Measuring Council Performance in Tasmania: Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Report 2007-08(PDF, 1.7 MB)

The key performance indicator system allows Tasmanian residents and councils to easily view the performance of councils.

This report provides a five-year comparison from the 2003-04 to 2007-08 financial years.

A feature of this project is that all 29 Tasmanian councils continue to provide data voluntarily. Similar projects in other states rely on a more prescriptive approach.

This report represents a unique collaboration across the three spheres of government in Tasmania. Data collected for this report is concurrently used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), and for the State Grants Commission. Forty nine KPIs provide an industry wide framework for measuring and comparing the performance of councils. The KPI system is designed to:

• enhance performance measurement by councils
• enable benchmarking and identification of best practice
• establish performance trends over time
• improve accountability to the community.

Key result areas used in the KPI system are:

• governance
• management and finance
• regulatory
• infrastructure and utilities
• community services and development.

When looking at these performance measures, it is necessary to consider various factors that can influence each indicator so that comparisons are valid. A guide to these influencing factors is included for each KPI in the report.

The reports include sufficient statistical information to provide an accurate snapshot of councils at a point in time. However, caution should always be exercised in comparing the results from two or more councils, because the needs of communities differ and the ways in which councils provide local services makes valid comparisons difficult.

The Tasmanian Government provides funding and support for the KPI project. The previous report can viewed at:

KPI 2006-07 report(PDF, 1.3 MB)

Previous KPI reports are available at the Government's STORS online archive site.

This a Portable Document Format (PDF) file and requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader. The Reader is easy to download and is free of charge.