l)eparnnentojthe Parliamentary Library ~ INFORMATION AND RESEARCH SERVICES -!I.J..J.fJ~~~~.....e- Research Paper No. 24 1998-99 Departmental Machinery of Government Since 1987 ISSN 1328-7478 © Copyright Commonwealth ofAustralia 1999 Except to the extent of the uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means including infonnation storage and retrieval systems, without the prior written consent of the Department of the Parliamentary Library, other than by Senators and Members ofthe Australian Parliament in the course of their official duties. " .." Tbis paper has been prepared for general distribution to Senators and Members ofthe Australian Parliament. While great care is taken to ensure that the paper is accurate and balanced, the paper is written using information publicly available at the time of production. The views expressed are those of the author and should not be attributed to the Information and Research Services (IRS). Advice on legislation or legal policy issues contained in this paper is provided for use in parliamentary debate and for related parliamentary purposes. This paper is not professional legal opinion. Readers are reminded that the paper is not an official parliamentary or Australian government document. IRS staff are available to discuss the paper's contents with Senators and Members and their staff but not with members of the public. Published by the Department ofthe Parliamentary Library, 1999 INFORMATION AND RESEARCH SERVICES Research Paper No. 24 1998-99 Departmental Machinery of Government Since 1987 John Nethercote Politics and Public Administration Group 29 June 1999 Acknowledgments I wish to thank colleagues in the Politics and Public Administration Group and in Infonnation and Research Services for many valuable comments on a draft of this paper. 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On the Internet the Department of the Parliamentary Library can be found at: http://www.aph.gov.au/library/ A list of IRS publications may be obtained from the: IRS Publications Office Telephone: (02) 6277 2760 Contents Major Issues. ........................................................i Introduction ...................................................... .. 1 The 1987 changes 2 Cabinet and ministry ............................................ .. 3 Departments .................................................. .. 4 Department secretaries. .......................................... .. 9 Evolution of the Departmental Machinery of Government, 1987 to 1998. ......... .. 9 Central departments. ........................................... .. 10 Foreign Affairs, Trade and Defence. ............................... .. 12 Industry departments ... .. ...................................... .. 12 Human resources departments. ....................................... .. 14 Welfare departments. .......................................... .. 15 Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism and Territories. .................. .. 16 Immigration. ................................................ .. 16 Veterans' Affairs .............................................. .. 17 Aboriginal Affairs. ............................................ .. 17 Functional nomads. ............................................ .. 17 Appraisal ....................................................... .. 19 Endnotes ....................................................... .. 25 Appendix 1: Departmental Machinery of Government, 1987-1998 29 Appendix 2: Chief executive personnel affected by the Machinery of Government changes, July 1987 ..................................... .. 31 Appendix 3: Departmental Machinery of Government: significant changes since ~lm 35 Departmental Machinery ofGovernment Since 1987 Major Issues On 14 July 1987 the then Prime Minister Bob Hawke announced major changes to the ministerial and departmental structure of Commonwealth Government. A two-tiered ministry was established, composed mainly of Cabinet ministers heading departments, and other ministers each appointed to administer a particular department under a Cabinet minister. The number ofdepartments was significantly reduced. Itis the purpose ofthis paper: • To explain the background and character of the 1987 machinery of government settlement as it affected the ministry and departments • To trace its subsequent history, and • To offer some analysis of its durability, noting that because of other changes in administrative policy and practice, the departmental machinery of government has been less stable than appears to be the case in a formal sense. The principal fmdings ofthe research are: • The ministry was enlarged from 27 to 30, of whom 17 were members of the Cabinet. The number of departments was, by contrast, reduced from 28 to 18 by rationalisation and amalgamation. Of the 18, 16 were headed by Cabinet ministers. The exceptions were the departments of Veterans' Affairs and Aboriginal Affairs, the latter scheduled for abolition once a new statutory authority, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, had been established • in establishing the two-tier ministry it was necessary to overcome long-standing opinion that the Constitution, section 64, only permitted appointment of one minister to each department, a view held strongly by Sir Garfield Barwick but not by a number of other eminent lawyers such as Sir Douglas Menzies, Sir Kenneth Bailey and the then Solicitor­ General, Dr Gavan Griffith. In instituting the new structure, the Government acted on the advice of the latter. The new ministerial arrangements were upheld within two months by the Federal Court (Mr Justice Beaumont) in a decision of 16 September 1987 • as part ofthe changes, the Public Service Board was abolished. A number of its personnel powers, especially those relating to the Senior Executive Service, were vested in a new 1 Departmental Machinery ofGovernment Since 1987 statutory officer, the Public Service Commissioner. Pay and conditions of employment functions were assumed by the Department ofIndustrial Relations. Other powers, often by delegation, were transferred to chief executives (such as secretaries) within the field of public service employment • as a consequence of the changes the following Cabinet departments continued, variously with augmented or reduced functions: Prime Minister and Cabinet; Treasury; Attomey­ General's; Finance; Administrative Services; Defence; .Industrial Relations (previously Employment and Industrial Relations); Social Security; Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs • the amalgamated departments were: Foreign Affairs and Trade; Primary Industries and Energy; Industry, Technology and Commerce; Transport and Communications; Employment, Education and Training; Community Services and Health; the Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism, and Territories • there were non-Cabinet departments, Veterans' Affairs and Aboriginal Affairs • although some of the new departments were seen as 'giants' or mega-departments of the type created in Britain from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, they were not only on a much smaller scale to counterparts abroad but also smaller than the largest Australian departments, Defence and Social Security, neither of which was significantly affected by the 1987 restructure • the two-tier ministry has endured in all key respects. Since 1990, a new third tier, parliamentary secretaries, has evolved: there were four in the Fourth Hawke Government (1990-91); eight in the First Keating Government (1991-93); 10 in the Second Keating Government (1993-96) and the First Howard Govemment (1996-98); and 12 in the Second Howard Government (since 1998) • although all the major amalgamations except Foreign Affairs and Trade have been altered, the departmental structure instituted in 1987 remains essentially in situ 12 years later notwithstanding a number of changes of name • this is true both in terms of its organisational framework and most of the specific allocations • in particular, with the exception of the Department of Tourism (1991-96) and the partial exception of the Department of Housing and Regional Development (1994-96), there has not been a reversion to the former practice of creating small, narrowly-focussed departments • notwithstanding particular observations about specific aspects of the new structure, it was generally welcomed both in Parliament and by commentators in the media and elsewhere 11 Departmental Machinery a/Government Since 1987 • a particular indicator ofthe workability of the new structure is the absence of any changes in the departmental machinery of government following the 1990 elections, the first time this had occurred in more than two decades. The first change of significance occurred in June 1991 following Paul Keating's resignation from the Hawke Goverrunent • unusually for machinery of government changes, but not surprisingly in this instance, there was, for nearly five years afterwards, continuing interest in the development of the new arrangement, and especially the fate of the larger amalgamations. Most of the commentary was by individuals with responsibility for making it work and the views were generally favourable. The absence of any running criticism, for example, in the press, suggests that the new arrangement did settle down with relatively few