Annual report for corporate Commonwealth entities (RMG 136)

What is an annual report?

1. The primary purpose of annual reports of corporate Commonwealth entities is accountability, in particular to the Parliament.
2. Annual reports serve to inform the Parliament (through the responsible Minister), other stakeholders, educational and research institutions, the media and the general public about the performance of entities in relation to activities undertaken services provided on behalf of government. Annual reports are also a key reference document and a document for internal management. They form a critical part of the historical record.
3. Annual reports form part of the formal accountability mechanism between government and entities and from entities through (or on behalf of) government to the Parliament of Australia. Annual reports are reports from accountable authorities to the responsible Minister, for tabling in the Parliament.
4. Annual reports are also a key element of the enhanced Commonwealth performance framework, established under the PGPA Act. The reporting of the actual performance of entities in the annual report against the planned performance information outlined in their Portfolio Budget Statements and corporate plans is an important part of the Commonwealth’s resource management framework.
5. Annual reports coexist with additional information available through other sources, including entity websites.

Principles Underlying Annual Report Requirements

6. When corporate Commonwealth entities are preparing an annual report, they should consider the following principles. An annual report should:

• be written in plain English and provide sufficient information and analysis for the Parliament to make a fully informed judgment on entity performance
• align with the overall Commonwealth resource management framework,
  PGPA Act, PGPA Rule and, the enhanced Commonwealth performance framework
• reflect the harmonisation, as far as practicable, of reporting regimes within government (including corporate plans, Portfolio Budget Statements, Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements and other portfolio statements accompanying any other additional appropriation bills), and between the government and non-government sectors
• include consideration by the accountable authority of the relative benefits and costs involved as to the level to which particular matters are reported.

7. The enhanced Commonwealth performance framework addresses performance planning, measurement and reporting through the planned performance information presented by entities in their Portfolio Budget Statements and corporate plans and reported in entities’ annual performance statements included in annual reports. At its most basic, the framework is focused on each entity covered by the PGPA Act. Each entity is required to identify its purposes, which include its objectives, functions and role. Figure 1 shows the main elements of the framework and the annual cycle.
8. As part of the enhanced Commonwealth performance framework, annual reports which include the annual performance statements report on the achievement of the targets outlined in entities’ Portfolio Budget Statements and corporate plans.

Figure 1: The enhanced Commonwealth performance framework

9. Portfolio Budget Statements, corporate plans, annual performance statements and annual reports provide the Government and the Parliament with detailed information about the actual financial and non-financial performance of entities, and forecasts of future needs and expectations. The ‘clear read’ between corporate plans and Portfolio Budget Statements on the one hand, with annual reports and annual performance statements on the other, is an essential part of the accountability system that compares performance criteria and figures to those actually achieved.
10. A strong emphasis is placed on compatibility between the documents regarding budget and performance information, and entities should focus on presenting an annual report that combines with the entity’s annual performance statement to provide a clear end-of-cycle picture of an entity’s performance. 

Authority for specific requirements for annual reports for corporate Commonwealth entities

11. The requirements for corporate Commonwealth entities’ annual reports are prescribed by Subdivision B of Division 3A of the PGPA Rule. The Subdivision is made for subsection 46(3) of the PGPA Act. The requirements for content to be included in entities’ annual reports were approved on behalf of the Parliament by the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit (JCPAA).

Commencement and reporting period

12. The amendment to the PGPA Rule to prescribe the requirements for content to be included in annual reports came into force on 5 April 2019 and applies in relation to any reporting period that begins on or after 29 June 2018.

Application

13. The annual report requirements prescribed in sections 17BA to 17BF of the PGPA Rule apply to the accountable authorities of all corporate Commonwealth entities, as defined in section 11 of the PGPA Act.
14. Annual report requirements for non-corporate Commonwealth entities and Commonwealth companies, as defined in section 11 and 89 of the PGPA Act, are provided in:

• Resource Management Guide No. 135 – Annual reports for non-corporate Commonwealth entities
• Resource Management Guide No. 137 – Annual reports for Commonwealth companies.

Both guides are available on the Department of Finance’s website at www.finance.gov.au.

