Heads of government (now the Council of Australian Governments or COAG) established the Review of Government Service Provision (the Review) to provide information on the effectiveness and efficiency of government services in Australia (see terms of reference, p. xxv). A Steering Committee, comprising senior representatives from the central agencies of all governments, manages the Review with the assistance of a Secretariat provided by the Productivity Commission. The Review was established in 1993 to:

• provide ongoing comparisons of the performance of government services

• report on service provision reforms that governments have implemented or that are under consideration.

The Report on Government Services, now in its twelfth edition, is a tool for government. It has been used for strategic budget and policy planning, and for policy evaluation. Information in the Report has been used to assess the resource needs and resource performance of departments. It has also been used to identify jurisdictions with whom to share information on services.

The data in this Report can also provide an incentive to improve the performance of government services, by:

• enhancing measurement approaches and techniques in relation to aspects of performance, such as unit costs and service quality

• helping jurisdictions identify where there is scope for improvement • promoting greater transparency and informed debate about comparative performance.

In 2002, COAG asked the Steering Committee to prepare a regular report on key indicators of Indigenous disadvantage, as part of the COAG reconciliation commitment. The first edition of this report, Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2003 (the Indigenous Disadvantage Report) (SCRGSP 2003), was released in November 2003. The second edition of this report was released in July 2005 (SCRGSP 2005). The next edition is scheduled for release in mid-2007. The 2003 and 2005 Indigenous Disadvantage Reports are included on the CD-ROM that accompanies the Report on Government Services, and can be found on the Review web page (www.pc.gov.au/gsp). In contrast to the Report on Government Services with its focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of specific services, the Indigenous Disadvantage Report focuses on outcomes for Indigenous people. It does not report on individual government services. The reporting framework has two tiers: ‘headline’ indicators for the longer term outcomes sought; and a second tier of ‘strategic change indicators’ that are potentially responsive to government policies and programs in the shorter term.