NHFIC is established under the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation Act 2018 (NHFIC Act) and is defined as a corporate Commonwealth entity under the PGPA Act. NHFIC is part of the Treasury portfolio of agencies and reports to the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Housing (the responsible Minister, the Minister).

The responsible Ministers for the reporting period were:

The duties of the responsible Minister in relation to NHFIC are set out in the NHFIC Act.¹ These include that the Minister appoints the Board and may provide directions about the performance of NHFIC’s functions. The responsible Minister’s directions together constitute the Investment Mandate, including in relation to such matters as strategies and policies the Board must observe, decision-making criteria, limits on financial assistance, and risk and return on investments. The Investment Mandate may not, however, direct the Board in relation to particular financing decisions.

At the date of publishing this Annual Report, NHFIC’s Investment Mandate Direction 2018 is the operative direction.

The Board must keep the Minister informed about NHFIC’s operations and provide any information the Minister may require. The Minister or Minister’s representative responds to questions from members of Parliament about NHFIC, and the parliamentary orders relating to us. Members of our Executive team may be requested to attend Senate Estimate hearings to answer questions, on behalf of the Minister, on NHIFC’s operations.

As a corporate Commonwealth entity, NHFIC is subject to the requirements of the PGPA Act in relation to corporate governance, reporting and accountability.