Commonwealth entities ceasing to exist or functions transferred

15. In cases of machinery of government change during the reporting period, where functions or offices are gained or lost by an entity, section 17A of the PGPA Rule sets out the requirements relating to the preparation of annual reports, annual performance statements and financial statements. Specifically, section 17A mandates that, where a function or office is transferred between entities, that the gaining entity will take responsibility for the mandatory reporting requirements under the PGPA Act for those functions. This includes instances where functions are transferred as a result of an entity ceasing its operation.
16. In the case of any doubt, section 17A of the PGPA Rule allows for the Finance Minister to nominate the entity responsible for preparing the annual report of the old entity.

17. Section 46 of the PGPA Act requires that accountable authorities prepare and present annual reports for their entity to the responsible Minister by the 15th day of the fourth month after the end of the reporting period. For entities that report on a financial year basis, this requires the annual report to be prepared and provided to the responsible Minister by 15 October for each reporting period.
18. It has been practice for the responsible Minister to present the report to each house of the Parliament on or before 31 October. If Senate Supplementary Budget Estimates hearings are scheduled to occur before 31 October, Ministers have sought to table annual reports prior to those hearings.
19. The provisions of subsections 34C(4) to (7) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 allow for an application for extension of the period for presenting annual reports. An extension should only be sought if it would not be reasonably possible for the report to be prepared within the specified timeframes.

20.  The JCPAA approved the additional annual report requirements in the PGPA Rule on 1 April 2019.

21. The accountable authority is accountable to Parliament and the public regarding the contents of the annual report. Approving and signing the annual report in its final report recognises and certifies this accountability.
22. The annual report must be approved by the accountable authority of the corporate Commonwealth entity. The annual report must also be signed by the accountable authority, or a member of the accountable authority where a group of persons is the accountable authority (for example, a board or council), and detail how and when approval was given.
23. The annual report must state that the accountable authority is responsible for the preparation of the annual report and providing a copy to the responsible Minister under section 46 of the PGPA Act.

24. The annual report of a corporate Commonwealth entity is tabled in Parliament by the responsible Minister under section 46 of the PGPA Act. Once tabled in Parliament, the annual report becomes part of the Parliamentary Papers series and as such, the report must comply with the presentation and printing standards for documents presented to the Parliament.
25. Guidance on the tabling requirements for annual reports is contained in the document prepared by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet entitled ‘Guidelines for the Presentation of Documents to the Parliament (including Government Documents, Government Responses to Committee Reports, Ministerial Statements, Annual Reports and Other Instruments)’. A copy of the guidelines is available at: https://www.pmc.gov.au/resource-centre/government/guidelines-presentation-documents-parliament-0.

26. Section 17BCA of the PGPA Rule requires the annual report of a corporate Commonwealth entity be published using the digital reporting tool administered by the Finance Minister, as soon as practicable after it has been presented to the Parliament.
27. The digital reporting tool enables entities to draft content and publish annual reports to the Transparency Portal at transparency.gov.au. Commencing from the 2018-19 reporting period, all Commonwealth entities’ and companies’ annual reports will be published on and available from transparency.gov.au following the presentation of these reports the Parliament.
28.  The digital reporting tool contains a collection of templates for standard data sets that must be completed for the entity’s annual report. These templates reflect mandatory data requirements as set out by the PGPA Rule 2014. To assist entities in the preparation of their 2018-19 annual reports, all data templates are provided at Appendix D.
29. To gain access to the digital reporting tool, entity annual report coordinators should email the Department of Finance at pmra@finance.gov.au.

30. The annual report must accommodate the needs and interests of both Parliament and other persons potentially interested in the annual report. To ensure the annual report is able to meet these interests, the annual report must be constructed in an accessible manner, and information included in the report must be relevant, reliable, concise, understandable and balanced.
31. Corporate Commonwealth entities may choose to use tables, graphs, diagrams and charts to present information in a readable format for users where relevant.

32. Part 8 outlines the minimum content that is required to be included in a corporate Commonwealth entity’s annual report. The accountable authority may choose to provide additional information in the annual report where it is considered necessary.

