Andrew Leigh says Treasury unit will boost quality of govt spending

Assistant Minister for Treasury Andrew Leigh said the Australian Centre for Evaluation, which will operate out of Treasury, would strengthen the ability of departments and agencies to assess how well policies and programs are working.

The budget included $10 million over four years for the centre, which is due to begin operating from July 1.

Dr Leigh said the unit would help ensure government programs delivered value for money.

"Rigorous impact evaluation is fundamental to good government," the assistant minister said.

"Quality evaluation will save taxpayers money and help the government design and adapt programs to better serve the community.

"It's good for the budget bottom line and good for all Australians."

The centre is expected to have more than a dozen core staff and will work across the public service, as well as academics and international experts, to help evaluate programs, including through the use of randomised trials.

Improving the public service's capacity to examine and assess the quality of its spending was one of the recommendations of the 2019 Thodey review of the Australian Public Service.

Dr Leigh said the initiative fulfilled one of the government's pre-election promises and would help reduce the APS's overreliance on consultants, the ramifications of which have been highlighted by the current PwC confidentiality breach scandal.

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Evidence-based evaluations have been used to determine interventions that work, and those that do not.

An assessment of the Victorian Healthy Homes Program found that targeted home upgrades delivered cost savings within three years, while a WA program using infant simulators (robo-babies) to discourage teenagers from becoming pregnant found that the intervention backfired and resulted in more teen pregnancies.

Dr Leigh said the centre will partner with departments and agencies to conduct "flagship" evaluations using randomised trials and other rigorous methods as well as supporting them to strengthen their own evaluation capabilities.