Report on Government Services

At a glance
Media release
About report

This report was released on 31 January 2012. It has been produced by the Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision (SCRGSP). The report has been published in two volumes. Also released with the report are attachment tables and data quality information (DQI). These are not part of the printed report but are available on this web page.

Download the report

Expand all Collapse all

Media release

Report on Government Services 2012

The Report on Government Services 2012 is being released on 31 January 2012. This is the seventeenth edition of the Report, produced by a Steering Committee of senior officials from Australian, State and Territory governments for the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). The Steering Committee is chaired by Gary Banks, Chairman of the Productivity Commission.

Gary Banks observed that the Report promotes awareness about the performance of government services and helps drive improvements. 'Everyone relies on government services at different stages of their lives, and the services in this Report are particularly important for the more disadvantaged members of society. Improving government services is important socially, but also economically. Governments spent over $164 billion on the services covered in this year's Report, equivalent to around 12.5 per cent of Australia's national income'.

There are a number of improvements in this year's Report, including the introduction of sector summaries in all broad reporting areas (Early childhood, education and training, Justice, Emergency management, Health, Community services, and Housing and homelessness), further data quality information, extended time series data for many indicators, and inclusion of brief case studies for selected service areas.

Reporting on the delivery of mainstream services to Indigenous Australians is a priority for this Report. For example, this edition includes additional school education reporting on learning outcomes for recent student cohorts, by Indigenous status.

Information on each service covered by the Report is summarised in the attached Factsheets. Improvements in the 2012 Report are outlined in the introductory sections of each service-area chapter. The most recent data (and any errata) will appear on the Steering Committee's web page.

Factsheets

All factsheets (Word/Zip - 1407 Kb)

Errata

The following errata have been issued for the Report on Government Services 2012. The applicable chapter has been amended on the website to reflect these errata.

Sector summary G - Housing and homelessness services, Chapter 16 and attachment 16 - Housing

Some public housing data for the 2010-11 year for South Australia and Australian totals have been revised. The changes are the result of corrections to the base numbers of public housing data (households and dwellings) for South Australia.

These data are used to calculate a range of descriptive information and performance indicators in the following parts of the 2012 Report:

Sector summary G (housing and homelessness services)
Chapter 16 (Housing) and its attachment tables

Download the errata

Chapter 13: Aged care services

The rate of hospital separations for falls in residential aged care services per 10 000 resident occupied place days has changed from 3.3 to 3.4. The rates for 2009-10 in figure 13.30 have also changed nationally and for all jurisdictions (except NSW). The revisions affect the following: