{"id":"C2004A05333","name":"Charter of Budget Honesty Act 1998","slug":"charter-of-budget-honesty-act-1998","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":"22 of 1998","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":7817,"registerId":"commonwealth-C2004A05333-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-30","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Short title","content":"#### 1 Short title\n\n  This Act may be cited as the Charter of Budget Honesty Act 1998.","sortOrder":0},{"sectionNumber":"2","sectionType":"section","heading":"Commencement","content":"#### 2 Commencement\n\n  This Act commences on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.","sortOrder":1},{"sectionNumber":"3","sectionType":"section","heading":"The Charter of Budget Honesty","content":"#### 3 The Charter of Budget Honesty\n\n  (1) The Charter of Budget Honesty is set out in Schedule 1.\n  (2) Nothing in the Charter of Budget Honesty creates rights or duties that are enforceable in judicial or other proceedings.","sortOrder":2},{"sectionNumber":"Part 1","sectionType":"part","heading":"Purpose and overview","content":"## Part 1—Purpose and overview","sortOrder":3},{"sectionNumber":"Part 2","sectionType":"part","heading":"Interpretation","content":"## Part 2—Interpretation","sortOrder":6},{"sectionNumber":"Part 3","sectionType":"part","heading":"Principles of sound fiscal management","content":"## Part 3—Principles of sound fiscal management","sortOrder":8},{"sectionNumber":"4","sectionType":"section","heading":"Formulation of Government fiscal policy","content":"#### 4 Formulation of Government fiscal policy\n\n  (1) The Government’s fiscal policy is to be directed at maintaining the on‑going economic prosperity and welfare of the people of Australia and is therefore to be set in a sustainable medium‑term framework.\n  (2) To meet this objective, the Government’s fiscal strategy is to be based on the principles of sound fiscal management.","sortOrder":9},{"sectionNumber":"5","sectionType":"section","heading":"The principles of sound fiscal management","content":"#### 5 The principles of sound fiscal management\n\n  (1) The principles of sound fiscal management are that the Government is to:\n    (a) manage financial risks faced by the Commonwealth prudently, having regard to economic circumstances, including by maintaining Commonwealth general government debt at prudent levels; and\n    (b) ensure that its fiscal policy contributes:\n    (i) to achieving adequate national saving; and\n    (ii) to moderating cyclical fluctuations in economic activity, as appropriate, taking account of the economic risks facing the nation and the impact of those risks on the Government’s fiscal position; and\n    (c) pursue spending and taxing policies that are consistent with a reasonable degree of stability and predictability in the level of the tax burden; and\n    (d) maintain the integrity of the tax system; and\n    (e) ensure that its policy decisions have regard to their financial effects on future generations.\n  (2) The financial risks referred to in paragraph (1)(a) include risks such as:\n    (a) risks arising from excessive net debt; and\n    (b) commercial risks arising from ownership of public trading enterprises and public financial enterprises; and\n    (c) risks arising from erosion of the tax base; and\n    (d) risks arising from the management of assets and liabilities.","sortOrder":10},{"sectionNumber":"Part 4","sectionType":"part","heading":"Fiscal strategy statement","content":"## Part 4—Fiscal strategy statement","sortOrder":11},{"sectionNumber":"6","sectionType":"section","heading":"Public release and tabling of fiscal strategy statements","content":"#### 6 Public release and tabling of fiscal strategy statements\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table the first fiscal strategy statement for a particular Government at or before the time of the Government’s first budget.\n  (2) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a fiscal strategy statement for the Government at the time of each of the Government’s subsequent budgets.\n  (3) If the Government wants to change its fiscal strategy statement, it may do so at any time by the Treasurer publicly releasing and tabling a new fiscal strategy statement.\n  (4) If a House of the Parliament is not sitting when a fiscal strategy statement is publicly released:\n    (a) the statement still takes effect from its public release; and\n    (b) the Treasurer is to table the statement in that House of the Parliament as soon as practicable after it next sits.","sortOrder":12},{"sectionNumber":"7","sectionType":"section","heading":"Purpose of fiscal strategy statements","content":"#### 7 Purpose of fiscal strategy statements\n\n  The purpose of fiscal strategy statements is to increase public awareness of the Government’s fiscal strategy and to establish a benchmark for evaluating the Government’s conduct of fiscal policy.","sortOrder":13},{"sectionNumber":"8","sectionType":"section","heading":"Fiscal strategy statement to be based on principles of sound fiscal management","content":"#### 8 Fiscal strategy statement to be based on principles of sound fiscal management\n\n  A fiscal strategy statement is to be based on the principles of sound fiscal management.","sortOrder":14},{"sectionNumber":"9","sectionType":"section","heading":"Contents of fiscal strategy statement","content":"#### 9 Contents of fiscal strategy statement\n\n  (1) A fiscal strategy statement is to:\n    (a) specify the Government’s long‑term fiscal objectives within which shorter‑term fiscal policy will be framed; and\n    (b) explain the broad strategic priorities on which the budget is or will be based; and\n    (c) specify the key fiscal measures that the Government considers important and against which fiscal policy will be set and assessed; and\n    (d) specify, for the budget year and the following 3 financial years:\n    (i) the Government’s fiscal objectives and targets; and\n    (ii) the expected outcomes for the specified key fiscal measures; and\n    (e) explain how the fiscal objectives and strategic priorities specified and explained as required by paragraphs (a), (b) and (d) relate to the principles of sound fiscal management; and\n    (f) specify fiscal policy actions taken or to be taken by the Government that are temporary in nature, adopted for the purpose of moderating cyclical fluctuations in economic activity, and indicate the process for their reversal; and\n    (g) explain broadly the reporting basis on which subsequent Government fiscal reports will be prepared.\n  (2) If particular information required to be included in the statement is unchanged from information set out in full in an earlier statement, the statement may instead summarise the information and state that it is unchanged from what was set out in the earlier statement.","sortOrder":15},{"sectionNumber":"Part 5","sectionType":"part","heading":"Annual Government reporting","content":"Schedule 1—Charter of Budget Honesty\n\nNote: See section 3.\n\n## Part 1—Purpose and overview\n\n#### 1 Purpose of Charter of Budget Honesty\n\n  The Charter of Budget Honesty provides a framework for the conduct of Government fiscal policy. The purpose of the Charter is to improve fiscal policy outcomes. The Charter provides for this by requiring fiscal strategy to be based on principles of sound fiscal management and by facilitating public scrutiny of fiscal policy and performance.\n\n#### 2 Overview of obligations\n\n  Principles of sound fiscal management\n  (1) The Government’s fiscal strategy is to be based on the principles of sound fiscal management (see Part 3).\n  Fiscal strategy statements\n  (2) The Government’s fiscal strategy is to be set out in a fiscal strategy statement publicly released and tabled by the Treasurer with each budget (see Part 4).\n\n> Note 1: The first fiscal strategy statement for a particular Government may be publicly released and tabled before its first budget.\n\n> Note 2: A particular Government may publicly release and table a new fiscal strategy statement at any time.\n\n  Regular fiscal reporting\n  (3) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table regular fiscal reports as follows:\n    (a) there is to be a budget economic and fiscal outlook report with each budget (see Division 1 of Part 5);\n    (b) there is to be a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report by the end of January in each year or within 6 months after the last budget, whichever is later (see Division 2 of Part 5);\n    (c) there is to be a final budget outcome report within 3 months of the end of each financial year (see Division 3 of Part 5).\n  Intergenerational reports\n  (4) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table an intergenerational report at least once every 5 years (see Part 6).\n  General elections—pre‑election report\n  (5) The Secretaries of the Departments of the Treasury and Finance are to publicly release a pre‑election fiscal and economic outlook report if a general election is called (see Part 7).\n  General elections—policy costings\n  (6) The Government, or the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party (if the Prime Minister agrees to refer the request), may ask the Secretaries of the Departments of the Treasury and Finance to prepare a costing of any of its publicly announced policies if a general election is called. The costing will then be publicly released (see Part 8).\n  Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities\n  (7) In certain cases where the face value of Commonwealth stock and securities on issue has increased by $50 billion or more since a previous report or statement under the Charter of Budget Honesty, the Treasurer is to table a statement setting out reasons for the increase (see Part 9).\n\n## Part 2—Interpretation\n\n#### 3 Interpretation\n\n  (1) In this Schedule, unless the contrary intention appears:\n\n> budget means an annual Commonwealth budget.\n\n> budget year means the financial year to which a budget relates.\n\n> caretaker period for a general election means the period starting when the House of Representatives expires or is dissolved, and ending:\n\n    (a) when it is clear that the Government has been re‑elected; or\n    (b) if there is a change of Government, when the new Government has been sworn in.\n\n> Commonwealth body means a Department or other entity that is within the Commonwealth general government sector.\n\n> Commonwealth stock and securities means stock and securities on issue under the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911 (the CIS Act) or the Loans Securities Act 1919 (disregarding stock and securities of the kind mentioned in subsection 51JA(2A) of the CIS Act).\n\n> debt statement, for a report under Part 5 or 7, means a statement that includes:\n\n    (a) the following information about Commonwealth stock and securities on issue, at the time of the report and for the financial year to which the report relates and the following 3 financial years:\n    (i) the value of the stock and securities (including their market and face value, and their value as a proportion of gross domestic product);\n    (ii) the total expected interest expenses relating to the stock and securities; and\n    (b) a breakdown, by maturity and timing of interest payments, of Commonwealth stock and securities on issue at the time of the report.\n\n> Department of Finance means the Department administered by the Minister for Finance.\n\n> external reporting standards means:\n\n    (a) the concepts and classifications set out in GFS Australia; and\n    (b) public sector accounting standards developed by the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board.\n\n> general election means a general election of the members of the House of Representatives.\n\n> GFS Australia means the publication of the Australian Bureau of Statistics known as Government Finance Statistics Australia: Concepts, Sources and Methods, as updated from time to time. This updating takes 2 forms:\n\n    (a) from time to time, a new version of the publication is produced;\n    (b) from time to time, material in the current version of the publication is updated by other publications of the Australian Bureau of Statistics.\n\n> Government means the Commonwealth Government.\n\n> Leader of a minority party means the Leader of a recognised non‑Government party of at least 5 members, but does not include the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives or in the Senate.\n\n> Leader of the Opposition means the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives.\n\n> member means a member of either House of the Parliament.\n\n> Minister for Finance means the Minister administering the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.\n\n> Parliamentary Budget Officer has the same meaning as in the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n\n> Parliamentary party has the same meaning as in the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n\n> principles of sound fiscal management means the principles set out in clause 5.\n\n> responsible Ministers means the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance.\n\n> responsible Secretaries means the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury and the Secretary of the Department of Finance.\n\n> table means table in each House of the Parliament.\n\n  (2) Other expressions used in this Act that are given a meaning by GFS Australia have the meanings so given.\n\n## Part 3—Principles of sound fiscal management\n\n#### 4 Formulation of Government fiscal policy\n\n  (1) The Government’s fiscal policy is to be directed at maintaining the on‑going economic prosperity and welfare of the people of Australia and is therefore to be set in a sustainable medium‑term framework.\n  (2) To meet this objective, the Government’s fiscal strategy is to be based on the principles of sound fiscal management.\n\n#### 5 The principles of sound fiscal management\n\n  (1) The principles of sound fiscal management are that the Government is to:\n    (a) manage financial risks faced by the Commonwealth prudently, having regard to economic circumstances, including by maintaining Commonwealth general government debt at prudent levels; and\n    (b) ensure that its fiscal policy contributes:\n    (i) to achieving adequate national saving; and\n    (ii) to moderating cyclical fluctuations in economic activity, as appropriate, taking account of the economic risks facing the nation and the impact of those risks on the Government’s fiscal position; and\n    (c) pursue spending and taxing policies that are consistent with a reasonable degree of stability and predictability in the level of the tax burden; and\n    (d) maintain the integrity of the tax system; and\n    (e) ensure that its policy decisions have regard to their financial effects on future generations.\n  (2) The financial risks referred to in paragraph (1)(a) include risks such as:\n    (a) risks arising from excessive net debt; and\n    (b) commercial risks arising from ownership of public trading enterprises and public financial enterprises; and\n    (c) risks arising from erosion of the tax base; and\n    (d) risks arising from the management of assets and liabilities.\n\n## Part 4—Fiscal strategy statement\n\n#### 6 Public release and tabling of fiscal strategy statements\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table the first fiscal strategy statement for a particular Government at or before the time of the Government’s first budget.\n  (2) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a fiscal strategy statement for the Government at the time of each of the Government’s subsequent budgets.\n  (3) If the Government wants to change its fiscal strategy statement, it may do so at any time by the Treasurer publicly releasing and tabling a new fiscal strategy statement.\n  (4) If a House of the Parliament is not sitting when a fiscal strategy statement is publicly released:\n    (a) the statement still takes effect from its public release; and\n    (b) the Treasurer is to table the statement in that House of the Parliament as soon as practicable after it next sits.\n\n#### 7 Purpose of fiscal strategy statements\n\n  The purpose of fiscal strategy statements is to increase public awareness of the Government’s fiscal strategy and to establish a benchmark for evaluating the Government’s conduct of fiscal policy.\n\n#### 8 Fiscal strategy statement to be based on principles of sound fiscal management\n\n  A fiscal strategy statement is to be based on the principles of sound fiscal management.\n\n#### 9 Contents of fiscal strategy statement\n\n  (1) A fiscal strategy statement is to:\n    (a) specify the Government’s long‑term fiscal objectives within which shorter‑term fiscal policy will be framed; and\n    (b) explain the broad strategic priorities on which the budget is or will be based; and\n    (c) specify the key fiscal measures that the Government considers important and against which fiscal policy will be set and assessed; and\n    (d) specify, for the budget year and the following 3 financial years:\n    (i) the Government’s fiscal objectives and targets; and\n    (ii) the expected outcomes for the specified key fiscal measures; and\n    (e) explain how the fiscal objectives and strategic priorities specified and explained as required by paragraphs (a), (b) and (d) relate to the principles of sound fiscal management; and\n    (f) specify fiscal policy actions taken or to be taken by the Government that are temporary in nature, adopted for the purpose of moderating cyclical fluctuations in economic activity, and indicate the process for their reversal; and\n    (g) explain broadly the reporting basis on which subsequent Government fiscal reports will be prepared.\n  (2) If particular information required to be included in the statement is unchanged from information set out in full in an earlier statement, the statement may instead summarise the information and state that it is unchanged from what was set out in the earlier statement.\n\n## Part 5—Annual Government reporting\n\n### Division 1—Budget economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n#### 10 Public release and tabling of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a budget economic and fiscal outlook report at the time of each budget.\n\n#### 11 Purpose of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The purpose of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports is to provide information to allow the assessment of the Government’s fiscal performance against the fiscal strategy set out in its current fiscal strategy statement.\n\n#### 12 Contents of budget economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n  (1) A budget economic and fiscal outlook report is to contain the following information:\n    (a) Commonwealth budget sector and Commonwealth general government sector fiscal estimates for the budget year and the following 3 financial years;\n    (b) the economic and other assumptions for the budget year and the following 3 financial years that have been used in preparing those fiscal estimates;\n    (c) discussion of the sensitivity of those fiscal estimates to changes in those economic and other assumptions;\n    (d) an overview of the estimated tax expenditures for the budget year and the following 3 financial years;\n    (e) a statement of the risks, quantified where feasible, that may have a material effect on the fiscal outlook, including:\n    (i) contingent liabilities; and\n    (ii) publicly announced Government commitments that are not yet included in the fiscal estimates referred to in paragraph (a); and\n    (iii) Government negotiations that have yet to be finalised;\n    (f) a debt statement.\n  (2) The information in the report is to take into account, to the fullest extent possible, all Government decisions and all other circumstances that may have a material effect on the fiscal and economic outlook.\n  (3) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n  (4) The report does not have to include information that the Treasurer considers should not be included because:\n    (a) it is confidential commercial information; or\n    (b) its disclosure in the report could prejudice national security.\n\n#### 13 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help the Treasurer to prepare a budget economic and fiscal outlook report, the Treasurer may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the report, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n### Division 2—Mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n#### 14 Public release and tabling of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report by the end of January in each year, or within 6 months after the last budget, whichever is later.\n  (2) If:\n    (a) a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report is publicly released by the end of the period specified in subclause (1); but\n    (b) a House of the Parliament is not sitting when the report is released;\n  the report does not have to be tabled in that House until it next sits (or as soon as practicable after then), even if that is after the end of the specified period.\n\n#### 15 Purpose of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The purpose of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports is to provide updated information to allow the assessment of the Government’s fiscal performance against the fiscal strategy set out in its current fiscal strategy statement.\n\n#### 16 Contents of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n  (1) A mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report is to:\n    (a) update key information contained in the most recent budget economic and fiscal outlook report (the budget report); and\n    (b) contain a detailed statement of tax expenditures, presenting disaggregated information on tax expenditures; and\n    (c) contain a debt statement.\n  (2) The information in the report is to take into account, to the fullest extent possible, all Government decisions and all other circumstances that may have a material effect on the fiscal and economic outlook.\n  (3) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n  (4) If particular information required to be included in the report is unchanged from information set out in full in the budget report, the report may instead summarise the information and state that it is unchanged from what was set out in the budget report.\n  (5) The report does not have to include information that the Treasurer considers should not be included because:\n    (a) it is confidential commercial information; or\n    (b) its disclosure in the report could prejudice national security.\n\n#### 17 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help the Treasurer to prepare a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report, the Treasurer may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the report, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n### Division 3—Final budget outcome report\n\n#### 18 Public release and tabling of final budget outcome reports\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a final budget outcome report for each financial year no later than 3 months after the end of the financial year.\n  (2) If:\n    (a) a final budget outcome report is publicly released within 3 months after the end of the financial year; but\n    (b) a House of the Parliament is not sitting when the report is released;\n  the report does not have to be tabled in that House until it next sits (or as soon as practicable after then), even if that is after the end of that 3 months.\n  (3) The final budget outcome report for a financial year may be incorporated in the budget economic and fiscal outlook report for the next financial year if the next financial year’s budget is brought down after the start of that year.\n\n#### 19 Contents of final budget outcome report\n\n  (1) A final budget outcome report is to contain Commonwealth budget sector and Commonwealth general government sector fiscal outcomes for the financial year.\n  (2) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n\n## Part 6—Intergenerational report\n\n#### 20 Public release and tabling of intergenerational reports\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table intergenerational reports as follows:\n    (a) an intergenerational report is to be publicly released and tabled on or before 30 June 2021;\n    (b) subsequent intergenerational reports are to be publicly released and tabled within 5 years of the public release of the preceding report.