Enabling legislation

33. The actions of a corporate Commonwealth entity are guided by its enabling legislation. The annual report must include the entity’s enabling legislation, including:

• a summary of its objects and functions as specified in the legislation
• the purposes of the entity as included in the entity’s corporate plan for the period.

This may assist the Parliament and interested persons in understanding why the entity acted in a particular way.

Responsible Minister

34. The responsible Minister is accountable to Parliament regarding the contents of the annual report. Parliament is therefore entitled to know the details of the responsible Minister. The annual report must specify the current responsible Minister’s name and the name of any other responsible Ministers during the financial year being reported on. The title of the responsible Minister(s) must also be included.
35. In paragraph 17BE(c), responsible Minister means the Minister who is responsible for the entity, unless otherwise prescribed by the PGPA Rule.

Ministerial directions and government policy orders

36. Parliament and the public have an interest in understanding what has caused an entity to act in a particular way, and what decision-making processes were undertaken by the entity at the time.
37. To ensure transparency in the decision-making process of an entity, the annual report must include details of any directions issued by the responsible Minister, or other Minister(s), under the enabling legislation of the corporate Commonwealth entity or any other legislation or legislative instruments.
38. Under section 22 of the PGPA Act, the government may make a government policy order[1] that specifies a policy of the Australian Government that is to apply to one or more corporate Commonwealth entities. A corporate Commonwealth entity that is subject to a government policy order is required to include this information in its annual report.
39. The annual report must also give an explanation of non-compliance where a direction or government policy order has not been fully complied with. This is intended to assist readers to understand why a corporate Commonwealth entity acted in a particular way.

Annual performance statements

40. Paragraph 17BE(g) requires that the annual report includes a corporate Commonwealth entity’s annual performance statements as prepared in accordance with section 16F of the PGPA Rule.
41. The annual performance statements are intended to be the key location for all public data on the actual performance of a corporate Commonwealth entity in a reporting period. The content reported by corporate Commonwealth entities in their statements must directly reflect the actual results achieved against the planned performance criteria set out in their corporate plans and Portfolio Budget Statements for the reporting period.
42. Corporate Commonwealth entities should note that the annual performance statements must report on the performance of the entity in fulfilling its purpose(s) during the reporting period. This can be achieved by a corporate Commonwealth entity acquitting the performance criteria as published in both its corporate plan and the relevant Portfolio Budget Statements for the reporting period. However, to demonstrate the fulfilment of its purpose(s), a corporate Commonwealth entity will need to clearly map (or attribute) each Portfolio Budget Statement performance criterion to the entity’s purpose(s) and provide an explanation as to how the criterion goes to demonstrate the fulfilment of that purpose(s). This mapping will serve to establish a clear read between the corporate Commonwealth entity’s corporate plan, relevant Portfolio Budget Statements, annual performance statements and the annual report, and ensure that the reader can clearly see how (and how well) the entity is fulfilling its purpose(s).
43. It is expected the annual performance statements should be presented in a consistent form by all corporate Commonwealth entities. Appendix A to this guide provides a suggested presentation structure for the annual performance statements. Corporate Commonwealth entities may depart from the suggested structure if they need to, but should be prepared to explain their reasons for doing so. Also corporate Commonwealth entities may expand, or add additional information, beyond the suggested structure if it is necessary to clearly convey the full breadth and complexity of the performance story of the entity for the reporting period.
44. For further information on the purpose and content requirements of the annual performance statement, please refer to section 16F of the PGPA Rule and Resource Management Guide No. 134 – Annual performance statements for Commonwealth entities, available at www.finance.gov.au.

Significant non-compliance issues with finance law

45. Paragraphs 17BE(h) and (i) require the annual report contain details of any instances of significant non-compliance with finance law related to the entity in the reporting period. The finance law incorporates the PGPA Act, any rules created under the PGPA Act, any instrument under the PGPA Act and an Appropriation Act.
46. This requirement is linked to section 19 of the PGPA Act, which requires accountable authorities of Commonwealth entities to notify their responsible Minister when significant issues have been identified. The details of significant non-compliance issues (as reported to the Minister under section 19 of the PGPA Act) must be reported in the entity’s annual report for the reporting period when the issue occurred.
47. If an entity identifies and reports details of significant non-compliance issues, it is then required to provide an outline of the actions it has taken to remedy the non-compliance (as per paragraph 17BE(i)).
48. For further information, see Resource Management Guide No. 214 - Notification of significant non-compliance with the finance law, available at www.finance.gov.au.

