Administrative Arrangements Orders in Commonwealth and the States

Recently (22 September 2015), the new Commonwealth Parliament released an amendment to the current Administrative Arrangements Order, which renamed departments and changed departmental functions. But what are Administrative Arrangement Orders and how are they reported at TimeBase?

Administrative Arrangement Orders

An Administrative Arrangements Order is a formal document issued by the Executive Council in both the Federal and State Parliaments (and generally published in the Federal and/or State Gazettes or electronic registers), which assigns responsibility for legislation and functions to departments of State.

Administrative changes occur when agencies and departments are created, modified or abolished, and responsibility for legislation and functions (and records) is transferred from one jurisdiction, portfolio, department or agency to another - this usually happens upon a change of government or when ministers resign or are changed.

See our information resources page for more.

How TimeBase Reports Changes

TimeBase reports Administrative Arrangement Orders as legislative instruments in the LawOne service. As such, they can be tracked in legislative profiles for email alerts; searched; and also accessed from each jurisdiction homepage with a list of current responsible departments and current links to their official homepages.

Key Changes in Federal Parliament for September 2015

In the Amendment to the Administrative Arrangements Order for Commonwealth, released on 22 September 2015, there were 3 renamed departments and changes of responsibilities for 10 departments.

Some of the more key changes were:

• Responsibility for copyright moving from the Attorney-General to the Department of Communications and the Arts;
• Childcare policy and programs moving from Department of Social Security to the Department of Education and Training; and
• Introduction of Renewable Energy Technology Development to the Department of the Environment.

For more information and access to these amending orders, please see the order in TimeBase LawOne (subscription required).

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