Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet

Monday 1 January 2024 | Media release

Transfer of 2003 Cabinet records to the National Archives of Australia

In 2020 the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department) transferred 2003 Cabinet records, including those prepared for the National Security Committee of Cabinet, to the National Archives of Australia (the Archives).

This is the normal process and allows time for appropriate consultation with relevant agencies to ensure content released is compliant with exemptions in the Archives Act 1983.

The 2020 transfer of a small number of additional 2003 Cabinet records did not take place as it should have due to apparent administrative oversights by the Department, the Archives and security agencies. These oversights were likely as a result of COVID-19 disruptions at the time.

The additional records were located by the Department on 19 December 2023, and the Department and the Archives jointly inspected the records on 22 December 2023. These additional records have now been transferred to the Archives.

The Archives will review the additional records in consultation with relevant agencies, including security agencies, to ensure content released is compliant with exemptions in the Archives Act 1983.

The Secretary of the Department has appointed Mr Dennis Richardson to undertake an independent review of the 2020 transfer process and confirm that all relevant records have been transferred to the Archives. Mr Richardson will complete his review by the end of January 2024.

Only the Archives decides which documents are released and to whom. Neither the Department, nor any Minister, has any role in this decision. [my yellow highlighting]

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How the newspapers saw the situation on 1 January 2024......

The Guardian

The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity report on the National Plan to transition Australia’s COVID response - full text

 

"On 2nd July 2021, National Cabinet agreed to formulate a National Plan to transition Australia’s COVID response. The plan consists of four phases defined by achievement of vaccination thresholds broadly expressed as a percentage of the eligible population (aged 16+ years)."

This is the report on that plan by the The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity:

Doherty Modelling Report for Australian National Cabinet 30 July 2021 by clarencegirl on Scribd

https://www.scribd.com/document/518563585/Doherty-Modelling-Report-for-Australian-National-Cabinet-30-July-2021

Now it is obvious that Scott Morrison intends to gather as much power as possible into his own hands, local government begins to fight back

Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison has chosen a global pandemic as a suitable time to both extinguish the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and increase the level of secrecy and lack of procedural transparency surrounding decisions and actions of the federal government he leads.

COAG represented all three tiers of Australian governments - federal, state and local - and its role since 1992 was to manage matters of national significance or matters that need co-ordinated action by all Australian governments. 

The President of the Australian Local Government Association had been a member of COAG since it was first convened. It was included because all parties recognised that Australia has three levels of government and that the tier with most impact on people’s daily lives in terms of the provision of local services and infrastructure is Local Government - as well as it being the most accessible form of government for citizens.

In early March 2020 Morrison created the ultra-secret National Cabinet comprising of himself as prime minister, all state premiers and territory chief ministers and, he appears to be the sole spokesperson for this body.

On 29 May 2020 Morrison announced that COAG was indeed dead. That the National Council was now going to be the centre of a new National Federation Reform Council (NFRC) and that the existing Council on Federal Financial Relations (CFFR), consisting of federal and state treasurers, will report to the National Cabinet. 

According to Morrison all these bodies now fall under the confidentiality privileges of the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet which will also act as meeting coordinator. As will all the previous 8 COAG sub-councils and 32 ministerial forums, in whatever form they take after a planned review.

No minutes of meetings will be available nor will all issues discussed be made public.

According to the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet the NFRC has been agreed to by Premiers, Chief Ministers and the Prime Minister.

Local government was not consulted and now has no representative on the peak national body, as neither the National Council or the new National Federation Reform Council include a local government member.

Local government is not amused.

Clarence Valley Council. Ordinary Monthly Meeting, Minutes, p. 3, 28 July 2020:

Unless local government has an official seat at the table - in both the National Council and the National Federation Reform Council then neither of these bodies can be, either in name or practice, genuine national councils of Australian governments.

It is not hard to see why Scott Morrison & Co do not want local government included as a member of these two national councils. 

It can be seen in the titles of the six new National Cabinet Reform Committees created on 12 June 2020 as part of the NRFC-National Council: 

• Rural and Regional Australia 
• Skills 
• Energy 
• Infrastructure and Transport 
• Population and Migration 
• Health

Federal and state governments are not enamoured with the planning & decision-making powers which still remain with local government - only finding local councils useful as a vehicle to cost shift their own financial obligations onto ratepayers.

Mining companies, heavy industry and property developers in particular would like to see local government sidelined at policy level and, it appears that Scott Morrison is willing to oblige groups which include the Coalition's largest and most consistent political donors.