The Australian Treasury was established in Melbourne in January 1901, after the federation of the six Australian colonies.[5] In 1910, the federal government passed the Australian Notes Act 1910 which gave control over the issue of Australian bank notes to The Treasury and prohibited the circulation of state notes and withdrew their status as legal tender.[6][7] The Treasury issued notes until 1924, when the responsibility was transferred to the Commonwealth Bank and later to Note Printing Australia, a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia.[8]
The department is focused on developing Australian taxation system, land and income tax and economic policies.[citation needed]
Operational activities
In an Administrative Arrangements Order made on 13 May 2025, the functions of the department were broadly classified into the following matters:[9]
Economic, fiscal and monetary policy
Taxation
Borrowing money on the public credit of the Commonwealth
International finance
Foreign exchange
Financial sector policy
Currency and legal tender
Foreign investment in Australia
Superannuation and retirement savings policy
Business law and practice
Corporate, financial services and securities law
Corporate insolvency
Competition and consumer policy
Prices surveillance
Excise
Census and statistics
Valuation services
Commonwealth-State financial relations
Consumer credit
Housing, rental and homelessness policy
Building and construction industry, excluding workplace relations
Population policy
Infrastructure and project financing
Small business policy and programmes
National policy on cities
Land and planning policy
Bankruptcy
Personal property securities
Structure
The Treasury is divided into five groups: fiscal, macroeconomic, revenue, Corporate and Foreign investment and markets, with support coming from the Corporate Services Division. These groups were established to meet four policy outcomes.[citation needed]
Effective government spending and taxation arrangements. The Treasury provides advice on budget policy issues, trends in Commonwealth revenue and major fiscal and financial aggregates, major expenditure programmes, taxation policy, retirement income, Commonwealth-State financial policy and actuarial services.
Sound macroeconomic environment. The Treasury monitors and assesses economic conditions and prospects, both in Australia and overseas, and provides advice on the formulation and implementation of effective macroeconomic policy.
Well functioning markets. The Treasury provides advice on policy processes and reforms that promote a secure financial system and sound corporate practices, remove impediments to competition in product and services markets and safeguard the public interest in matters such as consumer protection and foreign investment.
Effective taxation and retirement income arrangements. The Treasury provides advice and assists in the formulation and implementation of government taxation and retirement income policies and legislation as well as providing information on material changes to taxation revenue forecasts and projections.
Agencies
As at October 2023, the Treasury oversaw 16 agencies.[10]
In 2008, Treasurer Wayne Swan called Secretary to the Treasury Ken Henry an "independent economic regulator," similar to the Governor of the Reserve Bank.[12] When asked after the 2009 Budget about Treasury’s independence, Henry replied:
Strictly of course we're not. The Treasury Department is a department of state. It is part of the executive government. It works to the government of the day, whatever the political persuasion of the government of the day. And so in that sense of course the Treasury is not independent from government and it can never behave as if it is independent from government. But there's another sense in which it does have a degree of independence and that is that the Treasury conducts its analysis without government interference. It's up to the government of the day to decide whether to accept that analysis or whether to reject that analysis.[13]
The department is legally required to provide a Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook containing updated reports on the economic and fiscal outlook shortly after the issuing of a writ for a general federal election.[14]
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