Foreword
Budget Paper No. 3 Federal Financial Relations 2007-08 is one of a series of Budget Papers that provides information to supplement the Budget Speech. A full list of the series is printed on the inside cover of this paper.
This Budget Paper presents information on the Australian Government's financial relations with State, Territory and local governments. This includes information on GST revenue provision and Australian Government payments, as well as an overview of fiscal developments in the States and Territories.
Notes
This paper uses the following style conventions.
The Australian Capital Territory Government and the Northern Territory Government are referred to as 'the Territories'. References to the 'States' or 'each State' include the State governments and Territory governments.
The State and local government sector is denoted as the 'State/local sector'. References to the 'State/local sector' include the Territory governments unless otherwise stated.
Payments made to the state government sector include payments made to the local government sector unless otherwise specified.
Budget year refers to 2007-08, while the forward years refer to 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11.
Figures in tables, and generally in the text, have been rounded. Discrepancies in tables between totals and sums of components reflect rounding unless otherwise noted. Percentage changes in tables are based on the underlying unrounded amounts.
One billion is equal to one thousand million.
Estimates of $100,000 and over are generally rounded to the nearest tenth of a million.
Estimates midway between rounding points are rounded up.
Tables use the following notations:
- na
- not applicable (unless otherwise specified)
- 0
- zero
- -
- nil
- *
- unquantifiable
- ..
- not zero, but rounded to zero
- $m
- millions of dollars
- $b
- billions of dollars
The following abbreviations are used, where appropriate:
- NSW
- New South Wales
- VIC
- Victoria
- QLD
- Queensland
- WA
- Western Australia
- SA
- South Australia
- TAS
- Tasmania
- ACT
- Australian Capital Territory
- NT
- Northern Territory
In this paper the term Commonwealth refers to the Commonwealth of Australia. The term is used when referring to the legal entity of the Commonwealth of Australia.
The term Australian Government is used when referring to the Government and the decisions and activities made by the Government on behalf of the Commonwealth of Australia.