Fiscal Relations Across Levels of Government in Australia

Key areas of public service provision in Australia are subject to complex patterns of joint government involvement that can lead to inefficiencies. Clarifying government roles and responsibilities is likely to have a significant potential for improving public sector efficiency. Fragmentation of decision making and funding arrangements, particularly in the areas of hospital services and old-age care, creates incentives for cost and blame-shifting between government levels. A collaborative approach between government levels to overcome some of these problems, as recently initiated by the Council of Australian Governments, would help to develop better governance arrangements and improve spending assignments. A less complex system of inter-governmental transfers would also contribute to a more effective specification of spending responsibilities. Stronger revenue-raising capacity of the states, through a further improvement in the efficiency of the state tax system, would raise the ability of sub-national governments to meet expenditure responsibilities and be better prepared for coping with demographic change.