ABSTRACT
The delivery of the Commonwealth Budget is a major event in the parliamentary year expressing the government's request for funds from the popularly-elected bicameral legislature. The presentation of the Budget is signified by the Treasurer's delivery of the Budget Speech in the House of Representatives. The presentation of the Budget is equally as important as the legislative provisions. Emphasis is placed by the government on the selling of the Budget via additional publications and through parliamentary and media promotion. Parliament's role in the budgetary process is to scrutinise and authorise expenditure and provide accountability. The annual cycle of appropriation serves both as a crucial accountability safeguard and provides a temporal structure to the budget process. The Australian budgetary system may be assessed as one in which the guardians are generally more powerful than spending agencies, but nevertheless, spenders occasionally turn the tables. Budget processes prescribe the ways in which certain tasks are organised or accomplished.
