Banking the benefits: Better aligning budget process rules with Measuring What Matters

The Centre for Policy Development have released a paper on 'Banking the benefits: Better aligning budget process rules with Measuring What Matters' which details how the federal Budget Process Operational Rules can be reformed to incentivise long-term, holistic policy making that prioritises wellbeing.

Social Enterprises who have tried to work with the NSW Government, able to show how their work saves the government money, have often bumped up against this rule that second round fiscal effects (the costs or savings for government due to increased or decreased demand for government services) cannot be taken into account. This seems counterintuitive - if a program that keeps high-risk young people out of jail costs $30,000 per young person to run instead of $1 million per young person to be kept in prison, surely that would be a better investment of public funds for example, but the current budget rules don't allow that to be considered.

We look forward to seeing what comes of this advice and hope the NSW Government will consider it closely.