Summary heading

  Descriptive Note   

Function and purpose

This series consists of one volume containing copies of Ministry Decisions  - that is, Decisions made at meetings of the whole Ministry during the term of the Fraser government.  All the Decisions in this series are also present in series A13075 which contains all Decisions during the period of the Fraser government; this series is a discrete collection of the Ministry Decisions only.  Ministry Decision deal with procedural issues and operational policy of the Cabinet Office – principally procedures regarding submissions, decisions, cabinet and committee meetings, etc and specifically the role of the ministers in regard to these issues.

Following the Coalition’s election victory on 13 December 1975, the caretaker government that had been appointed on 11 November 1975 (the First Fraser Ministry) was dissolved and a new ministry of 27 members (the Second Fraser Ministry) was sworn in on 22 December 1975.  Of this ministry, 12 were appointed Cabinet Members.

The same day the whole Ministry met and at this meeting procedural and housekeeping issues – pertaining particularly to the functioning of the Cabinet system - were agreed to.  These Decisions were registered as Cabinet Decisions, and distinguished by the addition of an ‘M’ suffix – reviving a practice which had been in place since the 1950’s (but which was not observed during the period of the Whitlam government since in that case the Cabinet comprised the whole ministry.)

Each subsequent ministry was normally inaugurated with a ministerial meeting of this kind resulting in  a short sequence of ministerial Decisions – hardly more than a re-iteration of the previous set of Ministerial Decisions.  These were all confined to housekeeping and procedural matters, mostly concerning specifically the operation of the Cabinet system, and procedures of the Cabinet office (control and circulation of  submissions etc.)   (Prominent among them was a statement that Cabinet meetings had absolute claim on a Minister’s time.)  The Fraser ministries were:

Ministry                        Date range                      Reason for end   

 of ministry                    of ministry        

Second Fraser:                22/12/75 – 20/12/77        Election on 10 Dec 1977  

Third Fraser                   20/12/77 – 3/11/80          Election on 18 Oct 1980  

Fourth Fraser                  3/11/80 – 7/5/82             Cabinet re-shuffle

                                                                        7 May 1982

Fifth Fraser                     7 /5/82 – 11/3/83            Election on 5 Mar 1983   

Apart from the inaugural Ministry meeting at the beginning of each new ministry, there were other Ministry meetings in the course of that ministry as required.  In the Second Fraser Ministry there were 13 Ministry meetings; in the Third Ministry there were 25 Ministry meetings and in the Fourth Ministry there were 10.  There was a Ministry meeting on the  day of the inauguration of the Fifth Ministry – 7^th May 1982 – resulting in Decisions 17958/M to 17962/M and one further Ministry meeting on 17 August 1982 resulting in Decisions 18777/M to 18779/M.  (See CRS A12573 Chronological Record of Meetings for the detail of each meeting.)

Related legislation

 

Using the series

This series consists of copies of Decisions which were made in meetings of the whole Ministry.   These Decisions are registered in the Register of Decisions (CRS A12911) in the same way – and from the same sequence – as Decisions of Cabinet and Cabinet Committees, being distinguished by the addition of an ‘M’ suffix.

All of these Decisions are Without Submission.   However there is usually a file in the LC series (A10756) pertaining to the matter.  Normally where a Decision is made in response to a Submission, the LC file is indicated by reference to the Submission register.  However where there is no Submission this link does not exist.  The Register of Decisions (CRS A12911) does not record the relevant LC file for each Decision   An index of Decisions to LC file number was created to meet this need – refer to series A12938.

There are many files in A10756 dealing with procedural matters and operational policy in the Cabinet Office, and several of these have many parts since the one file was subsequently used to deal with the issue throughout the whole term of the Fraser Government.  For example file LC2  titled ‘Cabinet Procedures and Practices’ was opened on 12 November 1975 and has three parts, Part 3 containing material to December 1982.  Copies of relevant Decisions appear on the LC file.

Language of material

Physical characteristics

  The practice of the Cabinet Office is that a copy of each Ministry Decision was filed in a Visidex folders arranged by the Decision number.   Each Decision has been entered in the RecordSearch database (as a sub-item entry to the entry for the Folder.)

System of arrangement and control

  This is a single item series (one folder).  The entries in the folder are copies of Ministry Decisions, arranged by the Decision Number, which reflects the chronological sequence in which the Decisions were made at Ministry meetings.  The Decision Number sequence (controlled from the Decision Register CRS A12911) is a simple number sequence with alpha suffix indicating in what type of meeting the Decision was made.  In the case of the Ministerial Decisions, the Decision number has an ‘M’ suffix, ranging from 1/M to 18779/M (with large gaps, since Ministry meetings occur infrequently.)

Relationships with other records

  All Ministry Decisions are without Submission.   However, there will be a relevant file in the LC series (CRS A10756).  Series A12938 indexes Decision Number to relevant LC file number.  The Decision register (CRS A 12911)  controls the allocation of Decision number to register all Decisions made in that ministry, including Decisions Without Submissions.  The complete set of copies of all Decisions (including Ministry Decisions) is series A13075.  The Chorological Record of Meetings (CRS A12573) is the definitive record of what meetings occurred during the Fraser government, including Ministry meetings.  The Attendance Sheets (CRS A12575) record which ministers were present  at each meeting (as well as the type of meeting – whether Ministerial, Cabinet or a Committee – and also who the Notetakers were at each meeting.)

Finding aids

  This series and related series of the First Fraser Ministry are described in RecordSearch database both at Series level and item level.  For general information regarding the Cabinet office refer to registration for agency CA 1472 in RecordSearch.  The Cabinet Office procedures regarding preparation of  Submissions is described in detail in the Cabinet Handbook which was first printed during the term of the second Fraser Ministry (February in 1976.)  The Handbook also outlines the operation of the Cabinet system in broad terms.  The present edition (the fifth) can be seen at   www.pmc.gov.au/guidelines/index.cfm

Note that Cabinet Decisions are referred to in the Handbook, and in some other contexts, as Cabinet Minutes.  Matters that are raised in the Cabinet meeting for which no submission has been made (leading to a Decision without Submission) are referred to as ‘under–the-line’ matters.

Access conditions

 

Series history

 

Provenance

  The record item that constitutes this series was created in the Cabinet Office (CA1472) in December 1975.  The contents (copies of  Ministerial Decisions) were added to the record item from that date to August 1982.

Immediate source of acquisition

 

Custodial history

  The records that constitute this series were transferred from the Cabinet Office to the custody of the National Archives in May 2004

Quantity in agency custody

 

Disposal history

 

Publication note

 

Additional information

 

End notes

Sources