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Clearly communicating and taking accountability for fiscal strategies is the first step towards ensuring public finances are fit for today and the future.
McKinnon advocates for jurisdictions to take a “Balanced Scorecard” approach to communicating fiscal strategies via Treasurers’ Fiscal Statements to have honest conversations about future fiscal challenges and improve understanding and engagement with government fiscal matters.
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With persistent deficits and growing pressures ahead, Australia’s fiscal flexibility is at risk.
McKinnon has partnered with e61 to clarify the key future pressures on government spending, how states and the Commonwealth are choosing to spend today and the likely outcomes if we don't address these challenges. They find that spending at the state level is a key growth area, and that without change, Australia is more open to risk and may face more inequity.
Read the report “Fiscal Sustainability in Australia – Insights from Consolidated Government Accounts” on the e61 website.
Australia needs greater public engagement to build political pressure for long term, public interest spending.
McKinnon has partnered with the Walkley Foundation to deliver a workshop to provide journalists with the context, confidence and practical insight to interrogate public spending and translate complex fiscal and policy decisions into clear, accessible journalism in the public interest.
Leading figures from journalism, politics and public policy will present a workshop for journalists seeking deeper insight into how budgets are made, how spending decisions take shape and how fiscal choices influence public policy.
Australia needs a more long-term view to put public finances back on a sustainable trajectory.
Currently there is a bias towards the short term in government spending decisions which has contributed to consolidated government debt levels rising over time. To enable governments to engage better with their citizens on the medium-term pressures and trade-offs in government spending, we recommend the adoption of Treasurers’ Fiscal Statements. This new mechanism has the potential to create greater public awareness of and engagement with government spending to ensure Australia’s fiscal sustainability.
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