Summary heading

 

Function and purpose

  This series consists of Submissions to Cabinet received from Ministers and departments during the term of the Whitlam government.   Because there were no formal submissions during the term of the First Whitlam Ministry (5 to 19 December 1972) the items of this series relate to the second and third Whitlam ministries only.

There were three ministries during the course of the Whitlam government:

     First ministry:           5 to 19 December 1972

     Second ministry:      19 December 1972 to 12 June 1974

     [Election held on 18 May 1974]

     Third ministry:          12 June 1974 to 11 November 1975

It is normal practice in Cabinet Office to recommence the sequence of Submission and Decisions numbers when a new ministry is formed, and consequently, in archival terms, a new series commences with each new ministry.

However, there were no formal submission during the very brief term of the First Whitlam Ministry.  The first Submissions in this series occur at the beginning of the second Ministry ; submission No 1 was received n 19 December 1972, Submission No 2 was received on 2 January 1973.)   The last submission received in Cabinet office during the term of the Second Whitlam Ministry was no 1017, and in normal practice this would mark the end of the series.  However, the government having been returned to office in the election of 18 May 1974, the Prime minister gave emphasis to the continuity of office by making only one change to the ministry (Senator Wheeldon being the new minister)  In the circumstances, it was decided by the Cabinet Office and at the expressed preference of the Prime Minister, to continue the same numbering sequences for both submissions and decisions.   Consequently the first submission received during the  term of the Third Ministry registered by Cabinet Office on 12 June 1974, was numbered 1018 in this series (and not number 1 in a new series.)

The upshot was that this series contains all submissions received during the term of the Whitlam government.

The standing instruction was that matters submitted to cabinet should be limited to

• Major policy issues
• Proposals involving large expenditure
• Proposals requiring new legislation or amendment to existing legislation
• Senior appointment (including First Division officers of the APS)

Within this range of categories, the submissions in this series document the information opinion and advice on which the government based major decisions in governing Australia.  They cover an extremely wide range of subjects and address significant issues of the time.  They also cover ongoing government responsibilities such as budgets, taxation, etc.

In a departure from the practice of previous governments, where only selected senior ministers were appointed to Cabinet, Mr Whitlam appointed his entire ministry of 27 members to the Cabinet.  There were, however, fewer Cabinet Committees than had previously existed and there was less frequent use of Ad Hoc committees.

When a submission was received in the Cabinet Office, the Prime Minister determined whether the matter should be put before Cabinet or a committee.  The Cabinet Committees during the Whitlam government were as follows:

     Ad Hoc Committees

     Economic Committee

     Welfare Committee

     Urban and Regional Development Committee

     Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee

     Legislation Committee

While there are decisions attributed to all these committees in series A5925, only the Legislation committee made final decisions which might be acted upon without further direction from Cabinet itself. The decisions of other committees in effect were recommendation which required endorsement by Cabinet before being passed to the appropriate minister for implementation.

Related legislation

 

Using the series

  The register (CRS A5914) shows submission number and title, date received, the relevant Cabinet office file in series A5931, and the subsequent Decision number.  (Note that Volume 2 of this register also contains a register of Bills submitted to the Legislation Committee.)

There is also a nominal index to the contents of the CL files (CRS A5932) and also a subject index (A5934)

All submissions in this series have been individually entered in the item database of RecordSearch; a keyword search in the Item title is a quick alternative to using the indexes. 

There is normally a copy of the relevant Decision present in each Submission record

Language of material

 

Physical characteristics

  The submissions are in standardised format, regardless of their source, in conformance with requirements of the Cabinet office. The standing instruction was that submissions should be brief – not more than four or five pages; and while attachments were permissible, they should be limited in size (often not the case)

Cabinet office procedure required multiple copies of each submission.  The items in this series were a discrete accumulation filed by the Cabinet office in a sequence of Visidex binders.  At the time of transfer to the custody of NAA, the submission documents were contained in 83 binders.  However, for preservation reasons and to improve accessibility the submission documents have been individually re-housed in archival quality folders and each submission is now a physically discrete record item.

System of arrangement and control

  The submissions are controlled in a simple numerical sequence, allocated as the submissions were received and registered in Cabinet Office.  The register from which the number were allocated is series A5914.  This register consists of two volumes; submissions received during the term of the Second Whitlam ministry are recorded in Volume 1; those received during the term of the Third Ministry are recorded in Volume 2.

The decision number, which appears in the Title for the relevant submission in this series, indicates what cabinet body considered the submission. Decisions made at normal cabinet meetings have a number only – without any suffix - while those made by a Cabinet Committee have an alpha suffix as follows:

AD HOC – A generic abbreviation used for any ad hoc committee

EC –  Economic

FAD – Foreign Affairs and Defence

LEG – Legislative

URD – Urban and Regional Development

WEL - Welfare

Note that the sequence of Submission numbers reflects the chronology of the submission’s being received and registered in the Cabinet Office.  The sequence of the Decision numbers reflects the chronology of the meetings at which the submissions were subsequently considered.  Because there are many intervening factors that determine when a submission might actually be put before a meeting of cabinet or cabinet committee, the two sequences of numbers are not parallel.

There are many gaps in the number sequence of the submission records in this series.  In many cases these are simply numbers that for one reason or another were not used.  No submission were registered with the following numbers:

     163, 170, 409, 504, 512, 521, 530-550, 569-570 and 595

Also there are several instances where submissions which had been registered and allocated numbers in this sequence were subsequently withdrawn or otherwise effectively cancelled.  There are no physical items extant in this series for the following numbers, for the reasons indicated:

Submission Number	Reason for absence
207	Submission 207 – replaced by Submission 216 – see CL264
222	Submission 222 – Withdrawn – see CL288
262	Submission Never Circulated – see CL323
264	Submission 264 – No Circulation at Prime Minister’s direction – see CL239
296	Overtaken – see CL328
316	Submission 316 – Withdrawn – see Submission 340 – see CL379
672	Submission Withdrawn – see Submission 677 – see CL398
703	Submission Withdrawn – replaced by Submission 705 – see CL796
704	Submission Withdrawn – see CL802
808	Submission Withdrawn – replaced by Submission 918 – see CL155
862	Submission Withdrawn – see CL880
896	Submission Withdrawn – replaced by Submission 902 – see CL310
907	Withdrawn – see CL965
926	Withdrawn – Election
929	For Information Only – see CL410 – Submission Withdrawn
984	Withdrawn – see CL 71

Note that in these instances a copy of the submission can normally be found on the relevant file in series A5931

Submission numbers 502 and 503 each have a note in the file, indicating that the number was not used. This is in fact not the case, as the submissions do exist (see also A5931, CL710 and CL711). The decision made as a result is number 1090.

Relationships with other records

 

Finding aids

 

Access conditions

 

Series history

 

Provenance

 

Immediate source of acquisition

 

Custodial history

  All the records of this series were transferred to the custody of NAA from Cabinet Office in November 2001.

Quantity in agency custody

 

Disposal history

 

Publication note

 

Additional information

 

End notes

 

Sources