Information about the accountable authority

49. Paragraph 17BE(j) of the PGPA Rule requires the annual report includes information about the accountable authority of the corporate Commonwealth entity, or each member of the accountable authority where a group of persons is the accountable authority (for example, a board or council may be the accountable authority). The annual report must include the name, qualifications and experience of the accountable authority, or for each member of the accountable authority where relevant.
50. Where an entity’s accountable authority consists of multiple members, the annual report must include the number of meetings of the accountable authority attended by each member during the reporting period and whether each member is an executive or non-executive member.
51. For the purposes of annual reporting, an executive member is an employee of the corporate Commonwealth entity, responsible for executive functions in the management and administration of the entity. Non-executive members are independent of corporate management and not employees of the corporate Commonwealth entity.

Templates that address this reporting requirement in the digital reporting tool are provided at Appendix D.

Organisational structure and location

52. The annual report must provide an outline of the organisational structure of the corporate Commonwealth entity (including subsidiaries).
53. Paragraph 17BE(ka) of the PGPA Rule requires the publication of statistics on the number of employees of the entity (with reference to ongoing employees and non‑ongoing employees), at the end of the reporting period and the previous reporting period, in relation to each of the following:

• full-time employees
• part-time employees
• gender
• location.

Note that all human resources statistics are to be calculated and reported on a head count basis (number of employees) as at the end of each reporting period.

Templates that address this reporting requirement in the digital reporting tool are provided at Appendix D.

54. Paragraph 17BE(l) requires the location of major activities or facilities. This information can assist readers in understanding how the entity operates at a strategic level.

Statement on governance

56. The annual report allows a Commonwealth entity to demonstrate that its governance is sound.
57. The annual report must include information on the main corporate governance practices that the corporate Commonwealth entity had in place during the financial year. For example, details should be provided on:

• board committees of the entity and their main responsibilities
• education and performance review processes for members of the accountable authority
• ethics and risk management policies.

Related entity transactions

58. This requirement ensures there is transparency around potential conflicts of interests in the operations of corporate Commonwealth entities^[2].
59. For paragraph 17BE(n), related entity means a Commonwealth entity or a company (a body) is a related entity of a Commonwealth entity or a company (also a body) if:

• an individual is the accountable authority of both bodies
• an individual is a member of the accountable authority, or a director of the board, of both bodies
• an individual is a member of the accountable authority of one body and a director of the board of the other body
• an individual is the accountable authority of one body and a member of the accountable authority, or director of the board, of the other body.

60. The annual report must include the decision making process undertaken by the accountable authority when it enters into a procurement or grant transaction where a member of the accountable authority holds a similar position in the organisation that provides the good or service or receives the grant. The organisation providing the good or service or receiving the grant may take the form of a Commonwealth entity, Commonwealth company or a private company.
61. The disclosure of the decision making process is only necessary where the value of the transaction, or if there is more than one transaction, the aggregate value of those transactions, is at least $10,000 (GST inclusive).
62. If the corporate Commonwealth entity’s annual report includes information under paragraph 17BE(n) and there is only one relevant transaction, paragraph 17BE(o) requires that the value of the transaction must be included in the annual report. If there is more than one transaction included under paragraph 17BE(n), the number of transactions and the aggregate of value of the transactions must be included in the annual report.

Significant activities and changes affecting the entity

63. Highlighting significant activities and changes that have affected the entity can help the reader understand the entity’s performance over the past reporting period. As such, the annual report must detail any significant activities and changes that affected the operations or structure of the entity during the financial year. This may include:

• significant events, such as forming or participating in the formation of a company, significant partnership or trust
• operational and financial results of the entity
• key changes to the entity’s state of affairs or principal activities
• amendments to the entity’s enabling legislation and to any other legislation directly relevant to its operation.