\n  (2) If:\n    (a) an intergenerational report is publicly released within the period specified in subclause (1); but\n    (b) a House of the Parliament is not sitting when the report is released;\n  the report does not have to be tabled in that House until it next sits (or as soon as practicable after then), even if that is after the end of the specified period.\n\n#### 21 Contents of intergenerational report\n\n  An intergenerational report is to assess the long term sustainability of current Government policies over the 40 years following the release of the report, including by taking account of the financial implications of demographic change.\n\n## Part 7—Pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n#### 22 Public release of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n  The responsible Secretaries are, jointly, to publicly release a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report within 10 days of the issue of the writ for a general election.\n\n#### 23 Purpose of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The purpose of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook reports is to provide updated information on the economic and fiscal outlook.\n\n#### 24 Contents of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report—economic and fiscal information\n\n  (1) A pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report is to contain the following information:\n    (a) updated Commonwealth budget sector and Commonwealth general government sector fiscal estimates for the current financial year and the following 3 financial years;\n    (b) the economic and other assumptions for the current financial year and the following 3 financial years that have been used in preparing those updated fiscal estimates;\n    (c) discussion as to the sensitivity of those updated fiscal estimates to changes in those economic and other assumptions;\n    (d) an updated statement of the risks, quantified where feasible, that may have a material effect on the fiscal outlook, including:\n    (i) contingent liabilities; and\n    (ii) publicly announced Government commitments that are not yet included in the fiscal estimates referred to in paragraph (a); and\n    (iii) Government negotiations that have yet to be finalised;\n    (e) a debt statement.\n  (2) The information in the report is to take into account, to the fullest extent possible, all Government decisions, and all other circumstances, that:\n    (a) may have a material effect on the fiscal and economic outlook; and\n    (b) were made, or were in existence, before the issue of the writ for the general election.\n  (3) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n  (4) If particular information required to be included in the report is unchanged from information set out in full in an earlier budget economic and fiscal outlook report or mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report, the report may instead summarise the information and state that it is unchanged from what was set out in the earlier report.\n  (5) The report does not have to include information that the responsible Secretaries consider should not be included because:\n    (a) it is confidential commercial information; or\n    (b) its disclosure in the report could prejudice national security.\n\n#### 25 Contents of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report—statements by responsible Ministers and responsible Secretaries\n\n  A pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report is to contain the following signed statements:\n    (a) a statement, signed by the responsible Ministers, to the effect that the disclosure requirements of clause 27 have been complied with;\n    (b) a statement signed by the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury to the effect that, to the fullest extent possible, the information in the report for which the Secretary is responsible:\n    (i) reflects the best professional judgment of officers of that Department; and\n    (ii) takes into account all economic and fiscal information available; and\n    (iii) incorporates the fiscal implications of Government decisions and circumstances disclosed by the responsible Ministers;\n    (c) a statement signed by the Secretary of the Department of Finance to the effect that, to the fullest extent possible, the information in the report for which the Secretary is responsible:\n    (i) reflects the best professional judgment of officers of that Department; and\n    (ii) takes into account all economic information provided by the Department of the Treasury and all fiscal information available; and\n    (iii) incorporates the fiscal implications of Government decisions and circumstances disclosed by the responsible Ministers.\n\n#### 26 Division of responsibility between responsible Secretaries\n\n  In preparing a pre‑election fiscal and economic outlook report:\n    (a) the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury is responsible for:\n    (i) tax revenue estimates included in the fiscal estimates required by paragraph 24(1)(a); and\n    (ii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(b); and\n    (iii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(c), so far as it relates to the tax revenue estimates; and\n    (iv) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(d), so far as it relates to risks to tax revenue or tax expenditure; and\n    (v) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(e); and\n    (b) the Secretary of the Department of Finance is responsible for:\n    (i) outlays or expenses estimates, and revenue estimates (other than tax revenue estimates), included in the fiscal estimates required by paragraph 24(1)(a); and\n    (ii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(c), so far as it relates to the outlays or expenses estimates, or revenue estimates (other than tax revenue estimates), referred to in subparagraph (i); and\n    (iii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(d), so far as it relates to risks to outlays or expenses, or revenue (other than tax revenue).\n\n#### 27 Responsible Minister to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help the responsible Secretaries to prepare a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report, each of the responsible Ministers is to disclose to either or both of the responsible Secretaries details of any Government decision, or any other circumstance, that the Minister knows about:\n    (a) that has, or could have, material fiscal or economic implications; and\n    (b) that neither of the responsible Secretaries could reasonably be expected to know about.\n  (2) Disclosures are to be made within 2 days of the issue of the writ for the general election.\n\n#### 28 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help a responsible Secretary to prepare aspects of a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report for which he or she is responsible, he or she may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the report, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n## Part 8—Costing of election commitments\n\n#### 29 Requests for costing of election commitments\n\n  (1) During the caretaker period for a general election:\n    (a) the Prime Minister may request the responsible Secretaries to prepare costings of publicly announced Government policies; and\n    (b) the Leader of the Opposition may, subject to subclause (4), request the responsible Secretaries to prepare costings of publicly announced Opposition policies; and\n    (c) the Leader of a minority party may, subject to subclause (4), request the responsible Secretaries to prepare costings of publicly announced policies of that party.\n\n> Note: If a request to prepare a costing of a policy of a Parliamentary party is made under this clause, and a member of that party makes a later request, under subsection 64J(2) of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999, to the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare a costing of that policy, or a substantially similar policy, the Parliamentary Budget Officer must not prepare a costing of the policy under that Act: see section 64K of that Act.\n\n  (1A) A request for a costing of a policy of a Parliamentary party is not to be made under subclause (1) before polling day during the caretaker period if a member of that party has, during the same caretaker period, requested the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare a costing of that policy, or a substantially similar policy, under Division 2 of Part 7 of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n  (1B) A request for a costing of a policy of a Parliamentary party is not to be made under subclause (1) on or after polling day during the caretaker period if a member of that party has, on or after that day, requested the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare a costing of that policy, or a substantially similar policy, under Division 2 of Part 7 of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n  (2) A request is to:\n    (a) be in writing; and\n    (b) outline fully the policy to be costed, giving relevant details; and\n    (c) state the purpose or intention of the policy.\n  (3) A request by the Prime Minister is to be given to the responsible Secretaries.\n  (4) A request by the Leader of the Opposition, or the Leader of a minority party, is to be given to the Prime Minister, who may then agree to refer it to the responsible Secretaries. The responsible Secretaries are not obliged or authorised to take any action in relation to the request unless the Prime Minister has referred the request to them.\n  (5) The Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party may, at any time, withdraw a request that he or she has made. A withdrawal by the Prime Minister is to be by notice in writing given to the responsible Secretaries. A withdrawal by the Leader of the Opposition, or the Leader of a minority party, is to be by notice in writing given to the Prime Minister, who is to notify the responsible Secretaries of the withdrawal.\n\n#### 30 How policy costings are to be prepared\n\n  (1) The responsible Secretaries may, jointly, issue written guidelines recommending approaches or methods to be used in the preparation of policy costings.\n  (2) In preparing policy costings:\n    (a) the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury is responsible for costing aspects of policies affecting tax revenue; and\n    (b) the Secretary of the Department of Finance is responsible for costing aspects of policies that affect government outlays and expenses or revenue (other than tax revenue).\n  (3) If a responsible Secretary needs more information to cost aspects of a policy, he or she is, in writing, to ask the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party (as the case requires) for that information.\n\n#### 31 Public release of requests and costings—requests made before polling day\n\n  (1) This clause applies in relation to a policy costing request that is made before polling day during the caretaker period for a general election.\n\n> Note: Clause 31A applies in relation to a policy costing request that is made on or after polling day during the caretaker period for a general election in circumstances where the caretaker period continues after that day.\n\n  (2) As soon as practicable after the request has been made and before polling day, either or both of the responsible Secretaries are to publicly release the request and a costing of the policy.\n\n> Note 1: Whether a policy costing request and costing has to be released by either or both of the responsible Secretaries depends on the division of responsibilities set out in subclause 30(2).\n\n> Note 2: The obligation in this subclause does not apply to a request that has been withdrawn under subclause 29(5).\n\n  (3) If a responsible Secretary does not have sufficient information, or has not had sufficient time, to prepare a policy costing and publicly release the request and the costing before polling day:\n    (a) the Secretary is to publicly release a statement to that effect before that day; and\n    (b) the request is taken to have been withdrawn on that day; and\n    (c) the Secretary is not obliged or authorised to take any further action in relation to the request on or after that day.\n\n#### 31A Public release of requests and costings—requests made on or after polling day\n\n  (1) This clause applies in relation to a policy costing request that is made on or after polling day during the caretaker period for a general election in circumstances where the caretaker period continues after that day.\n  (2) As soon as practicable after the request has been made, either or both of the responsible Secretaries are to publicly release the request and a costing of the policy.\n\n> Note 1: Whether a policy costing request and costing has to be released by either or both of the responsible Secretaries depends on the division of responsibilities set out in subclause 30(2).\n\n> Note 2: The obligation in this subclause does not apply to a request that has been withdrawn under subclause 29(5).\n\n  (3) If a responsible Secretary does not have sufficient information, or has not had sufficient time, to prepare a policy costing and publicly release the request and the costing before the end of the caretaker period:\n    (a) the Secretary is to publicly release a statement to that effect as soon as practicable after the end of the caretaker period; and\n    (b) the request is taken to have been withdrawn at the end of the caretaker period; and\n    (c) the Secretary is not obliged or authorised to take any further action in relation to the request after the end of the caretaker period.\n\n#### 32 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare policy costings\n\n  (1) To help a responsible Secretary to prepare aspects of a policy costing for which he or she is responsible, he or she may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the policy costing, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n## Part 9—Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities\n\n#### 33 Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities\n\n  (1) This clause applies when the actual face value of Commonwealth stock and securities on issue has increased by $50 billion or more since whichever of the following last occurred:\n    (a) a budget economic and fiscal outlook report, a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report or a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report was publicly released;\n    (b) a statement under this clause was tabled.\n  (2) The Treasurer is to table in each House of the Parliament, within 3 sittings days of that House after the increase referred to in subclause (1), a statement setting out the reasons for the increase, including the extent to which any of the following contributed to the increase:\n    (a) lower than expected revenue;\n    (b) higher than expected spending;\n    (c) capital purchases;\n    (d) grants to State and Territory governments for infrastructure.","sortOrder":16},{"sectionNumber":"Division 1","sectionType":"division","heading":"Budget economic and fiscal outlook report","content":"Schedule 1—Charter of Budget Honesty\n\nNote: See section 3.\n\n## Part 1—Purpose and overview\n\n#### 1 Purpose of Charter of Budget Honesty\n\n  The Charter of Budget Honesty provides a framework for the conduct of Government fiscal policy. The purpose of the Charter is to improve fiscal policy outcomes. The Charter provides for this by requiring fiscal strategy to be based on principles of sound fiscal management and by facilitating public scrutiny of fiscal policy and performance.\n\n#### 2 Overview of obligations\n\n  Principles of sound fiscal management\n  (1) The Government’s fiscal strategy is to be based on the principles of sound fiscal management (see Part 3).\n  Fiscal strategy statements\n  (2) The Government’s fiscal strategy is to be set out in a fiscal strategy statement publicly released and tabled by the Treasurer with each budget (see Part 4).\n\n> Note 1: The first fiscal strategy statement for a particular Government may be publicly released and tabled before its first budget.\n\n> Note 2: A particular Government may publicly release and table a new fiscal strategy statement at any time.\n\n  Regular fiscal reporting\n  (3) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table regular fiscal reports as follows:\n    (a) there is to be a budget economic and fiscal outlook report with each budget (see Division 1 of Part 5);\n    (b) there is to be a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report by the end of January in each year or within 6 months after the last budget, whichever is later (see Division 2 of Part 5);\n    (c) there is to be a final budget outcome report within 3 months of the end of each financial year (see Division 3 of Part 5).\n  Intergenerational reports\n  (4) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table an intergenerational report at least once every 5 years (see Part 6).\n  General elections—pre‑election report\n  (5) The Secretaries of the Departments of the Treasury and Finance are to publicly release a pre‑election fiscal and economic outlook report if a general election is called (see Part 7).\n  General elections—policy costings\n  (6) The Government, or the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party (if the Prime Minister agrees to refer the request), may ask the Secretaries of the Departments of the Treasury and Finance to prepare a costing of any of its publicly announced policies if a general election is called. The costing will then be publicly released (see Part 8).\n  Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities\n  (7) In certain cases where the face value of Commonwealth stock and securities on issue has increased by $50 billion or more since a previous report or statement under the Charter of Budget Honesty, the Treasurer is to table a statement setting out reasons for the increase (see Part 9).\n\n## Part 2—Interpretation\n\n#### 3 Interpretation\n\n  (1) In this Schedule, unless the contrary intention appears:\n\n> budget means an annual Commonwealth budget.\n\n> budget year means the financial year to which a budget relates.\n\n> caretaker period for a general election means the period starting when the House of Representatives expires or is dissolved, and ending:\n\n    (a) when it is clear that the Government has been re‑elected; or\n    (b) if there is a change of Government, when the new Government has been sworn in.\n\n> Commonwealth body means a Department or other entity that is within the Commonwealth general government sector.\n\n> Commonwealth stock and securities means stock and securities on issue under the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911 (the CIS Act) or the Loans Securities Act 1919 (disregarding stock and securities of the kind mentioned in subsection 51JA(2A) of the CIS Act).\n\n> debt statement, for a report under Part 5 or 7, means a statement that includes:\n\n    (a) the following information about Commonwealth stock and securities on issue, at the time of the report and for the financial year to which the report relates and the following 3 financial years:\n    (i) the value of the stock and securities (including their market and face value, and their value as a proportion of gross domestic product);\n    (ii) the total expected interest expenses relating to the stock and securities; and\n    (b) a breakdown, by maturity and timing of interest payments, of Commonwealth stock and securities on issue at the time of the report.\n\n> Department of Finance means the Department administered by the Minister for Finance.\n\n> external reporting standards means:\n\n    (a) the concepts and classifications set out in GFS Australia; and\n    (b) public sector accounting standards developed by the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board.\n\n> general election means a general election of the members of the House of Representatives.\n\n> GFS Australia means the publication of the Australian Bureau of Statistics known as Government Finance Statistics Australia: Concepts, Sources and Methods, as updated from time to time. This updating takes 2 forms:\n\n    (a) from time to time, a new version of the publication is produced;\n    (b) from time to time, material in the current version of the publication is updated by other publications of the Australian Bureau of Statistics.\n\n> Government means the Commonwealth Government.\n\n> Leader of a minority party means the Leader of a recognised non‑Government party of at least 5 members, but does not include the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives or in the Senate.\n\n> Leader of the Opposition means the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives.\n\n> member means a member of either House of the Parliament.\n\n> Minister for Finance means the Minister administering the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.\n\n> Parliamentary Budget Officer has the same meaning as in the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n\n> Parliamentary party has the same meaning as in the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n\n> principles of sound fiscal management means the principles set out in clause 5.\n\n> responsible Ministers means the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance.\n\n> responsible Secretaries means the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury and the Secretary of the Department of Finance.\n\n> table means table in each House of the Parliament.\n\n  (2) Other expressions used in this Act that are given a meaning by GFS Australia have the meanings so given.\n\n## Part 3—Principles of sound fiscal management\n\n#### 4 Formulation of Government fiscal policy\n\n  (1) The Government’s fiscal policy is to be directed at maintaining the on‑going economic prosperity and welfare of the people of Australia and is therefore to be set in a sustainable medium‑term framework.\n  (2) To meet this objective, the Government’s fiscal strategy is to be based on the principles of sound fiscal management.\n\n#### 5 The principles of sound fiscal management\n\n  (1) The principles of sound fiscal management are that the Government is to:\n    (a) manage financial risks faced by the Commonwealth prudently, having regard to economic circumstances, including by maintaining Commonwealth general government debt at prudent levels; and\n    (b) ensure that its fiscal policy contributes:\n    (i) to achieving adequate national saving; and\n    (ii) to moderating cyclical fluctuations in economic activity, as appropriate, taking account of the economic risks facing the nation and the impact of those risks on the Government’s fiscal position; and\n    (c) pursue spending and taxing policies that are consistent with a reasonable degree of stability and predictability in the level of the tax burden; and\n    (d) maintain the integrity of the tax system; and\n    (e) ensure that its policy decisions have regard to their financial effects on future generations.\n  (2) The financial risks referred to in paragraph (1)(a) include risks such as:\n    (a) risks arising from excessive net debt; and\n    (b) commercial risks arising from ownership of public trading enterprises and public financial enterprises; and\n    (c) risks arising from erosion of the tax base; and\n    (d) risks arising from the management of assets and liabilities.\n\n## Part 4—Fiscal strategy statement\n\n#### 6 Public release and tabling of fiscal strategy statements\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table the first fiscal strategy statement for a particular Government at or before the time of the Government’s first budget.\n  (2) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a fiscal strategy statement for the Government at the time of each of the Government’s subsequent budgets.\n  (3) If the Government wants to change its fiscal strategy statement, it may do so at any time by the Treasurer publicly releasing and tabling a new fiscal strategy statement.\n  (4) If a House of the Parliament is not sitting when a fiscal strategy statement is publicly released:\n    (a) the statement still takes effect from its public release; and\n    (b) the Treasurer is to table the statement in that House of the Parliament as soon as practicable after it next sits.\n\n#### 7 Purpose of fiscal strategy statements\n\n  The purpose of fiscal strategy statements is to increase public awareness of the Government’s fiscal strategy and to establish a benchmark for evaluating the Government’s conduct of fiscal policy.\n\n#### 8 Fiscal strategy statement to be based on principles of sound fiscal management\n\n  A fiscal strategy statement is to be based on the principles of sound fiscal management.