Treasury (Australia)


The Treasury, fully Department of the Treasury, is the Australian Government ministerial department responsible for economic policy, fiscal policy, market regulation, and the Australian federal budget. The Treasury is one of only two government departments that have existed continuously since Federation in 1901, the other being the Attorney-General's Department.
The most senior public servant in the Treasury is the department secretary, currently Steven Kennedy who was appointed in September 2019. Ministerial responsibility for the department lies with the Treasurer, currently Josh Frydenberg who took office in the Morrison Government in August 2018.

History

The Australian Treasury was established in Melbourne in January 1901, after the federation of the six Australian colonies. 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. 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.
The department is focused on developing Australian taxation system, land and income tax and economic policies.

Structure

The Treasury is divided into four groups: fiscal, macroeconomic, revenue 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.

    Financial regulation

The department works with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the Australian Securities and 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.

Secretaries to the Treasury

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 1916
2James Collins14 March 191626 June 1926
3James Heathershaw3 August 192628 April 1932
4Sir Henry Sheehan29 April 193228 February 1938
5Stuart McFarlane24 March 193829 January 1948
6George Watt23 November 194831 March 1951
7Sir Roland Wilson1 April 195127 October 1966
8Sir Richard Randall28 October 196631 October 1971
9Sir Frederick Wheeler1 November 19715 January 1979
10John Stone8 January 197914 September 1984
11Bernie Fraser19 September 198418 September 1989
12Chris Higgins19 September 19896 December 1990
13Tony Cole14 February 199123 March 1993
14Ted Evans24 May 199326 April 2001
15Ken Henry27 April 20014 March 2011
16Martin Parkinson7 March 201112 December 2014
17John Fraser15 January 201531 July 2018
18Philip Gaetjens1 August 20182 September 2019
19Steven Kennedy2 September 2019incumbent

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. When asked after the 2009 Budget about Treasury’s independence, Henry replied:

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.