The purpose of the 2019-20 Portfolio Budget Statements (PB Statements) is to inform Senators and Members of Parliament of the proposed allocation of resources to government outcomes by entities within the portfolio. Entities receive resources from the annual appropriations acts, special appropriations (including standing appropriations and special accounts), and revenue from other sources.
A key role of the PB Statements is to facilitate the understanding of proposed annual appropriations in Appropriation Bills (No. 1 and No. 2) 2019-20 (or Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2019-20 for the parliamentary departments). In this sense, the PB Statements are Budget related papers and are declared by the Appropriation Acts to be ‘relevant documents’ to the interpretation of the Acts according to section 15AB of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901.
The PB Statements provide information, explanation and justification to enable Parliament to understand the purpose of each outcome proposed in the Bills.
As required under section 12 of the Charter of Budget Honesty Act 1998, only entities within the general government sector are included as part of the Commonwealth general government sector fiscal estimates and produce PB Statements where they receive funding (either directly or via portfolio departments) through the annual appropriation acts.