Department of the Treasury (Australia)

Department of the Treasury
Agency overview

The main office of the Department of the Treasury, located in Parkes, ACT.
Formed	January 1901
Jurisdiction	Australia
Headquarters	Parkes, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Employees	1,056 (at April 2013)^[1]
Ministers responsible	Scott Morrison MP, Treasurer Kelly O'Dwyer, Assistant Treasurer Kelly O'Dwyer, Minister for Small Business
Agency executive	John Fraser, Secretary to the Treasury
Parent agency	Australian Government
Child agencies	Reserve Bank of Australia Australian Bureau of Statistics Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Australian Securities and Investments Commission Australian Taxation Office Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee Inspector-General of Taxation National Competition Council Auditing and Assurance Standards Board Australian Accounting Standards Board Productivity Commission Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation
Website	Department of the Treasury Website

The Department of the Treasury (or The Treasury) is the Australian Government department responsible for economic policy, fiscal policy, market regulation, and the Australian federal budget. Formed at the Federation of Australia, The Treasury is one of the oldest continuous departments of the Australian Government.

The head of the department is the Secretary to the Treasury, presently John Fraser, who reports to the Treasurer of Australia, presently the Hon. Scott Morrison MP and the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, presently the Hon. Kelly O'Dwyer MP.

History

The Commonwealth Treasury was established in Melbourne in January 1901.^[2] The department is focused on developing Australian taxation system, land and income tax and economic policies.

Structure

The department is divided into four groups, Fiscal, Macroeconomic, Revenue and Markets with support coming from the Corporate Services Division. These groups were established to meet four policy outcomes:

Effective government spending and taxation arrangements: The Treasury provides advice on budget policy issues, trends in Commonwealth revenue and major fiscal and financial aggregates, major expenditure programmes, taxation policy, retirement income, Commonwealth-State financial policy and actuarial services.

Sound macroeconomic environment: The Treasury monitors and assesses economic conditions and prospects, both in Australia and overseas, and provides advice on the formulation and implementation of effective macroeconomic policy.

Well functioning markets: The Treasury provides advice on policy processes and reforms that promote a secure financial system and sound corporate practices, remove impediments to competition in product and services markets and safeguard the public interest in matters such as consumer protection and foreign investment.

Effective Taxation and retirement income arrangements: The Treasury provides advice and assists in the formulation and implementation of government taxation and retirement income policies and legislation as well as providing information on material changes to taxation revenue forecasts and projections.

Financial regulation

The department works with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Reserve Bank of Australia via the Council of Financial Regulators Working Group to ensure that market operators have appropriate oversight and to facilitate crisis management if required.^[3]

Secretaries to the Treasury

The Secretary to the Treasury is the public service head of the department. Below is the list of Secretaries.

Order	Name	Term begin	Term end	Time in office	Notes
1	George Allen	1 January 1901	13 March 1916	7003555000000000000♠15 years, 72 days	appointed retrospectively on 9 July 1901
2	James Collins	14 March 1916	26 June 1926	7003375600000000000♠10 years, 104 days
3	James Heathershaw	3 August 1926	28 April 1932	7003209500000000000♠5 years, 269 days
4	Sir Henry (Harry) Sheehan	29 April 1932	28 February 1938	7003213100000000000♠5 years, 305 days
5	Stuart McFarlane	24 March 1938	29 January 1948	7003359800000000000♠9 years, 311 days
6	George Watt	23 November 1948	31 March 1951	7002858000000000000♠2 years, 128 days
7	Sir Roland Wilson	1 April 1951	27 October 1966	7003568800000000000♠15 years, 209 days
8	Sir Richard Randall	28 October 1966	31 October 1971	7003182900000000000♠5 years, 3 days
9	Sir Frederick Wheeler	1 November 1971	5 January 1979	7003262200000000000♠7 years, 65 days
10	John Stone	8 January 1979	14 September 1984	7003207600000000000♠5 years, 250 days
11	Bernie Fraser	19 September 1984	18 September 1989	7003182500000000000♠4 years, 364 days
12	Chris Higgins	19 September 1989	6 December 1990	7002277000000000000♠277 days
13	Tony Cole	14 February 1991	23 March 1993	7002768000000000000♠2 years, 37 days
14	Ted Evans	24 May 1993	26 April 2001	7003289200000000000♠7 years, 335 days
15	Ken Henry	27 April 2001	4 March 2011	7003359800000000000♠9 years, 311 days
16	Martin Parkinson	7 March 2011	12 December 2014	7003137600000000000♠3 years, 280 days
17	John Fraser	15 January 2015	present	7002944000000000000♠2 years, 213 days

Treasury’s independence

In 2008, Treasurer Wayne Swan called Secretary to the Treasury Ken Henry an "independent economic regulator," similar to the Governor of the Reserve Bank.^[4] When asked after the 2009 Budget about Treasury’s independence, Henry replied:

Strictly of course we're not. The Treasury Department is a department of state. It is part of the executive government. It works to the government of the day, whatever the political persuasion of the government of the day. And so in that sense of course the Treasury is not independent from government and it can never behave as if it is independent from government.
But there's another sense in which it does have a degree of independence and that is that the Treasury conducts its analysis without government interference. It's up to the government of the day to decide whether to accept that analysis or whether to reject that analysis.^[5]
— ABC Radio, Tuesday, 19 May 2009

Forecasts

The department is legally required to provide a Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook containing updated reports on the economic and fiscal outlook shortly after the issuing of a writ for a general federal election.^[6]

References

↑ Australian Public Service Commission (2 December 2013), State of the Service Report: State of the Service Series 2012-13 (PDF), Australian Public Service Commission, p. 253, archived from the original (PDF) on 6 December 2013
↑ Our Department. The Treasury. Retrieved on 24 June 2012.
↑ "Finance and Markets". The Treasury. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
↑ Jennifer Hewett (21 October 2008). RBA warns on bank guarantee as Reserve and Treasury at loggerheads. The Australian. News Limited. Retrieved on 24 June 2012.
↑ Stephen Long (19 May 2009). Treasury boss says Budget was beyond the 'reading age' of its critics. PM. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
↑ "Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook". Commonwealth of Australia. 30 January 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2013.

External links

Departments of the Australian Government
Australian Government
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