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 and Cabinet committees during the second half of the 5^th Ministry, from July 1954 until January 1956. Attached to each submission is a memorandum or a decision paper - a record of the outcome or course of action agreed on the matter. 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. This date marks the end of what is referred to as the 1^st system used during the 5^th Menzies Ministry, and the beginning of what is referred to as the 2^nd system.

Prior to the change, the records of full Cabinet were accumulated and kept separately from the records of both standing and ad hoc Cabinet committees – record series A4905 contains the records of full Cabinet and A4933 contains the records of standing and ad hoc Cabinet Committees. After the change the records Cabinet committees were included in the set of full Cabinet records – this series, A4906, contains committee records as well as full Cabinet records.

Using the series

Digital images of microfilm copy of volumes can be viewed at the 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.

At the time the records were transferred to the Archives in 1985, there were large gaps of missing submissions. Copies were found in the record series A4940, Cabinet files, "C" single number series, 1958-1967. The missing submissions were photocopied and placed in this series 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

The Cabinet Secretariat gave each submission a single running number at the time it was submitted by the Minister. 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.

Eg. Submission 16 – The state of the economy – Decision 9

Submissions which were prepared for, or referred to, a standing or ad hoc committee were numbered from the same sequence as papers prepared for the full Cabinet. However, the decision papers have an alphabetical suffix or symbol that denotes which committee considered the submission.

Eg. Submission 14 – Tea subsidy – Decision 14(PM)

The committee abbreviations which appear in this series include:

(PM) Prime Minister’s Committee
(VP) Vice-President’s Committee
(DPC) Defence Preparations Committee
(CW) Commonwealth Works Committee
(UC) Uranium Committee
(HOC) A generic abbreviation used for a large number of ad hoc committees

The Prime Minister’s Committee and the Vice-President’s Committee were the only standing committees that existed between July 1954 and the end of the 5^th Ministry in January 1956. But numerous ad hoc committees were established for specific purposes, some of which met frequently and some of which met only once. A small number of the ad hoc committees had their own unique abbreviation, such as the Defence Preparations Committee (DPC). But the majority of ad hoc committee decisions are identified by the generic abbreviation (HOC), regardless of the specific committee which actually made the decision. The full name of the committee responsible for making each decision appears in the heading of the decision paper.

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 during the first half of the 5^th Menzies Ministry (1^st system May 1951 – July 1954) are held in the series A4933.

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 A4906/9 was destroyed on 25 May 2017.

Temporary consignment A4906/12 was destroyed on 8 April 2021.