What previously hidden briefs tell us about the challenges facing the Albanese government

Australia Broadcast Center

a day ago

Briefs prepared for incoming ministers tell a story about government functions dealing with rising costs, international instability and increasing demand for services.
The documents were prepared for new and returning ministers. Previously held inside the walls of government departments, they have been obtained by the ABC using the Freedom of Information (FOI) process.
While people around Australia were starting to focus on the big questions of Election 2025 — Will my voting place have democracy sausages? Do I have enough snacks for the party? — public servants were busy at work.
Many were preparing a "red book" to give to the minister of a Labor government or a "blue book" if the Coalition took power.
(So far, no department has said in responses that it built a "teal book" in case of a hung parliament, despite that being the heavily tipped outcome ahead of the election).
The documents give a sense of the challenges facing the department or sector, and how any election promises will be enacted.
The report from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority unwittingly summarises many of the briefs when it assesses the issues facing it:
The documents are heavily redacted (blacked out) to avoid "deliberative" material that goes to speculation.
The reason for this is based on court decisions, and the words of the Australian Financial Security Authority are echoed in many of the responses from departments.
"Incoming government briefs (IGBs) play an important role in the Australian system of responsible parliamentary government … to enable and facilitate a smooth transition from one government to another," it reads.
The brief is prepared for a readership of one: the new minister.
"If it is known that the brief will be disclosed publicly under the FOI Act, there is a risk that it will be tailored to a different audience or with different interests in mind.
"This could compromise the quality and value of the brief and make it less relevant to its specific circumstance."
To avoid "political controversy or [be] required publicly to defend the advice provided" could lead to a brief only including "bland material that will not raise concern" and "be replaced by oral briefings to the new Minister."
Essentially, most departments redact the most contentious issues but still leave behind breadcrumbs that allow us to divine what is going on.
This graph from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is surrounded by three completely blank pages.
But the blue and yellow lines tell the story.
The Fair Work Commission details another consistent theme that arises from the documents: we're doing more with less.
"The Commission's operating revenue from government for 2025-26 is $111 million, which is $48,000 or 0.04 per cent [more] compared to the 2024-25 budget," it notes.
It lists approximately 30 new functions and jurisdictions it has taken on between 2022 and 2025, as well as "consistent increases in lodgements in pre-existing jurisdictions".
The 2023-24 financial year was one of the FWC's busiest on record, it notes, both by the volume of applications and their complexity.
To clarify, that is the industrial umpire saying it will struggle to do what's expected of it without an additional injection of cash.
One of the new roles government has asked it to take on is watching over the construction and general division of the CFMEU.
A form on the FWC website can take in information about the controversial body, currently controlled by administrators, and as of March 30, 2025, it has received 932 responses.
The general manager engaged with the administrators regarding 26 reports relating to allegations of misconduct by CFMEU employees, delegates and organisers.
But government is much more than just regulating and watching over: The National Capital Authority is busy putting a spa on Lake Burley Griffin!
Floating Sauna Lake Burley Griffin will commence operation of a floating sauna in the Yarralumla Beach area in late June or July. It will complement the seaplane services that now operate from the lake.
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has some big jobs to do.
But a startlingly falling budget to deal with them.
"Departmental funding for the environment and water portfolio decreases from $884 million in 2024-25 to $528 million in 2028-29," the brief reads, noting that it does not include the budget for Parks Australia (which looks after parks including Uluru and Kakadu).
"Administered funding decreases from $670 million in 2024-25 to $477 million in 2028-29, primarily driven by terminating programs."
There is no detail on what surrounds almost $7 billion in funding, with the FOI officer ruling it to be "deliberative".
Corporate regulator ASIC has had a big few years, massively ramping up enforcement after being shamed as a "light touch" regulator in the banking royal commission six years ago.
And has some ideas for the new government. But we can not tell you what they are. Three pages each of "opportunities for reform" and "opportunities for investment" are completely redacted.
One thing we do know — super funds are not out of the woods yet, with more scrutiny to come.
After a warning letter about "the level of service that Australians quite reasonably expect from a large financial institution", there is more.
There is also a "pulse check" with regulator APRA to "promote an uplift in industry practice".
Sections on insider trading and ongoing litigation against Star Casino and its former directors and officers are heavily redacted.
It probably says something about the narrowly focused election that many bodies, such as the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), did not prepare different "books" depending on which party took office.
It is not that they thought Labor was a lock to continue in government, just that the different parties were not putting up policy suggestions so substantial they would require separate analysis of a different path taken.
"Please note that no other incoming government briefs, or alternate versions (eg, 'red book', 'blue book' etc.), were prepared by NHMRC in 2025," the letter explaining the decision said.
A lot is redacted.
For example, the NHMRC puts forward "three proposals for your consideration and discussion, as outlined below". Here is what they look like.
But the agency is looking at "clinical practice guidelines for the care of trans and gender diverse people under 18 with gender dysphoria" as well as "clinical guidelines for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), long COVID and related conditions".
