Legislative Council Thursday 19 March, 2020

Ms FORREST question to LEADER of the GOVERNMENT in the LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, Mrs HISCUTT

I refer to the Revised Estimates Report 2019-20 -

(1) How much of the grants of $3923.3 million - the revised estimate for 2019-20 as per the income statement on page 18 of the report - have already been included in the income statement in prior years?

(2) If double counting of income has occurred, should this not be disclosed in the Revised Estimates Report - RER?

(3) What are the unspent grant amounts projected in 2019-20 for the three years of the forward Estimates, and where do these appear on the balance sheets on page 54 of the RER?

ANSWER

Mr President, I thank the member for Murchison for her question.

(1) Budget Estimates are prepared at a particular point in time and reflect the best estimates of the likely outcomes for a particular year. Following the date of the preparation of a particular set of budget Estimates, the Estimates, whether they be for revenues, expenditure, grants or other sources of revenue, will change for a wide variety of reasons. These changes do not reflect double counting as they are removed from the Estimates for one year and are not included in actual outcomes and included in the Estimates for the revised year.

As at the 30 June 2019, there was a one-off transaction to AASB 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers. The impact of this new accounting standard was detailed in Appendix 1.2 Impact of New Accounting Standards of Budget Paper No. 1, published in May 2019. The introduction of this accounting standard had implications for the treatment of revenue from the Australian Government, in particular, revenue relating to national partnership payments. As a result of the transition process necessitated by the introduction of the new accounting standard, some revenues previously recognised under the former accounting treatment will be recognised in 2019-20 or subsequent budget years. There is no double counting of this revenue. This is because, as at the 30 June 2019, an adjustment was required to be made to equity in the Government's balance sheet to reflect the removal of the previous year's revenue impact. This adjustment can be seen on page 19 on the 2019-20 Revised Estimates Report, on the line for 'Other non-owner movements in Equity'.

(2) As noted in (1), there has been no double counting for revenue.

(3) In relation to the impact of the new accounting standard AASB 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers, the adjustment of around $242.4 million is reflected in the balance sheet on page 54 of the Revised Estimates Report 2019-20 with other liabilities. This amount represents revenue that is to be matched against expenditure over the budget and forward Estimates period and beyond.