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2004 - 2005 Portfolio Budget Statements
PART B OVERVIEW
Departmental overview
The department is one of the five parliamentary departments supporting
the Australian Parliament.
The main responsibility of the department is the effective and efficient
provision of services to support the functioning of the Senate, its
committees and senators.
The department also runs education programs and prepares publications
to
promote an understanding of parliamentary processes.
Organisational Structure
The department is responsible to the Senate through the President of
the
Senate.
The administrative head of the department is the Clerk
of the Senate.
The department is organised into five offices which also equate to the
Departments output groups:
- Output Group 1 - Clerks Office - provides advice in relation to
the
proceedings of the Senate and its committees, provides secretariat
services to various committees and provides strategic direction for
the
department.
- Output Group 2 - Table Office - provides procedural advice and
programming services, processes legislation, produces documents
including the record of Senate proceedings, provides safe custody of
Senate records, provides inquiry services to facilitate the operations
of the Senate and the work of senators and provides secretariat
services to various committees.
- Output Group 3 - Procedure Office - provides procedural advice and
legislative drafting services to non-government senators, provides
secretariat services to the legislative scrutiny committees, conducts
parliamentary research, and promotes awareness and knowledge of
the Senate and the Parliament in the community.
- Output Group 4 - Committee Office - provides Senate and certain joint
committees with secretariat support for the conduct of and reporting
on inquiries, and aims to increase the publics awareness of the work
of committees.
- Output Group 5 - Black Rods Office - provides office support,
information technology, security services, ceremonial services and
corporate services to the Senate, senators and departmental staff.
Chart 1: Departmental Appropriation by Output Group ($000)
Note: Black Rods Office is divided into two outputs: Senators Services
and
Security. The cost of security for the whole of Parliament House and its
environs is shared equally between the Department of the Senate and the
Department of the House of Representatives.
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