Judicial decisions and reviews by outside bodies

64. As entities of the Commonwealth of Australia, corporate Commonwealth entities are expected to have levels of accountability suitable for the public sector. Part of demonstrating these qualities involve reporting on judicial decisions and reports by third parties. As such, the annual report must include details of:

• judicial decisions and decisions of administrative tribunals that have had, or may have, a significant effect on the operations of the corporate Commonwealth entity
• reports about the corporate Commonwealth entity made by the
  Auditor-General, a Parliamentary committee, the Commonwealth Ombudsman or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Obtaining information from subsidiaries

65. Corporate Commonwealth entities are to provide an explanation of information they are unable to obtain from a subsidiary that is required to be included in the annual report. This explanation must include how the missing information affects the annual report.

Indemnities and insurance premiums

66. Details of any indemnity that applied, during the reporting period, to the accountable authority, any member of the accountable authority or officer of the entity against a liability must be included in the annual report. This will include any premiums paid, or agreed to be paid, for insurance against the member or officer’s liability for legal costs.
67. For the purposes of the annual report, officer means a senior manager of the corporate Commonwealth entity.

Executive Remuneration

68. Paragraph 17BE(ta) of the PGPA Rule provides that corporate Commonwealth entities^[3] are required to disclose executive remuneration information in their annual reports in accordance with the PGPA Rule^[4] . Subdivision C of Part 2-3 of the PGPA Rule sets out the executive remuneration disclosure requirements for Commonwealth entities.
69. For guidance on reporting executive remuneration refer to Resource Management Guide No.138 - Commonwealth entities Executive Remuneration Reporting Guide for Annual Reports, available at www.finance.gov.au.

Templates that address this reporting requirement in the digital reporting tool are provided at Appendix D.

List of annual report requirements

70. Corporate Commonwealth entities should note that the requirement for entities’ annual reports to include a list of requirements (as per paragraph 17BE(u) of the PGPA rule) must be provided in a consistent format for all entities. The mandatory table is included at schedule 2A of the PGPA Rule, available at www.legislation.gov.au, and in Appendix B of this guide.

Other legislation

71. The operations that an entity reports on in its annual report can be affected by other legislation or legislative instruments. Such legislation can either be general in nature or specific enabling legislation of the entity.
72. Appendix C provides further information on the specific statutory provisions for information that must be included in annual reports. The appendix covers the requirements relating to:

• work health and safety (Schedule 2, Part 4 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011)
• advertising and market research (section 311A of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918). In addition to this statutory reporting requirement, entities must include a statement on advertising campaigns
• ecologically sustainable development and environmental performance (section 516A of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999).

73. Please note, Appendix C does not provide an exhaustive list of other legislative requirements. It is provided to assist corporate Commonwealth entities identify additional annual report requirements that may apply to them. Consideration should also be given to specific annual report requirements in the enabling legislation of a corporate Commonwealth entity.
74. In the case of an entity that is defined as a ‘public service care agency’, compliance with the entity’s obligations under the Carer Recognition Act 2010 is required.
75. A public service care agency is defined in section 4 of the Carer Recognition Act 2010 to mean an agency as defined in the Public Service Act 1999 that is responsible for the development, implementation, provision or evaluation of policies, programs or services directed to carers or the persons for whom they care. For further information about the obligations on agencies under the Carer Recognition Act 2010, see the Carer Recognition Act Guidelines on the Department of Social Services website at www.dss.gov.au.
76. Questions about the application of these requirements to individual entities should be directed to CarerSupport@dss.gov.au.

Disclosure requirements for government business enterprises

77. A Government Business Enterprise (GBE) that is a corporate Commonwealth entity is required to disclose in its annual report:

• an assessment of significant changes in overall financial structure and condition over the financial year
• an assessment of any events or risks that could cause reported financial information not to be indicative of future operations or financial condition
• dividends paid or recommended in relation to the financial year
• details of any community service obligations, including an outline of actions taken to achieve these obligations and an assessment of the cost of fulfilling those obligations.

