Taxation rulings are a key mechanism used by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to disseminate the Commissioner of Taxation's interpretative advice on Australian taxation law. The objective of the audit was to:

report to Parliament on the operation of the ATO's administration of taxation rulings (public, private and oral rulings); and where appropriate, make recommendations for improvements, having regard to considerations of: efficiency and effectiveness of the ATO's administration of the rulings system, particularly in relation to the achievement of the objectives set by Parliament for the rulings system; the ATO's systems' capacity to deliver consistency and fairness for taxpayers; and good corporate governance, including the control framework.

This edition of audit insights draws together key learnings from Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) reports tabled in the Parliament of Australia from October to December 2017. It provides insights into policy and program design – evidence and evaluation, record keeping, and the Australian Government Procurement Contract Reporting information report.

This audit would assess the effectiveness of the administration of grants awarded under the Safe Places Emergency Accommodation Program (Safe Places), including compliance with the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Principles, and management of the grants across the Safe Places program life cycle.

Safe Places is a capital works program funding the building, renovation or purchase of emergency accommodation for women and children experiencing family and domestic violence. There have been two rounds of funding. Under successive National Plans to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, the Australian Government has committed over $170 million over seven years to Safe Places ($72.6 million for round 1 from 2020–21 to 2024–25, and $100 million for round 2 from 2022–23 to 2026–2027). The first round of grants, awarded in 2020, was intended to deliver new emergency and crisis accommodation for women and children experiencing domestic and family violence. The second round of grants, was awarded in 2024 and was designed to focus on improving access to appropriate emergency accommodation for First Nations women and children, women and children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and women and children with disability.

The audit examined how well performance information for programs administered by the (now) Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DEETYA) facilitates good decision-making and provides a suitable framework for control and accountability for performance.

Networking the Nation was established with effect from 1 July 1997 to support activities and projects designed to meet a range of telecommunications needs in regional, rural and remote Australia. Funding is provided by the Regional Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund. The program provides total support of $250 million, of which $50 million was to be allocated annually for the five year period from 1997-98. Funding decisions for grants are the responsibility of an independent Board appointed by the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. The objectives of the audit were to examine the administration of the program with a view to ascertaining the scope for improving administration and to provide assurance on the equity, efficiency and effectiveness of the management and administrative processes applied in the administration of grants under the program.

Justice reinvestment is a long-term, community-led approach that aims to prevent crime, address the drivers of contact with the justice system, and improve justice outcomes for First Nations peoples in a particular place or community. Justice reinvestment aligns with Outcomes 10 and 11 and the Priority Reforms under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, to reduce the overrepresentation of young people and adults in the criminal justice system. In the October 2022 Budget $69 million was committed over 4 years (from 2022–23) to establish a National Justice Reinvestment Program to support up to 30 community-led justice reinvestment initiatives, with ongoing funding of $20 million per year from 2026–27. In the 2023–24 Budget, an additional $10 million was committed over 4 years to support place-based justice reinvestment initiatives in the Central Australia region of the Northern Territory. Funding was delivered through open, non-competitive grant funding rounds. As of May 2025, information in relation to 25 grant agreements had been published valued at $55.4 million across the two funding rounds (with two assessment cycles in each round). A potential audit would examine the award of funding was in accordance with the Commonwealth Grant Rules and Principles.

The objective of the audit was to evaluate the Department's performance in pursuit of selected PBS program objectives and outcomes, including to investigate and evaluate the economy, efficiency, administrative effectiveness and accountability of the management of the listing process as a significant element of the program. This involved a review of the developments in the listing process over recent years including: the establishment of a comprehensive database of major applications for PBS listing between 1991 and 1996, which facilitated a detailed analysis of the time taken to list drugs on the PBS schedule; a technical consultancy into the DHFS' Guidelines to industry for preparation of applications for PBS listing, and into the use of the economic analysis in assessing proposals for PBS listing; and a review of the selection process including the operations of the PBS advisory committees.

The objective of this audit was to examine the effectiveness of Defence and the DMO's management of procurement and through life support arrangements to meet the explosive ordnance requirements of the ADF, particularly the non-guided munitions requirements of Army. This included a review of the progress of Defence and the DMO in implementing the recommendations of ANAO Audit Report No.40 2005–06.

The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of annual Certificate of Compliance processes for FMA Act agencies. To form a conclusion against the audit objective, the audit considered: Finance’s administration of the Certificate process at a whole-of-government level; selected agencies’ annual Certificate processes; and, the design and impact of the Certificate.

The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of security awareness and training arrangements at selected Australian Government organisations, including whether they addressed selected security issues from the PSM.