Government final consumption expenditure– sources and methods

Government Finance Statistics is the primary data source, which in turn is based on data from the Department of Finance.

The data obtained are for the expenditures on defence employees (i.e. wages and salaries and employer social contributions) and on other defence inputs (i.e. operating expenses such as rent, electricity, stationery, etc.) plus details of the value of sales of goods and services. The estimate for government expenditure on Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured (FISIM) is included as part of the costs (i.e. intermediate consumption) of general government.

Consumption of fixed capital is used in place of the depreciation recorded in government accounts. Consumption of fixed capital is the preferred conceptual measure as it is compiled on a current replacement cost basis rather than the historical cost basis used to compute depreciation allowances. It is obtained from the Perpetual Inventory Method (PIM).

There are no state splits of data from GFS, with data split to states using posting location of defence employees. This is sourced from the Department of Defence. 

Defence employee costs are deflated using the Wage Price Index and defence materials are deflated using the Producer Price Indexes.

Data for universities are collected from a sample of approximately 22 public universities or just over 50 per cent of the population. This provides enough detail to allow state estimates to be produced.

Estimates for universities are derived by quantity revaluation using the estimated growth in the number of students in each state. For quarterly estimates this is based on trend as there is no quarterly data.

Pharmaceutical benefit scheme expenditure by state is produced by the Commonwealth Department of Health.  This is based upon pharmacy location of subsidised medicines.

Volume estimates for pharmaceuticals are price deflated using the CPI data for expenditure on pharmaceuticals.

Medicare data is allocated to state using Commonwealth employment detail from Employment and Earnings, Public Sector.

Medicare estimates are quantity revalued at state level using the estimated growth in medical services (from Medicare and hospital services data).

Government Finance Statistics is the primary data source, which in turn is based on data from the Department of Finance.

The data obtained are for the expenditures by Commonwealth agencies other than those in the Defence portfolio and by public universities on employees (i.e. wages and salaries and employer social contributions) and on other inputs (i.e. operating expenses such as rent, electricity, stationery, etc.) plus details of the value of sales of goods and services. The estimate for government expenditure on Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured (FISIM) is included as part of the costs (i.e. intermediate consumption) of general government.

Consumption of fixed capital is used in place of the depreciation recorded in government accounts. Consumption of fixed capital is the preferred conceptual measure as it is compiled on a current replacement cost basis rather than the historical cost basis used to compute depreciation allowances. It is obtained from the Perpetual Inventory Method (PIM).

All other national non-defence estimates are price deflated using an index compiled using components of the Consumer Price Index, Wage Price Index and Producer Price Indexes.

Current price estimates are sourced from GFS data.

Data are provided according to the following components:

• health;
• education;
• redundancies; and
• superannuation.

Health estimates are quantity revalued using the estimated growth in medical services. Quarterly estimates are trended as data is only available annually.

Education estimates are quantity revalued using the estimated growth in the number of students by state.

Redundancy payments for health are quantity revalued using the estimated growth in medical services. Quarterly estimates are trended as data is only available annually.

Redundancy payments for education are quantity revalued using the estimated growth in the number of students by state.

The remainder is price deflated as below using components of the Consumer Price Index, Wage Price Index and Producer Price Indexes.

Superannuation estimates are price deflated using indexes compiled from the Wage Price Index.

All other State and local government estimates are price deflated using an index compiled using components of the Consumer Price Index, Wage Price Index and Producer Price Indexes.