GST distribution review: final report

The Panel conducting the Review was asked to consider whether the current approach to distributing the GST (according to the principle of horizontal fiscal equalisation, hereafter referred to as HFE) would ensure that Australia is best placed to respond to the expected significant structural changes in the economy and would maintain public confidence in financial relationships within the Federation. However, the commission was not given without restrictions. The Terms of Reference also state that the Review will be guided by a number of factors, including that: the long-standing practice of equalisation between States has served Australia well the GST will continue to be distributed to the States on the basis that they should have equal capacity to provide services and infrastructure to their citizens GST will be distributed as ‘untied’ payments the Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC) will continue to make recommendations on the distribution of the GST.2 In addition, there is no extra Commonwealth revenue available with which to ‘buy’ reform, or smooth any transition. The Panel has therefore proceeded on the basis that States that are fiscally weaker at any given time must continue to have the capacity to provide substantially similar levels of services and infrastructure to their citizens from within the current revenue envelope

Sovereign Net Worth: An Analytical Framework

The Fiscal Responsibility Act requires the Crown to articulate targets for a series of fiscal variables, including net worth. Given the dramatic improvement in the fiscal position in recent years, a critical policy question relates to how (and which) measures of Crown net worth should be targeted. This paper sets out a framework for targeting Crown net worth. It does so by supplementing the GAAP-based measure with forward-looking information about spending and tax revenue. The paper argues that targeting net worth for the Crown requires the estimation of a path, rather than a static level.

Visualizing Magnitude: Graphical Number Representations Help Users Detect Large Number Entry Errors

Nurses frequently have to program infusion pumps to deliver a prescribed quantity of drug over time. Occasional errors are made in the performance of this routine number entry task, resulting in patients receiving the incorrect dose of a drug. While many of these number entry errors are inconsequential, others are not; infusing 100 ml of a drug instead of 10 ml can be fatal. This paper investigates whether a supplementary graphical number representation, depicting the magnitude of a number, can help people detect number entry errors. An experiment was conducted in which 48 participants had to enter numbers from a ‘prescription sheet’ to a computer interface using a keyboard. The graphical representation was supplementary and was shown both on the ‘prescription sheet’ and the device interface. Results show that while overall more errors were made when the graphical representation was visible, the graphical representation helped participants to detect larger number entry errors (i.e., those that were out by at least an order of magnitude). This work suggests that a graphical number entry system that visualizes magnitude of number can help people detect serious number entry errors

Letter to Frances Farmer regarding SEAALL Annual Meeting, August 12, 1971

A letter from Sewell Brumby to Frances Farmer naming the representatives from Brumby\u27s library who will attending the SEAALL Annual Meeting