Credit: gorodenkoff
The 2019-20 Budget delivered by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg this week will see extra Australian Public Service (APS) Agencies, big and small, funded to introduce, develop, adopt or expand a range of policies and initiatives across a spectrum of public policies.
At the head of the queue is the Australian Bureau of Statistics, allocated $38.3 million over three years to ensure the smooth running of the 2021 Census and also, according to the Minister for Finance, Senator Mathias Cormann “to make improvements on how the Census is run, based on lessons learnt from the past”.
The line-up also includes the Attorney-General’s Department which will be allocated $104.5 million over four years to create the Commonwealth Integrity Commission and the Australian Taxation Office which will receive $1 billion over four years for its Tax Avoidance Task Force to target large companies, multinationals and high wealth individuals and the hope of collecting $3.6 billion in taxes over that time.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner is to receive an injection of $25.1 million over three years to strengthen its work against social media and other online platforms and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission can expect $7.8 million over four years to establish and run a publicly available National Register of Child Sex Offenders.
The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science is to receive $3.6 million over two years to launch a national Innovations Games initiative and the Fair Work Commission $4.3 million over 4 years to add more members to its ranks.
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is to be funded to the tune of $67.1 million to continue work on the GovPass program being developed to enable people all over Australia create digital identities for easy and quick access to Government services.
Further information on these and other initiatives in the Budget can be accessed in Budget Paper No. 2.
