The document presents a review of the Australian Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) by a panel tasked with evaluating its effectiveness and providing recommendations for improvement. Key findings indicate the PBO's status as an independent entity that has successfully contributed to public policy analysis but requires enhancements in costings accuracy, transparency, and governance. Recommendations include establishing expert advisory panels, improving consultation processes and methodologies, and ensuring robust monitoring of its resources and outputs.

1. Presentation to 9th Annual Meeting of the
OECD Network of Parliamentary Budget Officials and
Independent Fiscal Institutions
Review of Australian
Parliamentary Budget Office
Phil Bowen PSM FCPA
Parliamentary Budget Officer
6 April 2017

2. Presentation outline
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• Background
• Terms of reference
• Members of review panel
• Key findings
• Recommendations
• Lessons arising

3. Background
• After each general election the Public Accounts
Committee may call for an independent review of the
operations of the PBO
• After the 2013 election the Auditor General
conducted a comprehensive performance audit of
the PBO which reported on 5 June 2014
• After the 2016 election the Public Accounts
Committee established a forward looking review
which reported on 17 March 2017
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4. Terms of reference
• Examine scope for the PBO to build on the
foundations it has established and continue to
strengthen its ability to:
- provide a more level playing field for all
parliamentarians in their access to publicly funded
policy costings and budget analyses
- improve the accuracy of costings of election
commitments
- enhance transparency and public understanding of
budget information and fiscal policy settings
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5. Members of review panel
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• Chair – Dr Ian Watt, former Secretary, Department of
the Prime Minister and Cabinet
- extensive knowledge of Australian political system and
budget framework
• Member – Mr Barry Anderson, former Acting Director,
US Congressional Budget Office
- a former practitioner with extensive international
experience
• Secretariat – three PBO staff, located separately from
PBO

6. Key findings
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• The PBO is regarded as an independent and non-
partisan organisation that produces rigorous analysis
relevant to the public policy debate
• The PBO has been a successful institutional
development in Australian governance
• The PBO has made a very good start as an
organisation and has filled an important gap in
Australia’s public policy landscape
• The PBO retains the broad support of the Parliament

7. Recommendations:
A more level playing field
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• Replace the reliability rating of costings with a
statement on factors affecting uncertainty of costing
• Publish principles for determining the priority
accorded to costings
• Within existing resources, explore more innovative
ways to improve the quality and timeliness of
costings in peak periods

8. Recommendations:
Accuracy of costings
• Establish a small, independent, expert advisory panel
• Enable the Public Accounts Committee to monitor
provision of information to the PBO
• Continue to work collaboratively with government
agencies on information requests and model
development
• Periodically conduct ex-post analysis of a selection of
policy costings and report results to the Public
Accounts Committee
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9. Recommendations:
Transparency & public understanding
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• Improve relevance of self-initiated work program
- greater consultation with parliamentary committees
- closer alignment with costing work
- expand focus on medium-term fiscal sustainability
- ensure capacity to prepare 2020 Intergenerational
Report if responsibility is transferred to PBO
• Explain the costing methodology more fully
• Publish data on the number of policy announcements
that reference PBO data

10. Recommendations:
Transparency & public understanding
• In the post-election report of election commitments
include the medium-term (budget plus 10 years)
financial impacts
• Publish post-election report by the later of the first
sitting day of Parliament or 30 days after the return
of writs
• Consider the value of continuing to publish chart
packs after each budget update
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11. Recommendations:
PBO governance & resourcing
• Provide information to enable Public Accounts
Committee to monitor the PBO’s workload and
resource demands
• Conduct a performance feedback survey once each
term of Parliament
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12. Lessons arising
• Value in having a reviewer with detailed knowledge of
the local political environment and budgetary
arrangements
• Value in having a practitioner or former practitioner on
the review team
• Value in having a member of the review team with in-
depth knowledge of international better practices
• Important to consult with a wide range of stakeholders
• Examination of PBO’s methodologies would require a
different form of review – possibly a peer review
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