Entities report to us on their progress in implementing recommendations from our performance audit reports. Each year we will highlight common themes across recommendations and provide insights into the progress entities report.

This follow-on audit will assess whether Queensland Health has effectively planned and progressed implementing all recommendations and Ministerial directives to improve the delivery of forensic medical examinations to victims.

This audit will examine if the state budget process is effectively designed and managed by Queensland Treasury and the Department of the Premier and Cabinet to support the government’s identified fiscal principles and objectives.

These reports analyse the energy entities’ financial performance and position, and provide insights into the transition to renewable energy and the impact on energy entities’ profit and security of energy supply.

In our 2024 report we will also report on electricity rebates the Queensland Government provides to address cost-of-living pressures on Queensland households.

This audit will examine whether the Department of Education’s strategies are effective in supporting the protection of students from bullying.

We intend to deliver a series of audits examining the planning, delivery, and benefits of the Games. The audits will focus on governance, project management, allocation of funds, and the longer-term legacy the Games is expected to bring to Brisbane and Queensland. This will be our first report on the initial preparation and planning for delivering the Games.

This audit will assess how effectively state and local government entities ensure communities can access safe water.

These reports will provide insights into the status of major infrastructure projects of the state and local governments across Queensland. We will also provide data and analysis of the planning, coordination, and delivery of the state’s capital program.

These reports analyse the health entities’ financial performance and position and include assessments of their internal controls, financial performance and sustainability, and asset management in health entities.

Following our report Effectiveness of audit committees in state government entities (Report 2: 2020–21), this report will provide insights into the effectiveness of audit committees at local governments.

These reports summarise the results of our audits of financial statements for Queensland state government entities, including government departments, government owned corporations, and statutory bodies. The reports also include analysis of the Queensland Government’s financial performance and position and highlight the main transactions for the year.

These reports will examine how the Queensland Government is managing its debt and investments and will include insights into what the government has invested in and how the investments are managed.

Queensland's local governments – councils – are the first line of connection to communities, providing Queenslanders with a wide range of services such as roads, water and waste, libraries, and parks. These reports summarise the audit results of Queensland’s 77 councils and the entities they control.

This report will outline our assessment of the processes implemented for managing funding provided to QYAC under the Minjerribah Futures program. This assessment focusses on the roles and responsibilities of key departments under this program. It is not an audit of QYAC, as it is not a public sector entity.

This audit will assess whether the department’s strategies are effective in attracting, recruiting and retaining teachers in regional and remote Queensland. 

This audit will assess whether the Queensland Government has policies and procedures in place to effectively manage ethical risks associated with AI systems. 

This audit will assess how effective the Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation and selected South East Queensland councils' strategies are in reducing organic household waste sent to landfill.

This audit will assess how the Department of Transport and Main Roads and Queensland Health identify, transfer and manage risks in selected infrastructure projects.

This audit will assess the effectiveness and probity of the Industry Partnership Program, administered by the Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning, in supporting industry development in Queensland.

These reports analyse the education entities’ financial performance and position and include assessments of their internal controls, and financial sustainability. They will also provide insights into education entities’ asset management and in meeting the educational requirements and needs of population growth in Queensland’s regions.

As part of our audit planning process, we consider whether our planned reports will meet our stakeholders' needs and add value. We have reassessed whether an annual insights report focused on Queensland's regions is the best way to achieve our intended outcomes.

Accordingly, we will no longer publish an annual insights report on Queensland's regions. We will instead ensure that our forward work plan includes a sufficient focus on regional service delivery through our range of planned audit topics. For example, we have recently tabled a report on Managing Queensland's regional water quality (Report 7: 2024–25), and we are currently completing an audit on attracting and retaining teachers in regional and remote Queensland. This greater flexibility will ensure we can focus our audit topics on the right areas at the right times, to better meet the interests of parliament, stakeholders, and the public.

This audit will assess whether the government’s strategies are effectively reducing road fatalities and serious injuries.

This audit will examine how effectively public sector entities are using consultants and contractors. It will assess how much the government is spending on them, the benefits and value it gets from them, and how effectively it manages them. We will also look at whether entities are using the expertise and knowledge of consultants and contractors to build their own capability.

This audit will examine how effectively public sector entities:

• identify third parties who have access to their data and network
• assess the security vulnerabilities the entity is exposed to through third parties
• establish relevant controls to manage third party cyber security risks
• minimise the impact of third-party security breaches.

This audit will assess how the government is planning and preparing for future floods by mitigating the risk associated with these events.

This audit will examine how effectively Queensland public sector entities are managing the reintegration and rehabilitation of prisoners while in detention to reduce the risk of reoffending.

