Purpose – The aim of this paper is determine the impact financial reporting obligations and, in particular, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have on local government management decision making. In turn, this will lead to observations and conclusions regarding the research...

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine whether there is potential for political parties to use flawed financial figures in performance measures designed to assist them in determining the viability and autonomy of New South Wales (NSW) local councils (NSW is the largest of Australia's...

Introduction of greater private sector-inspired practices during the past several decades has had Australian local government struggling to produce satisfactory figures for myriad stakeholders. Now, more than ever, motivation exists for local government to manipulate accounting numbers. A prime...

Local governments are continuously being subjected to changing legislation in regard to reporting requirements. Results of this research indicate that the amount of time allocated to complying with external reporting requirements was often considered excessive and not always relevant -...

Purpose – This paper revisits the debate regarding myriad measurement bases and begins a new discussion within a public sector environment. It does this by considering the under-researched technical aspect of measurement within Neely et al.'s measures design template framework....