Summary heading

  Descriptive Note

Function and purpose

  This series consists of nine folders each containing a discrete accumulation of ‘Record of Meetings’ for a Ministry and Cabinet (one volume) and for each of the Cabinet Standing Committees (or in one case, a Cabinet Sub-Committee) and Ad Hoc committees (one volume) during the period of the First and Second Fraser ministries.  The Record consists of the date and time of the meeting, a list of those present, and a list of the Decisions taken at the meeting.

Only the first folder (for Cabinet and Ministry meetings) includes contents relating to the First Fraser Ministry 11 November to 22 December 1975) since there were no Cabinet Committees created during this ministry.

The folders are arranged chronologically by the date they were begun (that is, date of first sheet in the folder)   The first item created was the folder for the Cabinet and Ministry meetings which was  begun on the date of the first Ministry meeting on 11 November 1975. [Note 1]   The  next item created in this series was the folder for the meeting of the Economic Committee which was begun on 22 Jan 1976 following the first meeting of the Committee on that date.  The last new item in the series is the folder for the Planning and Coordination Committee which was begun on 2 December 1976

Within each folder there is a sheet (or sheets ) for each meeting.    The sheet is headed with ‘Ministry’ or ‘Cabinet’ (in Item 1) or the Name of the Committee and the date and duration of the meeting, followed by a list of those present in three groups -  Ministers, Co-opted Ministers, and Secretariat Members (that is, the Notetakers)  followed by the name of the Cabinet or Committee Secretary

The record is wholly typed up, obviously after the meeting is concluded and the Decisions have been registered.   The information regarding those present is drawn from the Attendance Sheets in series A12575 and information regarding Decisions taken is drawn from the Register of Decisions (CRS A12911).

This record was probably created for reference use in the Cabinet Office.  It provides a succinct record organised on the basis of the type of meeting, compared to A12575, or the Chronological Record of Meetings (CRS A12573) where the records are arranged chronologically so that this information is interspersed among the records of all Cabinet, Ministerial and Committee meetings.  The sheets are not signed by Cabinet or Committee Secretary and therefore this record does not constitute the authoritative record of attendance that the items of A12575 do, and neither is it a record of the membership of the Committees since the names of members who were not present for whatever reason, are omitted from this record. 

The list of Decisions taken at the meeting is arranged in order by the Decision Number and shows Subject and Number of the relevant Submission.

The Committees represented in this series constitute the full range of  Committees established in 1976 (that is, early in the Second Fraser Ministry )   The folder labelled ‘Ad Hoc Committee’ contains records for what are clearly a number of  different committees (since they have different members)  but all are headed simply ‘Ad Hoc Committee’ without defining what the particular subject area was.   A number of new Standing Committees were added to the range of Fraser Committees  in the latter part of 1977 but this process seems to have been discontinued by that time.

The range of meetings of each type present in the folders is as follows:

         Cabinet and Ministry                            11 Nov 1975 – 23 Aug1977

Economic Committee                            22 Jan 1976 – 18 Nov 1976

         Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee        9 Feb 1976 – 23 May 1977

         General Administrative Committee              9 Feb 1976 – 30 May 1977

         Legislation Committee                           10 Feb 1976 – 1 June 1977

         Machinery of Government Committee          6 Oct 1976 –  4 May 1977

         Economic Committee’s Sub-Committee

 on Government Purchasing           9 Nov 1976 – 24 Aug 1977

         Planning and Coordination Committee        2 Dec 1976 – 10 March 1977

         Ad Hoc Committees                             6 April 1976 – 24 August 1977

This series was not continued beyond the Second Fraser ministry.  No new contents were added to any of these folders after August 1977.

Related legislation

 

Using the series

  The informational content of this series is easily accessed by means of the original arrangement – chronological record of meetings within each folder.  The Chronological Record of Meetings (CRS A12573) provides a complete record of all Cabinet, Ministerial and Committee meetings, including Ad Hoc Committee meetings through the term of the Fraser government.  The Attendance Sheets (CRS A12375) provides a record of both membership of the Committees and attendance at each meeting.

Language of material

 

Physical characteristics

  The folders maintained by the Cabinet Office were plain cardboard four-post binders unmarked except for a yellow label on the spine showing ‘Cabinet and Ministry’ (first item) or Name of Committee (items 2 to 8) and ‘Record of Meetings’

However, for reasons related both to preservation and accessibility, the contents have been removed from these folders in National Archives and re-packaged in acid-free folders.

System of arrangement and control

  The folders were originally uncontrolled other than by the title of the Committee in each case, which appeared on the label on the spine.  For formal control purposes a simple numerical control has been imposed on the nine folders by National Archives, after arrangement in chronological order by date of first meeting in each folder.

Relationships with other records

  These records have been compiled by Cabinet Office from information contained in relevant entries in the Meetings Attendance Sheets (CRS A12575) and from the entries in the Register of Decisions (CRS A12911)

Finding aids

 

Access conditions

 

Series history

 

Provenance

  These record items in this series  were created by Cabinet Office (CA 1472) between January and December 1976 and informational content was added to until August 1977.

Immediate source of acquisition

 

Custodial history

  Eight items of this series were transferred to the custody of the National Archives from the Cabinet Office in March 2004.  They are controlled as items 1 to 8.   In July 2006 a ninth item of this series (volume for Ad Hoc Committees) was identified in Cabinet Office and transferred to the custody of  NAA on 28 July 2006.  This item is now controlled as Item No 9 of this series   All were accessioned in the one Transfer Job.

Quantity in agency custody

 

Disposal history

 

Publication note

 

Additional information

 

End notes

  Note 1  There was no ‘inner’ cabinet during the First Fraser Ministry – which was of only six week duration.  During this period the whole ministry comprised the Cabinet (as had been the case in the Whitlam government)  The terms Cabinet and Ministry are therefore interchangeable and in some contexts the two meetings that were held during this period are referred to as ‘Cabinet’ meetings and in others they are referred to as ‘’Ministry’ meetings.  However, the Decisions taken at these meetings have an ‘M’ suffix to the Decision number indicating that it is more correct to refer to these meetings as Ministry meetings.

Sources