bundanon’s unique cultural and environmental heritage; and
Secure a prosperous future for Bundanon.
2.7These measures are broken down into 16 performance criteria each with 45 sub‑targets to measure whether or not they were achieved. Across these 16 criteria, 39 of the sub-targets were achieved or exceeded, with 6 on track for completion or ongoing.
2.8The performance measure Conserve and share Bundanon’s collection, including the art collection and Boyd archive had 1 of its 7 sub-targets listed as ongoing, which was Advance digitisation of the collections annually, to encompass key works across art media for access and research purposes, including artwork commentary which is a long term task.
2.9The performance measure Secure a prosperous future for Bundanon had 5 of its 17 sub-targets listed as ongoing or on-track due to the nature of the performance measure being longer term goals, these included sub-targets such as Expand personnel at a progression matched to role priorities and other relevant factors and Identify current and future digital requirements, and invest in appropriate systems equipment, and related staffing.
2.10All other sub-targets were listed as achieved.
Financial Reporting
2.11The annual report provided a summary of the Bundanon Trust’s financial performance in 2022-23. It reported a surplus of $1.47 million, down from a surplus of $7.24 million in the previous reporting period.
2.12There were several incomes and expenses that varied between the current and previous reporting period that cause this difference, including:
Own source revenue was approximately $1.5 million higher in 2022-23, with Curatorial and commercial revenue making up the largest portion of that with an increase of $0.83 million in 2022-23. Other significant increases in 2022-23 were Operations and Programs.
Government funding decreased overall from the previous reporting period. Operating funding increased by $2.64 million in 2022-23, however Capital grant funding decreased by $6.93 million in the same period, leading to a cumulative decrease of $2.80 million in government funding received compared to the previous reporting period.
Expenses for the 2022-23 were $2.97 million higher than the previous reporting period. The highest increase in expenses was Operations, which increased by $2.06 million in 2022-23. Other increased expenses were Property management and Curatorial and commercial.
2.13The Chair and Rachel Kent, in her capacity as the Company Secretary stated that the financial statements provided in the annual report comply with the Corporations Act 2001, the Australian Accounting Standards – Simplified Disclosures and the PGPA (Financial Statements) Rule 2015, and that they had reasonable grounds to believe that the Bundanon Trust would be able to pay its debts when they fall due.
2.14The Chair stated that the Bundanon Trust has complied with the provisions of the Charitable Fundraising Act 1991 (NSW)and the Regulations under that Act, and that the financial report gives a true and fair view of the state of affairs with respect to fundraising appeals.
2.15The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) independent report found that the Bundanon Trust’s financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2023 were compliant and presented fairly the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of the entity.
Compliance Index
2.16As a Commonwealth Company, the Bundanon Trust is required to prepare its annual report in accordance with the legislative requirements of the PGPA Rule, Entities are required to include the table set out in the PGPA Rule.
2.17The Bundanon Trust satisfied all the requirements of the table, setting out page numbers correctly and including all required information for a Commonwealth Company.
2.18As detailed in Chapter 1, the committee reminds the Bundanon Trust that preparing annual reports in a timely manner is important as it allows senators sufficient time to examine the material ahead of Supplementary Budget Estimates hearings.
2.19Overall, the committee considers the Bundanon Trust’s 2022-23 annual report to be ‘apparently satisfactory’
National Archives of Australia
2.20The National Archives of Australia (NAA) annual report for 2022-23 was presented out of sitting in the Senate on 25 January 2024 and tabled in the House of Representatives on 7 February 2024.
2.21In his review, Director-General Simon Froude gave an overview of the key achievements of the NAA in 2022-23. He outlined the areas that the agency had had notable developments which included:
Connections with First Nations people—the NAA commenced a regional and remote engagement program to introduce communities to the NAA and provide information about accessing records. The program visited East Arnhem Land and Central Australia.
