Annual Report 2001-02: Portfolio and Departmental Overview

| | | | | |

You are currently viewing: Annual Report > Portfolio and Departmental Overview > Departmental overview

previous | next

Departmental overview

Role and outcome

The primary role of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is to provide support to the Prime Minister and to achieve a coordinated approach to the development and implementation of government policies. The planned outcome for the department is:

sound and well coordinated government policies, programmes and decision making processes.

Structure and outputs

At 30 June 2002, the department comprised the Executive, seven divisions, the Cabinet Secretariat, and the Ceremonial and Hospitality Branch, all of which were supported by corporate service units which also purchased a range of goods and services from private sector providers (see figure 2).

The operations of the department are divided into four output groups:

group 1 outputs include policy advice on economic, industry, infrastructure and environment issues; and effective Council of Australian Governments (COAG) operations
group 2 outputs include policy advice on social and women’s issues, as well as administering, on behalf of the Government, a number of programmes, including Partnerships Against Domestic Violence (PADV) and grants to non-government women’s organisations
group 3 outputs include policy advice to the Prime Minister on international relations and security issues
group 4 outputs include policy advice on parliamentary, machinery of government and legal and cultural issues; and the support services for government operations (coordination of Cabinet and Executive Council business; policy advice on coordination and promotion of national awards and symbols; coordination of government communications and advertising; administration of the Prime Minister’s official establishments; and administration of the visits and hospitality programme).

Figure 3 identifies the senior staff responsible for each output. Some of the outputs involve administered items; those are described in detail in the relevant reports on performance. The outputs are set out in figure 4.

Responsibilities

To briefly demonstrate the practical responsibilities the output groups entail, the department’s activities can be loosely divided into eight areas, as follows (the illustrative information provided here is discussed in detail in the performance chapters of this annual report):

coordination of government administration – for example, as a member of the Budget Coordination Committee, we work closely with Treasury and the Department of Finance and Administration on all aspects of Commonwealth Budget preparation
assistance to Cabinet and its committees – for example, during 2001–02 we took part in establishing and supporting the Sustainable Environment Committee of Cabinet
policy advice and administrative support to the Prime Minister – this includes the full scope of the Prime Minister’s domestic and international areas of interest
inter-governmental relations and communications with state and territory governments – for example, in 2001–02 we provided advice and conducted research to inform COAG on the regulations governing medical research using embryos
Australian honours and symbols policy – for example, in 2001–02 we handled preparations for new awards, such as the Anniversary of National Service 1951–72 Medal, and applications for existing awards, such as the Centenary Medal
government ceremonial and hospitality activities – for example, in 2001–02 we organised events as disparate as a visit from Her Majesty The Queen and the state funeral of the last Gallipoli veteran
status of women – this is the responsibility of the dedicated Office of the Status of Women, which advises Ministers and manages various programmes as well as collecting and providing information of particular interest to women
coordination of government communications and advertising – through the Government Communications Unit, our centralised approach both promotes a coherent government message and reduces costs.

previous | next