Financial Position (continued)
Accounting Policy
Assets are recorded at cost on acquisition except as stated below. The cost of acquisition includes the fair value of assets
transferred in exchange and liabilities undertaken. Financial assets are initially measured at their fair value plus transaction costs
where appropriate.
Assets acquired at no cost, or for nominal consideration, are initially recognised as assets and income at their fair value at the
date of acquisition, unless acquired as a consequence of restructuring of administrative arrangements. In the latter case, assets
are initially recognised as contributions by owners at the amounts at which they were recognised in the transferor’s accounts
immediately prior to the restructuring.
Asset Recognition Threshold
Purchases of property, plant and equipment are recognised initially at cost in the statement of financial position, except for
purchases costing less than $5,000, which are expensed in the year of acquisition (other than where they form part of a group of
similar items which are significant in total).
The initial cost of an asset includes an estimate of the cost of dismantling and removing the item and restoring the site on which
it is located. This is particularly relevant to ‘make good’ provisions in property leases taken up by the Commission where there
exists an obligation to restore the property to its original condition. These costs are included in the value of the Commission’s
right of use asset with a corresponding provision for the ‘make good’ recognised.
Lease Right of Use (ROU) Assets
Leased ROU assets are capitalised at the commencement date of the lease and comprise of the initial lease liability amount,
initial direct costs incurred when entering into the lease less any lease incentives received. These assets are accounted for by
Commonwealth lessees as separate asset classes to corresponding assets owned outright, but included in the same column as
where the corresponding underlying assets would be presented if they were owned.
On initial adoption of AASB 16 the Commission has adjusted the ROU assets at the date of initial application by the amount of
any provision for onerous leases recognised immediately before the date of initial application. Following initial application, an
impairment review is undertaken for any right of use lease asset that shows indicators of impairment and an impairment loss is
recognised against any right of use lease asset that is impaired. Lease ROU assets continue to be measured at cost after initial
recognition in Commonwealth agency, General Government Sector (GGS) and Whole of Government financial statements.
Revaluations
Following initial recognition at cost, property, plant and equipment (excluding ROU assets) are carried at fair value (or an
amount not materially different from fair value) less subsequent accumulated depreciation and accumulated impairment losses.
Valuations are conducted with sufficient frequency to ensure that the carrying amounts of assets did not differ materially
from the assets’ fair values as at the reporting date. The regularity of independent valuations depended upon the volatility of
movements in market values for the relevant assets.
Revaluation adjustments are made on a class basis. Any revaluation increment is credited to equity under the heading of asset
revaluation reserve except to the extent that it reversed a previous revaluation decrement of the same asset class that was
previously recognised in the surplus/deficit.
Revaluation decrements for a class of assets are recognised directly in the surplus/deficit except to the extent that they reversed
a previous revaluation increment for that class.
Any accumulated depreciation as at the revaluation date is eliminated against the gross carrying amount of the asset and the
asset restated to the revalued amount.
Depreciation
Depreciable property, plant and equipment assets are written-off to their estimated residual values over their estimated useful
lives to the Commission using, in all cases, the straight-line method of depreciation.
Depreciation rates (useful lives), residual values and methods are reviewed at each reporting date and necessary adjustments are
recognised in the current, or current and future reporting periods, as appropriate.
Depreciation rates applying to each class of depreciable asset are based on the following useful lives:
Leasehold improvements
Plant and equipment
2024
2023
Lease term
Lease term
3 to 10 years
4 to 10 years
The depreciation rates for ROU assets are based on the commencement date to the earlier of the end of the useful life of the
ROU asset or the end of the lease term.
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