Parliamentary Budget Office
PBO
23 July 2012 – present
Parliamentary department headed by the Parliamentary Budget Officer that provides independent and non-partisan costings of policy proposals and analysis of the budget and fiscal policy to the Parliament.
How it came into existence
Established on 23 July 2012, when the first Parliamentary Budget Officer took office, as a department of the Parliament under the Parliamentary Service Act 1999 as amended by the Parliamentary Service Amendment (Parliamentary Budget Officer) Act 2011. It was a new body with no predecessor, created after the 2010 agreements between the Gillard Government and crossbench members and a 2011 joint select committee inquiry.
Legislation: Parliamentary Service Act 1999 (as amended by the Parliamentary Service Amendment (Parliamentary Budget Officer) Act 2011)
Main functions
- Costing policy proposals for parliamentarians
- Costing election commitments
- Post-election report on the budget impact of party election commitments
- Analysis of the budget and fiscal projections
- Research on budget and fiscal policy issues
Where it sits
- Type of body
- Non-corporate Commonwealth entity
- Portfolio
- Parliamentary Departments
- Accountable authority
- Parliamentary Budget Officer – Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 section 12(2) item 2, see also Parliamentary Service Act 1999 section 7
- ABN
- 49 775 240 532
Lineage
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Sources
Primary sources
- List of Commonwealth entities and companies under the PGPA Act, 1 July 2026 (Department of Finance)
- Australian Government Organisations Register (Department of Finance, data.gov.au) (listed from 11 December 2014 to the latest release (30 June 2026))