EXPERIMENTING IN THE ANTIPODES:

LONG TERM FINANCIAL PLANNING

IN NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

June Pallot

University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Abstract

Over the last decade, significant accounting reforms have been considered by a wide range of state and local governments throughout the world. Few countries have undertaken such extensive reform of their public sector, or of their public sector accounting practices as an integral part of those reforms, as New Zealand. While accounting reforms in most countries have so far focussed on ex-post annual reports, and paid scant attention to prospective information about financial intentions for the future and over the longer term, New Zealand has witnessed since 1998 the introduction of a long term financial planning regime under the Local Government Amendment (No. 3) Act 1996. This paper examines the factors leading up to the legislation, describes the requirements of the new regime, identifies the accounting and related issues which have arisen and concludes with some lessons which other countries may wish to consider in their own quest for transparency and accountability.

Paper prepared for EIASM International Conference on

Accounting, Auditing and Management in Public Sector Reforms

Zaragoza, Spain, 7-9 September 2000.

First draft only; not to be quoted without permission of the author.

Comments are welcome and should be addressed to the author

j.pallot@afis.canterbury.ac.nz