Report on Government Services 1999

The Report on Government Services 1999, released on 11 February 1999, examines the recent performance of governments in the important service areas of education, health, justice, emergency management, community services and housing.

Part of a cooperative project involving all governments, the report — the fourth in the series — is the most comprehensive source of comparative information on services throughout Australia. It identifies some similarities, but also some important differences in government services performance across the Commonwealth, States and Territories. For example, there are cases where the costs of providing the same service differ widely, and service quality and outcomes for the community also vary across the country.

The Chairman of the Steering Committee that produced the report, Gary Banks, said “Governments have recognised the value of this information in helping jurisdictions to learn from each other. This is crucial if we are to continue to improve government services”. He added “it is also vitally important that this sort of information is available to inform the community about the cost and quality of services governments provide”.

Mr Banks, who is also Chairman of the Productivity Commission, said “Much has been achieved in the course of four reports. Particular progress has been made filling information gaps in areas such as corrections, housing, emergency management and vocational education and training. This should help governments improve these services. However, for key services such as health, education and community services there is still a lack of nationally comparable efficiency data and information on the quality of services is patchy. The challenge of filling these gaps will require further cooperative effort.”

New indicators in this year’s report include:

• baseline data about social attitudes of Australian school students (for example, students’ interest in learning) (p. 71);
• general practice aspects of the health system (for example, participation rates for cervical cancer screening and proportion of bulk billed services provided by GPs) (p. 279); and
• performance information for emergency management (fire and ambulance) services (for example, the proportion of households with smoke alarms, and fire death rates) (p. 685).

Examples of performance variations identified in the report include:

• adults who were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with police services in 1997-98 ranged from 61 per cent in Tasmania to 72 per cent in Victoria and SA (p. 382);
• participation of women aged 50–69 years in BreastScreen Australia in 1996 and 1997 ranged from 42 per cent in the NT to 57 per cent in the ACT (p. 328);
• the annual cost per government institutional/large residential place for people with disabilities ranged from $52 000 in Victoria to $84 000 in Tasmania (p. 857).