Information can be excluded where the accountable authority believes, on reasonable grounds, that it is commercially sensitive and would likely result in unreasonable commercial prejudice to the GBE. The annual report must state whether information has been excluded

1. As discussed earlier in this guide, the annual performance statements are intended to be the key non-financial reporting mechanism for all public data on the actual performance of a corporate Commonwealth entity in a reporting period. 
2. The annual performance statements must report on the non-financial performance of the entity in fulfilling its purpose(s) during the reporting period. This can be achieved by an entity acquitting the performance criteria as published in both their corporate plan and the relevant Portfolio Budget Statements for the reporting period. To demonstrate the fulfilment of their purpose(s), entities must map (or attribute) each performance criterion to their purpose(s).
3. It is hoped that the annual performance statements will be presented in a consistent form by entities. The diagram below provides the suggested presentation structure for the annual performance statements. The use of this format is encouraged to enable presentation in a consistent form by entities.
4. It is suggested that annual performance statements produced by entities contain:
   • an introduction statement (as required by section 16F(2), item 1 of the PGPA Rule)
   • a clear statement detailing the entity’s purpose(s), including reference to outcome numbers from the relevant Portfolio Budget Statements
   • results that demonstrate the entity’s performance against its purpose(s) as measured by relevant performance criteria. The results should include the following elements:
     1. the name and description of the performance criterion being reported on, as published in the entity’s corporate plan and/or relevant Portfolio Budget Statements. All performance criteria published in the entity’s corporate plan and/or relevant Portfolio Budget Statements for the reporting period must be attributed to a purpose or purposes
     2. source – details of where the performance criterion, attributed to the purpose, was originally published or sourced from. This is limited to the corporate plan prepared for the reporting period or the relevant Portfolio Budget Statements for the reporting period. If a performance criterion is sourced from both the corporate plan and Portfolio Budget Statements, then both should be stated as the source
     3. results against the performance criterion – the actual results achieved by the entity in the reporting period against the performance criterion that are attributed to the purpose. This should also include contextual analysis of the result.
   • an analysis of the factors that contributed to the entity’s performance in achieving its purposes (e.g. changes to purposes, changes to organisational capability and variations in the entity’s operating environment).
5. Entities with more than a single purpose should consider repeating this structure (excluding the introduction statement) for each and every purpose. Additionally, all performance criteria published in the entity’s corporate plan and/or relevant

Portfolio Budget Statements for the reporting period are expected be attributed to a purpose or purposes.

Below is the table set out in Schedule 2A of the PGPA Rule. Section 17BE(u) requires this table be included in entities’ annual reports.

It is the responsibility of corporate Commonwealth entities to consider if the following legislation applies to them.

Work Health and Safety

The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 sets out the requirements for reporting in annual reports as:

4 Annual reports

1. Each of the following entities must include the matters mentioned in subclause (2) in its annual report for a financial year:

1. A non-corporate Commonwealth entity within the meaning of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013;
2. a public authority.

2. The matters are:

1. initiatives taken during the year to ensure the health, safety and welfare of workers who carry out work for the entity; and
2. health and safety outcomes (including the impact on injury rates of workers) achieved as a result of initiatives mentioned under paragraph (a) or previous initiatives; and
3. statistics of any notifiable incidents of which the entity becomes aware during the year that arose out of the conduct of businesses or undertakings by the entity; and
4. any investigations conducted during the year that relate to businesses or undertakings conducted by the entity, including details of all notices given to the entity during the year under Part 10 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011; and
5. such other matters as are required by guidelines approved on behalf of the Parliament by the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit.

Advertising and Market Research

Section 311A of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 requires certain annual reporting by each Commonwealth department (defined as a department of state of the Commonwealth; or a department of the parliament; or an agency within the meaning of the Public Service Act 1999).

The reporting requirements below are based on the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918. Please note that the reporting on advertising and market research is not restricted to electoral matters.

