Commonwealth general governmentCommonwealth general government

Commonwealth general government

Commonwealth government departments and agencies principal function is to provide non-market goods and services, principally financed by taxes, to regulate economic activity, maintain law and order and to redistribute income and wealth by means of transfers.

Include:

• Departments and agencies such as Department of Finance, Department of Defence, ABC, SBS, Australian Film Commission and CSIRO;
• Commonwealth government unincorporated enterprises which provide goods and services to the Commonwealth government and/or to the public for free or at prices that are not economically significant (e.g. government employee cafeterias, munitions factories);
• Non-profit institutions controlled and mainly financed by the Commonwealth government;
• Commonwealth government quasi-corporations which sell their output, at near market prices, exclusively to other government units (e.g. government printers and defence force housing schemes); and
• Public universities.

Exclude:

• Government trading enterprises such as Telstra and Australia Post (record as Trading enterprises owned by the Commonwealth Government);
• Departments of the ACT and Northern Territory governments (record as State, territory and local general government); and
• Reserve Bank of Australia and Commonwealth Government financial institutions such as AIDC and EFIC (record as financial institutions as appropriate).