Research and Referencing TaskARTS1840 – Semester 1, 2010z3332769Critical AnalysisThe Australian Journal of Public Administration research and evaluation paper explores parliamentary oversight of government performance in Australia. It observes the processes that the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia can use to hold ministers and civil servants accountable for the performance of their relevant departments. These decisions are made based on the performance data that each ministry is required to provide as well as investigations by parliamentary committees. Thomas' article emphasizes that publishing performance data does not constitute accountability – rather, there must be consequences following a review of that data. .To assess the performance of Parliament in its ability to control the various government departments, the article draws attention to the two houses of Parliament. The House of Representatives is usually under strict government control, while the Senate is very rarely controlled by the ruling government, giving it greater ability to control government performance. (Thomas 2009: 373) The article states that there are two main documents used to represent performance to Parliament. These are the required annual reports and estimation reports from different departments. Annual reports must be submitted to Parliament by October 31 each year (Thomas 2009: 374). Initially, these documents focused on the financial aspect of the ministry in question, but began to cover other areas relevant to performance. The argument presented by Thomas generally praises the Commonwealth Government's reforms on introducing mechanisms to hold the civil service accountable (Thomas 200...... middle of article ......ty during the Howard years: 1996-2007', Australian Journal of Politics and History, 54 (2): 225-247. Raffin, L (2008). ensures the accountability of the executive in relation to other parliamentary chambers? Is reform necessary?, Australasian Parliamentary Review, 23 (2): 66-85. a paper tiger?', in Aulich, C and Wettenhall, R (eds), Howard's Fourth Government: Australian Commonwealth Administration 2004-2007 Sydney: UNSW Press, pp. 75-94. Parliamentary Performance of Government in Australia', The Australian Journal of Public Administration, 68 (4): 373-398 Vander Wyk, J and Lilley, A (2005). “Reference of Bills to Australian Senate Committees”, http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/pubs/pops/pop43/pop43.pdf, accessed March 26 2010.