Ffr Agreements

2.52 The Committee was informed of the reaffirmation of the Commonwealth`s control over funding in the plans to implement the funding agreements. Contrary to the principles of the FFR IGA, witnesses pointed out that PIs were often normative and focused on inputs rather than results. [50] The NSW government has seen an increase in the administrative burden of IP funds. [51] The Government of Tasmania expressed concern about the “incriminating reporting obligations” associated with IP funds, a feature confirmed by the NSW government. [52] 2.15 NP agreements “define the objectives, results and performance criteria for implementing specific projects to facilitate reforms or reward legal systems that implement national reforms or make improvements in service delivery.” [13] 2.61 The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has proposed that another area requiring attention be the interaction between the FFR IGA and the recently improved framework for the management of grant programs. [64] ANAO stated that under the legislation, “GGs” do not apply to national funding agreements. [65] ANAO believes that the exemption from these GMC agreements could lead to a number of disagreements, including: 2.28 Throughout the investigation, the Committee heard that there was general support for the IGA FFR. While the basic principles and intent of the framework are considered positive, there have been difficulties in putting the theory of national funding conventions into practice. 2.49 The FFR IGA has reduced the existing 92 payments to six years. The Committee heard that, despite the reduction in SPPs and contrary to the original intent of the FFR IGA, the NPPs and the more proscriptive payments they received increased to 51. [45] Both the Tasmanian government and the NSW government expressed disappointment at the subsequent release of the funding agreements. [46] The IGA was the subject of extensive consultations with states and was agreed by the Council of Australian Governments on November 29, 2008. The IGA and the various national partnership agreements are available to the public on the website of the Council on Federal Financial Relations.

2.18 Although the survey results have affected national funding agreements under both NPs and NPNs, the focus has generally been on NPN funding agreements. 2.48 Although there has been overall support for IGA FFR witnesses, a number of problems have also been identified with national funding agreements, including: it is difficult to assess the compatibility of human rights between the definition or payment of national partnership payments in general. The amounts paid to each state vary each month when each state meets milestones and benchmarks under various national partnership agreements. However, in general, payments made by the national partnership support several human rights by funding the provision of services in a wide range of policy areas.