The Treasury

The Treasury Building, Langton Crescent, Parkes, Canberra
Department overview
FormedJanuary 1901
JurisdictionAustralia
HeadquartersParkes, Canberra
Employees1,466 (2023)[1]
Annual budget$377 million (2022/23)
Ministers responsible
Department executive
Child department
Websitetreasury.gov.au

The Department of the Treasury, also known as The Treasury, is the national treasury and financial department of the federal government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The treasury is responsible for executing economic and fiscal policy, market regulation and the delivery of the federal budget with the department overseeing 16 agencies. The Treasury is one of only two departments that have existed continuously since Federation in 1901, the other being the Department of the Attorney-General.

The most senior public servant in the Treasury is the department secretary, currently Steven Kennedy who was appointed in September 2019.[2] Ministerial responsibility for the department lies with the Treasurer, currently Jim Chalmers who took office in the Albanese government in May 2022.

History

The Australian Treasury was established in Melbourne in January 1901, after the federation of the six Australian colonies.[3] In 1910, the federal government passed the Australian Notes Act 1910 which gave control over the issue of Australian bank notes to The Treasury and prohibited the circulation of state notes and withdrew their status as legal tender.[4][5] The Treasury issued notes until 1924, when the responsibility was transferred to the Commonwealth Bank and later to Note Printing Australia, a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia.[6]

The department is focused on developing Australian taxation system, land and income tax and economic policies.

Structure

The Treasury is divided into five groups: fiscal, macroeconomic, revenue, Corporate and Foreign investment and markets, with support coming from the Corporate Services Division. These groups were established to meet four policy outcomes.

  1. Effective government spending and taxation arrangements. The Treasury provides advice on budget policy issues, trends in Commonwealth revenue and major fiscal and financial aggregates, major expenditure programmes, taxation policy, retirement income, Commonwealth-State financial policy and actuarial services.
  2. Sound macroeconomic environment. The Treasury monitors and assesses economic conditions and prospects, both in Australia and overseas, and provides advice on the formulation and implementation of effective macroeconomic policy.
  3. Well functioning markets. The Treasury provides advice on policy processes and reforms that promote a secure financial system and sound corporate practices, remove impediments to competition in product and services markets and safeguard the public interest in matters such as consumer protection and foreign investment.
  4. Effective taxation and retirement income arrangements. The Treasury provides advice and assists in the formulation and implementation of government taxation and retirement income policies and legislation as well as providing information on material changes to taxation revenue forecasts and projections.

Agencies

As at June 2023, the Treasury oversaw 16 agencies.[7]

Financial regulation

The department works with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission and the Reserve Bank of Australia via the Council of Financial Regulators Working Group to ensure that market operators have appropriate oversight and to facilitate crisis management if required.[8]

List of secretaries

The secretary to the Treasury is the public service head of the department. Below is the list of secretaries.

OrderNameTerm beginTerm endTime in office
1George Allen1 January 190113 March 191615 years, 72 days
2James Collins14 March 191626 June 192610 years, 104 days
3James Heathershaw3 August 192628 April 19325 years, 269 days
4Sir Harry Sheehan29 April 193228 February 19385 years, 305 days
5Stuart McFarlane24 March 193829 January 19489 years, 311 days
6George Watt23 November 194831 March 19512 years, 128 days
7Sir Roland Wilson1 April 195127 October 196615 years, 209 days
8Sir Richard Randall28 October 196631 October 19715 years, 3 days
9Sir Frederick Wheeler1 November 19715 January 19797 years, 65 days
10John Stone8 January 197914 September 19845 years, 250 days
11Bernie Fraser19 September 198418 September 19894 years, 364 days
12Chris Higgins19 September 19896 December 19901 year, 78 days
13Tony Cole14 February 199123 March 19932 years, 37 days
14Ted Evans24 May 199326 April 20017 years, 335 days
15Ken Henry27 April 20014 March 20119 years, 311 days
16Martin Parkinson7 March 201112 December 20143 years, 280 days
17John Fraser15 January 201531 July 20183 years, 197 days
18Philip Gaetjens1 August 20182 September 20191 year, 32 days
19Steven Kennedy2 September 2019Incumbent4 years, 128 days

Treasury’s independence

In 2008, Treasurer Wayne Swan called Secretary to the Treasury Ken Henry an "independent economic regulator," similar to the Governor of the Reserve Bank.[9] When asked after the 2009 Budget about Treasury’s independence, Henry replied:

Strictly of course we're not. The Treasury Department is a department of state. It is part of the executive government. It works to the government of the day, whatever the political persuasion of the government of the day. And so in that sense of course the Treasury is not independent from government and it can never behave as if it is independent from government. But there's another sense in which it does have a degree of independence and that is that the Treasury conducts its analysis without government interference. It's up to the government of the day to decide whether to accept that analysis or whether to reject that analysis.[10]

— Radio National, Tuesday, 19 May 2009

Forecasts

The department is legally required to provide a Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook containing updated reports on the economic and fiscal outlook shortly after the issuing of a writ for a general federal election.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Treasury Annual Report 2022/23 page 87
  2. ↑ "Dr Steven Kennedy". Department of the Treasury. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  3. ↑ Our Department Archived 4 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine. The Treasury. Retrieved on 24 June 2012.
  4. ↑ "THE AUSTRALIAN NOTE ISSUE". Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
  5. ↑ Reserve Bank of Australia, History of Banknotes
  6. ↑ "Production". Reserve Bank of Australia Banknotes. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  7. ↑ Treasury Annual Report 2022/23 page 16
  8. ↑ "Finance and Markets". The Treasury. Archived from the original on 28 June 2012. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
  9. ↑ Jennifer Hewett (21 October 2008). RBA warns on bank guarantee as Reserve and Treasury at loggerheads. The Australian. News Limited. Retrieved on 24 June 2012.
  10. ↑ Stephen Long (19 May 2009). Treasury boss says Budget was beyond the 'reading age' of its critics PM
  11. ↑ "Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook". Commonwealth of Australia. 30 January 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
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