\n\n#### 9 Contents of fiscal strategy statement\n\n  (1) A fiscal strategy statement is to:\n    (a) specify the Government’s long‑term fiscal objectives within which shorter‑term fiscal policy will be framed; and\n    (b) explain the broad strategic priorities on which the budget is or will be based; and\n    (c) specify the key fiscal measures that the Government considers important and against which fiscal policy will be set and assessed; and\n    (d) specify, for the budget year and the following 3 financial years:\n    (i) the Government’s fiscal objectives and targets; and\n    (ii) the expected outcomes for the specified key fiscal measures; and\n    (e) explain how the fiscal objectives and strategic priorities specified and explained as required by paragraphs (a), (b) and (d) relate to the principles of sound fiscal management; and\n    (f) specify fiscal policy actions taken or to be taken by the Government that are temporary in nature, adopted for the purpose of moderating cyclical fluctuations in economic activity, and indicate the process for their reversal; and\n    (g) explain broadly the reporting basis on which subsequent Government fiscal reports will be prepared.\n  (2) If particular information required to be included in the statement is unchanged from information set out in full in an earlier statement, the statement may instead summarise the information and state that it is unchanged from what was set out in the earlier statement.\n\n## Part 5—Annual Government reporting\n\n### Division 1—Budget economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n#### 10 Public release and tabling of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a budget economic and fiscal outlook report at the time of each budget.\n\n#### 11 Purpose of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The purpose of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports is to provide information to allow the assessment of the Government’s fiscal performance against the fiscal strategy set out in its current fiscal strategy statement.\n\n#### 12 Contents of budget economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n  (1) A budget economic and fiscal outlook report is to contain the following information:\n    (a) Commonwealth budget sector and Commonwealth general government sector fiscal estimates for the budget year and the following 3 financial years;\n    (b) the economic and other assumptions for the budget year and the following 3 financial years that have been used in preparing those fiscal estimates;\n    (c) discussion of the sensitivity of those fiscal estimates to changes in those economic and other assumptions;\n    (d) an overview of the estimated tax expenditures for the budget year and the following 3 financial years;\n    (e) a statement of the risks, quantified where feasible, that may have a material effect on the fiscal outlook, including:\n    (i) contingent liabilities; and\n    (ii) publicly announced Government commitments that are not yet included in the fiscal estimates referred to in paragraph (a); and\n    (iii) Government negotiations that have yet to be finalised;\n    (f) a debt statement.\n  (2) The information in the report is to take into account, to the fullest extent possible, all Government decisions and all other circumstances that may have a material effect on the fiscal and economic outlook.\n  (3) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n  (4) The report does not have to include information that the Treasurer considers should not be included because:\n    (a) it is confidential commercial information; or\n    (b) its disclosure in the report could prejudice national security.\n\n#### 13 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help the Treasurer to prepare a budget economic and fiscal outlook report, the Treasurer may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the report, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n### Division 2—Mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n#### 14 Public release and tabling of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report by the end of January in each year, or within 6 months after the last budget, whichever is later.\n  (2) If:\n    (a) a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report is publicly released by the end of the period specified in subclause (1); but\n    (b) a House of the Parliament is not sitting when the report is released;\n  the report does not have to be tabled in that House until it next sits (or as soon as practicable after then), even if that is after the end of the specified period.\n\n#### 15 Purpose of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The purpose of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports is to provide updated information to allow the assessment of the Government’s fiscal performance against the fiscal strategy set out in its current fiscal strategy statement.\n\n#### 16 Contents of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n  (1) A mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report is to:\n    (a) update key information contained in the most recent budget economic and fiscal outlook report (the budget report); and\n    (b) contain a detailed statement of tax expenditures, presenting disaggregated information on tax expenditures; and\n    (c) contain a debt statement.\n  (2) The information in the report is to take into account, to the fullest extent possible, all Government decisions and all other circumstances that may have a material effect on the fiscal and economic outlook.\n  (3) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n  (4) If particular information required to be included in the report is unchanged from information set out in full in the budget report, the report may instead summarise the information and state that it is unchanged from what was set out in the budget report.\n  (5) The report does not have to include information that the Treasurer considers should not be included because:\n    (a) it is confidential commercial information; or\n    (b) its disclosure in the report could prejudice national security.\n\n#### 17 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help the Treasurer to prepare a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report, the Treasurer may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the report, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n### Division 3—Final budget outcome report\n\n#### 18 Public release and tabling of final budget outcome reports\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a final budget outcome report for each financial year no later than 3 months after the end of the financial year.\n  (2) If:\n    (a) a final budget outcome report is publicly released within 3 months after the end of the financial year; but\n    (b) a House of the Parliament is not sitting when the report is released;\n  the report does not have to be tabled in that House until it next sits (or as soon as practicable after then), even if that is after the end of that 3 months.\n  (3) The final budget outcome report for a financial year may be incorporated in the budget economic and fiscal outlook report for the next financial year if the next financial year’s budget is brought down after the start of that year.\n\n#### 19 Contents of final budget outcome report\n\n  (1) A final budget outcome report is to contain Commonwealth budget sector and Commonwealth general government sector fiscal outcomes for the financial year.\n  (2) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n\n## Part 6—Intergenerational report\n\n#### 20 Public release and tabling of intergenerational reports\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table intergenerational reports as follows:\n    (a) an intergenerational report is to be publicly released and tabled on or before 30 June 2021;\n    (b) subsequent intergenerational reports are to be publicly released and tabled within 5 years of the public release of the preceding report.\n  (2) If:\n    (a) an intergenerational report is publicly released within the period specified in subclause (1); but\n    (b) a House of the Parliament is not sitting when the report is released;\n  the report does not have to be tabled in that House until it next sits (or as soon as practicable after then), even if that is after the end of the specified period.\n\n#### 21 Contents of intergenerational report\n\n  An intergenerational report is to assess the long term sustainability of current Government policies over the 40 years following the release of the report, including by taking account of the financial implications of demographic change.\n\n## Part 7—Pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n#### 22 Public release of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n  The responsible Secretaries are, jointly, to publicly release a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report within 10 days of the issue of the writ for a general election.\n\n#### 23 Purpose of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The purpose of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook reports is to provide updated information on the economic and fiscal outlook.\n\n#### 24 Contents of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report—economic and fiscal information\n\n  (1) A pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report is to contain the following information:\n    (a) updated Commonwealth budget sector and Commonwealth general government sector fiscal estimates for the current financial year and the following 3 financial years;\n    (b) the economic and other assumptions for the current financial year and the following 3 financial years that have been used in preparing those updated fiscal estimates;\n    (c) discussion as to the sensitivity of those updated fiscal estimates to changes in those economic and other assumptions;\n    (d) an updated statement of the risks, quantified where feasible, that may have a material effect on the fiscal outlook, including:\n    (i) contingent liabilities; and\n    (ii) publicly announced Government commitments that are not yet included in the fiscal estimates referred to in paragraph (a); and\n    (iii) Government negotiations that have yet to be finalised;\n    (e) a debt statement.\n  (2) The information in the report is to take into account, to the fullest extent possible, all Government decisions, and all other circumstances, that:\n    (a) may have a material effect on the fiscal and economic outlook; and\n    (b) were made, or were in existence, before the issue of the writ for the general election.\n  (3) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n  (4) If particular information required to be included in the report is unchanged from information set out in full in an earlier budget economic and fiscal outlook report or mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report, the report may instead summarise the information and state that it is unchanged from what was set out in the earlier report.\n  (5) The report does not have to include information that the responsible Secretaries consider should not be included because:\n    (a) it is confidential commercial information; or\n    (b) its disclosure in the report could prejudice national security.\n\n#### 25 Contents of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report—statements by responsible Ministers and responsible Secretaries\n\n  A pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report is to contain the following signed statements:\n    (a) a statement, signed by the responsible Ministers, to the effect that the disclosure requirements of clause 27 have been complied with;\n    (b) a statement signed by the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury to the effect that, to the fullest extent possible, the information in the report for which the Secretary is responsible:\n    (i) reflects the best professional judgment of officers of that Department; and\n    (ii) takes into account all economic and fiscal information available; and\n    (iii) incorporates the fiscal implications of Government decisions and circumstances disclosed by the responsible Ministers;\n    (c) a statement signed by the Secretary of the Department of Finance to the effect that, to the fullest extent possible, the information in the report for which the Secretary is responsible:\n    (i) reflects the best professional judgment of officers of that Department; and\n    (ii) takes into account all economic information provided by the Department of the Treasury and all fiscal information available; and\n    (iii) incorporates the fiscal implications of Government decisions and circumstances disclosed by the responsible Ministers.\n\n#### 26 Division of responsibility between responsible Secretaries\n\n  In preparing a pre‑election fiscal and economic outlook report:\n    (a) the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury is responsible for:\n    (i) tax revenue estimates included in the fiscal estimates required by paragraph 24(1)(a); and\n    (ii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(b); and\n    (iii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(c), so far as it relates to the tax revenue estimates; and\n    (iv) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(d), so far as it relates to risks to tax revenue or tax expenditure; and\n    (v) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(e); and\n    (b) the Secretary of the Department of Finance is responsible for:\n    (i) outlays or expenses estimates, and revenue estimates (other than tax revenue estimates), included in the fiscal estimates required by paragraph 24(1)(a); and\n    (ii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(c), so far as it relates to the outlays or expenses estimates, or revenue estimates (other than tax revenue estimates), referred to in subparagraph (i); and\n    (iii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(d), so far as it relates to risks to outlays or expenses, or revenue (other than tax revenue).\n\n#### 27 Responsible Minister to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help the responsible Secretaries to prepare a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report, each of the responsible Ministers is to disclose to either or both of the responsible Secretaries details of any Government decision, or any other circumstance, that the Minister knows about:\n    (a) that has, or could have, material fiscal or economic implications; and\n    (b) that neither of the responsible Secretaries could reasonably be expected to know about.\n  (2) Disclosures are to be made within 2 days of the issue of the writ for the general election.\n\n#### 28 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help a responsible Secretary to prepare aspects of a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report for which he or she is responsible, he or she may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the report, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n## Part 8—Costing of election commitments\n\n#### 29 Requests for costing of election commitments\n\n  (1) During the caretaker period for a general election:\n    (a) the Prime Minister may request the responsible Secretaries to prepare costings of publicly announced Government policies; and\n    (b) the Leader of the Opposition may, subject to subclause (4), request the responsible Secretaries to prepare costings of publicly announced Opposition policies; and\n    (c) the Leader of a minority party may, subject to subclause (4), request the responsible Secretaries to prepare costings of publicly announced policies of that party.\n\n> Note: If a request to prepare a costing of a policy of a Parliamentary party is made under this clause, and a member of that party makes a later request, under subsection 64J(2) of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999, to the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare a costing of that policy, or a substantially similar policy, the Parliamentary Budget Officer must not prepare a costing of the policy under that Act: see section 64K of that Act.\n\n  (1A) A request for a costing of a policy of a Parliamentary party is not to be made under subclause (1) before polling day during the caretaker period if a member of that party has, during the same caretaker period, requested the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare a costing of that policy, or a substantially similar policy, under Division 2 of Part 7 of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n  (1B) A request for a costing of a policy of a Parliamentary party is not to be made under subclause (1) on or after polling day during the caretaker period if a member of that party has, on or after that day, requested the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare a costing of that policy, or a substantially similar policy, under Division 2 of Part 7 of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n  (2) A request is to:\n    (a) be in writing; and\n    (b) outline fully the policy to be costed, giving relevant details; and\n    (c) state the purpose or intention of the policy.\n  (3) A request by the Prime Minister is to be given to the responsible Secretaries.\n  (4) A request by the Leader of the Opposition, or the Leader of a minority party, is to be given to the Prime Minister, who may then agree to refer it to the responsible Secretaries. The responsible Secretaries are not obliged or authorised to take any action in relation to the request unless the Prime Minister has referred the request to them.\n  (5) The Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party may, at any time, withdraw a request that he or she has made. A withdrawal by the Prime Minister is to be by notice in writing given to the responsible Secretaries. A withdrawal by the Leader of the Opposition, or the Leader of a minority party, is to be by notice in writing given to the Prime Minister, who is to notify the responsible Secretaries of the withdrawal.\n\n#### 30 How policy costings are to be prepared\n\n  (1) The responsible Secretaries may, jointly, issue written guidelines recommending approaches or methods to be used in the preparation of policy costings.\n  (2) In preparing policy costings:\n    (a) the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury is responsible for costing aspects of policies affecting tax revenue; and\n    (b) the Secretary of the Department of Finance is responsible for costing aspects of policies that affect government outlays and expenses or revenue (other than tax revenue).\n  (3) If a responsible Secretary needs more information to cost aspects of a policy, he or she is, in writing, to ask the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party (as the case requires) for that information.\n\n#### 31 Public release of requests and costings—requests made before polling day\n\n  (1) This clause applies in relation to a policy costing request that is made before polling day during the caretaker period for a general election.\n\n> Note: Clause 31A applies in relation to a policy costing request that is made on or after polling day during the caretaker period for a general election in circumstances where the caretaker period continues after that day.\n\n  (2) As soon as practicable after the request has been made and before polling day, either or both of the responsible Secretaries are to publicly release the request and a costing of the policy.\n\n> Note 1: Whether a policy costing request and costing has to be released by either or both of the responsible Secretaries depends on the division of responsibilities set out in subclause 30(2).\n\n> Note 2: The obligation in this subclause does not apply to a request that has been withdrawn under subclause 29(5).\n\n  (3) If a responsible Secretary does not have sufficient information, or has not had sufficient time, to prepare a policy costing and publicly release the request and the costing before polling day:\n    (a) the Secretary is to publicly release a statement to that effect before that day; and\n    (b) the request is taken to have been withdrawn on that day; and\n    (c) the Secretary is not obliged or authorised to take any further action in relation to the request on or after that day.\n\n#### 31A Public release of requests and costings—requests made on or after polling day\n\n  (1) This clause applies in relation to a policy costing request that is made on or after polling day during the caretaker period for a general election in circumstances where the caretaker period continues after that day.\n  (2) As soon as practicable after the request has been made, either or both of the responsible Secretaries are to publicly release the request and a costing of the policy.\n\n> Note 1: Whether a policy costing request and costing has to be released by either or both of the responsible Secretaries depends on the division of responsibilities set out in subclause 30(2).\n\n> Note 2: The obligation in this subclause does not apply to a request that has been withdrawn under subclause 29(5).\n\n  (3) If a responsible Secretary does not have sufficient information, or has not had sufficient time, to prepare a policy costing and publicly release the request and the costing before the end of the caretaker period:\n    (a) the Secretary is to publicly release a statement to that effect as soon as practicable after the end of the caretaker period; and\n    (b) the request is taken to have been withdrawn at the end of the caretaker period; and\n    (c) the Secretary is not obliged or authorised to take any further action in relation to the request after the end of the caretaker period.\n\n#### 32 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare policy costings\n\n  (1) To help a responsible Secretary to prepare aspects of a policy costing for which he or she is responsible, he or she may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the policy costing, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n## Part 9—Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities\n\n#### 33 Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities\n\n  (1) This clause applies when the actual face value of Commonwealth stock and securities on issue has increased by $50 billion or more since whichever of the following last occurred:\n    (a) a budget economic and fiscal outlook report, a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report or a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report was publicly released;\n    (b) a statement under this clause was tabled.\n  (2) The Treasurer is to table in each House of the Parliament, within 3 sittings days of that House after the increase referred to in subclause (1), a statement setting out the reasons for the increase, including the extent to which any of the following contributed to the increase:\n    (a) lower than expected revenue;\n    (b) higher than expected spending;\n    (c) capital purchases;\n    (d) grants to State and Territory governments for infrastructure.","sortOrder":17},{"sectionNumber":"10","sectionType":"section","heading":"Public release and tabling of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports","content":"#### 10 Public release and tabling of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a budget economic and fiscal outlook report at the time of each budget.","sortOrder":18},{"sectionNumber":"11","sectionType":"section","heading":"Purpose of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports","content":"#### 11 Purpose of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The purpose of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports is to provide information to allow the assessment of the Government’s fiscal performance against the fiscal strategy set out in its current fiscal strategy statement.","sortOrder":19},{"sectionNumber":"12","sectionType":"section","heading":"Contents of budget economic and fiscal outlook report","content":"#### 12 Contents of budget economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n  (1) A budget economic and fiscal outlook report is to contain the following information:\n    (a) Commonwealth budget sector and Commonwealth general government sector fiscal estimates for the budget year and the following 3 financial years;\n    (b) the economic and other assumptions for the budget year and the following 3 financial years that have been used in preparing those fiscal estimates;\n    (c) discussion of the sensitivity of those fiscal estimates to changes in those economic and other assumptions;\n    (d) an overview of the estimated tax expenditures for the budget year and the following 3 financial years;\n    (e) a statement of the risks, quantified where feasible, that may have a material effect on the fiscal outlook, including:\n    (i) contingent liabilities; and\n    (ii) publicly announced Government commitments that are not yet included in the fiscal estimates referred to in paragraph (a); and\n    (iii) Government negotiations that have yet to be finalised;\n    (f) a debt statement.\n  (2) The information in the report is to take into account, to the fullest extent possible, all Government decisions and all other circumstances that may have a material effect on the fiscal and economic outlook.\n  (3) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n  (4) The report does not have to include information that the Treasurer considers should not be included because:\n    (a) it is confidential commercial information; or\n    (b) its disclosure in the report could prejudice national security.","sortOrder":20},{"sectionNumber":"13","sectionType":"section","heading":"Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report","content":"#### 13 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help the Treasurer to prepare a budget economic and fiscal outlook report, the Treasurer may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the report, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.","sortOrder":21},{"sectionNumber":"Division 2","sectionType":"division","heading":"Mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report","content":"Schedule 1—Charter of Budget Honesty\n\nNote: See section 3.\n\n## Part 1—Purpose and overview\n\n#### 1 Purpose of Charter of Budget Honesty\n\n  The Charter of Budget Honesty provides a framework for the conduct of Government fiscal policy. The purpose of the Charter is to improve fiscal policy outcomes. The Charter provides for this by requiring fiscal strategy to be based on principles of sound fiscal management and by facilitating public scrutiny of fiscal policy and performance.\n\n#### 2 Overview of obligations\n\n  Principles of sound fiscal management\n  (1) The Government’s fiscal strategy is to be based on the principles of sound fiscal management (see Part 3).\n  Fiscal strategy statements\n  (2) The Government’s fiscal strategy is to be set out in a fiscal strategy statement publicly released and tabled by the Treasurer with each budget (see Part 4).\n\n> Note 1: The first fiscal strategy statement for a particular Government may be publicly released and tabled before its first budget.\n\n> Note 2: A particular Government may publicly release and table a new fiscal strategy statement at any time.\n\n  Regular fiscal reporting\n  (3) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table regular fiscal reports as follows:\n    (a) there is to be a budget economic and fiscal outlook report with each budget (see Division 1 of Part 5);\n    (b) there is to be a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report by the end of January in each year or within 6 months after the last budget, whichever is later (see Division 2 of Part 5);\n    (c) there is to be a final budget outcome report within 3 months of the end of each financial year (see Division 3 of Part 5).\n  Intergenerational reports\n  (4) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table an intergenerational report at least once every 5 years (see Part 6).\n  General elections—pre‑election report\n  (5) The Secretaries of the Departments of the Treasury and Finance are to publicly release a pre‑election fiscal and economic outlook report if a general election is called (see Part 7).\n  General elections—policy costings\n  (6) The Government, or the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party (if the Prime Minister agrees to refer the request), may ask the Secretaries of the Departments of the Treasury and Finance to prepare a costing of any of its publicly announced policies if a general election is called. The costing will then be publicly released (see Part 8).\n  Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities\n  (7) In certain cases where the face value of Commonwealth stock and securities on issue has increased by $50 billion or more since a previous report or statement under the Charter of Budget Honesty, the Treasurer is to table a statement setting out reasons for the increase (see Part 9).\n\n## Part 2—Interpretation\n\n#### 3 Interpretation\n\n  (1) In this Schedule, unless the contrary intention appears:\n\n> budget means an annual Commonwealth budget.\n\n> budget year means the financial year to which a budget relates.\n\n> caretaker period for a general election means the period starting when the House of Representatives expires or is dissolved, and ending:\n\n    (a) when it is clear that the Government has been re‑elected; or\n    (b) if there is a change of Government, when the new Government has been sworn in.\n\n> Commonwealth body means a Department or other entity that is within the Commonwealth general government sector.\n\n> Commonwealth stock and securities means stock and securities on issue under the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911 (the CIS Act) or the Loans Securities Act 1919 (disregarding stock and securities of the kind mentioned in subsection 51JA(2A) of the CIS Act).\n\n> debt statement, for a report under Part 5 or 7, means a statement that includes:\n\n    (a) the following information about Commonwealth stock and securities on issue, at the time of the report and for the financial year to which the report relates and the following 3 financial years:\n    (i) the value of the stock and securities (including their market and face value, and their value as a proportion of gross domestic product);\n    (ii) the total expected interest expenses relating to the stock and securities; and\n    (b) a breakdown, by maturity and timing of interest payments, of Commonwealth stock and securities on issue at the time of the report.\n\n> Department of Finance means the Department administered by the Minister for Finance.\n\n> external reporting standards means:\n\n    (a) the concepts and classifications set out in GFS Australia; and\n    (b) public sector accounting standards developed by the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board.\n\n> general election means a general election of the members of the House of Representatives.\n\n> GFS Australia means the publication of the Australian Bureau of Statistics known as Government Finance Statistics Australia: Concepts, Sources and Methods, as updated from time to time. This updating takes 2 forms:\n\n    (a) from time to time, a new version of the publication is produced;\n    (b) from time to time, material in the current version of the publication is updated by other publications of the Australian Bureau of Statistics.\n\n> Government means the Commonwealth Government.\n\n> Leader of a minority party means the Leader of a recognised non‑Government party of at least 5 members, but does not include the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives or in the Senate.\n\n> Leader of the Opposition means the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives.\n\n> member means a member of either House of the Parliament.\n\n> Minister for Finance means the Minister administering the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.\n\n> Parliamentary Budget Officer has the same meaning as in the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n\n> Parliamentary party has the same meaning as in the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n\n> principles of sound fiscal management means the principles set out in clause 5.\n\n> responsible Ministers means the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance.\n\n> responsible Secretaries means the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury and the Secretary of the Department of Finance.\n\n> table means table in each House of the Parliament.\n\n  (2) Other expressions used in this Act that are given a meaning by GFS Australia have the meanings so given.\n\n## Part 3—Principles of sound fiscal management\n\n#### 4 Formulation of Government fiscal policy\n\n  (1) The Government’s fiscal policy is to be directed at maintaining the on‑going economic prosperity and welfare of the people of Australia and is therefore to be set in a sustainable medium‑term framework.\n  (2) To meet this objective, the Government’s fiscal strategy is to be based on the principles of sound fiscal management.\n\n#### 5 The principles of sound fiscal management\n\n  (1) The principles of sound fiscal management are that the Government is to:\n    (a) manage financial risks faced by the Commonwealth prudently, having regard to economic circumstances, including by maintaining Commonwealth general government debt at prudent levels; and\n    (b) ensure that its fiscal policy contributes:\n    (i) to achieving adequate national saving; and\n    (ii) to moderating cyclical fluctuations in economic activity, as appropriate, taking account of the economic risks facing the nation and the impact of those risks on the Government’s fiscal position; and\n    (c) pursue spending and taxing policies that are consistent with a reasonable degree of stability and predictability in the level of the tax burden; and\n    (d) maintain the integrity of the tax system; and\n    (e) ensure that its policy decisions have regard to their financial effects on future generations.\n  (2) The financial risks referred to in paragraph (1)(a) include risks such as:\n    (a) risks arising from excessive net debt; and\n    (b) commercial risks arising from ownership of public trading enterprises and public financial enterprises; and\n    (c) risks arising from erosion of the tax base; and\n    (d) risks arising from the management of assets and liabilities.\n\n## Part 4—Fiscal strategy statement\n\n#### 6 Public release and tabling of fiscal strategy statements\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table the first fiscal strategy statement for a particular Government at or before the time of the Government’s first budget.\n  (2) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a fiscal strategy statement for the Government at the time of each of the Government’s subsequent budgets.\n  (3) If the Government wants to change its fiscal strategy statement, it may do so at any time by the Treasurer publicly releasing and tabling a new fiscal strategy statement.\n  (4) If a House of the Parliament is not sitting when a fiscal strategy statement is publicly released:\n    (a) the statement still takes effect from its public release; and\n    (b) the Treasurer is to table the statement in that House of the Parliament as soon as practicable after it next sits.\n\n#### 7 Purpose of fiscal strategy statements\n\n  The purpose of fiscal strategy statements is to increase public awareness of the Government’s fiscal strategy and to establish a benchmark for evaluating the Government’s conduct of fiscal policy.\n\n#### 8 Fiscal strategy statement to be based on principles of sound fiscal management\n\n  A fiscal strategy statement is to be based on the principles of sound fiscal management.\n\n#### 9 Contents of fiscal strategy statement\n\n  (1) A fiscal strategy statement is to:\n    (a) specify the Government’s long‑term fiscal objectives within which shorter‑term fiscal policy will be framed; and\n    (b) explain the broad strategic priorities on which the budget is or will be based; and\n    (c) specify the key fiscal measures that the Government considers important and against which fiscal policy will be set and assessed; and\n    (d) specify, for the budget year and the following 3 financial years:\n    (i) the Government’s fiscal objectives and targets; and\n    (ii) the expected outcomes for the specified key fiscal measures; and\n    (e) explain how the fiscal objectives and strategic priorities specified and explained as required by paragraphs (a), (b) and (d) relate to the principles of sound fiscal management; and\n    (f) specify fiscal policy actions taken or to be taken by the Government that are temporary in nature, adopted for the purpose of moderating cyclical fluctuations in economic activity, and indicate the process for their reversal; and\n    (g) explain broadly the reporting basis on which subsequent Government fiscal reports will be prepared.\n  (2) If particular information required to be included in the statement is unchanged from information set out in full in an earlier statement, the statement may instead summarise the information and state that it is unchanged from what was set out in the earlier statement.\n\n## Part 5—Annual Government reporting\n\n### Division 1—Budget economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n#### 10 Public release and tabling of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a budget economic and fiscal outlook report at the time of each budget.\n\n#### 11 Purpose of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The purpose of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports is to provide information to allow the assessment of the Government’s fiscal performance against the fiscal strategy set out in its current fiscal strategy statement.\n\n#### 12 Contents of budget economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n  (1) A budget economic and fiscal outlook report is to contain the following information:\n    (a) Commonwealth budget sector and Commonwealth general government sector fiscal estimates for the budget year and the following 3 financial years;\n    (b) the economic and other assumptions for the budget year and the following 3 financial years that have been used in preparing those fiscal estimates;\n    (c) discussion of the sensitivity of those fiscal estimates to changes in those economic and other assumptions;\n    (d) an overview of the estimated tax expenditures for the budget year and the following 3 financial years;\n    (e) a statement of the risks, quantified where feasible, that may have a material effect on the fiscal outlook, including:\n    (i) contingent liabilities; and\n    (ii) publicly announced Government commitments that are not yet included in the fiscal estimates referred to in paragraph (a); and\n    (iii) Government negotiations that have yet to be finalised;\n    (f) a debt statement.\n  (2) The information in the report is to take into account, to the fullest extent possible, all Government decisions and all other circumstances that may have a material effect on the fiscal and economic outlook.\n  (3) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n  (4) The report does not have to include information that the Treasurer considers should not be included because:\n    (a) it is confidential commercial information; or\n    (b) its disclosure in the report could prejudice national security.\n\n#### 13 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help the Treasurer to prepare a budget economic and fiscal outlook report, the Treasurer may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the report, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n### Division 2—Mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n#### 14 Public release and tabling of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report by the end of January in each year, or within 6 months after the last budget, whichever is later.\n  (2) If:\n    (a) a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report is publicly released by the end of the period specified in subclause (1); but\n    (b) a House of the Parliament is not sitting when the report is released;\n  the report does not have to be tabled in that House until it next sits (or as soon as practicable after then), even if that is after the end of the specified period.\n\n#### 15 Purpose of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The purpose of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports is to provide updated information to allow the assessment of the Government’s fiscal performance against the fiscal strategy set out in its current fiscal strategy statement.\n\n#### 16 Contents of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n  (1) A mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report is to:\n    (a) update key information contained in the most recent budget economic and fiscal outlook report (the budget report); and\n    (b) contain a detailed statement of tax expenditures, presenting disaggregated information on tax expenditures; and\n    (c) contain a debt statement.\n  (2) The information in the report is to take into account, to the fullest extent possible, all Government decisions and all other circumstances that may have a material effect on the fiscal and economic outlook.\n  (3) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n  (4) If particular information required to be included in the report is unchanged from information set out in full in the budget report, the report may instead summarise the information and state that it is unchanged from what was set out in the budget report.\n  (5) The report does not have to include information that the Treasurer considers should not be included because:\n    (a) it is confidential commercial information; or\n    (b) its disclosure in the report could prejudice national security.\n\n#### 17 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help the Treasurer to prepare a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report, the Treasurer may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the report, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n### Division 3—Final budget outcome report\n\n#### 18 Public release and tabling of final budget outcome reports\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a final budget outcome report for each financial year no later than 3 months after the end of the financial year.\n  (2) If:\n    (a) a final budget outcome report is publicly released within 3 months after the end of the financial year; but\n    (b) a House of the Parliament is not sitting when the report is released;\n  the report does not have to be tabled in that House until it next sits (or as soon as practicable after then), even if that is after the end of that 3 months.\n  (3) The final budget outcome report for a financial year may be incorporated in the budget economic and fiscal outlook report for the next financial year if the next financial year’s budget is brought down after the start of that year.\n\n#### 19 Contents of final budget outcome report\n\n  (1) A final budget outcome report is to contain Commonwealth budget sector and Commonwealth general government sector fiscal outcomes for the financial year.\n  (2) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n\n## Part 6—Intergenerational report\n\n#### 20 Public release and tabling of intergenerational reports\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table intergenerational reports as follows:\n    (a) an intergenerational report is to be publicly released and tabled on or before 30 June 2021;\n    (b) subsequent intergenerational reports are to be publicly released and tabled within 5 years of the public release of the preceding report.\n  (2) If:\n    (a) an intergenerational report is publicly released within the period specified in subclause (1); but\n    (b) a House of the Parliament is not sitting when the report is released;\n  the report does not have to be tabled in that House until it next sits (or as soon as practicable after then), even if that is after the end of the specified period.\n\n#### 21 Contents of intergenerational report\n\n  An intergenerational report is to assess the long term sustainability of current Government policies over the 40 years following the release of the report, including by taking account of the financial implications of demographic change.\n\n## Part 7—Pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n#### 22 Public release of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n  The responsible Secretaries are, jointly, to publicly release a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report within 10 days of the issue of the writ for a general election.\n\n#### 23 Purpose of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The purpose of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook reports is to provide updated information on the economic and fiscal outlook.\n\n#### 24 Contents of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report—economic and fiscal information\n\n  (1) A pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report is to contain the following information:\n    (a) updated Commonwealth budget sector and Commonwealth general government sector fiscal estimates for the current financial year and the following 3 financial years;\n    (b) the economic and other assumptions for the current financial year and the following 3 financial years that have been used in preparing those updated fiscal estimates;\n    (c) discussion as to the sensitivity of those updated fiscal estimates to changes in those economic and other assumptions;\n    (d) an updated statement of the risks, quantified where feasible, that may have a material effect on the fiscal outlook, including:\n    (i) contingent liabilities; and\n    (ii) publicly announced Government commitments that are not yet included in the fiscal estimates referred to in paragraph (a); and\n    (iii) Government negotiations that have yet to be finalised;\n    (e) a debt statement.\n  (2) The information in the report is to take into account, to the fullest extent possible, all Government decisions, and all other circumstances, that:\n    (a) may have a material effect on the fiscal and economic outlook; and\n    (b) were made, or were in existence, before the issue of the writ for the general election.\n  (3) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n  (4) If particular information required to be included in the report is unchanged from information set out in full in an earlier budget economic and fiscal outlook report or mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report, the report may instead summarise the information and state that it is unchanged from what was set out in the earlier report.\n  (5) The report does not have to include information that the responsible Secretaries consider should not be included because:\n    (a) it is confidential commercial information; or\n    (b) its disclosure in the report could prejudice national security.\n\n#### 25 Contents of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report—statements by responsible Ministers and responsible Secretaries\n\n  A pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report is to contain the following signed statements:\n    (a) a statement, signed by the responsible Ministers, to the effect that the disclosure requirements of clause 27 have been complied with;\n    (b) a statement signed by the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury to the effect that, to the fullest extent possible, the information in the report for which the Secretary is responsible:\n    (i) reflects the best professional judgment of officers of that Department; and\n    (ii) takes into account all economic and fiscal information available; and\n    (iii) incorporates the fiscal implications of Government decisions and circumstances disclosed by the responsible Ministers;\n    (c) a statement signed by the Secretary of the Department of Finance to the effect that, to the fullest extent possible, the information in the report for which the Secretary is responsible:\n    (i) reflects the best professional judgment of officers of that Department; and\n    (ii) takes into account all economic information provided by the Department of the Treasury and all fiscal information available; and\n    (iii) incorporates the fiscal implications of Government decisions and circumstances disclosed by the responsible Ministers.\n\n#### 26 Division of responsibility between responsible Secretaries\n\n  In preparing a pre‑election fiscal and economic outlook report:\n    (a) the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury is responsible for:\n    (i) tax revenue estimates included in the fiscal estimates required by paragraph 24(1)(a); and\n    (ii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(b); and\n    (iii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(c), so far as it relates to the tax revenue estimates; and\n    (iv) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(d), so far as it relates to risks to tax revenue or tax expenditure; and\n    (v) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(e); and\n    (b) the Secretary of the Department of Finance is responsible for:\n    (i) outlays or expenses estimates, and revenue estimates (other than tax revenue estimates), included in the fiscal estimates required by paragraph 24(1)(a); and\n    (ii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(c), so far as it relates to the outlays or expenses estimates, or revenue estimates (other than tax revenue estimates), referred to in subparagraph (i); and\n    (iii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(d), so far as it relates to risks to outlays or expenses, or revenue (other than tax revenue).