Divestment of commonwealth public enterprises in Australia: the cupboard is bare

Public enterprises have played a major role in the national development of Australia since the early years of European settlement. More recently, especially since the 1980s, Australian governments at national and state levels, involving political parties of both the left and right, have undertaken a program of major reform of their public sectors. The relentless pace of reform has been driven by a variety of motives from pragmatic through to ideological, within a broad consensus that private delivery of services should be privileged over public. As a result, discourse about public enterprises in Australia has tended to focus on divestment and windfall revenues to assist governments to balance their budgets. The analysis in this paper will detail the major players at the national level, their governance arrangements and some consideration of how these enterprises have performed. We will also outline how the public mission of public enterprises has transformed in recent decades from a role as nation builder to one as enabler of services. In conclusion we will consider the long-term outlook including the loss of public value with declining standards of service and the reduced opportunities for further divestments with pressure on governments to seek alternative savings and revenue arrangements

Increase in computed tomography in Australia driven mainly by practice change: A decomposition analysis

Background: Publicly funded computed tomography (CT) procedure descriptions in Australia often specify the body site, rather than indication for use. This study aimed to evaluate the relative contribution of demographic versus non-demographic factors in driving the increase in CT services in Australia. Methods: A decomposition analysis was conducted to assess the proportion of additional CT attributable to changing population structure, CT use on a per capita basis (CPC, a proxy for change in practice) and/or cost of CT. Aggregated Medicare usage and billing data were obtained for selected years between 1993/4 and 2012/3. Results: The number of billed CT scans rose from 33 per annum per 1000 of population in 1993/94 (total 572,925) to 112 per 1000 by 2012/13 (total 2,540,546). The respective cost to Medicare rose from $145.7 million to$790.7 million. Change in CPC was the most important factor accounting for changes in CT services (88%) and cost (65%) over the study period. Conclusions: While this study cannot conclude if the increase is appropriate, it does represent a shift in how CT is used, relative to when many CT services were listed for public funding. This ‘scope shift’ poses questions as to need for and frequency of retrospective/ongoing review of publicly funded services, as medical advances and other demand- or supply-side factors change the way health services are used

Governance disclosure on the internet : the case of Australian State Government Departments

This paper examines corporate governance disclosures on the websites of Australian state government departments. The study focuses on the nature and extent of governance information and the ease of finding this information directly on department websites and also in annual reports which are downloadable from websites. Our sample comprises six departments from each of the six states in Australia, giving a sample size of 36 departments. Our findings indicate considerable variability in both the level of disclosure and the accessibility of the information disclosed. The study also highlights a lack of consensus regarding the meaning of governance and what governance comprises, together with the need for a more structured approach to communicating governance information to stakeholders