New development: Financial reform and good governance

Abstract

It has taken almost 15 years for an Australian government to again proceed with major financial reform. Earlier this year, the then minister for finance when introducing new legislation implementing the reforms under one Act (the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013) noted that the system was ‘not broken’ but that it ‘creaks at times’. That Act represents about one half of the proposed reforms but is central to their success. One of the more interesting aspects of the reforms is that they were developed in an open process with the involvement of both public and private sector advisers over a three-year period and oversight by the Department of Finance, similar to the approach taken with the ground-breaking public service reforms in Australia in the 1990s. The focus is largely on financial reform as part of good governance, stressing performance and accountability, but also giving prominence to risk management and the associated notion of ‘earned autonomy’ and less ‘red tape’. In addition, attention is given to the need to establish a governance framework that recognizes the increasing co-operation and collaboration across agencies and entities, across governments at all levels and across sectors of the economy. We continue to learn from research in both the UK and Canada in particular, recognizing both the similarities and differences between the public and private sectors.

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