This audit will examine how effectively public sector entities maintain confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their information, including their data. We will assess how entities classify, store, report, and retain information.

This audit will assess how well Queensland’s state-funded mental health services are meeting the needs of Queenslanders. We will consider key recommendations made by the Mental Health Select Committee and the government’s progress in implementing them.   

This audit will be the fifth in a series of local government sustainability audits that we have undertaken. It will examine the sector’s progress in meeting its sustainability challenges. It will assess how effectively the sector has acted to address previous QAO findings and recommendations.

This audit will assess whether QBCC has effectively implemented our recommendations. We will also assess whether QBCC has addressed the underlying issues that led to the recommendations in our report. We have scheduled our follow-on audit for 2025–26 to allow QBCC time to action our recommendations in addressing recommendations made by the independent reviewer.

Entities report to us on their progress in implementing recommendations from our performance audit reports. Each year we will highlight common themes across recommendations and provide insights into the progress entities report.

These reports summarise the results of our audits of financial statements for Queensland state government entities, including government departments, government owned corporations, and statutory bodies. The reports also include analysis of the Queensland Government’s financial performance and position and highlight the main transactions for the year.

These reports will examine how the Queensland Government is managing its debt and investments and will include insights into what the government has invested in and how the investments are managed.

These reports will provide insights into the status of major infrastructure projects of the state and local governments across Queensland. We will also provide data and analysis of the planning, coordination, and delivery of the state’s capital program.

These reports analyse the education entities’ financial performance and position and include assessments of their internal controls, and financial sustainability. They will also provide insights into education entities’ asset management and in meeting the educational requirements and needs of population growth in Queensland’s regions.

These reports analyse the health entities’ financial performance and position and include assessments of their internal controls, financial performance and sustainability, and asset management in health entities.

Queensland's local governments – councils – are the first line of connection to communities, providing Queenslanders with a wide range of services such as roads, water and waste, libraries, and parks. These reports summarise the audit results of Queensland’s 77 councils and the entities they control.

These reports will analyse data on state and local government service delivery and support for Queensland’s regions, and consider other regional growth and sustainability measures, including employment and economic activity.

These reports analyse the energy entities’ financial performance and position, and provide insights into the transition to renewable energy and the impact on energy entities’ profit and security of energy supply.

This audit will examine whether relevant entities are effectively managing their critical infrastructure cyber security risks, including whether they:

• understand and assess the extent to which their information assets and organisational
  processes are exposed to cyber security risks
• design and implement effective information controls to mitigate identified cyber security risks.

It may also consider whether these entities are meeting their reporting obligations relating to cyber security management under the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 (Cth).

This audit will assess whether access to public transport has improved for people with a disability, including how entities ensure compliance with the minimum accessibility standards. This includes transport services provided by third parties.

This audit will assess the effectiveness of Legal Aid Queensland in providing vulnerable children and adults with access to affordable legal services. This will include assessing the availability and timeliness of these services across the state. It may also include its procurement of legal service providers.

This audit will assess whether the government is effectively managing its volunteer workforce (for example, the Rural Fire Service and State Emergency Service). The audit may consider issues such as workforce attraction and retention.

This audit will build on our series of grant audits, which includes:

• Improving grants management (Report 2: 2022–23)
• Awarding of sports grants (Report 6: 2020–21)

We will identify the relevant grants programs to be audited closer to the date of the audit, based on an assessment of the significance and risk of grant programs at that time. We will provide an update on this topic in future forward work plans.
 

This audit will assess whether the culture of selected public sector entities, promotes:

• a culture of integrity, and ethical behaviour and decision-making
• a culture of continuous improvement.

This audit will also assess the government’s progress in implementing recommendations and addressing findings from Professor Coaldrake’s review.

This audit will examine whether lobbying practices in Queensland are transparent and comply with legislation.

This audit will assess whether public sector entities are appropriately measuring, monitoring, and reporting on their performance, including measures of effectiveness and efficiency.

This audit will examine whether actions taken under Queensland's workforce strategy are effective in reducing labour and skill shortages.

This audit will examine whether hospital and health service boards are effectively managing the quality and safety of patient care and identifying and responding to key risks.

In 2023–24, we commenced our first in a series of audits examining the planning, delivery, and benefits of the Games. We will identify our next audit topic after assessing the results of our current audit and considering key government decisions and developments as Queensland progresses towards the Games.

Areas that we may consider for future audits include:

• whether the government is managing projects and risk effectively
• progress in getting venues ready for the games
• how the games will provide legacy benefits to Queensland and Queenslanders
• how the government is managing its contractual obligation risk to deliver a 'climate positive’
  games.