GLOSSARY

Detailed below is a glossary of technical terms, or ordinary words used technically, and a list of acronyms and abbreviations used in this document.

Technical terms

Appropriation - an authorisation by Parliament to spend monies from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

ICON - is an optic fibre cable network that has been established to provide high bandwidth communications between a number of government agencies in the Canberra area.

MPEG-2 - used for digital TV broadcast

Outcomes - Results, impacts or consequences of actions by the Commonwealth on the Australian community. Outcomes are the results or impacts that the Government wishes to achieve. Actual outcomes are the results or impacts actually achieved.

Output Groups - The aggregation based on homogeneity, type of product or beneficiary target group, of outputs. Aggregation may also be needed for the provision of adequate information for performance monitoring, or based on a materiality test.

Outputs - The goods and services produced by agencies on behalf of government for external organisations or individuals. Outputs include goods and services produced for other areas of government external to the agency.

Portfolio Budget Statements - Statements prepared by agencies to explain the Budget appropriations in terms of outcomes and outputs.

Price - The amount the Government or the community pays for the delivery of agreed outputs.

Quality - Relates to the characteristics by which customers or stakeholders judge an organisation, product or service. Assessment of quality involves use of information gathered from interested parties to identify differences between user's expectations and experiences.

Quantity - Size of an output. Count or volume measures. How many or how much.

Receipts - The total or gross amount received by the Commonwealth. Each receipt item is either revenue, an offset within outlays, or financing transactions. Receipts include taxes, interest, charges for goods and services, borrowing's and government business enterprise (GBE) dividends received.

TransACT - is a proposed high bandwidth public infrastructure project aimed at delivering high bandwidth access to all Canberra homes.

Acronyms and abbreviations