The annual report is to include a statement setting out particulars of all amounts paid by, or on behalf of the Commonwealth Department during the financial year to:

1. advertising agencies – meaning creative advertising agencies which have developed advertising campaigns. Recruitment and tender notices are not required to be reported under this item but should be reported in relation to the item below on payments to media advertising organisations;
2. market research organisations;
3. polling organisations;
4. direct mail organisations – includes those organisations which handle the sorting and mailing out of information material to the public. The costs reported should cover only the amount paid to the organisation and not the cost of postage or production of the material sent out. Where a creative agency or direct marketing agency has been used to create the direct mail materials, the amount paid to the agency should be reported here; and
5. media advertising organisations – the master advertising agencies which place Government advertising in the media. This covers both campaign and noncampaign advertising.

The statement must identify the persons or organisations to whom those amounts were paid. The reporting threshold for each year is available from the Australian Electoral Commission’s website at https://www.aec.gov.au/Parties_and_Representatives/public_funding/threshold.htm.

Note that the reporting threshold is indexed and the method of calculating the amount of indexation each year is specified in section 321A of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.

Ecologically Sustainable Development and Environmental Performance

Section 516A of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act) requires Commonwealth entities and Commonwealth companies to report on:

1. how the activities of, and the administration (if any) of legislation by, the reporter during the period accorded with the principles of ecologically sustainable development (ESD);
   1. the EPBC Act notes that ‘activities’ includes developing and implementing policies, plans, programs and legislation, and the operations of the organisation;
2. how the outcomes (if any) specified for the reporter in an Appropriations Act relating to the period contribute to ESD;
3. the effect of the reporter’s activities on the environment;
   1. the EPBC Act defines the environment to mean:
   • ecosystems and their constituent parts, including people and communities;
   • natural and physical resources;
   • the qualities and characteristics of locations, places and areas;
   • heritage values of places (including places on the Register of the National Estate kept under the Australian Heritage Council Act 2003); and
   • the social, economic and cultural aspects of the things mentioned above;
4. any measures the reporter is taking to minimise the impact of activities by the reporter on the environment; and
5. the mechanisms, if any, for reviewing and increasing the effectiveness of those measures.

Further information about the EPBC Act, including a link to the Act, can be found at http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc.

Promoting ESD is a key objective of the EPBC Act. Section 3A of the EPBC Act identifies the following as principles of ESD:

1. decision-making processes should effectively integrate both long-term and short-term economic, environmental, social and equitable considerations (the ‘integration principle’);
2. if there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation (‘the precautionary principle’);
3. the principle of inter-generational equity – that the present generation should ensure that the health, diversity and productivity of the environment is maintained or enhanced for the benefit of future generations (the ‘intergenerational principle’);
4. the conservation of biological diversity and ecological integrity should be a fundamental consideration in decision-making (the ‘biodiversity principle’); and
5. improved valuation, pricing and incentive mechanisms should be promoted (the ‘valuation principle’).

The ESD Reporting Guidelines and working template have been developed to assist organisations in meeting their statutory ESD reporting requirements under section 516A of the EPBC Act. These guidelines outline an approach that aims to enhance the quality and consistency of ESD reporting across the Commonwealth.

Further information on ESD including the ESD Reporting Guidelines and working template, can be found at www.environment.gov.au/esd. Information on determining ESD relevance is available at www.environment.gov.au/resource/criteria-determining-esd-relevance.

Given the need for flexibility and autonomy due to the diversity of organisations in terms of size and operations, and in line with principles of CEO independence, individual reporters should have regard to their own circumstances in determining how best to meet ESD reporting requirements and what information is appropriate to their entity.

Further information on reporting requirements under section 516A of the EPBC Act is available from the Department of the Environment and Energy.

Financial Statements Summary

Statement of Comprehensive Income Current Report Period (2018-19)

Statement of Financial Position Current Report Period (2018-19)

Statement of Changes in Equity Current Report Period (2018-19)

Cash flow Statement Current Report Period (2018-19)

Notes to the Financial Statements (Departmental) (2018-19)

Administered Statement of Comprehensive Income Current Report Period (2018-19)

Administered Schedule of Assets and Liabilities Current Report Period (2018‑19)

Administered Reconciliation Schedule Current Report Period (2018-19)

Administered Cash Flow Statement Current Report Period (2018-19)