This is the sixteenth 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.

Mr Banks observed that the Report promotes awareness about the performance of government services across the country and helps drive improvements. 'The information in this Report is important to us all. Everyone relies on government services at different stages of their lives and they are particularly important for the more disadvantaged members of society. Improving government services is therefore important socially, but it is also important economically. Governments spent over $150.5 billion on the services covered in this year's Report, equivalent to around 12.3 per cent of Australia's national income'.

Gary Banks drew attention to a number of further advances in this year's Report, including alignment of health, community services, and housing and homelessness performance indicators with those in the related National Agreements. (The Steering Committee also collates National Agreement performance information for the COAG Reform Council.) Other improvements include the development of data quality information and extended time series for many indicators, and the inclusion of brief case studies for selected service areas. New information was also reported on: falls resulting in patient harm, and self-harm, in hospitals; general practitioner waiting times; selected adverse events in residential aged care; new juvenile justice indicators; and new material on housing and homelessness. Reporting on services to Indigenous Australians has also improved further and remains a priority.

Information on each service covered by the Report is summarised in the attached Factsheets.

• Children's services (PDF - 88 Kb) (18)
• School education (PDF - 121 Kb) (18)
• Vocational education and training (PDF - 86 Kb) (17)
• Police services (PDF - 85 Kb) (18)
• Court administration (PDF - 106 Kb) (19)
• Corrective services (PDF - 111 Kb) (19)
• Ambulance events (PDF - 121 Kb) (17)
• Fire events (PDF - 112 Kb) (18)
• Public hospitals (PDF - 85 Kb) (18)
• Maternity services (PDF - 109 Kb) (18)
• Primary and community health (PDF - 90 Kb) (19)
• Breast cancer detection and management (PDF - 88 Kb) (16)
• Mental health (PDF - 91 Kb) (18)
• Aged care services (PDF - 98 Kb) (22)
• Services for people with disability (PDF - 92 Kb) (20)
• Child protection and out-of-home care services (PDF - 130 Kb) (20)
• Juvenile justice services (PDF - 84 Kb) (19)
• Community housing (PDF - 86 Kb) (17)
• Indigenous community housing (PDF - 85 Kb) (18)
• Public housing and state owned and managed Indigenous housing (PDF - 108 Kb) (18)
• Commonwealth Rent Assistance (PDF - 86 Kb) (18)
• Homelessness services (PDF - 88 Kb) (18)
• Government services and Indigenous people (PDF - 98 Kb) (20)

Improvements in the 2011 Report are outlined in chapter 2. The most recent data and any errata will appear on the Steering Committee's web page.

This report was released on 28 January 2011. 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. These are not part of the printed report but are available on this web page. 

See Related Content below for Volume 2, and for an errata issued with the report.