FOR MEDIA FRIDAY, 7 MAY 1982
MINISTRY AND DEPARTMENTAL CHANGES
This statement outlines important changes in the
Ministerial and Departmental organisation of the
Government. These changes will:
make the structure increasingly relevant to
current needs;
enable more effective attention to be
given to certain critical policy
areas; rationalise a number of government functions.
The overall re-organisation will mean that there will
in effect be one less Government Department with
specific operational responsibilities. On the other
hand, there will be new Ministries and Departments
designed specifically to focus on areas of growing
importance in the Australian community.
Ministerial Changes
The swearing in will take place at Government House at
2.00 p. m. this afternoon. The Governor-General has
authorised me to announce the following details
ahead of the swearing:
COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT
Fourth Fraser Ministry
* 1 Prime Minister
* 2 Deputy Prime Minister
and Minister for Trade
and ReSources
* 3 Treasurer
* 4 Minister for Defence
Minister for National
Development and Energy
and Leader of the Government
in the Senate
* 6 Minister for Industry and
Commerce
* 7 Minister for Foreign
Affairs
* 8 Minister for Primary
Industry
* 9 Vice-President of the
Executive Council and
Leader of the House
Minister for Finance
* 11 Attorney-General
* 12 Minister for Social
Security
* 13 Minister for Aviation
and Minister Assisting
the Prime Minister in
Federal Affairs and
Public Service Matters
* 14 Minister for Employment
and Industrial Relations
Minister for Education
16 Minister for Transport
and Construction
17 Minister for Defence
Support and Minister
AssistiLng the Minister
for Defence The Rt Hon. Malcolm Fraser, CH, MP
The Rt Hon. J. D. Anthony, CH, MP
The Hon. John Howard, M. P.
The Rt Hon Ian Sinclair, M. P.
Senator the Hon. Sir John Carrick,
KCMG
The Rt Hon Sir Phillip Lynch
KCMG, M. P.
The Hon. A. A. Street, M. P.
The Hon. P. J. Nixon, M. P.
The Hon. D. J. Killen, M. P.
Senator the Hon. Dame Margaret
Guilfoyle, DBE
Senator the Hon. Peter * Durack, Q. C.
Senator the Hon. F. M. Chaney
The Hon. Wal Fife, M. P.
The Hon. Ian Macphee, M. P.
Senator the Hon. Peter Baume
The Hon. Ralph J. Hunt, M. P.
The Hon. Ian Viner, M. P.
Minister in the Cabinet
18 Minister for Science
and Technology
19 Minister for Administrative
Services Minister for Commnunications
and M ' inister Assisting
the Attorney-General
21 Minister for the Capital
Territory and Minister
Assisting the Minister for
Industry and Commerce
22 Minister for Veterans'
Affairs and Minister
Assisting the Treasurer
23 Minister for Home Affairs
and Environment and
Minister Assisting the
Minister for Trade and
Resources
24 Minister for Aboriginal
Affairs and Minister
Assisting the Minister
for Social Security
Minister for Health and
Mini'ster Assisting the
Minister for National
Development and Energy
26 Min-' ster ' for Immnigration
and Ethnic Affairs The Hon. David Thomson, MP
The Hon. Kevin Newman, M. P.
The Hon. N. A. Brown, QC, M. P.
The Hon. Michael Hodgman, M. P.
Senator the Hon. Tony Messner
The Hon. D. T. McVeigh, M. P.'
The Hon. Ian Wilson, M. P.
The Hon. J. J. Carlton, M. P.
The Hon. John Hodges, M. P.
Mr Alan Cadman, MP, will continue as Parliamentary Secretary
to the Prime Minister and Mr Bruce Lloyd, MP, will continue
as Parl-; Lamentary Secretary to the Minister for Primary
IndustrN* Mr Michael Baume, MP, has been appointed as
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer.
DEPARTMENTAL RE-ORGANISATION
The following Departments will be-abolished and their
functions re-organised:
Business and Consumer Affairs;
Employment and Youth Affairs;
Housing and Construction;
Industrial Relations; and
Transport.
The new Departments to be created are:
Aviation; Defence Support;
Employment and Industrial Relations;
Transport and Construction;
Vice-President of the Executive Council.
INDUSTRY Employm~ ent, Industrial Relations and Youth Affairs
The Government's policies in relation to maintaining high
levels of employment and effective industrial relations,
and the close links between * these two areas, require the
Departments of Industrial Relations and Employment and
Youth Affairs to be brought together again.
The Departments were split during the formative stages of
the employment and training programmes. The basis for the
effective operation and continued development of these
programmes is now well established.
