State of the States: Past Results

The magic balance: excellent services, a fully protected environment & a job-filled economy

THE first edition of the Evatt Foundation's State of Australia series was published in 1994. The initial inspiration was to offer a challenge to the narrow, financially-driven assessments of Australia's sub-national governments that are promulgated by the domestic outlets of the two major New York based transnational credit rating corporations, Moody's Investor Services and the Standard & Poor's. The initial 1993-94 report included the inaugural State Government League Table, and expressed the hope that the series would become "an annual publication which will provide a source of reference for the overall evaluation of Australian government performance".

Now in its tenth year, the below Tables show the past assessments and note the political parties in office during the relevant period. The past results provide checks against the 2003 positions, since they can reveal longer-term trends and directions and expose annual disguises and aberrations.

The Foundation acknowledges the reasonable criticism that, in noting the political parties in power during the assessment period, the tables imply a causal link that may well be unfounded and unfair. There is no doubt that it can often take years to turn around a jurisdiction's record in particular areas, and the government that finally seems to gain the praise or blame for the change may well have had nothing to do with the annual result. Be that as it may, it remains that, while the governments of winning States always praise the Foundation, we are also regularly accused of bias (by the conservative governments of poorly performing States) and incompetence (by the Labor governments of poorly performing States). Not only does the longer view dispel such accusations, it tends to support a stable performance pattern, within which there are both trends and volatile instances.

Theoretically, it is true that, by virtue of the methodology (as distinct from crude manipulation or bias), the League Table might be expected to favour Labor governments. This follows from the observation that the broadly based character of the measures reflects more of a social democratic philosophy than neo-liberalism or economic rationalism. The Foundation makes no apology for a method that seeks to identify the State that comes closest to attaining that magic balance: excellent social services, uncompromising environmental protection, and buoyant, job-filled economic activity.

Table 1: Past Results from the State Government League Table (showing Parties)

The year refers to the year of publication. Up until 1998 a mix of indicators from the previous calandar and financial years were used and the period of assessment covered the prior 18 months. From 1998 the asessments cover the twelve months to the prior June

+ Indicates the result was tied

* The Territories were included in 1994 and 1995 (the ACT came 2nd in 1994 and 1st in 1995; the NT came 5th in 1994 and 3rd in 1995)

Table 2: Past Social, Environmental and Economic Results

*The 1994 assessment also included financial and administration categories; the 1995 assessment also included financial, industrial relations, administration and cultural categories

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