Executive summary

The establishment of National Cabinet, and subsequent ceasing of COAG, has provided a unique opportunity to reconsider and reset Australia’s intergovernmental architecture. COAG was a slow, bottom-up framework for intergovernmental cooperation that too often resulted in lowest common denominator outcomes. National Cabinet, in contrast, deals with issues quickly, based on advice from experts, with leaders dictating the priorities and parameters for their governments to implement.

Overview

Review purpose: to rationalise and reset the structure and work programs of the former COAG Councils and Ministerial Forums to better align the work of new Ministerial Forums with the revised federal relations architecture overseen by the National Cabinet and the National Federation Reform Council.

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Purpose

These rules have been developed to:

• ensure staff are aware of PM&C’s legal obligations under the FOI Act
• set out the structure of FOI processing at PM&C, and
• provide guidance for line area staff who are involved in the processing of an FOI request.