The office of Youth Affairs will retain its identity and will
receive continued priority within the new Departmental
structure. Other Industrial Responsibilities
To give a greater focus to Government policies affecting
industry, the customs and excise functions of the Department:
of Business and Consumer Affairs will be transferred to the
Department of Industry and Commerce. ' As a consequence of this
move, the other functions of the Department of Business and
Consumer Affairs will be relocated and the Department abolished.
The corporate affairs, trade practices and consumer affairs
functions will be transferred back to the Attorney-General's
Department. The regulatory functions in this area rest
largely with the National Companies and Securities Commission
and the Trade Practices Commission. Because of the substantial
legal content of these functions, they are appropriately placed
within the Attorney-General's portfolio.
The Industries Assistance Commission and the work associated
with protection policy previously located in the Department
of Business and Consumer Affairs will be transferred to
the Department of Administrative Services to continue the
practice of having these functions administered by a
Department independent of particular industry sectors.
DEFENCE The new Defence Support Department is based on a recommendation
from the Defence Review Committee. Because its terms of
reference included Departmental Structures, I asked if
a report concerning these aspects of its terms of
reference could be brought forward. An interim report
on the issue of departmental organisation has been presented
by the Committee under the Chairmanship of Mr John Utz and
whose other members are Sir Frederick Wheeler, General
MacDonald and Mr Eric Neal.
The Review Committee concluded that there were disadvantages
in the present large structure of the Defence Department.
It recommended the creation of a second Department in
the Defence area a Department of Defence Support. I
have decided to accept this recommendation. The interim
report will be made public forthwith and tabled in the
Parliament.
The Department of Defence Support will take over the defence
production factories now under the Department of Industry
and Commerce; the naval dockyards at Garden Island and
Williamstown other than the fleet-based activities at
Garden IsLand; administration of the major research and
development laboratories of the Defence Science and
Technology Organisation viz. the Defence Engineering
Laboratory, the Aeronautical Research Laboratories, the
Electronic Research Laboratories, the Materials Research
Laboratories, and the Weapons Systems Research Laboratories;
that part of Defence purchasing now located in the Department
of Administrative Services; and the Defence Industry Development
functions of the Department of Defence.
The grouping of defence support activities under a
separate Minister and Department will enable close
co-operation with scientific and industrial organisations
who are now involved with the Defence Department. At the
same time, defence support effort could be integrated more
closely with private sector industrial capacity and move
towards increased self-reliance in industrial support.
There will be a close relationship between the new Department
and the Department of Defence. The Minister for Defence,
Mr Sinclair, will retain central responsibility for
formulating defence policy and co-ordinating defence
expenditure. The Minister for Defence Support, Mr Viner,
will be the Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence.
The Minister for Defence Support and the Secretary of his
Department: will be members of the Council of Defence and
the Department of Defence Support will be represented at
various levels on defence co-ordinating bodies. It is
intended that there will continue to be an overall defence
expenditure programme covering both Departments.
TRANSPORT The functions of the Department of Transport will be divided
between the two new Departments of Aviation and of Transport
and Constr7uction. The re-establishment of an Aviation
Department recognises the importance of civil aviation to
the economy and to the community at large. It is a distinct
area which presents particu * lar issues of its own and its
importance! warrants undivided ministerial attention.
The new Detpartment of Transport and Construction will carry
out functions relating to road, rail and sea transport and
assume responsibility for the Commonwealth construction
activities of the Department of Housing and Construction
and that Department will be abolished.
HOUS ING
The welfare housing activities of the Department of Housing and
Construction will be transferred to the Department of
Social Security. This will align housing, including the
administration of the improved Home Deposit Assistance
Scheme and welfare housing payments to the States, more
clearly with the Government's overall welfare programme.
Relations with the building industry and housing policy generally
will be the responsibility of the expanded Department of Industry
and Commerce and take their place alongside other industry matters.
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
Mr Killen will be the Vice-President of the Executive Counci'l
and Leader of the House of Representatives and will retain
his position in the Cabinet. The new Department of the
Vice-President of the Executive Council is a vehicle for
the appointment of a seni-or minister whose functions can
be performed without involving heavy departmental
responsibilities. The practice of appointing Vice-Presidents in this way
goes back -to Federation. More than half of the Ministers
who have held the office have held it without portfolio.
This practice was once embraced by successive governments,
but doubts have been expressed in more recent times about
certain legal aspects of appointments of Ministers without
portfolio. In view of these doubts, a very small Department
of the Vice-President of the Executive Council is being
created. The Permanent Head of the Department of the
Prime Minister and Cabinet will. be appointed as the
new Department I'shead in addition to his existing
responsibi Ii ties. oo00000000---