Chapter 2: Recent Public Sector Financial Management Change in Australia: Implementing the Market Model

This chapter documents and critiques the recent significant reform to the Australian public sector (APS). Key features of the transformation are examined from the perspective of Considine (2001) governance models and the management and accounting technologies utilized to implement, control, and monitor change. The implementation of new public management (NPM) reforms in Australia can be characterized as an iterative process reflecting the struggle of governments to pursue their reform agendas. Although the broad objectives of reform have not changed, we observe change in the methods adopted to achieve desired outcomes. Concerns relate to a number of areas, including value for money, risk management, transparency and accountability, accounting and reporting, and performance monitoring. At heart is a discrepancy between promises and outcomes that appear to stem from the fiction that private sector governance, accounting, auditing, and accountability models are universally applicable in the public sector.