Analysis suggests money is being wasted because 95 per cent of Federal Government programs over the past decade had not been properly evaluated.

Australia's community programs have failed to reduce poverty, despite a 5 per cent annual increase in funding over the past 10 years, due to the vast majority of federal and state schemes not being properly evaluated to see if they are succeeding, according to a new report by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA). 

The study examined a sample of 20 federal government programs with total expenditure of over $200 billion and found that 95 per cent had not been properly evaluated. 

Among the worst evaluated programs were the now defunct $3.3 billion National Rental Affordability Scheme, the $415 million National Ice Action Strategy in 2016 and the $36 million cashless debit card trial.

Of the 20 federal programs; a quarter had no evaluation framework, and seventy per cent (14 of 20) had either an incomplete, inconsistent or poor evaluation framework. 

The analysis suggests at least $61 billion of community services spending a year is unlikely to be properly evaluated.  

The report makes a series of recommendations to overhaul federal evaluation practices, including: 

  • The Albanese Government’s planned Office of the Evaluator-General should foster and champion an evaluation culture among government departments and external providers;

  • Incentivising evaluation, including legislating the review of existing major Commonwealth-funded programs at least every five years 

  • Requiring evaluation frameworks to be submitted as part of budget processes, including appropriate resourcing for evaluation and data collection plans 

  • Improved data access and availability to enable better evaluations 

  • Better governance and embedding an evaluation culture within the public sector

The full report is accessible here.