In the May 2023 Budget the Australian Government committed to provide $10 million over 4 years from 2023–24 (and $2.1 million per year ongoing) to establish a central evaluation function within Treasury to provide leadership and improve evaluation capability across government, including support to agencies and leading a small number of flagship evaluations each year.

This Treasury evaluation unit, to be known as the Australian Centre for Evaluation (ACE), was originally formulated in a Labor election commitment prior to the May 2019 federal election (released on 13 November 2018). At that time Labor committed to creating an Evaluator General based within Treasury.

This guide outlines some key issues surrounding the Australian Centre for Evaluation.