Items medium note

Function and purpose

The Fifth Menzies Ministry held term from 11 May 1951 until 11 January 1956. This series contains submission papers that were prepared by Ministers and their departments for consideration by Cabinet during the first half of the 5^th Ministry, from May 1951 until July 1954. Attached to each submission is a memorandum or a decision paper - a record of the course of action agreed on the matter by Cabinet. The records document the information, opinion and advice on which the government based major decisions in governing Australia.

The submissions cover an extremely wide range of subjects and address many of the significant events or issues of the time, such as Australia’s involvement in the Korean War, atomic testing, immigration policy, industry assistance schemes as well as ongoing matters such as budgets, taxation and changes to legislation.

In July 1954 when Prime Minister Menzies reformed the Cabinet system and reduced the number of standing Cabinet committees, the Cabinet Secretariat also made changes to its recordkeeping procedures and this series, A4905, was discontinued. Before the change, the records of full Cabinet were accumulated and kept separately from the records of both standing and ad hoc Cabinet committees – referred to as the 1^st system. When the new series, A4906, commenced after July 1954, the submissions considered by committees were included in the set of full Cabinet submissions – referred to as the 2^nd system.

Using the series

All items have been entered onto National Archives RecordSearch database. Several of the individual items have been digitized and the image can be viewed by accessing the item entry on the database. The entire series was microfilmed and in 2017 the microfilm was digitized and uploaded onto RecordSearch items at the RecordSearch item 'Digital item' icon.

Physical characteristics

For preservation reasons, each individual submission was re-packaged and placed in an archival folder by the Archives in 2001. Originally the papers were housed in 25 heavy cardboard volumes or binders, with a sheet of green paper dividing the papers relating to each submission.

When the records were transferred to the Archives in 1985, there were large gaps of missing submissions (eg. Submissions 21-103 and 187-206). Copies were found in the series A4940, Cabinet files, 'C' single number series, 1958-1967. The missing submissions were photocopied and placed in this series, A4905, to complete the set. The copies have been stamped with the number of the 'C' file where they were found.

System of arrangement and control

When a Minister made a submission, the Secretariat gave each document a single running number. Decision papers were also given a single running number, but from a separate sequence. The submission number and the decision number are not the same. Some submission numbers have an alphabetical suffix, which was originally used to link submissions on the same subject. This system was discontinued in 1952 when the Secretariat created a separate subject index.

Eg. Submission 650 – Canberra University College – Decision 976
Submission 18 – Shipping and shipbuilding – Decision 11
Submission 18A – Government policy on shipping and shipbuilding – Decision 215

Although this series only contains submissions that were made to the full Cabinet, not to standing or ad hoc Cabinet committees, occasionally papers that were submitted to Cabinet were referred by it to a Cabinet committee for a final decision. Decisions recorded by the various Cabinet committees were numbered using a separate sequence for each committee. The name of the committee was denoted by an alphabetical suffix.

Eg. Submission 394 – Date of next census – Decision GA(D) 18
[General Administration Committee, decision 18]

Relationships with other records

The single volume in record series A4908 lists the standing and ad hoc Cabinet committees that existed during the 5^th Menzies Ministry and provides a key to the abbreviations that were used to number their papers.

Submission and decision papers for standing and ad hoc Cabinet Committee are held in the series A4933 (1^st system, May 1951-July 1954) and A4906 (2^nd system, July 1954-January 1956).

Although a copy of the decision relating to each submission was placed on file within this series, the Secretariat also kept a separate set of records containing just the decision papers. Cabinet often made decisions on matters for which no written submission was prepared and these decision papers for the 5^th Menzies Ministry can only be found in the series A4909 (1^st system, May 1951-July 1954) and A4910 (2^nd system, July 1954-January 1956).

Temporary consignment A4905/8 was destroyed on 25 May 2017.

Temporary consignment A4905/11 was destroyed on 8 April 2021.