Under the Coroners Act 2003 (the Act), coroners are responsible for investigating reportable deaths that occur in Queensland. Reportable deaths include those that are unnatural, such as accidents, suicides or homicides, deaths that have occurred in prison or in care or have unknown causes.

The coroner's primary responsibility is to make formal findings in respect of the death, namely who, when, where and how the death occurred and what caused the death. The coroner also has an overarching role to identify whether the death could have been prevented and if so, to examine opportunities for future death prevention. This may include policy or procedural changes to improve public safety or the administration of justice.

In Queensland, the coronial system’s efficiency and effectiveness relies on services from multiple stakeholders. The Queensland Police Service's Coronial Support Unit assists coronial investigations, Queensland Health's Forensic and Scientific Services provide coronial autopsy and clinical advisory services and the Department of Justice and Attorney-General's Court Services provide legal and administrative support.

Since 2007–08, the number of deaths reported to the coroner for investigation have increased by 50 per cent, from 3 514 to 5 287 in 2015–16. Demand for Queensland's coronial services is likely to increase with the states growing and aging population. Delays and inefficiencies to coronial investigations can impact families and loved ones seeking closure and add unnecessary cost to the state. A failure to act on coroner recommendations can potentially put lives at risk.

This audit assesses whether agencies are effective and efficient in supporting coroners to investigate and help prevent deaths. It examines whether agencies support the coroner to conduct efficient and effective coronial investigations and whether agencies plan effectively to deliver sustainable coronial services.

The Department of Justice and Attorney-General, Department of Health, and Queensland Police Service.

In Queensland, most electricity is generated, transmitted, and distributed by state government-owned corporations and controlled entities. These include CS Energy, Stanwell, Powerlink, Energy Queensland, Ergon Energy, and 30 subsidiaries.

CS Energy and Stanwell are electricity generators. They produce electricity and sell into the National Electricity Market. Powerlink transmits electricity from generators to Energy Queensland, the distributor. Energy Queensland then distributes electricity from the transmission network to consumers. From there, electricity retailers purchase and sell electricity to households and businesses.

This audit summarises our financial audit results of the Queensland Government’s energy entities for 2017–18.

State government owned corporations and controlled energy entities. These included CS Energy, Stanwell, Powerlink, Energy Queensland, Ergon Energy, and 30 subsidiaries.

In Queensland, water is primarily used by households, agriculture, mining, electricity generation, tourism, and manufacturing industries. Queensland’s state and local government owned water entities provide water throughout the state, and comprise bulk water suppliers, distributor-retailers, local governments, and smaller water boards.

Seqwater sells treated bulk water to local council regions within South East Queensland. This water is sold either directly to councils or through Distributor-Retailer Authorities (Unitywater and Queensland Urban Utilities).

Outside of South East Queensland, SunWater operates much of the bulk water infrastructure that supplies irrigators and industrial customers. For retail customers, water is sourced, treated and distributed by local government owned infrastructure (water boards).

This audit summarises our financial audit results of state and local government owned water entities, and two controlled entities for 2017–18.

The six main state and local government owned water entities, and two controlled entities. These included Seqwater, SunWater, Gladstone Area Water Board, Mount Isa Water Board, Queensland Urban Utilities, and Unitywater.

Australia is home to between 600 000 and 700 000 species of wildlife, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. Changes to landscape and habitats from human activity has put some of this unique wildlife at risk. Over the last 200 years, many species of plants and animals have become extinct. A range of management and conservation measures are in place for the wildlife whose survival is under threat.

The Nature Conservation Act 1992 defines threatened wildlife as native wildlife that is extinct in the wild, endangered, or vulnerable. In Queensland, there are currently 955 species listed as threatened. Of these species, around 400 are listed as threatened nationally under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

The Department of Environment and Science has responsibility for managing and conserving threatened wildlife in Queensland via the Nature Conservation Act 1992. Other government agencies, the community, and industry sectors also undertake activities relating to threatened wildlife.

This audit assesses whether the Department of Environment and Science is effectively identifying, protecting, and conserving threatened wildlife.

The Department of Environment and Science.

Queensland’s seven transport entities play a critical role in delivering a single integrated transport network that connects Queensland’s people, and facilitates a growing economy.

