The Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP) is a large and growing government programme that supports participation in higher education. Although the costs of HELP are included in the budget financial statements, they are not separately identified to allow the impact of the programme on the budget to be readily assessed. This report discusses the size...

This report discusses the outlook for and drivers of Australian Government spending to help inform discussion about the sustainability of spending over the medium term.

To help place developments in revenue in perspective, and identify trends that can be obscured by short-term fluctuations, this report examines trends in Australian Government receipts over three decades.

The report focusses on movements in the estimated structural budget balance over the past decade and through the 2013-14 budget and forward estimates years.