This series consists of Ministerial speeches prepared in the Department of Trade and Industry in the period when Sir John McEwen was Minister and Ian Sinclair was Minister Assisting. At the time, McEwen was also Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Australian Country Party. A small number of speeches were given in his capacity as Acting Prime Minister and, on some occasions, another Country Party politician deputised for him (eg Senator J J Webster, Senator G C McKellar, J D Anthony). Sinclair was also Minister for Shipping and Transport.

The speeches were given on a wide range of occasions throughout Australia:- at conferences, conventions, seminars, openings, Country Party meetings, business luncheons and dinners, award presentations, public lectures, press interviews and in the House of Representatives. They were filed in the department's Policy Secretariat in a single number system and mainly chronologically, although items 1-151 are not known to be extant. The files may include speaking notes only, briefing material, draft speeches, final copies (often issued as a press release), some correspondence, journal articles and newscuttings. Several 1967 items have a 'note for file' recording the absence of a speech transcript or other documents. The series was transferred to archival custody in May 1978.

This series description was revised as part of the Prime Ministers Papers' Project (December 2003).

Related series unregistered

Register of Speeches made by Departmental Officers, 1949-