Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

What the debt statement will be doing is consolidating information that, as Senator Wong mentions, is available in a number of places. As part of this, it will also be including, as I understand it, the within-year peak in debt, which can fluctuate, as we have mentioned before; the value of Commonwealth stock and securities, including their market and face value and their value as a proportion of gross domestic product; the total expected interest expenses relating to the stock and securities; and a breakdown by maturity and interest payments of the stock and securities on issue at the time of the report. Importantly, these debt statements will not be issued just at the time of the Mid-Year Fiscal and Economic Outlook, the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook or the budget; they would be issued—and hopefully this would be a rare occurrence—every time there is an increment of $50 billion or more since the last budget, MYEFO, PEFO or additional statement in the actual face value of Commonwealth stock and securities on issue. There will be quite a comprehensive amount of information provided between the MYEFO, the PEFO and other statements, if that is necessary. This is not just about what is provided at one particular time; it is providing information over a period as required. As I said before, I hope we do not necessarily need to provide many debt statements. We would aspire to report increasingly over the next few years to this chamber and the other place about our progress in getting deficits and debt under control.

We are also considering additional transparency around government sector reporting; analysis on the manner in which the states and territories report their budget statements, including the reporting of their government enterprises; how such reporting may apply to Commonwealth budget reporting; and whether the additional reporting creates any commercial-in-confidence issues for Commonwealth public non-financial corporations. The advice on the feasibility of this analysis will be provided in early 2014. The Treasury will also consider additional reporting of the public financial corporation sector, which may need to take into account the special circumstances of the Reserve Bank. We will also consider whether there would be enhanced transparency if each MYEFO debt statement were to include details of the public non-financial corporation and public financial borrowings.

Furthermore, in the Intergenerational report we would retain a dedicated section on the environment, including climate change and the effect of these policies and their impact on the Australian economy and Commonwealth budget. But there will be more extensive consultation with the Australian Greens on the scope of what could be included within that section. In part, in answer to the senator's question, it is a consolidation of some existing information and an expansion of that information in particular areas and, importantly, as part of this process, we are also looking to make our reporting more comparable with state and territory reporting in a number of areas. I am particularly interested in what we will be doing on the Intergenerational report and the expanded reporting on the environment and climate change, as well as the effect of these policies and their impact on the Australian economy and the Commonwealth budget.

Another change in the interests of transparency going beyond what is done at the moment is that we will set out the reasons for the increase in debt, including the extent to which the increase was caused by lower than expected revenue, higher than expected spending, capital purchases and/or grants to state and territory governments for infrastructure. The expansion of reasons for the increase in debt—if there is an increase in debt, of course—will allow us to have a more informed and, dare I say, interesting debate around the uses and abuses of debt. I think that will be very important going forward. We are going into a period where Australia is going to have to improve its productivity—double the rate of productivity growth, as income per head will not increase as strongly as it has been—so the challenge is to improve our productivity and competitiveness. As part of that, we need to make sure we are investing in the right sort of infrastructure. That means having a more informed debate about the use of funding for infrastructure. One complication as we go forward and provide greater transparency in the provision of this information will be the extent to which there is private financing of infrastructure and how that will be recorded in any statements where there is a public component. That is more of a footnote at this time.