There are a few accounting tricks in the Budget.
They are not so much disappearing tricks, but exposure and transparency tricks. You have to be very careful when comparing year-to-year figures and be very wary of statements like, “”We increased health/education/justice spending by X per cent.”
But ultimately, public spending will be more transparent and it will be more difficult for future governments to fudge figures.
The story starts in 1996, when the Carnell Government made a lash (CORRECT) for its own back by introducing accrual accounting. It forced governments to identify and account for every cost in providing a service, especially depreciation. The Government could no longer, for example, just pay the teaching salaries and chalk each year and not worry that the school building was deteriorating, postponing the cost to future generations.
Accrual accounting has meant that last year’s accounting trick in milking Actew is exposed in this Budget and has to be paid for in an open way.
The Government copped a $55 million hiding this year because it does not get the same Actew revenue it got last year.
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