\n\n#### 27 Responsible Minister to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help the responsible Secretaries to prepare a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report, each of the responsible Ministers is to disclose to either or both of the responsible Secretaries details of any Government decision, or any other circumstance, that the Minister knows about:\n    (a) that has, or could have, material fiscal or economic implications; and\n    (b) that neither of the responsible Secretaries could reasonably be expected to know about.\n  (2) Disclosures are to be made within 2 days of the issue of the writ for the general election.\n\n#### 28 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help a responsible Secretary to prepare aspects of a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report for which he or she is responsible, he or she may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the report, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n## Part 8—Costing of election commitments\n\n#### 29 Requests for costing of election commitments\n\n  (1) During the caretaker period for a general election:\n    (a) the Prime Minister may request the responsible Secretaries to prepare costings of publicly announced Government policies; and\n    (b) the Leader of the Opposition may, subject to subclause (4), request the responsible Secretaries to prepare costings of publicly announced Opposition policies; and\n    (c) the Leader of a minority party may, subject to subclause (4), request the responsible Secretaries to prepare costings of publicly announced policies of that party.\n\n> Note: If a request to prepare a costing of a policy of a Parliamentary party is made under this clause, and a member of that party makes a later request, under subsection 64J(2) of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999, to the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare a costing of that policy, or a substantially similar policy, the Parliamentary Budget Officer must not prepare a costing of the policy under that Act: see section 64K of that Act.\n\n  (1A) A request for a costing of a policy of a Parliamentary party is not to be made under subclause (1) before polling day during the caretaker period if a member of that party has, during the same caretaker period, requested the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare a costing of that policy, or a substantially similar policy, under Division 2 of Part 7 of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n  (1B) A request for a costing of a policy of a Parliamentary party is not to be made under subclause (1) on or after polling day during the caretaker period if a member of that party has, on or after that day, requested the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare a costing of that policy, or a substantially similar policy, under Division 2 of Part 7 of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n  (2) A request is to:\n    (a) be in writing; and\n    (b) outline fully the policy to be costed, giving relevant details; and\n    (c) state the purpose or intention of the policy.\n  (3) A request by the Prime Minister is to be given to the responsible Secretaries.\n  (4) A request by the Leader of the Opposition, or the Leader of a minority party, is to be given to the Prime Minister, who may then agree to refer it to the responsible Secretaries. The responsible Secretaries are not obliged or authorised to take any action in relation to the request unless the Prime Minister has referred the request to them.\n  (5) The Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party may, at any time, withdraw a request that he or she has made. A withdrawal by the Prime Minister is to be by notice in writing given to the responsible Secretaries. A withdrawal by the Leader of the Opposition, or the Leader of a minority party, is to be by notice in writing given to the Prime Minister, who is to notify the responsible Secretaries of the withdrawal.\n\n#### 30 How policy costings are to be prepared\n\n  (1) The responsible Secretaries may, jointly, issue written guidelines recommending approaches or methods to be used in the preparation of policy costings.\n  (2) In preparing policy costings:\n    (a) the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury is responsible for costing aspects of policies affecting tax revenue; and\n    (b) the Secretary of the Department of Finance is responsible for costing aspects of policies that affect government outlays and expenses or revenue (other than tax revenue).\n  (3) If a responsible Secretary needs more information to cost aspects of a policy, he or she is, in writing, to ask the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party (as the case requires) for that information.\n\n#### 31 Public release of requests and costings—requests made before polling day\n\n  (1) This clause applies in relation to a policy costing request that is made before polling day during the caretaker period for a general election.\n\n> Note: Clause 31A applies in relation to a policy costing request that is made on or after polling day during the caretaker period for a general election in circumstances where the caretaker period continues after that day.\n\n  (2) As soon as practicable after the request has been made and before polling day, either or both of the responsible Secretaries are to publicly release the request and a costing of the policy.\n\n> Note 1: Whether a policy costing request and costing has to be released by either or both of the responsible Secretaries depends on the division of responsibilities set out in subclause 30(2).\n\n> Note 2: The obligation in this subclause does not apply to a request that has been withdrawn under subclause 29(5).\n\n  (3) If a responsible Secretary does not have sufficient information, or has not had sufficient time, to prepare a policy costing and publicly release the request and the costing before polling day:\n    (a) the Secretary is to publicly release a statement to that effect before that day; and\n    (b) the request is taken to have been withdrawn on that day; and\n    (c) the Secretary is not obliged or authorised to take any further action in relation to the request on or after that day.\n\n#### 31A Public release of requests and costings—requests made on or after polling day\n\n  (1) This clause applies in relation to a policy costing request that is made on or after polling day during the caretaker period for a general election in circumstances where the caretaker period continues after that day.\n  (2) As soon as practicable after the request has been made, either or both of the responsible Secretaries are to publicly release the request and a costing of the policy.\n\n> Note 1: Whether a policy costing request and costing has to be released by either or both of the responsible Secretaries depends on the division of responsibilities set out in subclause 30(2).\n\n> Note 2: The obligation in this subclause does not apply to a request that has been withdrawn under subclause 29(5).\n\n  (3) If a responsible Secretary does not have sufficient information, or has not had sufficient time, to prepare a policy costing and publicly release the request and the costing before the end of the caretaker period:\n    (a) the Secretary is to publicly release a statement to that effect as soon as practicable after the end of the caretaker period; and\n    (b) the request is taken to have been withdrawn at the end of the caretaker period; and\n    (c) the Secretary is not obliged or authorised to take any further action in relation to the request after the end of the caretaker period.\n\n#### 32 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare policy costings\n\n  (1) To help a responsible Secretary to prepare aspects of a policy costing for which he or she is responsible, he or she may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the policy costing, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n## Part 9—Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities\n\n#### 33 Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities\n\n  (1) This clause applies when the actual face value of Commonwealth stock and securities on issue has increased by $50 billion or more since whichever of the following last occurred:\n    (a) a budget economic and fiscal outlook report, a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report or a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report was publicly released;\n    (b) a statement under this clause was tabled.\n  (2) The Treasurer is to table in each House of the Parliament, within 3 sittings days of that House after the increase referred to in subclause (1), a statement setting out the reasons for the increase, including the extent to which any of the following contributed to the increase:\n    (a) lower than expected revenue;\n    (b) higher than expected spending;\n    (c) capital purchases;\n    (d) grants to State and Territory governments for infrastructure.","sortOrder":22},{"sectionNumber":"14","sectionType":"section","heading":"Public release and tabling of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports","content":"#### 14 Public release and tabling of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report by the end of January in each year, or within 6 months after the last budget, whichever is later.\n  (2) If:\n    (a) a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report is publicly released by the end of the period specified in subclause (1); but\n    (b) a House of the Parliament is not sitting when the report is released;\n  the report does not have to be tabled in that House until it next sits (or as soon as practicable after then), even if that is after the end of the specified period.","sortOrder":23},{"sectionNumber":"15","sectionType":"section","heading":"Purpose of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports","content":"#### 15 Purpose of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The purpose of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports is to provide updated information to allow the assessment of the Government’s fiscal performance against the fiscal strategy set out in its current fiscal strategy statement.","sortOrder":24},{"sectionNumber":"16","sectionType":"section","heading":"Contents of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report","content":"#### 16 Contents of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n  (1) A mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report is to:\n    (a) update key information contained in the most recent budget economic and fiscal outlook report (the budget report); and\n    (b) contain a detailed statement of tax expenditures, presenting disaggregated information on tax expenditures; and\n    (c) contain a debt statement.\n  (2) The information in the report is to take into account, to the fullest extent possible, all Government decisions and all other circumstances that may have a material effect on the fiscal and economic outlook.\n  (3) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n  (4) If particular information required to be included in the report is unchanged from information set out in full in the budget report, the report may instead summarise the information and state that it is unchanged from what was set out in the budget report.\n  (5) The report does not have to include information that the Treasurer considers should not be included because:\n    (a) it is confidential commercial information; or\n    (b) its disclosure in the report could prejudice national security.","sortOrder":25},{"sectionNumber":"17","sectionType":"section","heading":"Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report","content":"#### 17 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help the Treasurer to prepare a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report, the Treasurer may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the report, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.","sortOrder":26},{"sectionNumber":"Division 3","sectionType":"division","heading":"Final budget outcome report","content":"Schedule 1—Charter of Budget Honesty\n\nNote: See section 3.\n\n## Part 1—Purpose and overview\n\n#### 1 Purpose of Charter of Budget Honesty\n\n  The Charter of Budget Honesty provides a framework for the conduct of Government fiscal policy. The purpose of the Charter is to improve fiscal policy outcomes. The Charter provides for this by requiring fiscal strategy to be based on principles of sound fiscal management and by facilitating public scrutiny of fiscal policy and performance.\n\n#### 2 Overview of obligations\n\n  Principles of sound fiscal management\n  (1) The Government’s fiscal strategy is to be based on the principles of sound fiscal management (see Part 3).\n  Fiscal strategy statements\n  (2) The Government’s fiscal strategy is to be set out in a fiscal strategy statement publicly released and tabled by the Treasurer with each budget (see Part 4).\n\n> Note 1: The first fiscal strategy statement for a particular Government may be publicly released and tabled before its first budget.\n\n> Note 2: A particular Government may publicly release and table a new fiscal strategy statement at any time.\n\n  Regular fiscal reporting\n  (3) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table regular fiscal reports as follows:\n    (a) there is to be a budget economic and fiscal outlook report with each budget (see Division 1 of Part 5);\n    (b) there is to be a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report by the end of January in each year or within 6 months after the last budget, whichever is later (see Division 2 of Part 5);\n    (c) there is to be a final budget outcome report within 3 months of the end of each financial year (see Division 3 of Part 5).\n  Intergenerational reports\n  (4) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table an intergenerational report at least once every 5 years (see Part 6).\n  General elections—pre‑election report\n  (5) The Secretaries of the Departments of the Treasury and Finance are to publicly release a pre‑election fiscal and economic outlook report if a general election is called (see Part 7).\n  General elections—policy costings\n  (6) The Government, or the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party (if the Prime Minister agrees to refer the request), may ask the Secretaries of the Departments of the Treasury and Finance to prepare a costing of any of its publicly announced policies if a general election is called. The costing will then be publicly released (see Part 8).\n  Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities\n  (7) In certain cases where the face value of Commonwealth stock and securities on issue has increased by $50 billion or more since a previous report or statement under the Charter of Budget Honesty, the Treasurer is to table a statement setting out reasons for the increase (see Part 9).\n\n## Part 2—Interpretation\n\n#### 3 Interpretation\n\n  (1) In this Schedule, unless the contrary intention appears:\n\n> budget means an annual Commonwealth budget.\n\n> budget year means the financial year to which a budget relates.\n\n> caretaker period for a general election means the period starting when the House of Representatives expires or is dissolved, and ending:\n\n    (a) when it is clear that the Government has been re‑elected; or\n    (b) if there is a change of Government, when the new Government has been sworn in.\n\n> Commonwealth body means a Department or other entity that is within the Commonwealth general government sector.\n\n> Commonwealth stock and securities means stock and securities on issue under the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911 (the CIS Act) or the Loans Securities Act 1919 (disregarding stock and securities of the kind mentioned in subsection 51JA(2A) of the CIS Act).\n\n> debt statement, for a report under Part 5 or 7, means a statement that includes:\n\n    (a) the following information about Commonwealth stock and securities on issue, at the time of the report and for the financial year to which the report relates and the following 3 financial years:\n    (i) the value of the stock and securities (including their market and face value, and their value as a proportion of gross domestic product);\n    (ii) the total expected interest expenses relating to the stock and securities; and\n    (b) a breakdown, by maturity and timing of interest payments, of Commonwealth stock and securities on issue at the time of the report.\n\n> Department of Finance means the Department administered by the Minister for Finance.\n\n> external reporting standards means:\n\n    (a) the concepts and classifications set out in GFS Australia; and\n    (b) public sector accounting standards developed by the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board.\n\n> general election means a general election of the members of the House of Representatives.\n\n> GFS Australia means the publication of the Australian Bureau of Statistics known as Government Finance Statistics Australia: Concepts, Sources and Methods, as updated from time to time. This updating takes 2 forms:\n\n    (a) from time to time, a new version of the publication is produced;\n    (b) from time to time, material in the current version of the publication is updated by other publications of the Australian Bureau of Statistics.\n\n> Government means the Commonwealth Government.\n\n> Leader of a minority party means the Leader of a recognised non‑Government party of at least 5 members, but does not include the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives or in the Senate.\n\n> Leader of the Opposition means the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives.\n\n> member means a member of either House of the Parliament.\n\n> Minister for Finance means the Minister administering the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.\n\n> Parliamentary Budget Officer has the same meaning as in the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n\n> Parliamentary party has the same meaning as in the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n\n> principles of sound fiscal management means the principles set out in clause 5.\n\n> responsible Ministers means the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance.\n\n> responsible Secretaries means the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury and the Secretary of the Department of Finance.\n\n> table means table in each House of the Parliament.\n\n  (2) Other expressions used in this Act that are given a meaning by GFS Australia have the meanings so given.\n\n## Part 3—Principles of sound fiscal management\n\n#### 4 Formulation of Government fiscal policy\n\n  (1) The Government’s fiscal policy is to be directed at maintaining the on‑going economic prosperity and welfare of the people of Australia and is therefore to be set in a sustainable medium‑term framework.\n  (2) To meet this objective, the Government’s fiscal strategy is to be based on the principles of sound fiscal management.\n\n#### 5 The principles of sound fiscal management\n\n  (1) The principles of sound fiscal management are that the Government is to:\n    (a) manage financial risks faced by the Commonwealth prudently, having regard to economic circumstances, including by maintaining Commonwealth general government debt at prudent levels; and\n    (b) ensure that its fiscal policy contributes:\n    (i) to achieving adequate national saving; and\n    (ii) to moderating cyclical fluctuations in economic activity, as appropriate, taking account of the economic risks facing the nation and the impact of those risks on the Government’s fiscal position; and\n    (c) pursue spending and taxing policies that are consistent with a reasonable degree of stability and predictability in the level of the tax burden; and\n    (d) maintain the integrity of the tax system; and\n    (e) ensure that its policy decisions have regard to their financial effects on future generations.\n  (2) The financial risks referred to in paragraph (1)(a) include risks such as:\n    (a) risks arising from excessive net debt; and\n    (b) commercial risks arising from ownership of public trading enterprises and public financial enterprises; and\n    (c) risks arising from erosion of the tax base; and\n    (d) risks arising from the management of assets and liabilities.\n\n## Part 4—Fiscal strategy statement\n\n#### 6 Public release and tabling of fiscal strategy statements\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table the first fiscal strategy statement for a particular Government at or before the time of the Government’s first budget.\n  (2) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a fiscal strategy statement for the Government at the time of each of the Government’s subsequent budgets.\n  (3) If the Government wants to change its fiscal strategy statement, it may do so at any time by the Treasurer publicly releasing and tabling a new fiscal strategy statement.\n  (4) If a House of the Parliament is not sitting when a fiscal strategy statement is publicly released:\n    (a) the statement still takes effect from its public release; and\n    (b) the Treasurer is to table the statement in that House of the Parliament as soon as practicable after it next sits.\n\n#### 7 Purpose of fiscal strategy statements\n\n  The purpose of fiscal strategy statements is to increase public awareness of the Government’s fiscal strategy and to establish a benchmark for evaluating the Government’s conduct of fiscal policy.\n\n#### 8 Fiscal strategy statement to be based on principles of sound fiscal management\n\n  A fiscal strategy statement is to be based on the principles of sound fiscal management.\n\n#### 9 Contents of fiscal strategy statement\n\n  (1) A fiscal strategy statement is to:\n    (a) specify the Government’s long‑term fiscal objectives within which shorter‑term fiscal policy will be framed; and\n    (b) explain the broad strategic priorities on which the budget is or will be based; and\n    (c) specify the key fiscal measures that the Government considers important and against which fiscal policy will be set and assessed; and\n    (d) specify, for the budget year and the following 3 financial years:\n    (i) the Government’s fiscal objectives and targets; and\n    (ii) the expected outcomes for the specified key fiscal measures; and\n    (e) explain how the fiscal objectives and strategic priorities specified and explained as required by paragraphs (a), (b) and (d) relate to the principles of sound fiscal management; and\n    (f) specify fiscal policy actions taken or to be taken by the Government that are temporary in nature, adopted for the purpose of moderating cyclical fluctuations in economic activity, and indicate the process for their reversal; and\n    (g) explain broadly the reporting basis on which subsequent Government fiscal reports will be prepared.\n  (2) If particular information required to be included in the statement is unchanged from information set out in full in an earlier statement, the statement may instead summarise the information and state that it is unchanged from what was set out in the earlier statement.\n\n## Part 5—Annual Government reporting\n\n### Division 1—Budget economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n#### 10 Public release and tabling of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a budget economic and fiscal outlook report at the time of each budget.\n\n#### 11 Purpose of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The purpose of budget economic and fiscal outlook reports is to provide information to allow the assessment of the Government’s fiscal performance against the fiscal strategy set out in its current fiscal strategy statement.\n\n#### 12 Contents of budget economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n  (1) A budget economic and fiscal outlook report is to contain the following information:\n    (a) Commonwealth budget sector and Commonwealth general government sector fiscal estimates for the budget year and the following 3 financial years;\n    (b) the economic and other assumptions for the budget year and the following 3 financial years that have been used in preparing those fiscal estimates;\n    (c) discussion of the sensitivity of those fiscal estimates to changes in those economic and other assumptions;\n    (d) an overview of the estimated tax expenditures for the budget year and the following 3 financial years;\n    (e) a statement of the risks, quantified where feasible, that may have a material effect on the fiscal outlook, including:\n    (i) contingent liabilities; and\n    (ii) publicly announced Government commitments that are not yet included in the fiscal estimates referred to in paragraph (a); and\n    (iii) Government negotiations that have yet to be finalised;\n    (f) a debt statement.