Construction of Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport is underway and expected to begin operations in 2026. The Australian Government is investing in WSI and has established a Commonwealth company, the Western Sydney Airport Corporation (WSA Co), to deliver the airport by 2026.

This audit will assess the effectiveness of WSA Co’s strategies to manage the transition from building the infrastructure to operating the Western Sydney Airport.

The audit would assess the effectiveness of Aboriginal Investment NT’s administration of grants programs.

Aboriginal Investment NT, which was established in 2022, administers various community and business grant programs. Auditor-General Report No1 7 of 2024-25 Management of conflicts of interest by Aboriginal Hostels Limited, Aboriginal Investment NT and Outback Stores Pty Ltd found that Aboriginal Investment NT was partly effective in the management of conflicts of interest and made two recommendations to the entity.

This audit would examine the effectiveness of Defence’s establishment and use of the Major Service Provider (MSP) Panel.

The MSP Agreement 2018–2026 was established to facilitate the engagement and management of large, long-term, multi-discipline and integrated work packages across the air, land and maritime capability domains. Defence selected four consortia (comprising 13 companies) as MSPs under the panel arrangements, which commenced in February 2018. AusTender data in December 2024 indicated that the four MSPs had been awarded 380 contracts with a reported total of $5.63 billion since the commencement of the panel in February 2018.

This audit would examine whether the Department of Defence is managing fatigue-related risks in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) effectively.

The Defence Safety Manual provides Defence’s corporate policy framework to support compliance with its legislative obligations under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) and Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011. The manual includes a fatigue management policy which applies to all Defence workers, and is supplemented by specific fatigue management guidance developed individually by Army, Navy and Air Force. An audit would provide independent assurance to the Parliament that Defence is appropriately managing fatigue-related risks in accordance with its legislative obligations.

This audit would assess the effectiveness of Defence’s management of the disposal of specialist military equipment.

At 30 June 2024, Defence reported that it manages $145.9 billion of total assets, including $88.6 billion of specialist military equipment. When one of these items is no longer suitable for or is surplus to Defence’s requirements, Defence disposes of it by either: transferring it to an Australian Government agency or another government, selling it, gifting it or destroying it. An audit would examine whether the disposal of selected equipment was conducted in accordance with Defence policy and applicable Commonwealth legislative requirements.

This audit would assess the effectiveness of the Department of Education’s regulation of recurrent school funding under the Australian Education Act 2013 ($30.1 billion in 2024–25).

In 2023–24, via the Strengthening non-government schools funding integrity measure, the Australian Government announced it would ‘strengthen policy and financial assurance and compliance to ensure funding for non-government schools is used appropriately for school education’.

This audit would continue the ANAO’s series of audits on cyber security.

The scope would include assessing selected entities’ cyber security frameworks and controls against the controls required under the Protective Security Policy Framework and the Australian Signals Directorate’s Essential Eight Maturity Model.

The audit would assess the effectiveness of the management of Machinery of Government changes by selected Australian Government entities.

This audit would assess the effectiveness of the Department of Defence’s management of the Defence estate.

Defence is projected to spend at least $12.2 billion over the forward estimates on sustaining its estate. The Defence estate consists of around 700 owned and leased properties, comprising 25,000 buildings and 6,000 other structural assets, including critical infrastructure and facilities such as military bases, wharves, ports, airbases, training ranges, fuel and explosive ordnance infrastructure. A number of strategic reviews conducted over the last 10 to 15 years have made recommendations relevant to Defence’s estate and infrastructure. This audit would examine Defence’s implementation of those recommendations, including those arising from the 2023 Defence Strategic Review.

This audit series assesses the effectiveness of governance arrangements in selected entities for monitoring and implementing agreed parliamentary committee and Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) performance audit recommendations.

Parliamentary committee and Auditor-General reports identify areas where administration can be improved and make recommendations to improve the delivery of outcomes. Once entities have agreed to implement performance audit recommendations, or in the case of parliamentary committee reports, the Australian Government has committed to the implementation of recommendations, timely implementation in line with the intended outcome of the recommendation is important in achieving the full benefit of the recommendation.