Schools hospitality
The department receives a special appropriation to provide modest hospitality to school groups visiting Parliament House. School visits are coordinated by the Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office, working in partnership with the PEO and the Visitor Experience Office of DPS.
In 2018–19 the administered appropriation for the schools hospitality program activity was $0.320 million, and expenditure was $0.310 million. Results against performance criteria are summarised in the annual performance statement (page 14 of printed report).
Performance summary
In 2018–19, 124,831 school students participated in educational tours of Parliament House, up from 119,088 in the previous year. The number of students from the Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory, Tasmania and Western Australia decreased, while all other states recorded higher numbers than in the previous financial year (see Table 7).
|
Year |
ACT |
NSW |
NT |
QLD |
SA |
TAS |
VIC |
WA |
Other |
Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2014–15 |
2,158 |
67,385 |
819 |
19,489 |
5,061 |
1,750 |
18,531 |
5,023 |
– |
120,216 |
|
2015–16 |
3,004 |
64,438 |
654 |
16,056 |
5,849 |
1,621 |
18,950 |
5,159 |
13 |
115,744 |
|
2016–17 |
2,783 |
65,653 |
686 |
15,828 |
5,610 |
1,683 |
19,971 |
5,440 |
– |
117,654 |
|
2017–18 |
3,030 |
64,366 |
788 |
17,131 |
5,896 |
1,942 |
20,810 |
5,125 |
– |
119,088 |
|
2018–19 |
2,904 |
69,333 |
715 |
17,766 |
6,340 |
1,784 |
21,054 |
4,935 |
– |
124,831 |
All visiting students participated in a guided tour and visited both chambers; 76 per cent (94,380) received hospitality and 75 per cent (93,225) participated in the PEO program (see pages 61–64 for more information on the PEO’s activities).
Improving performance
Staffing arrangements in support of school visits were restructured, with a former full-time position replaced with a sessional position. The restructure will reduce overheads and make more of the administered appropriation available for the relatively non-discretionary hospitality component.
It was possible to implement the restructure and still maintain service levels to schools and agents due to improvements introduced in previous years. Those improvements include bookings being taken on a rolling monthly basis for the following two calendar years and upgrades to the school visits section of the Parliament of Australia website, notably the online availability calendar and new booking form placed on the website in 2017–18.
Outlook
At 30 June 2019, 125,263 students from 3,432 schools had been booked for the following 12 months. Last year at the same time 120,205 students from 1,848 schools had been booked.
Visit
https://www.transparency.gov.au/annual-reports/department-house-representatives/reporting-year/2018-2019-31