\n  (2) The information in the report is to take into account, to the fullest extent possible, all Government decisions and all other circumstances that may have a material effect on the fiscal and economic outlook.\n  (3) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n  (4) The report does not have to include information that the Treasurer considers should not be included because:\n    (a) it is confidential commercial information; or\n    (b) its disclosure in the report could prejudice national security.\n\n#### 13 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help the Treasurer to prepare a budget economic and fiscal outlook report, the Treasurer may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the report, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n### Division 2—Mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n#### 14 Public release and tabling of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report by the end of January in each year, or within 6 months after the last budget, whichever is later.\n  (2) If:\n    (a) a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report is publicly released by the end of the period specified in subclause (1); but\n    (b) a House of the Parliament is not sitting when the report is released;\n  the report does not have to be tabled in that House until it next sits (or as soon as practicable after then), even if that is after the end of the specified period.\n\n#### 15 Purpose of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The purpose of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook reports is to provide updated information to allow the assessment of the Government’s fiscal performance against the fiscal strategy set out in its current fiscal strategy statement.\n\n#### 16 Contents of mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n  (1) A mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report is to:\n    (a) update key information contained in the most recent budget economic and fiscal outlook report (the budget report); and\n    (b) contain a detailed statement of tax expenditures, presenting disaggregated information on tax expenditures; and\n    (c) contain a debt statement.\n  (2) The information in the report is to take into account, to the fullest extent possible, all Government decisions and all other circumstances that may have a material effect on the fiscal and economic outlook.\n  (3) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n  (4) If particular information required to be included in the report is unchanged from information set out in full in the budget report, the report may instead summarise the information and state that it is unchanged from what was set out in the budget report.\n  (5) The report does not have to include information that the Treasurer considers should not be included because:\n    (a) it is confidential commercial information; or\n    (b) its disclosure in the report could prejudice national security.\n\n#### 17 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help the Treasurer to prepare a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report, the Treasurer may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the report, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n### Division 3—Final budget outcome report\n\n#### 18 Public release and tabling of final budget outcome reports\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a final budget outcome report for each financial year no later than 3 months after the end of the financial year.\n  (2) If:\n    (a) a final budget outcome report is publicly released within 3 months after the end of the financial year; but\n    (b) a House of the Parliament is not sitting when the report is released;\n  the report does not have to be tabled in that House until it next sits (or as soon as practicable after then), even if that is after the end of that 3 months.\n  (3) The final budget outcome report for a financial year may be incorporated in the budget economic and fiscal outlook report for the next financial year if the next financial year’s budget is brought down after the start of that year.\n\n#### 19 Contents of final budget outcome report\n\n  (1) A final budget outcome report is to contain Commonwealth budget sector and Commonwealth general government sector fiscal outcomes for the financial year.\n  (2) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n\n## Part 6—Intergenerational report\n\n#### 20 Public release and tabling of intergenerational reports\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table intergenerational reports as follows:\n    (a) an intergenerational report is to be publicly released and tabled on or before 30 June 2021;\n    (b) subsequent intergenerational reports are to be publicly released and tabled within 5 years of the public release of the preceding report.\n  (2) If:\n    (a) an intergenerational report is publicly released within the period specified in subclause (1); but\n    (b) a House of the Parliament is not sitting when the report is released;\n  the report does not have to be tabled in that House until it next sits (or as soon as practicable after then), even if that is after the end of the specified period.\n\n#### 21 Contents of intergenerational report\n\n  An intergenerational report is to assess the long term sustainability of current Government policies over the 40 years following the release of the report, including by taking account of the financial implications of demographic change.\n\n## Part 7—Pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n#### 22 Public release of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n  The responsible Secretaries are, jointly, to publicly release a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report within 10 days of the issue of the writ for a general election.\n\n#### 23 Purpose of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The purpose of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook reports is to provide updated information on the economic and fiscal outlook.\n\n#### 24 Contents of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report—economic and fiscal information\n\n  (1) A pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report is to contain the following information:\n    (a) updated Commonwealth budget sector and Commonwealth general government sector fiscal estimates for the current financial year and the following 3 financial years;\n    (b) the economic and other assumptions for the current financial year and the following 3 financial years that have been used in preparing those updated fiscal estimates;\n    (c) discussion as to the sensitivity of those updated fiscal estimates to changes in those economic and other assumptions;\n    (d) an updated statement of the risks, quantified where feasible, that may have a material effect on the fiscal outlook, including:\n    (i) contingent liabilities; and\n    (ii) publicly announced Government commitments that are not yet included in the fiscal estimates referred to in paragraph (a); and\n    (iii) Government negotiations that have yet to be finalised;\n    (e) a debt statement.\n  (2) The information in the report is to take into account, to the fullest extent possible, all Government decisions, and all other circumstances, that:\n    (a) may have a material effect on the fiscal and economic outlook; and\n    (b) were made, or were in existence, before the issue of the writ for the general election.\n  (3) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n  (4) If particular information required to be included in the report is unchanged from information set out in full in an earlier budget economic and fiscal outlook report or mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report, the report may instead summarise the information and state that it is unchanged from what was set out in the earlier report.\n  (5) The report does not have to include information that the responsible Secretaries consider should not be included because:\n    (a) it is confidential commercial information; or\n    (b) its disclosure in the report could prejudice national security.\n\n#### 25 Contents of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report—statements by responsible Ministers and responsible Secretaries\n\n  A pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report is to contain the following signed statements:\n    (a) a statement, signed by the responsible Ministers, to the effect that the disclosure requirements of clause 27 have been complied with;\n    (b) a statement signed by the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury to the effect that, to the fullest extent possible, the information in the report for which the Secretary is responsible:\n    (i) reflects the best professional judgment of officers of that Department; and\n    (ii) takes into account all economic and fiscal information available; and\n    (iii) incorporates the fiscal implications of Government decisions and circumstances disclosed by the responsible Ministers;\n    (c) a statement signed by the Secretary of the Department of Finance to the effect that, to the fullest extent possible, the information in the report for which the Secretary is responsible:\n    (i) reflects the best professional judgment of officers of that Department; and\n    (ii) takes into account all economic information provided by the Department of the Treasury and all fiscal information available; and\n    (iii) incorporates the fiscal implications of Government decisions and circumstances disclosed by the responsible Ministers.\n\n#### 26 Division of responsibility between responsible Secretaries\n\n  In preparing a pre‑election fiscal and economic outlook report:\n    (a) the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury is responsible for:\n    (i) tax revenue estimates included in the fiscal estimates required by paragraph 24(1)(a); and\n    (ii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(b); and\n    (iii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(c), so far as it relates to the tax revenue estimates; and\n    (iv) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(d), so far as it relates to risks to tax revenue or tax expenditure; and\n    (v) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(e); and\n    (b) the Secretary of the Department of Finance is responsible for:\n    (i) outlays or expenses estimates, and revenue estimates (other than tax revenue estimates), included in the fiscal estimates required by paragraph 24(1)(a); and\n    (ii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(c), so far as it relates to the outlays or expenses estimates, or revenue estimates (other than tax revenue estimates), referred to in subparagraph (i); and\n    (iii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(d), so far as it relates to risks to outlays or expenses, or revenue (other than tax revenue).\n\n#### 27 Responsible Minister to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help the responsible Secretaries to prepare a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report, each of the responsible Ministers is to disclose to either or both of the responsible Secretaries details of any Government decision, or any other circumstance, that the Minister knows about:\n    (a) that has, or could have, material fiscal or economic implications; and\n    (b) that neither of the responsible Secretaries could reasonably be expected to know about.\n  (2) Disclosures are to be made within 2 days of the issue of the writ for the general election.\n\n#### 28 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help a responsible Secretary to prepare aspects of a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report for which he or she is responsible, he or she may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the report, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n## Part 8—Costing of election commitments\n\n#### 29 Requests for costing of election commitments\n\n  (1) During the caretaker period for a general election:\n    (a) the Prime Minister may request the responsible Secretaries to prepare costings of publicly announced Government policies; and\n    (b) the Leader of the Opposition may, subject to subclause (4), request the responsible Secretaries to prepare costings of publicly announced Opposition policies; and\n    (c) the Leader of a minority party may, subject to subclause (4), request the responsible Secretaries to prepare costings of publicly announced policies of that party.\n\n> Note: If a request to prepare a costing of a policy of a Parliamentary party is made under this clause, and a member of that party makes a later request, under subsection 64J(2) of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999, to the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare a costing of that policy, or a substantially similar policy, the Parliamentary Budget Officer must not prepare a costing of the policy under that Act: see section 64K of that Act.\n\n  (1A) A request for a costing of a policy of a Parliamentary party is not to be made under subclause (1) before polling day during the caretaker period if a member of that party has, during the same caretaker period, requested the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare a costing of that policy, or a substantially similar policy, under Division 2 of Part 7 of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n  (1B) A request for a costing of a policy of a Parliamentary party is not to be made under subclause (1) on or after polling day during the caretaker period if a member of that party has, on or after that day, requested the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare a costing of that policy, or a substantially similar policy, under Division 2 of Part 7 of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n  (2) A request is to:\n    (a) be in writing; and\n    (b) outline fully the policy to be costed, giving relevant details; and\n    (c) state the purpose or intention of the policy.\n  (3) A request by the Prime Minister is to be given to the responsible Secretaries.\n  (4) A request by the Leader of the Opposition, or the Leader of a minority party, is to be given to the Prime Minister, who may then agree to refer it to the responsible Secretaries. The responsible Secretaries are not obliged or authorised to take any action in relation to the request unless the Prime Minister has referred the request to them.\n  (5) The Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party may, at any time, withdraw a request that he or she has made. A withdrawal by the Prime Minister is to be by notice in writing given to the responsible Secretaries. A withdrawal by the Leader of the Opposition, or the Leader of a minority party, is to be by notice in writing given to the Prime Minister, who is to notify the responsible Secretaries of the withdrawal.\n\n#### 30 How policy costings are to be prepared\n\n  (1) The responsible Secretaries may, jointly, issue written guidelines recommending approaches or methods to be used in the preparation of policy costings.\n  (2) In preparing policy costings:\n    (a) the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury is responsible for costing aspects of policies affecting tax revenue; and\n    (b) the Secretary of the Department of Finance is responsible for costing aspects of policies that affect government outlays and expenses or revenue (other than tax revenue).\n  (3) If a responsible Secretary needs more information to cost aspects of a policy, he or she is, in writing, to ask the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party (as the case requires) for that information.\n\n#### 31 Public release of requests and costings—requests made before polling day\n\n  (1) This clause applies in relation to a policy costing request that is made before polling day during the caretaker period for a general election.\n\n> Note: Clause 31A applies in relation to a policy costing request that is made on or after polling day during the caretaker period for a general election in circumstances where the caretaker period continues after that day.\n\n  (2) As soon as practicable after the request has been made and before polling day, either or both of the responsible Secretaries are to publicly release the request and a costing of the policy.\n\n> Note 1: Whether a policy costing request and costing has to be released by either or both of the responsible Secretaries depends on the division of responsibilities set out in subclause 30(2).\n\n> Note 2: The obligation in this subclause does not apply to a request that has been withdrawn under subclause 29(5).\n\n  (3) If a responsible Secretary does not have sufficient information, or has not had sufficient time, to prepare a policy costing and publicly release the request and the costing before polling day:\n    (a) the Secretary is to publicly release a statement to that effect before that day; and\n    (b) the request is taken to have been withdrawn on that day; and\n    (c) the Secretary is not obliged or authorised to take any further action in relation to the request on or after that day.\n\n#### 31A Public release of requests and costings—requests made on or after polling day\n\n  (1) This clause applies in relation to a policy costing request that is made on or after polling day during the caretaker period for a general election in circumstances where the caretaker period continues after that day.\n  (2) As soon as practicable after the request has been made, either or both of the responsible Secretaries are to publicly release the request and a costing of the policy.\n\n> Note 1: Whether a policy costing request and costing has to be released by either or both of the responsible Secretaries depends on the division of responsibilities set out in subclause 30(2).\n\n> Note 2: The obligation in this subclause does not apply to a request that has been withdrawn under subclause 29(5).\n\n  (3) If a responsible Secretary does not have sufficient information, or has not had sufficient time, to prepare a policy costing and publicly release the request and the costing before the end of the caretaker period:\n    (a) the Secretary is to publicly release a statement to that effect as soon as practicable after the end of the caretaker period; and\n    (b) the request is taken to have been withdrawn at the end of the caretaker period; and\n    (c) the Secretary is not obliged or authorised to take any further action in relation to the request after the end of the caretaker period.\n\n#### 32 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare policy costings\n\n  (1) To help a responsible Secretary to prepare aspects of a policy costing for which he or she is responsible, he or she may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the policy costing, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.\n\n## Part 9—Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities\n\n#### 33 Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities\n\n  (1) This clause applies when the actual face value of Commonwealth stock and securities on issue has increased by $50 billion or more since whichever of the following last occurred:\n    (a) a budget economic and fiscal outlook report, a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report or a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report was publicly released;\n    (b) a statement under this clause was tabled.\n  (2) The Treasurer is to table in each House of the Parliament, within 3 sittings days of that House after the increase referred to in subclause (1), a statement setting out the reasons for the increase, including the extent to which any of the following contributed to the increase:\n    (a) lower than expected revenue;\n    (b) higher than expected spending;\n    (c) capital purchases;\n    (d) grants to State and Territory governments for infrastructure.","sortOrder":27},{"sectionNumber":"18","sectionType":"section","heading":"Public release and tabling of final budget outcome reports","content":"#### 18 Public release and tabling of final budget outcome reports\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table a final budget outcome report for each financial year no later than 3 months after the end of the financial year.\n  (2) If:\n    (a) a final budget outcome report is publicly released within 3 months after the end of the financial year; but\n    (b) a House of the Parliament is not sitting when the report is released;\n  the report does not have to be tabled in that House until it next sits (or as soon as practicable after then), even if that is after the end of that 3 months.\n  (3) The final budget outcome report for a financial year may be incorporated in the budget economic and fiscal outlook report for the next financial year if the next financial year’s budget is brought down after the start of that year.","sortOrder":28},{"sectionNumber":"19","sectionType":"section","heading":"Contents of final budget outcome report","content":"#### 19 Contents of final budget outcome report\n\n  (1) A final budget outcome report is to contain Commonwealth budget sector and Commonwealth general government sector fiscal outcomes for the financial year.\n  (2) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.","sortOrder":29},{"sectionNumber":"Part 6","sectionType":"part","heading":"Intergenerational report","content":"## Part 6—Intergenerational report","sortOrder":30},{"sectionNumber":"20","sectionType":"section","heading":"Public release and tabling of intergenerational reports","content":"#### 20 Public release and tabling of intergenerational reports\n\n  (1) The Treasurer is to publicly release and table intergenerational reports as follows:\n    (a) an intergenerational report is to be publicly released and tabled on or before 30 June 2021;\n    (b) subsequent intergenerational reports are to be publicly released and tabled within 5 years of the public release of the preceding report.\n  (2) If:\n    (a) an intergenerational report is publicly released within the period specified in subclause (1); but\n    (b) a House of the Parliament is not sitting when the report is released;\n  the report does not have to be tabled in that House until it next sits (or as soon as practicable after then), even if that is after the end of the specified period.","sortOrder":31},{"sectionNumber":"21","sectionType":"section","heading":"Contents of intergenerational report","content":"#### 21 Contents of intergenerational report\n\n  An intergenerational report is to assess the long term sustainability of current Government policies over the 40 years following the release of the report, including by taking account of the financial implications of demographic change.","sortOrder":32},{"sectionNumber":"Part 7","sectionType":"part","heading":"Pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report","content":"## Part 7—Pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report","sortOrder":33},{"sectionNumber":"22","sectionType":"section","heading":"Public release of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report","content":"#### 22 Public release of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report\n\n  The responsible Secretaries are, jointly, to publicly release a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report within 10 days of the issue of the writ for a general election.","sortOrder":34},{"sectionNumber":"23","sectionType":"section","heading":"Purpose of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook reports","content":"#### 23 Purpose of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook reports\n\n  The purpose of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook reports is to provide updated information on the economic and fiscal outlook.","sortOrder":35},{"sectionNumber":"24","sectionType":"section","heading":"Contents of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report—economic and fiscal information","content":"#### 24 Contents of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report—economic and fiscal information\n\n  (1) A pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report is to contain the following information:\n    (a) updated Commonwealth budget sector and Commonwealth general government sector fiscal estimates for the current financial year and the following 3 financial years;\n    (b) the economic and other assumptions for the current financial year and the following 3 financial years that have been used in preparing those updated fiscal estimates;\n    (c) discussion as to the sensitivity of those updated fiscal estimates to changes in those economic and other assumptions;\n    (d) an updated statement of the risks, quantified where feasible, that may have a material effect on the fiscal outlook, including:\n    (i) contingent liabilities; and\n    (ii) publicly announced Government commitments that are not yet included in the fiscal estimates referred to in paragraph (a); and\n    (iii) Government negotiations that have yet to be finalised;\n    (e) a debt statement.