As if it needed to be said, "the issue is highly topical and has generated significant political debate, both nationally and internationally. Active stakeholder groups and individuals within organisations hold polarised views and frequently contact the NHMRC and the Minster's office".
Broader issues in research stem from an Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) finding in regard to NHMRC's control of external fraud risks.
"Some individuals seek to conflate the ANAO's findings … with their concerns about the management of research misconduct or research quality.
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry put in the work in case the Coalition won government, but the FOI request to see that document was denied.
Exports are heavily affected by the turmoil injected into global markets since US President Donald Trump's decisions to put tariffs (taxes) on goods and services from other countries, and the danger of an expanding conflict in the Middle East.
"You will be overseeing the sector during a period of significant global volatility and uncertainty driven by factors that are beyond the capacity of our industries to manage alone," it said.
"Past success does not guarantee future results.
"The era of trade liberalisation and the rules-based order is under unprecedented threat, making it increasingly difficult to anticipate and respond to disruptions.
"Non-tariff barriers have been increasing over the past decade, and tariffs are also back on the table."
Beyond commodity prices and the trading environment, the other "unknowable" in agriculture is the weather.
The brief details how climate change is "driving an increase in climate variability and natural disasters".
While the whole of government is working to manage drought conditions, "building industry resilience is the best way to mitigate impacts and minimise costs" to industry and taxpayers, the department advises.
We do not yet know the financial impact of reducing the number of international students.
Back in August 2024, Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy told a Senate inquiry that the number of student visas being granted had already dropped by 23 per cent — or almost 60,000 students — over the past year.
He said the impact of 60,000 fewer international students arriving in Australia, according to recent data from Home Affairs, would represent a $4.3 billion hit to the economy and possibly tens of thousands of job losses.
The precise costs and risks of reducing international student enrolments are redacted.
This summation seems fair: "This commitment received significant coverage from media and stakeholders throughout 2024, citing challenges to providers' ability to undertake research and teaching and learning activities if revenue from international students is lost."
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority has a sprawling mandate, managing a living system across New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory.
It is going to cost more.
"A range of new external drivers that impact the work of the MDBA will result in increased budgetary pressures as departmental appropriations reduce over the forward estimates," the brief writes.
When it comes to Water Resource Plans (WRPs), four of NSW's 20 have been withdrawn because "the Authority considers that NSW's engagement with the Gomeroi peoples could be improved".
The plans are legal instruments about how the water will be managed.
"There is ongoing tension between some First Nations groups and the MDBA about how adequately the New South Wales WRPs identify First Nations peoples' objectives and outcomes for water resources based on their values and uses.
Like an aging gen X parent trying to blast their offspring into independence, competition watchdog the ACCC has issued a plea to the minister — you need to get the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) out of here.
In 2005, the AER had three staff. Now it has 450 and is the largest division of the ACCC.
The competition watchdog has a lot going on.
The new Food and Grocery Code came into effect in April, mandatory for retailers and wholesalers with more than $5 billion in annual revenue from wholesaling. Not that it is going to be easy to apply.
The maximum (potential) penalty is now an astonishing 10 per cent of the previous year's turnover.
There is also tension in the gas market, around credit card surcharges, and a massive shake-up of our merger laws.
There is good news, too: the ACCC won $624 million in fines and penalties awarded by courts in 2023-24, more than 400 per cent up on the previous year.
The Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA) regulates the personal insolvency industry and the personal property security system.
On the side, it also manages $450 million worth of confiscated criminal assets.
But chill.
New credit products and emerging technologies are introducing risks into the personal insolvency system.
But low unemployment, better policies to deal with hardship and changing behaviour post-COVID — people talking to their institutions when in trouble — are making things better.
Productivity is one of the nation's biggest economic challenges, and the government's economic think tank, the Productivity Commission (PC), is not mucking about.
In just eight pages — compared to just one arm of the three-part Education Department's brief being 223 pages long — the PC lays it out.
It recently received more than 500 ideas through a pitch process and consultations with industry groups, advocacy groups, peak bodies, consumer groups, unions, academia and government agencies. The aim is to come up with "practical and implementable productivity-enhancing reforms".
The final report is due to government on December 12, 2025.
Even with that happening, the PC has eight commissioned inquiries and studies, looking at everything from "opportunities in the circular economy" to "building a skilled and adaptable workforce".
Apart from two commissioners in Brisbane, the rest are Melbourne-based.
The Freedom of Information (FOI) process is a way you can find out about things happening inside state and federal government departments and agencies.
The ABC has submitted applications to far more agencies than have been reported in this article, with some due to release documents in the coming weeks.
Most FOI applications are for the details of individuals' dealings with these agencies. You can find out how to apply by searching for "FOI" on government websites.
Costs may be imposed.
Of the more than 60 applications the ABC made to federal departments and agencies after the election, only AusTrade sought payment from the media for processing the information.