About this report

Background to National Agreement reporting

In November 2008, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) endorsed a new Intergovernmental Agreement on Federal Financial Relations (IGA) (COAG 2009a). The Ministerial Council for Federal Financial Relations has general oversight of the operations of the IGA [para. A4(a)].

The IGA included six new National Agreements (NAs):

• National Healthcare Agreement
• National Education Agreement
• National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development
• National Affordable Housing Agreement
• National Disability Agreement
• National Indigenous Reform Agreement

COAG has also agreed to a new form of payment — National Partnership (NP) payments — to fund specific projects and to facilitate and/or reward states and territories that deliver on nationally significant reforms.

Five of the NAs are associated with a national Specific Purpose Payment (SPP) that can provide funding to the states and territories for the sector covered by the NA. These five SPPs cover schools, vocational education and training, disability services, healthcare and affordable housing. The National Indigenous Reform Agreement is not associated with a specific SPP, but draws together Indigenous elements from the other NAs and is associated with several NP agreements.

Under the reforms, each NA contains the objectives, outcomes, outputs and performance indicators (also referred to as progress measures) for each sector, and clarifies the respective roles and responsibilities of the Commonwealth and the states and territories in the delivery of services. The Agreements also contain a range of categories of performance information, variously named ‘outputs’, ‘progress measures’, ‘performance indicators’, ‘performance benchmarks’ and ‘targets’. The performance of all governments in achieving mutually agreed outcomes and benchmarks specified in each NA will be monitored and assessed by the COAG Reform Council (CRC).