\n  (2) The information in the report is to take into account, to the fullest extent possible, all Government decisions, and all other circumstances, that:\n    (a) may have a material effect on the fiscal and economic outlook; and\n    (b) were made, or were in existence, before the issue of the writ for the general election.\n  (3) The report is to:\n    (a) be based on external reporting standards; and\n    (b) identify, in general terms, the external reporting standards on which it is based and any ways in which the report departs from those standards.\n  (4) If particular information required to be included in the report is unchanged from information set out in full in an earlier budget economic and fiscal outlook report or mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report, the report may instead summarise the information and state that it is unchanged from what was set out in the earlier report.\n  (5) The report does not have to include information that the responsible Secretaries consider should not be included because:\n    (a) it is confidential commercial information; or\n    (b) its disclosure in the report could prejudice national security.","sortOrder":36},{"sectionNumber":"25","sectionType":"section","heading":"Contents of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report—statements by responsible Ministers and responsible Secretaries","content":"#### 25 Contents of pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report—statements by responsible Ministers and responsible Secretaries\n\n  A pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report is to contain the following signed statements:\n    (a) a statement, signed by the responsible Ministers, to the effect that the disclosure requirements of clause 27 have been complied with;\n    (b) a statement signed by the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury to the effect that, to the fullest extent possible, the information in the report for which the Secretary is responsible:\n    (i) reflects the best professional judgment of officers of that Department; and\n    (ii) takes into account all economic and fiscal information available; and\n    (iii) incorporates the fiscal implications of Government decisions and circumstances disclosed by the responsible Ministers;\n    (c) a statement signed by the Secretary of the Department of Finance to the effect that, to the fullest extent possible, the information in the report for which the Secretary is responsible:\n    (i) reflects the best professional judgment of officers of that Department; and\n    (ii) takes into account all economic information provided by the Department of the Treasury and all fiscal information available; and\n    (iii) incorporates the fiscal implications of Government decisions and circumstances disclosed by the responsible Ministers.","sortOrder":37},{"sectionNumber":"26","sectionType":"section","heading":"Division of responsibility between responsible Secretaries","content":"#### 26 Division of responsibility between responsible Secretaries\n\n  In preparing a pre‑election fiscal and economic outlook report:\n    (a) the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury is responsible for:\n    (i) tax revenue estimates included in the fiscal estimates required by paragraph 24(1)(a); and\n    (ii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(b); and\n    (iii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(c), so far as it relates to the tax revenue estimates; and\n    (iv) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(d), so far as it relates to risks to tax revenue or tax expenditure; and\n    (v) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(e); and\n    (b) the Secretary of the Department of Finance is responsible for:\n    (i) outlays or expenses estimates, and revenue estimates (other than tax revenue estimates), included in the fiscal estimates required by paragraph 24(1)(a); and\n    (ii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(c), so far as it relates to the outlays or expenses estimates, or revenue estimates (other than tax revenue estimates), referred to in subparagraph (i); and\n    (iii) the information required by paragraph 24(1)(d), so far as it relates to risks to outlays or expenses, or revenue (other than tax revenue).","sortOrder":38},{"sectionNumber":"27","sectionType":"section","heading":"Responsible Minister to provide information to help prepare report","content":"#### 27 Responsible Minister to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help the responsible Secretaries to prepare a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report, each of the responsible Ministers is to disclose to either or both of the responsible Secretaries details of any Government decision, or any other circumstance, that the Minister knows about:\n    (a) that has, or could have, material fiscal or economic implications; and\n    (b) that neither of the responsible Secretaries could reasonably be expected to know about.\n  (2) Disclosures are to be made within 2 days of the issue of the writ for the general election.","sortOrder":39},{"sectionNumber":"28","sectionType":"section","heading":"Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report","content":"#### 28 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare report\n\n  (1) To help a responsible Secretary to prepare aspects of a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report for which he or she is responsible, he or she may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the report, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.","sortOrder":40},{"sectionNumber":"Part 8","sectionType":"part","heading":"Costing of election commitments","content":"## Part 8—Costing of election commitments","sortOrder":41},{"sectionNumber":"29","sectionType":"section","heading":"Requests for costing of election commitments","content":"#### 29 Requests for costing of election commitments\n\n  (1) During the caretaker period for a general election:\n    (a) the Prime Minister may request the responsible Secretaries to prepare costings of publicly announced Government policies; and\n    (b) the Leader of the Opposition may, subject to subclause (4), request the responsible Secretaries to prepare costings of publicly announced Opposition policies; and\n    (c) the Leader of a minority party may, subject to subclause (4), request the responsible Secretaries to prepare costings of publicly announced policies of that party.\n\n> Note: If a request to prepare a costing of a policy of a Parliamentary party is made under this clause, and a member of that party makes a later request, under subsection 64J(2) of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999, to the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare a costing of that policy, or a substantially similar policy, the Parliamentary Budget Officer must not prepare a costing of the policy under that Act: see section 64K of that Act.\n\n  (1A) A request for a costing of a policy of a Parliamentary party is not to be made under subclause (1) before polling day during the caretaker period if a member of that party has, during the same caretaker period, requested the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare a costing of that policy, or a substantially similar policy, under Division 2 of Part 7 of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n  (1B) A request for a costing of a policy of a Parliamentary party is not to be made under subclause (1) on or after polling day during the caretaker period if a member of that party has, on or after that day, requested the Parliamentary Budget Officer to prepare a costing of that policy, or a substantially similar policy, under Division 2 of Part 7 of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.\n  (2) A request is to:\n    (a) be in writing; and\n    (b) outline fully the policy to be costed, giving relevant details; and\n    (c) state the purpose or intention of the policy.\n  (3) A request by the Prime Minister is to be given to the responsible Secretaries.\n  (4) A request by the Leader of the Opposition, or the Leader of a minority party, is to be given to the Prime Minister, who may then agree to refer it to the responsible Secretaries. The responsible Secretaries are not obliged or authorised to take any action in relation to the request unless the Prime Minister has referred the request to them.\n  (5) The Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party may, at any time, withdraw a request that he or she has made. A withdrawal by the Prime Minister is to be by notice in writing given to the responsible Secretaries. A withdrawal by the Leader of the Opposition, or the Leader of a minority party, is to be by notice in writing given to the Prime Minister, who is to notify the responsible Secretaries of the withdrawal.","sortOrder":42},{"sectionNumber":"30","sectionType":"section","heading":"How policy costings are to be prepared","content":"#### 30 How policy costings are to be prepared\n\n  (1) The responsible Secretaries may, jointly, issue written guidelines recommending approaches or methods to be used in the preparation of policy costings.\n  (2) In preparing policy costings:\n    (a) the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury is responsible for costing aspects of policies affecting tax revenue; and\n    (b) the Secretary of the Department of Finance is responsible for costing aspects of policies that affect government outlays and expenses or revenue (other than tax revenue).\n  (3) If a responsible Secretary needs more information to cost aspects of a policy, he or she is, in writing, to ask the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party (as the case requires) for that information.","sortOrder":43},{"sectionNumber":"31","sectionType":"section","heading":"Public release of requests and costings—requests made before polling day","content":"#### 31 Public release of requests and costings—requests made before polling day\n\n  (1) This clause applies in relation to a policy costing request that is made before polling day during the caretaker period for a general election.\n\n> Note: Clause 31A applies in relation to a policy costing request that is made on or after polling day during the caretaker period for a general election in circumstances where the caretaker period continues after that day.\n\n  (2) As soon as practicable after the request has been made and before polling day, either or both of the responsible Secretaries are to publicly release the request and a costing of the policy.\n\n> Note 1: Whether a policy costing request and costing has to be released by either or both of the responsible Secretaries depends on the division of responsibilities set out in subclause 30(2).\n\n> Note 2: The obligation in this subclause does not apply to a request that has been withdrawn under subclause 29(5).\n\n  (3) If a responsible Secretary does not have sufficient information, or has not had sufficient time, to prepare a policy costing and publicly release the request and the costing before polling day:\n    (a) the Secretary is to publicly release a statement to that effect before that day; and\n    (b) the request is taken to have been withdrawn on that day; and\n    (c) the Secretary is not obliged or authorised to take any further action in relation to the request on or after that day.","sortOrder":44},{"sectionNumber":"31A","sectionType":"section","heading":"Public release of requests and costings—requests made on or after polling day","content":"#### 31A Public release of requests and costings—requests made on or after polling day\n\n  (1) This clause applies in relation to a policy costing request that is made on or after polling day during the caretaker period for a general election in circumstances where the caretaker period continues after that day.\n  (2) As soon as practicable after the request has been made, either or both of the responsible Secretaries are to publicly release the request and a costing of the policy.\n\n> Note 1: Whether a policy costing request and costing has to be released by either or both of the responsible Secretaries depends on the division of responsibilities set out in subclause 30(2).\n\n> Note 2: The obligation in this subclause does not apply to a request that has been withdrawn under subclause 29(5).\n\n  (3) If a responsible Secretary does not have sufficient information, or has not had sufficient time, to prepare a policy costing and publicly release the request and the costing before the end of the caretaker period:\n    (a) the Secretary is to publicly release a statement to that effect as soon as practicable after the end of the caretaker period; and\n    (b) the request is taken to have been withdrawn at the end of the caretaker period; and\n    (c) the Secretary is not obliged or authorised to take any further action in relation to the request after the end of the caretaker period.","sortOrder":45},{"sectionNumber":"32","sectionType":"section","heading":"Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare policy costings","content":"#### 32 Commonwealth bodies to provide information to help prepare policy costings\n\n  (1) To help a responsible Secretary to prepare aspects of a policy costing for which he or she is responsible, he or she may request a Commonwealth body to provide information.\n  (2) A Commonwealth body is to comply with a request in time to allow the information to be taken into account in the preparation of the policy costing, unless it is not practicable for the body to do so. The body does not have to provide information if doing so would contravene another law of the Commonwealth.","sortOrder":46},{"sectionNumber":"Part 9","sectionType":"part","heading":"Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities","content":"## Part 9—Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities","sortOrder":47},{"sectionNumber":"33","sectionType":"section","heading":"Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities","content":"#### 33 Additional statements about Commonwealth stock and securities\n\n  (1) This clause applies when the actual face value of Commonwealth stock and securities on issue has increased by $50 billion or more since whichever of the following last occurred:\n    (a) a budget economic and fiscal outlook report, a mid‑year economic and fiscal outlook report or a pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook report was publicly released;\n    (b) a statement under this clause was tabled.\n  (2) The Treasurer is to table in each House of the Parliament, within 3 sittings days of that House after the increase referred to in subclause (1), a statement setting out the reasons for the increase, including the extent to which any of the following contributed to the increase:\n    (a) lower than expected revenue;\n    (b) higher than expected spending;\n    (c) capital purchases;\n    (d) grants to State and Territory governments for infrastructure.","sortOrder":48}],"analysis":{"kimi_summary":{"_metrics":{"completionTokens":648},"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":6,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation remains focused on its original purpose of fiscal transparency and public reporting. The 2021 amendment updating the intergenerational report deadline and various machinery provisions have not expanded the scope beyond budget honesty and economic forecasting."},"complexity_factors":["Multiple overlapping reporting obligations with different timelines (budget, mid-year, final outcome, intergenerational, pre-election)","Extensive cross-referencing between Parts and Divisions, with content repeated across the Act and Schedule 1","Detailed division of responsibilities between Treasury and Finance Secretaries for different economic components","Conditional timing rules (e.g., 'whichever is later' deadlines, parliamentary sitting day exceptions)","Interaction with external standards (GFS Australia, Public Sector Accounting Standards) and other legislation (Parliamentary Service Act 1999, Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911)","Subclauses 29(1A) and (1B) create temporal restrictions on requests based on polling day timing","Defined terms with nested definitions (e.g., 'debt statement' contains multi-level subparagraphs)","Multiple exceptions for confidential commercial information and national security"],"plain_english_summary":"This Act establishes the **Charter of Budget Honesty** — a framework designed to make the Australian Government's financial management more transparent and accountable to the public.\n\n**What it does:**\n\n- **Sets principles for sound fiscal management** — The Government must manage debt prudently, maintain tax system integrity, consider impacts on future generations, and smooth out economic ups and downs through its budget decisions.\n\n- **Requires regular public reporting** — The Treasurer must release:\n  - A **budget economic and fiscal outlook** with each annual budget\n  - A **mid-year update** (by end of January)\n  - A **final budget outcome** report (within 3 months after each financial year ends)\n  - An **intergenerational report** every 5 years (looking 40 years ahead at demographic and fiscal sustainability)\n\n- **Mandates pre-election transparency** — When a general election is called, the Secretaries of Treasury and Finance must jointly release a **pre-election economic and fiscal outlook** within 10 days. This prevents governments from hiding bad news until after voters have cast their ballots.\n\n- **Allows election policy costings** — During election campaigns, the Prime Minister can request costings of Government policies. The Opposition and minor party leaders can also request costings, but only if the Prime Minister agrees to refer the request to Treasury and Finance.\n\n- **Triggers extra reporting on debt** — If Commonwealth debt increases by $50 billion or more since the last report, the Treasurer must explain why.\n\n**Important limitation:** The Charter creates **no legally enforceable rights or duties** — it is essentially a political commitment to transparency, not something you can sue over.\n\n**Who it affects:** All Australian taxpayers and voters, who gain greater visibility into how the Government manages the nation's finances. It also binds the Treasurer, Finance Minister, and senior public servants to specific reporting obligations."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":5,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"Based on the text supplied, the Charter's scope is a statutory transparency and reporting framework for Commonwealth fiscal policy: it prescribes what fiscal strategy statements and periodic fiscal reports must include, who prepares and signs them, timing for public release and tabling, and related information‑sharing duties (Schedule 1; Parts 3–9). The Act expressly limits private enforcement (clause 3(2)) and remains focused on disclosure, reporting standards and procedural accountability. Nothing in the provided text indicates an expansion or narrowing of that stated reporting/transparency function beyond the Act’s declared purpose to improve fiscal policy outcomes through principles of sound fiscal management (Schedule 1 cl.1; clauses 4–5)."},"complexity_factors":["Multiple distinct reporting obligations with differing timing and content (fiscal strategy, budget outlook, mid‑year, final outcome, intergenerational, pre‑election) (clauses 6–12, 14–21, 22–26, 18–19).","Detailed content requirements (debt statements, disaggregated tax expenditures, quantified risks) that reference external reporting standards (clauses 12(1)(d),(f); 16(1)(b); definition of debt statement; clause 12(3)).","Division of responsibilities between the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury and the Secretary of the Department of Finance, requiring coordination (clauses 26, 30(2)).","Information‑sharing obligations on Commonwealth bodies with exceptions where impracticable or unlawful (clauses 13(1)–(2); 17(1)–(2); 28(1)–(2); 32(1)–(2)).","Discretion to withhold information on grounds of confidential commercial information or national security (clauses 12(4), 16(5), 24(5)).","Interaction and procedural limits with the Parliamentary Budget Officer regarding election period costings (note to clause 29; clauses 29(1A)–(1B)).","A substantive numeric trigger ($50 billion) that compels rapid parliamentary explanation within sitting‑day limits (clause 33)."],"plain_english_summary":"What this law does, mechanically\n\n- Establishes the \"Charter of Budget Honesty\" (Schedule 1) and makes it a legal framework for how the Commonwealth prepares and publishes fiscal information (clause 3(1); Schedule 1). It does not create private rights enforceable in court (clause 3(2)).\n- Requires the Treasurer to publicly release and table a statement of the Government’s fiscal strategy with each budget (the fiscal strategy statement) and allows the Government to replace that statement at any time by public release and tabling (clauses 6–9).\n- Requires regular public fiscal reports: a budget economic and fiscal outlook with each budget, a mid‑year update, and a final budget outcome for each financial year (clauses 10–12, 14–16, 18–19). Those reports must follow external reporting standards (clause 12(3), 16(3), 19(2)).\n- Requires an intergenerational report at least every 5 years assessing sustainability over 40 years (clauses 20–21).\n- Requires pre‑election economic and fiscal outlook reports to be publicly released by the Secretaries of the Departments of the Treasury and Finance within 10 days of the issue of the writ for a general election, with specified contents and signed attestation statements from responsible Ministers and the two Secretaries (clauses 22–26).\n- Sets rules for costing of publicly announced policies during the caretaker period: who may request costings, how costings are to be prepared and published, and limits on duplicate requests that involve the Parliamentary Budget Officer (clauses 29–32; notes to clause 29; clauses 31, 31A).\n- Requires the Treasurer to table an explanation to Parliament within 3 sitting days if the face value of Commonwealth stock and securities on issue rises by $50 billion or more since the last relevant report or statement, including the contribution of revenue, spending, capital purchases and grants to states (clause 33).\n\nWho this affects and who decides\n\n- Primary decision-makers and actors: the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance (responsible Ministers) and the Secretaries of the Departments of the Treasury and Finance (responsible Secretaries) (definitions and throughout: cl.3(1); clauses 22–26; 29–31).\n- Commonwealth bodies (Departments and other entities in the general government sector) are required to supply information on request to prepare the reports, unless impracticable or prevented by another law (clause 13(1)–(2); 17(1)–(2); 28(1)–(2); 32(1)–(2)).\n- During caretaker periods, the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition, and Leader of a qualifying minority party can seek policy costings or refer requests to the responsible Secretaries (clauses 29(1), 29(3)–(4)). The Parliamentary Budget Officer is given a role in relation to duplicate requests (note and clauses 29(1A)–(1B)).\n- The public and Parliament are recipients of the information: reports must be publicly released and tabled in each House (clauses 6(1)–(2), 10(1), 14(1), 18(1), 20(1), 22).\n\nWhy it matters (claimed purpose and practical testing of that claim)\n\n- The Act states its purpose is to improve fiscal policy outcomes by requiring a fiscal strategy based on \"principles of sound fiscal management\" and by facilitating public scrutiny (Schedule 1 cl.1; clauses 4–5). It therefore operates through transparency and predefined content standards for budget‑related documents.