Direction and oversight of the state’s transport sector is provided by the Department of Transport and Main Roads (DTMR). The department’s primary role is to plan, manage and deliver Queensland’s integrated transport environment to achieve sustainable transport solutions for road, rail, air and sea. DTMR also provides oversight of Queensland Rail Group and Port entities. Queensland Rail Group is Queensland’s railway manager and operator, servicing the passenger, tourism, resources and freight customer markets. The port entities are part of Queensland’s network of 19 ports, which ranges from small community ports to large coal export terminals and a capital city multi-cargo port.

This audit summarises our financial audit results of seven state-owned transport entities for 2017–18.

Seven state-owned transport entities including the Department of Transport and Main Roads, Queensland Rail Group, and Government Owned Corporations.

The Queensland healthcare system is transforming to meet the pressures of an ageing population, the growing burden of chronic conditions, and changing consumer expectations.
 
In a digital hospital, processes are streamlined to create a ‘paper light’ approach, integrating electronic medical records (ieMR) with clinic devices, workflows, and processes. An electronic medical record is one of many applications that contribute to a digital hospital. The government has set a target for twenty-seven hospitals to fully implement the ieMR solution by June 2020.
 
Electronic medical records provide timely, accessible and legible information about patients at the point of care. It also provides the foundation for future transformations in health care delivery, like the ability to gain greater insights and decision support from the system’s data to improve the quality of patient care and operational efficiencies.

This audit assesses how well Queensland Health has planned, and is delivering, its digital hospitals program and whether it is realising the intended information-sharing and patient benefits.

The Department of Health and a selection of hospital and health services.

Queensland Treasury has developed a market-led proposals framework as an initiative of the government’s economic plan to create jobs and stimulate the economy. The state government intended for market-led proposals to harness innovative ideas and funding from the private sector to deliver projects faster. An essential element of this approach involves contracting exclusively with providers, rather than going through a competitive tender process. 

In July 2017, the government released revised specific Market-Led Proposal Guidelines. These guidelines sit within the Project Assessment Framework (PAF). There are four stages to the assessment process. The proposal needs to pass a stage before it can progress to the next one. When assessing market-led proposals, the responsible government agency needs to satisfy itself that the proposed project will deliver value for money and positive outcomes for the state, and that it could not deliver a better outcome under a competitive tender process. The agency also needs to consider alignment with government priority, policy and community needs, whether direct negotiation can be justified, the cost, risk, feasibility, and the proponent’s capacity and capability to deliver the project.

This audit assesses the extent that the Market-led proposal initiative is meeting its objective to create jobs and stimulate the economy.

The Department of State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning.

Health service planning aims to improve service delivery to better meet the health needs of the population. It is future orientated and usually adopts a medium- to long-term (10–15 years) perspective. Good planning helps to make the best use of current and future health resources including funding, staff and infrastructure.

Delivering health services occurs in an increasingly dynamic environment with ever changing community expectations, government priorities and technological advances. Health budgets are constrained, yet there are ever-increasing pressures and demands on the public health system.

The Department of Health is responsible under the Hospital and Health Boards Act 2011 for statewide planning for the public health system. Hospital and Health Services must contribute to, and implement, statewide service plans that apply to them. They must also undertake further service planning that aligns with these plans.

Queensland Health’s strategy—Your health, Queensland's future: Advancing health 2026—identifies sustainability as one of five underpinning principles. This includes ensuring available resources are used efficiently and effectively for current and future generations.
 

This audit will assess the effectiveness of the Department of Health and the Hospital and Health Services in planning for sustainable health services. 

The Department of Health and a selection of Hospital and Health Services to be determined.

With the rising demand for health services, Queensland’s Hospital and Health Services are looking for ways to increase capacity in public hospitals and reduce costs while also improving the quality of care. The Queensland public health sector funds the Queensland Ambulance Service, and, combined with the Australian Government funding, public hospital and health services across the state. The sector also includes the Department of Health and 16 hospital and health services, three health statutory bodies and their controlled entities, 13 hospital foundations, and three primary health networks that are considered controlled, or jointly controlled, Queensland sector entities.

This audit will summarise our financial audit results of the Queensland Health and Hospital Services.

Entities in the Queensland public health sector.

Most public sector entities, including departments, statutory bodies, and government owned corporations and the entities they control, prepare annual financial statements and table these in parliament. Each year the Treasurer also prepares consolidated state government financial statements. The consolidated state government financial statements separately disclose transactions and balances for the general government sector and the total state sector.

This audit will summarise our financial audit results of the Queensland state government and public sector entities controlled by the state government.

All entities that the Queensland Government owns or controls.