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Departmental Overview
Departmental Overview
The department is one of
the three parliamentary departments supporting the Australian Parliament.
The main responsibility
of the department is the effective and efficient provision of advisory and administrative support services to
enable the Senate and Senators to fulfil their representative and legislative
duties.
The department also runs
education programs and prepares publications to promote an understanding of
parliamentary processes.
These responsibilities
are reflected in the intermediate outcomes shown in the diagram on the opposite
page.
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:
- Clerk’s Office – provides procedural and
constitutional advice in relation to the proceedings of the Senate and its
committees; strategic direction for the department; secretariat support
for the Procedure Committee, the Committee of Privileges and the Committee of
Senators' Interests; and maintains the Register of Senators' Interests.
- Table Office – provides programming and
procedural support to the Senate; processes legislation and documents, and
archives records of the Senate; produces records of Senate business and
proceedings, and disseminates information on the work of the Senate; provides
document distribution and inquiries services; and provides secretariat support
to several domestic committees.
- Procedure Office—provides advisory and drafting
services to non-government senators, secretariat support for the legislative
scrutiny committees and policy support for inter-parliamentary relations;
conducts parliamentary research; and promotes community awareness and knowledge
of the Senate and the parliament.
- Committee Office – provides secretariat support
for most Senate and certain joint committees and in accordance with committee
directions, facilitates the public’s awareness of and involvement in the work
of committees.
- Black Rod’s Office -
provides office, chamber and committee room support; information technology and
ceremonial services; security advice; and corporate services to the Senate,
senators and departmental staff.
Resources made available in the Budget year
Table A: Resources made available in the Budget year
Appropriations and variations
There were no major changes, variations or initiatives in
relation to the departmental appropriation for the 2009-10 financial year.
Figure 2: Departmental appropriation by Office ($’000)
Figure 3: Departmental appropriation by Office (% of
total)
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