FUNCTION AND CONTENT

This is the main series maintained by the Cabinet Office for the administration of Cabinet business between 1958 and 1967.  The files are arranged by subject, contain cabinet papers of this period, sometimes dating back to 1949, and generally include original copies of:  submissions and supporting papers; circulation details for these; minutes of decisions; memoranda to interested Ministers and Departments advising them of decisions; and any related papers such as briefs on submissions prepared by officers of the Prime Minister's Department.

In general, administrative use of these files ceased prior to the swearing in of the Gorton Ministry on 10 January 1968.  However, notes documenting the use and copying of these records continued to be placed on these files through to the end of 1970, decreasing markedly towards the end of the McMahon Ministry in December 1972, though there are isolated cases of related record action occurring on these files up to January 1985.

USING THE SERIES

Physical Characteristics

The files have yellow covers with the security classification appearing in large type on the outside front cover.  The title of the file is written in thick black ink on the inside of the front cover.  Occasionally, related 'C' files are also noted on the inside front cover.

Relationships with Other Records

The register for these files, CRS A5246, cites only 'C' file number and title, making no reference to the submission or decision documents that each file contains.  However, such a cross reference to the appropriate 'C' file can be found by checking the master register of submissions, CRS A5245, or the subject index cards, CRS A5195.

Although top-numbering into this series has not been recorded in one place consistently over time, record of such action can be found in CRS:  A4920, Register of Cabinet Submissions, Fifth Menzies Ministry (second system) and Sixth Menzies Ministry, 1954-1958; A4925, Fifth Menzies Ministry - volume containing (iii) register of miscellaneous files, 'Z' single number series, 1951-1954; A4941, Menzies and Holt Ministries - binder containing (ii) register of miscellaneous files, 'Z' single number series, 1951-1960; and A5245, Menzies and Holt Ministries - master register of submissions, 1952-1954.

Copies

As noted below, the Cabinet Office temporarily ceased to maintain separate sets of submissions and sets of decisions for the life of this series.  The Cabinet Office decided to fill this 1958-1967 gap that existed in their document sets and created from this series artificial 'copy' series (in the early 1980s) of submissions to Cabinet and associated decisions.  These artificial 'copy' series are submissions to Cabinet and associated decisions -  CRS A5818, A5819, A5827, A5841 and A5842.

In 1981, when Cabinet agenda papers were found to be missing from the original set in CRS A4639 (see Related Series cross reference above), a copy volume of those papers found in CRS A4940 was created, and is now controlled as copies of this series (identified as CRS A4940/XR1, Volume 1).

Finding Aids

All items in this series held by Australian Archives as at March 1991 have been entered onto the item level database, ANGAM II.

SERIES HISTORY

From 1949 to 1958, the Cabinet Secretariat maintained two sets each (master and spare) of both Full Cabinet submissions and minutes of decisions, separately stored in visidex folders in numerical order.

In 1958, the Cabinet Office decided to collect this documentation in one series consisting of subject files.  To make up these files, the contents of the master set were dispersed into a file for each submission or subject (comprising multiple submissions) considered by Full Cabinet. The spare set was also culled in some cases so as to make this series as complete as possible, which accounts to some extent for gaps in the previous series of submissions dating back to 1949 (CRS A4639, A4905, A4906 and A4926).

Top-numbering of pre-1958 submissions and minutes of decisions continued on an ad hoc basis at the same time as files were being raised for new submissions.  As a result,  pre-1958 papers are dispersed among the first few hundred files rather than being a block at the beginning of the file sequence.  A previous file series that had apparently been maintained for matters on which no decision had been reached or which had been referred back to a Minister for a decision - CRS  A4942, Menzies Ministry - Miscellaneous files, 'Z' single number series, 1951-1960 - was also top-numbered into this series.

Between 1958 and 1967, no separate sets of submissions and minutes of decisions were maintained, all documentation being placed on files in this series instead. Therefore, this series is the original source of submissions and minutes of decisions of Cabinet for the period 1958-1967.