\n\nTesting the stated purpose against costs, incentives and trade-offs (source‑grounded):\n\n- Who pays and resource costs: preparing the specified reports and costings imposes ongoing resource and administrative costs on the Treasury and Finance departments and on other Commonwealth bodies asked to supply data (request powers in clauses 13, 17, 28, 32). Those costs are borne by the Commonwealth budget (i.e. taxpayers) and concentrated in the responsible departments.\n\n- Compliance burden and timing pressures: the Act sets firm timing requirements (e.g. mid‑year by end of January or within 6 months after last budget (clause 14(1)); pre‑election report within 10 days of the writ (clause 22); final outcome within 3 months after year end (clause 18(1))). Tight deadlines and the volume/detail required (debt statements, tax expenditure disaggregation: clauses 12(1)(d), 16(1)(b), debt statement definition) create operational risk and may require diversion of staff and systems to meet statutory deadlines.\n\n- Bureaucratic discretion and limits on transparency: the Treasurer may omit information from reports if it is confidential commercial information or could prejudice national security (clauses 12(4), 16(5), 24(5)). That carve‑out gives the Treasurer and responsible Secretaries discretion about what is publicly disclosed, balancing transparency against confidentiality/security.\n\n- Accountability and professional attestation: the pre‑election report requires signed statements by responsible Ministers and the two Secretaries that disclosures have been made and that the report reflects the best professional judgment and information available (clause 25). That creates reputational and administrative accountability incentives for officials to apply professional standards.\n\n- Division of responsibilities and coordination costs: the Act allocates tax revenue responsibilities to the Treasury Secretary and outlays/other revenue to the Finance Secretary for pre‑election reports and policy costings (clauses 26, 30(2)). The split can improve role clarity but requires inter‑departmental coordination for integrated fiscal pictures and public release.\n\n- Interaction with other institutions and duplication rules: requests for policy costings during caretaker periods are limited where members have approached the Parliamentary Budget Officer — the Act prevents duplicate official costings under competing mechanisms (note to clause 29; clauses 29(1A)–(1B)). That aims to reduce duplication but requires procedural checks.\n\n- Market and private enterprise effects: the Act mandates debt statements showing face and market values and interest costs over four years and triggers an explanation after large increases in securities on issue (clauses 12(1)(f), debt statement definition, clause 33). Those disclosures can influence market perceptions and private planning. The Act allows withholding of confidential commercial information (clauses 12(4), 16(5), 24(5)), which limits mandatory disclosure where private contract confidentiality is at stake.\n\n- Opportunity costs and substitution risks: departments will need to prioritise statutory reporting. Governments can change fiscal strategy statements at any time by public release (clause 6(3)), which provides flexibility but also creates potential for strategic timing of strategy changes relative to reporting dates.\n\n- Triggered transparency on borrowing: the $50 billion face‑value trigger (clause 33) produces a concrete automatic disclosure obligation that links large increases in Commonwealth securities to parliamentary explanation, identifying sources of the increase (revenue, spending, capital purchases, grants).\n\nLimits and legal scope\n\n- The Charter is a reporting and disclosure scheme. It does not, by itself, create enforceable rights for private parties (clause 3(2)).\n- Many requirements are procedural and informational (what to publish, timing, responsible officers) rather than prescriptive fiscal rules; the Act sets standards and transparency mechanisms tied to the \"principles of sound fiscal management\" (clauses 4–5, 8).\n\nPractical implementation risks\n\n- Meeting tight statutory publication deadlines and coordinating the split responsibilities between Treasury and Finance are the principal operational risks (clauses 14(1), 22, 26, 30(2)).\n- Reliance on other Commonwealth bodies to supply information in time (clauses 13(1)–(2); 17(1)–(2); 28(1)–(2); 32(1)–(2)) creates dependence on their capacity and legal constraints.\n\nBottom line (mechanical effect)\n\n- The Act makes fiscal strategy and a set of specified fiscal reports statutory obligations, assigns ministerial and departmental responsibilities for preparing and attesting those reports, requires public release and tabling in Parliament, allows limited non‑disclosure on confidentiality/security grounds, and creates a specific parliamentary explanation duty for large increases in Commonwealth securities (Schedule 1; Parts 3–9)."},"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"A positive credit balance is required for all requests, including BYOK, so fallback providers remain available. Add credits at https://vercel.com/d?to=%2F%5Bteam%5D%2F%7E%2Fai%3Fmodal%3Dtop-up to continue.","source":"analysis-cron"},"summary":{"complexity_score":6,"scope_assessment":{"changed":true,"description":"The original 1998 Act focused on basic fiscal transparency through budget reporting and election costings. Over time the scope has expanded meaningfully: the Intergenerational Report (a 40-year forward look at fiscal sustainability) was added, the Parliamentary Budget Officer costing system was integrated with rules to prevent double-costing of the same policy, detailed debt statement requirements were introduced, the $50 billion debt-spike disclosure mechanism was added, and reporting requirements around Commonwealth stock and securities have been made more granular. The addition of post-polling-day caretaker period rules for costings also reflects an expanded operational scope beyond the original framework."},"complexity_factors":["Multiple distinct reporting regimes with different timelines, triggers, and responsible parties (Treasurer vs. responsible Secretaries vs. both jointly)","Interaction with other legislation including the Parliamentary Service Act 1999, Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911, Loans Securities Act 1919, and Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013","Dual-structure format — the Act itself is very short, but the substantive obligations are contained in a Schedule (Schedule 1) which effectively operates as a separate instrument","The Act explicitly states its obligations are NOT legally enforceable, creating an unusual gap between legal form and practical effect","Complex election-period rules distinguishing between pre-polling-day and post-polling-day costing requests, with interaction between two parallel costing systems (responsible Secretaries vs. Parliamentary Budget Officer)","Technical economic and accounting terminology (GFS Australia standards, contingent liabilities, budget sector vs. general government sector, tax expenditures) incorporated by reference to external documents that update over time","Divided responsibility between two Secretaries for different parts of the same reports, with formal signed accountability statements required","Content is substantially repeated throughout the document (the Schedule reproduces the full Charter multiple times), making navigation confusing"],"plain_english_summary":"## What is this law about?\n\nThe **Charter of Budget Honesty Act 1998** is Australia's rulebook for how the federal government must manage and report on the nation's finances. Think of it as a transparency law — it forces governments to show their financial workings publicly, regularly, and honestly.\n\n## Who does it affect?\n\nWhile it directly binds the **Treasurer, Finance Minister, and senior public servants** (the heads of Treasury and Finance), it ultimately affects **every Australian**, because it governs how publicly the government must account for how it spends your taxes and manages national debt.\n\n## What does it actually require?\n\nThe law sets up several compulsory reporting obligations:\n\n- **Budget time:** The Treasurer must publish a detailed economic and fiscal outlook report (the document you see every Budget night) covering financial projections for the next 4 years.\n- **Mid-year:** A mid-year update (known as MYEFO — Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook) must be published by end of January each year, or within 6 months of the last budget, whichever is later.\n- **End of financial year:** A final report card on how the budget actually performed must be published within 3 months of June 30.\n- **Every 5 years:** An Intergenerational Report must be published, looking 40 years into the future to assess whether current government policies are financially sustainable — for example, whether Australia can afford age pensions as the population ages.\n- **Election time:** Within 10 days of an election being called, Treasury and Finance secretaries (senior public servants, *not* politicians) must independently publish a 'pre-election fiscal and economic outlook' (PEFO) — a snapshot of the true state of the nation's finances, free from political interference.\n- **Election costings:** During an election campaign, the government or opposition can ask Treasury/Finance to publicly cost their policy promises (though the opposition needs the Prime Minister's sign-off to access this service). Parties can alternatively use the Parliamentary Budget Officer for this purpose.\n- **Debt spikes:** If Commonwealth government borrowing (bonds/securities) rises by $50 billion or more between regular reports, the Treasurer must table a statement in Parliament explaining why within 3 sitting days.\n\n## The key principles governments must follow\n\nThe law also sets out **principles of sound fiscal management** — broad goals the government must say its budget is based on, including:\n- Keeping debt at responsible levels\n- Stable and predictable tax levels\n- Considering the financial impact on future generations\n- Maintaining the integrity of the tax system\n\n## The big catch — no teeth\n\nHere's the critical point: **none of this is legally enforceable in a court.** The Act explicitly says the Charter creates no rights or duties that anyone can sue over. It's a political transparency tool, not a hard legal constraint. Governments can't be dragged to court for failing to follow the principles — the accountability is through public and parliamentary scrutiny, not judges.\n\n## Why does it matter to you?\n\nBefore this law, governments could make budget claims with little obligation to back them up with transparent, independent data. This law means:\n- You can see the real state of government finances before voting in an election\n- There's a public record against which promises and actual outcomes can be compared\n- Policy costings during elections are verified by public servants, not just spin doctors"},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"impossible_compliance","section":"Schedule 1, clause 3(1) — 'caretaker period' definition, para (a)","severity":"high","reasoning":"Legal obligations under Parts 7 and 8 are timed relative to the caretaker period. If the end-point of that period is subjectively indeterminate in the re-election scenario, parties cannot know with certainty when their obligations crystallise or expire. The contrast with para (b) — 'when the new Government has been sworn in', which is a clear legal event — highlights the deficiency in para (a).","confidence":0.82,"description":"The caretaker period ends 'when it is clear that the Government has been re-elected' — an inherently indeterminate standard. There is no objective legal criterion for when electoral clarity is achieved: is it the close of polls, the AEC's declaration of results, the last seat declared, or some media consensus? This creates an unascertainable legal boundary on which significant obligations (policy costings under Part 8) depend."},{"type":"impossible_compliance","section":"Schedule 1, clause 22 and clause 27(2)","severity":"medium","reasoning":"While not logically impossible in absolute terms, the sequential dependency (disclosure must precede report preparation) combined with the 10-day outer deadline creates a structurally compressed window. If Ministers delay disclosure to day 2, Secretaries have 8 days to produce what is essentially a mini-budget document. The Act provides no extension mechanism.","confidence":0.75,"description":"The pre-election economic and fiscal outlook report must be released within 10 days of the writ being issued (clause 22), but the responsible Ministers' disclosure to the responsible Secretaries is only required within 2 days (clause 27(2)). This leaves only 8 days for the Secretaries to compile and publish a comprehensive report incorporating all disclosed information — a timeframe that may be practically impossible for a document required to cover 4 years of fiscal estimates, sensitivity analyses, debt statements and risk registers."},{"type":"other","section":"Schedule 1, clause 3(1) — 'external reporting standards' definition","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Since the Act has not been updated to reflect machinery-of-government changes, the reference is a legal anachronism. It does not render compliance impossible because the AASB standards are identifiable, but it introduces interpretive uncertainty and technically requires reports to be based on standards from a defunct body.","confidence":0.78,"description":"The definition incorporates 'public sector accounting standards developed by the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board' — a body that was abolished and its functions transferred to the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) in 2000, two years after this Act commenced. The definition therefore permanently references a non-existent institution, creating ongoing interpretive uncertainty about which standards actually apply."},{"type":"circular_definition","section":"Schedule 1, clause 3(1) — 'principles of sound fiscal management' definition","severity":"low","reasoning":"The core operative obligations of the Act reduce to aspirational language ('prudent', 'reasonable', 'adequate') that the Act itself does not define or provide metrics for. The definition points to clause 5, which provides no objective content. Combined with section 3(2) of the Act (no judicial enforcement), the obligations are aspirational rather than legal duties.","confidence":0.7,"description":"The term 'principles of sound fiscal management' is defined as 'the principles set out in clause 5.' Clause 5 then sets out those principles. This is a straightforward definitional cross-reference, not circular in itself, but the substantive principles in clause 5(1)(a) require debt to be maintained at 'prudent levels' and clause 5(1)(c) requires a 'reasonable degree' of tax stability — both standards are entirely undefined and self-referential in effect. Compliance cannot be objectively assessed against these standards."},{"type":"self_contradicting","section":"Schedule 1, clause 31(3) and clause 31A(3)","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Clause 29(5) carefully provides a voluntary withdrawal mechanism for requesting parties. Clauses 31(3)(b) and 31A(3)(b) then create an involuntary deemed withdrawal that overrides the requesting party's intentions. This contradicts the scheme's structure and could disadvantage opposition parties or minor parties whose costings are strategically delayed by information withholding.","confidence":0.8,"description":"If a responsible Secretary lacks sufficient information or time to prepare a costing before polling day (clause 31) or before the end of the caretaker period (clause 31A), the request is 'taken to have been withdrawn' and the Secretary is 'not obliged or authorised to take any further action.' This creates an absurdity: the party that requested the costing has not actually withdrawn it — the legal fiction of withdrawal is imposed unilaterally. The requesting party loses its right to a costing through no fault of its own."},{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"Schedule 1, clause 20(1)(a)","severity":"low","reasoning":"A hard-coded calendar date for a one-off obligation that has long since passed is a legislative drafting deficiency. It does not create ongoing impossibility but renders that paragraph permanently spent and potentially misleading to readers about the ongoing obligations in paragraph (b).","confidence":0.85,"description":"The provision specifies a hard deadline of '30 June 2021' for the first intergenerational report under the amended clause. This is a retrospective/historic date now permanently embedded in the legislation. For all future readers and administrators, the provision has already either been complied with or breached — it can never again be prospectively complied with. Its presence creates interpretive clutter and suggests the drafters intended it to be updated but did not create an adequate amendment mechanism."},{"type":"self_contradicting","section":"Act section 3(2) read with Schedule 1 generally","severity":"high","reasoning":"This is the Act's central logical flaw. The use of 'is to' (the Commonwealth drafting convention for a mandatory obligation) throughout the Schedule, combined with the blanket non-enforceability clause in the Act itself, creates an internally contradictory instrument. Every 'obligation' in the Charter is simultaneously mandatory and unenforceable. The Act is titled a 'Charter of Budget Honesty' but structurally ensures no accountability mechanism exists.","confidence":0.95,"description":"Section 3(2) of the Act provides that 'Nothing in the Charter of Budget Honesty creates rights or duties that are enforceable in judicial or other proceedings.' Yet the Charter throughout uses mandatory language ('is to', 'are to') imposing specific obligations with defined timeframes on named officeholders. The Act simultaneously creates mandatory-sounding obligations and expressly immunises all of them from legal enforcement — producing a document that is structurally a legal obligation but functionally a policy aspiration."},{"type":"other","section":"Schedule 1, clause 29(1A) and (1B)","severity":"medium","reasoning":"The interplay between the Prime Ministerial gatekeeping in clause 29(4) and the PBO exclusion mechanism in (1A)/(1B) is not fully worked through. A minor party leader who has gone to the PBO is then blocked from the clause 29 pathway by (1A)/(1B), but may never have had effective access to that pathway in any event due to PM discretion under (4). This asymmetry disadvantages minor parties compared to the Government and Opposition.","confidence":0.65,"description":"Subclauses (1A) and (1B) prohibit requests under clause 29(1) where a Parliamentary Budget Officer costing has already been requested. However, subclause (1)(c) only permits a Leader of a minority party to request a costing 'subject to subclause (4)' — i.e., subject to Prime Ministerial gatekeeping. A minority party leader blocked by the Prime Minister under subclause (4) from accessing the responsible Secretaries cannot then be said to have 'made a request' for the purposes of triggering the PBO exclusion in (1A)/(1B). The interaction creates a gap where a minor party's PBO request could be blocked from both pathways."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"high","section_a":"Act, section 3(2)","section_b":"Schedule 1, clauses 6, 10, 14, 18, 20, 22, 29 (and all mandatory operative clauses throughout)","confidence":0.95,"description":"Section 3(2) expressly provides that the Charter creates no enforceable rights or duties. Every operative clause in the Charter uses mandatory language ('is to', 'are to') imposing duties on the Treasurer, responsible Secretaries, responsible Ministers, and Commonwealth bodies. The Act simultaneously mandates and immunises the same conduct."},{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Schedule 1, clause 5(1)(b)(ii) — moderating cyclical fluctuations","section_b":"Schedule 1, clause 5(1)(c) — reasonable degree of stability and predictability in tax burden","confidence":0.78,"description":"Clause 5(1)(b)(ii) requires fiscal policy to moderate cyclical fluctuations 'as appropriate' — which typically requires counter-cyclical spending (stimulus in downturns, consolidation in booms) and therefore variable tax and spending settings. Clause 5(1)(c) simultaneously requires 'a reasonable degree of stability and predictability in the level of the tax burden.' Counter-cyclical fiscal policy by definition requires tax burden variability, creating a structural tension between these two principles that the Act provides no mechanism to resolve."},{"severity":"low","section_a":"Schedule 1, clause 6(2) — fiscal strategy statement required at each subsequent budget","section_b":"Schedule 1, clause 2(2) Note 2 — Government may table new fiscal strategy statement at any time","confidence":0.6,"description":"Clause 6(2) mandates a fiscal strategy statement 'at the time of each of the Government's subsequent budgets.' Note 2 to clause 2(2) states the Government 'may publicly release and table a new fiscal strategy statement at any time.' If a new statement is tabled between budgets under Note 2, it is unclear whether a further new statement is still required at the next budget under clause 6(2), or whether the inter-budget statement satisfies that obligation. The Act does not resolve whether the inter-budget statement resets the clock."},{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Schedule 1, clause 22 — pre-election report released by responsible Secretaries","section_b":"Schedule 1, clause 25(a) — pre-election report to contain statement signed by responsible Ministers confirming disclosure compliance","confidence":0.7,"description":"Clause 22 places the obligation to release the pre-election report on the responsible Secretaries — public servants who are politically independent. Clause 25(a) requires the report to contain a statement signed by the responsible Ministers (the Treasurer and Finance Minister) confirming compliance with disclosure obligations. During a caretaker period, Ministers' authority is constitutionally constrained. Requiring caretaker Ministers to sign certifications for a report they do not control and cannot direct creates a structural accountability gap, particularly where the Secretary proceeds without ministerial certification."},{"severity":"low","section_a":"Schedule 1, clause 18(1) — final budget outcome report within 3 months of financial year end","section_b":"Schedule 1, clause 18(3) — final budget outcome report may be incorporated in next year's budget report","confidence":0.62,"description":"Clause 18(1) imposes a 3-month deadline (i.e., by 30 September) for the final budget outcome report. Clause 18(3) permits incorporation into the next year's budget report 'if the next financial year's budget is brought down after the start of that year' — which is the norm. Australian budgets are typically delivered in May, well after 30 September. This means the incorporation option in clause 18(3) would only be available if the budget is brought down after 1 July, but incorporating it into that May budget would be after the 30 September deadline anyway. The provision appears to contemplate an early budget scenario that would also satisfy clause 18(1) independently, making clause 18(3) largely redundant or creating confusion about whether it constitutes an implicit extension of the deadline."},{"severity":"medium","section_a":"Schedule 1, clause 29(1) — policy costings during caretaker period","section_b":"Schedule 1, clause 22 — pre-election report within 10 days of writ","confidence":0.72,"description":"The caretaker period begins when the House expires or is dissolved (clause 3 definition), but the pre-election report obligation is triggered by 'the issue of the writ for a general election' (clause 22). These are different legal events: the House may be dissolved before writs are issued, or (in the case of an expired House) writs may not be issued simultaneously with expiry. This creates a gap period where the caretaker period has commenced (triggering Part 8 costing obligations) but the 10-day writ clock for the pre-election report has not yet started, producing an inconsistent obligations regime during that gap."}]}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/charter-of-budget-honesty-act-1998","history":"/api/acts/charter-of-budget-honesty-act-1998/history","analysis":"/api/acts/charter-of-budget-honesty-act-1998/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/charter-of-budget-honesty-act-1998/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/charter-of-budget-honesty-act-1998/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/charter-of-budget-honesty-act-1998/documents"}}