Appendix B: Data
The information in this statement is consistent with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Government Finance Statistics (GFS) reporting framework for the public sector.
The clear policy intent of the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Reform of Commonwealth State Financial Relations is that the GST is collected by the Australian Taxation Office, as an agent for the States, and appropriated to the States. The Australian Government accrual revenue and expenses and cash receipts and payments measures included in this statement therefore differ from ABS GFS measures by treating the GST revenue as State tax revenue. For the Australian Government, this statement uses the underlying cash balance, which excludes estimated future fund earnings.
Data are sourced from Australian Government Final Budget Outcomes, Australian Treasury estimates, and the ABS 1997-98 and 2005-06 GFS (cat. no. 5512.0). State data for 2006-07 onwards are sourced from Victoria's and the Northern Territory's 2007-08 budgets and other jurisdictions' 2006-07 mid-year reports. Net debt data prior to 1998-99 are sourced from the ABS 1998 Public Sector Financial Assets and Liabilities (ABS cat. no. 5513.0), and the ABS 1999-2000 Government Finance Estimates (ABS cat. no. 5501.0).
Australian Government budget aggregates, including net debt for 1999-2000 onwards, have been revised relative to the respective Final Budget Outcomes to ensure that data are consistent across the accrual period.
Due to methodological and data source changes associated with the move to an accrual accounting framework, time series data that use measures derived under both cash and accrual accounting should be used with caution. Statement 13 provides more information on specific factors affecting the comparability of data between years.