Summary heading
Function and purpose
This series consists of copies of Cabinet and Cabinet Committee Minutes (i.e. Decisions) created in the Cabinet Office during the term of the First and Second Keating Ministries. This series is one of two main series of Keating Cabinet records transferred to the National Archives. The other series is the Submission and Memoranda, a single series, CRS A14217.
Minutes of decisions are produced as soon as possible after each Cabinet meeting. Cabinet and Cabinet committee minutes are normally circulated to all Cabinet ministers or the relevant Committee member, any non-Cabinet ministers co-opted to a meeting for that item or to non-Cabinet ministers with a direct portfolio interest.
A Cabinet decision is the essential recorded output of the Cabinet system. It is the basis that authorises the administration to act in matters of significance. All matters discussed in a Cabinet meeting result in a Cabinet Minute, even if the decision is that the matter was simply noted. Matters discussed are normally the formal Submissions from ministers and departments listed in the agenda prepared for that meeting. However, with the agreement of the Prime Minister matters may be brought up for discussion without a formal Submission.
Paul John Keating entered Parliament in 1969, aged 25, when he won the seat of Blaxland for the Australian Labor Party. Keating was appointed Treasurer of Australia by newly elected Prime Minister Robert Hawke in 1983. In 1990, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Labor Party and made Deputy Prime Minister. Keating challenged Bob Hawke for the leadership of the Australian Labor Party in June 1991 and resigned from the ministry following defeat. He challenged Hawke again six months later and this time was successful, subsequently becoming Prime Minister.
Ministries
The First Keating Ministry lasted from 20 December 1991 to 24 March 1993. The First Keating Ministry (Labor) was the 59th Ministry of the Government of Australia. Paul Keating was sworn in as the 24th Prime Minister of Australia. He then led the Australian Labor Party to victory at the federal election on 24 March 1993.
The Second Keating Ministry lasted from 24 March 1993 to 11 March 1996. Following the defeat of his government, Keating relinquished the ALP leadership and resigned from Parliament in April 1996.
As Prime Minister, Keating continued his progressive economic reform program, including deregulation of the financial sector, begun when he was Treasurer. This included establishment of a National Training Authority, a national superannuation scheme to redress low national savings as well as labour market and other training reforms associated with long-term unemployment problems.
The following committees were active in the Keating ministries:
Ad Hoc (December Statement) Committee
Expenditure Review Committee
General Policy Committee
Native Title Committee
Parliamentary Business Committee
Republic Committee
Revenue Committee
Structural Adjustment and Trade Committee
Social Policy Committee
White Paper Ad Hoc Committee
Related legislation
Using the series
Each of the Minutes (Decisions) of the First and Second Keating Ministries are present in this series, whether they were made at a Cabinet or Cabinet Committee meeting and whether they were made in regard to a Submission, a Memorandum or were Without Submission. However, only those Decisions without Submission have been individually described in the item database of RecordSearch and consequently there are some gaps in the Minute numbers. This is due to the omission of the Decisions with Submissions from the series since these are included in the Cabinet Submissions and Memoranda series, CRS A14217.
The Volumes (containing the Minutes) are entered as standard item entries (for example, Volume 1). The Minutes (Decisions) within any one particular Volume that are Without Submission are entered as sub-items of the Item Registration for that particular volume. Entries are made in this way because this series may be the only place where Decisions without Submissions can be seen. In all other cases (that is, where Decisions were made in response to a Submission), a copy of the Minute is present in the Submission and Memoranda series CRS A14217, all items of which have been individually entered in RecordSearch.
Note that there is no correlation between a Submission or Memorandum number and the Minute number for that Submission or Memorandum. The sequence of Submission or Memoranda numbers reflects the chronology of the Submission or Memoranda as they are received into the Cabinet Office. The Cabinet office will register them and allocate each a unique number. The sequence of the Minute numbers includes Decisions on matters for which no Submission is made (Decisions without Submissions). The Minute number is therefore normally well in advance (in numerical terms) of the Submission number.
There are no control records such as registers for either the minutes (Decisions) or Submissions/Memoranda in the custody of the National Archives for the First and Second Keating Ministries.
Language of material
Physical characteristics
System of arrangement and control
The Cabinet Minutes are housed in black binders. These binders are numbered consecutively from Volume 1 to 23 and contain Minutes filed in single number, chronological order.
First Keating Ministry:
Volume 1 Cabinet Minutes 1 – 300, 7 January 1991 to 28 April 1991
Volume 6 Cabinet Minutes 1300 – 1598, 3 November 1992 to 8 February 1993
Second Keating Ministry:
Volume 7 Cabinet Minutes 1599 – 1799, 25 March 1993 to 29 June 1993
Volume 23 Cabinet Minutes 4714 – 4866, 1 December 1995 to 23 January 1996.
Relationships with other records
Related series include:
A14217 Keating Ministries, Cabinet Submissions and Memoranda, single number series
A11117 Keating Ministries - Cabinet files, single number series with ‘KCA’ prefix
Finding aids
This series and related series of the First and Second Keating Ministry are described in the RecordSearch database at series and item level. For general information regarding the Cabinet Office refer to the National Archives of Australia website for an information paper titled Introduction to the Cabinet and its records (see http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/explore/cabinet/records/index.aspx)
Access conditions
Series history
Provenance
The records that constitute this series were created in the Cabinet Office, CA 1472 between December 1991 and March 1996. They were transferred to the National Archives in 2013 along with Submissions and Memoranda for the First and Second ministries.
Immediate source of acquisition
Custodial history
Quantity in agency custody
Disposal history
Publication note
Additional information
End notes
Sources
National Archives of Australia, RecordSearch person registration CRS CP 665 person note.
National Archives of Australia, RecordSearch series registration CRS A13979 series descriptive note.
National Archives of Australia, RecordSearch series registration CRS A13977 series descriptive note.
National Archives of Australia, RecordSearch series registration CRS A14039 series descriptive note.
National Archives of Australia website, Introduction to the Cabinet and Its Records, http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/explore/cabinet/records/index.aspx, accessed 17 November 2016
The Honourable Paul Keating website, http://www.keating.org.au/page/biography.html, accessed 21 November 2016.
Australian Government Cabinet Handbook website, https://www.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/Cabinet_Handbook_9th_edition.pdf, accessed 22 November 2016
Wikipedia entry, First Keating Ministry, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Keating_Ministry, accessed 9 November 2016.