Guide to Budget documents

Budget at a Glance

The Budget at a Glance is the overview of all the Budget information and contains the main points for the media and public. This summarises the Government's spending decisions and key points raised in the Budget Speech, the Fiscal Strategy Report, and the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update.

Budget speech

The Budget Speech is the Budget Statement the Minister of Finance delivers at the start of Parliament's Budget debate. The Budget Statement generally focuses on the overall fiscal and economic position, the Government's policy priorities and how those priorities will be funded.

Summary of Budget initiatives

The Summary of Budget Initiatives lists and describes the new initiatives included in Budget 2018.

Fiscal strategy report

The Fiscal Strategy Report sets out the Government’s fiscal strategy in areas such as the balance between operating revenues and expenses, and its debt objectives. The report includes the Government’s long-term fiscal objectives and short-term fiscal intentions plus fiscal trends covering at least the next 10 years. The Government must explain changes in the Fiscal Strategy Report from the Budget Policy Statement.

Budget Economic and Fiscal Update

The Update includes the Treasury's economic forecasts and the forecast financial statements of the Government incorporating the financial implications of Government decisions and other information relevant to the fiscal and economic outlook. The Update also discusses key risks to the economic and fiscal forecasts.

The Estimates of Appropriations

The Estimates outline, for the financial year about to start (the Budget year), expenses and capital expenditure the Government plans to incur on specified areas within each Vote, and capital injections it plans to make to individual departments. The Estimates are organised into 10 sector volumes, with each Vote allocated to one sector. Supporting information in the Estimates summarises the new policy initiatives and trend information for each Vote and provides information on what is intended to be achieved with each appropriation in a Vote and how performance against each appropriation will be assessed and reported on after the end of the Budget year.

Also released on Budget day:

The Supplementary Estimates of Appropriations

The Supplementary Estimates outline the additional expenses, capital expenditure and capital injections to departments required for the financial year about to end. Supporting information for each Vote provides reasons for the changes to appropriations during the year, related changes in performance information and full performance information for new appropriations.