Commission's Assessment Methodology
The Commission’s Assessment Methodology describes the Commission’s framework and assessment methods, including changes following the 2025 Methodology Review, for each category the Commission uses to assess states’ relative fiscal capacities. This includes assessment methods for the geography, socio-economic status and wage costs drivers that apply across a number of assessment categories.
The first chapter outlines the Commission’s approach to horizontal fiscal equalisation, supporting principles and assessment guidelines.
There is then a chapter outlining the Commission’s assessment method for each assessment category and for the geography, socio-economic status and wage costs drivers. The structure of each chapter is:
overview of the assessment
breakdown of revenue/expenses
outline of the structure of the assessment
outline of the data used in the assessment
description of the assessment method
GST impact of the assessment.
These chapters use data from 2022–23 for illustrative purposes except for the GST impact tables. GST impacts are calculated by applying the method changes to the 3 assessment years of the GST revenue sharing relativities for 2025–26.