The audit would assess the delivery of outcomes achieved by selected entities as intended by government approved New Policy Proposals.

The audit objective was to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the Services Australia’s management of Smart Centres’ telephony services.

Services Australia operates the largest contact centre in the southern hemisphere with over 79 smart centres across Australia delivering telephony and processing services for Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support, and surge services for Department of Veterans’ Affairs and whole of government activities. In 2022–23 Services Australia reported that it handled 55.2 million calls. In October 2023, Services Australia informed Parliament that over 9,400,000 customers were booked into virtual waiting rooms and the longest wait time was almost 3 hours, over 9 million customers received congestion messaging and over 4 million calls were terminated by the customer. In the 2024–25 Federal Budget, the government announced $1.8 billion over three years from 2023–24 for additional frontline staff to help stabilise Services Australia claims backlog and service standards.

Services Australia’s reported in its 2022–23 Annual Performance Statements that it partially achieved its strategic performance measure of 70 per cent of customers served within 15 minutes. Services Australia also reported that the performance result may have been impacted by the lack of system functionality to combine call wait times once a call had been transferred.

The audit would follow-on from Auditor-General Report No. 28 2018–19 Management of Smart Centres’ Centrelink Telephone Services — Follow-up which contained two recommendations relating to monitoring and reporting on effectiveness of digital service delivery and wait times and finalising the review of key performance indicators.

This audit would examine the Department of Social Services’ (the department’s) management of its Data Exchange (DEX) performance reporting portal.

DEX is a web portal that allows providers receiving government funding to report on program outputs (such as the number of clients assisted) and outcomes (such as improvements in clients’ health and wellbeing). It is underpinned by three principles: providers should spend less time collecting and reporting administrative data and more time helping clients; data collection should focus on client outcomes; and client personal information and privacy is protected. The department uses DEX as the data source for three corporate plan performance measures under its Families and Communities and Disability and Carers programs. DEX has also been extended to other Commonwealth and state government programs, including grant programs delivered through DSS’s Community Grants Hub. While the department is responsible for managing DEX, Services Australia has operated the portal since 2021 as part of its delivery of shared ICT services for the department.

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

As at 30 June 2023, Defence reported that it managed $136.3 billion of total assets, including $84.3 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 SME was conducted in accordance with Defence policy and applicable Commonwealth legislative requirements.

This audit would assess the effectiveness of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s management of biosecurity risks for goods.

The Biosecurity Act 2015 provides the department with powers that may be exercised to assess the level of biosecurity risk for goods subject to biosecurity control, and measures that may be taken if the level of risk is deemed to be unacceptable.

This audit would assess the effectiveness of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s administration of post entry quarantine.

Imported plants and animals, including cats, dogs, birds and horses, complete quarantine at the department’s Post Entry Quarantine facility in Mickleham, Victoria.

This audit would assess the effectiveness of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority in responding to financial scams in Australia.

Scams are a growing threat to Australian consumers and businesses, with financial losses to scams reported to be at least $3.1 billion in 2022 (an 80 per cent increase on losses recorded in 2021). In 2022, 65 per cent of Australians were exposed to a scam attempt. Since 1 July 2023, the National-Anti Scam Centre has been set up in the ACCC, which aims to link government organisations and Australians. The audit would examine whether the entities properly discharged their responsibilities responding to scams and whether they effectively coordinated efforts where appropriate.

This audit would assess whether the award of funding under the Urban Rivers and Catchments Program was effective and consistent with the Commonwealth Grant Rules and Guidelines.

The Urban Rivers and Catchments Program is a $200 million grants program that comprises two rounds. The 2022–23 October Federal Budget provided $91 million (from 2022–23) for the first round of the program, and the 2023–24 May Federal Budget provided $109 million (from 2024–25) for the second round of the program. The second round closed on 13 February 2024.

This audit would examine the effectiveness of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s (DCCEEW) administration of the Climate Risk and Opportunity Management Program (CROMP) across government entities. DCCEEW is responsible for providing support to government entities to manage and report climate risk. CROMP is intended to enable the public sector to identify and manage climate risks and opportunities with the program rolling out in stages from 2023–24.

This audit would assess the effectiveness of the Australian Industry Participation Authority.

The Australian Industry Participation Authority administers the Australian Industry Participation requirements under the Australian Jobs Act 2013. A 2018 review investigated the transparency of processes to ensure compliance under the legislation.