Government Operations committee  It's about controlling the drawdown, the spending frenzy.

Government Operations committee  Ms. Ratansi, I might make the point that because our departmental appropriations don't lapse, the incentive to try to push that money out the door at the end of the year has disappeared. People know that they can carry over amounts from one year to the next in relation to their operating expenses.

Government Operations committee  In our reform process, we've consulted very widely. We've spoken to our state governments, peak organizations, and the business community and major businesses. We've spoken to and consulted with academe. We've worked with our Auditor General's office. We've worked with all Commonwealth government entities to try to come up with a scheme that not only satisfies all of the players but is likely to make a difference to the way in which we work.

Government Operations committee  I might just make the point that our outcomes are pitched at a pretty high level, so in the case of about 85% of them, each entity that gets appropriated has only one outcome that covers all of its purposes. Underneath the outcome, we usually, in mainstream government, appropriate for two streams of money.

Government Operations committee  In relation to performance information, we have been in close consultation with our Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit over the last two years in developing a new performance framework for the Australian government and in trying to improve the quality of performance information that is provided to the Parliament as part of the estimates process and through annual reports.

Government Operations committee  I just wanted to add that there is another control in the system, which is the level of appropriation that is granted by the Parliament for a given year. Parliament makes money available, but it also sets an appropriation limit that takes account of funding that a government entity might derive from other sources, such as, for example, charging for its services and things like that.

Government Operations committee  One point to make is that the outcome of any cabinet decision about individual budget measures is published as part of the budget documentation, so the result of the green brief, if you like, as reflected in the government decision, is a matter of public record. Individual measures are published in budget papers.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  We've also introduced a system whereby we lapse old appropriation bills. The appropriation bills going back three or more years are now automatically lapsed, so people's capacity to draw down cash from old appropriation authorities issued by the Parliament has been limited as well.

Government Operations committee  To give an example, when accrual budgeting was first introduced, the primary measure of the state of the budget was fiscal balance, and that remained the measure for about three years, I think. Is that right, Stein?

Government Operations committee  Then the government returned to talking about the budget balance in cash terms, because that was an easier number to explain, so even though we have modified accrual budgeting, the primary measure of the budget is a cash measure. I think it's fair to say—

Government Operations committee  To give some examples of the other ways in which the money was used, the accumulated cash reserves from depreciation funding were used to do things such as funding pay increases. They were used for operating expenses. They were used to upgrade fit-outs out of cycle. Having a lot of cash sitting out with individual agencies wasn't an effective form of cash management.

Government Operations committee  I might state in relation to the Charter of Budget Honesty Act that it includes provisions about accuracy of information published by the government in its budget documentation. These aren't fiscal targets, but they're accuracy targets, if you like, for the information published by the executive, and there are variation tolerances in relation to the forward estimates, budget years, and so on.