Access to the collection—the NAA expanded their interactions with regional Australia. Their online RecordSearch tool which manages information on the NAA collection was utilised over 3 million times.
Preservation of at-risk records—the NAA has continued to digitise many of the records in its collection to improve its ability to preserve them. Of note was the NAA reaching the milestone of digitising more than 1 million Second World War service records.
Building trust in the public record—the NAA has continued to implement its ‘Building trust in the public record’ policy in 2022-23. Part of this is informing agency heads and other senior leaders in order for them to achieve best practice information management. The NAA accepted three recommendations from the ANAO’s performance audit reportManagement of Information Assets.
Performance Reporting
2.22NAA’s purpose for the reporting period was to ‘[provide] leadership in best practice management of the official record of the Commonwealth and [ensure] that Australian Government information of enduring significance is secured, preserved and available to government agencies, researchers and the community’.
2.23The NAA assessed its performance against 13 performance measures. Of these, 9 were listed as achieved, 2 partially achieved and 2 not achieved.
2.24The performance measure All at-risk collections are preserved digitally over time was listed as partially achieved. Although certain related targets set out by the NAA were exceeded in relation to this measure, the establishment of a baseline for at-risk items to be digitally preserved was only partially completed.
2.25The performance measure Sustain the nation’s archive of physical and digital collections in accordance with the National Preservation Strategy was not achieved. This was due to a change in strategic priorities by the NAA, causing them to cease the development of a preservation strategy, meaning they could not measure the success of this performance measure.
2.26The performance measure Issue records authorities to allow agencies to make decisions about keeping, destroying or transferring Australian Government records was not achieved. This was due to the NAA not meeting its target of issuing 20 disposal and retention instruments, largely caused by lower levels of engagement by some Australian Government agencies due to those agencies having their own competing priorities.
2.27The performance measure National archival collection is discoverable and accessible was listed as partially achieved. It was partially achieved due to the NAA not actioning 100 per cent of the service requests received within the service standards.
Financial Reporting
2.28The annual report provided a summary of the NAA’s financial performance. Due to increased investment from the Australian Government since 2020-21, the NAA reported a surplus for this reporting period. The surplus was $39.72million, which was $14.85 million above its budgeted surplus.
2.29The NAA reported a total income of $107.86 million in the 2022-23 reporting period, an increase of $23.95 million compared to the 2021-22 reporting period. This increase was due to the intake of records from other Australian Government agencies and additional appropriation announced in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2021-22.
2.30The NAA reported a total expenditure of $101.63 million in the 2022-23 reporting period. This was an increase of $3.66 million compared to the 2021-22 reporting period. This small increase was due to supplier costs being higher than budgeted for, leading to an overspend of $4.84 million. This overspend was offset by Employee Benefits for the period being lower than budgeted, being $3.21 million under budget.
2.31The Director-General and David Fraser, Chief Operating Officer stated that the financial statements provided in the annual report comply with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 and that they had reasonable grounds to believe that the NAA would be able to pay its debts when they fall due.
2.32The ANAO independent report found that NAA’s financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2023 were compliant and presented fairly the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of the entity.
Compliance Index
2.33As a non-corporate Commonwealth entity, the NAA is required to prepare its annual report in accordance with the legislative requirements of the PGPA Rule. Entities are required to include the table set out in the PGPA Rule.
2.34The NAA largely satisfied all the requirements of the table. However, there were minor issues with pagination. For certain items it may have been more appropriate to have a page range rather than the first page of the information. There was also an instance of an incorrect page being given for an item, with “Table 11 Work Health and Safety” being listed as on page 68 when it appears on page 73 of the report.
2.35The committee would like to remind the NAA that preparing annual reports in a timely manner is important as it allows senators sufficient time to examine the material ahead of Supplementary Budget Estimates hearings.
2.36Overall, the committee considers the NAA’s 2022-23 annual report to be ‘apparently satisfactory’
Senator Karen Grogan
Chair