Department of the Media

The Department of the Media was an Australian government department that existed between December 1972 and December 1975.

Department of the Media
Department overview
Formed19 December 1972[1]
Preceding Department
Dissolved22 December 1975[1]
Superseding agency
JurisdictionCommonwealth of Australia
HeadquartersCanberra
Ministers responsible
Department executives
  • Ebor Lane, Acting Secretary (1972‑73)
  • James Oswin, Secretary (1973‑75)
  • James Spigelman, Secretary (1975)[2]

History

The Department was one of several new Departments established by the Whitlam Government, a wide restructuring that revealed some of the new government's program.[3] The Department was dissolved shortly after the Dismissal.[3][4] It was replaced by the Postal and Telecommunications Department, representing a joining of the Department of the Media and the Postmaster-General's Department.[5]

Scope

Information about the department's functions and/or government funding allocation could be found in the Administrative Arrangements Orders, the annual Portfolio Budget Statements and in the Department's annual reports.

According to the Administrative Arrangements Order issued 19 December 1972, at its creation, the Department was responsible for:[6]

  • Matters related to the news, information and entertainment media
  • Film-making and development of the film industry
  • Government publicity and information
  • Government printing, publishing and advertising.

Structure

The Department was an Australian Public Service department, staffed by officials who were responsible to the Minister for the Media, initially Doug McClelland (until June 1975), then Moss Cass (as part of a ministerial reshuffle in June 1975), and finally Reg Withers as a caretaker Minister for the month leading up to the December 1975 election (after the 11 November 1975 Dismissal in which the Governor-General appointed Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Fraser, as caretaker Prime Minister).[1]

Secretary role

Department officials were headed by a Secretary, initially (acting in the position) Ebor Lane (until January 1973) and then James Oswin (from January 1973 to the end of 1975).[1] Gough Whitlam had initially offered the Secretary position to Talbot Duckmanton in January 1973, but Duckmanton was uncertain what the Department was supposed to do.[7] After Oswin left the position in June 1975, he was replaced by James Spigelman, a 29-year-old who had previously been employed as the Prime Minister's Principal Private Secretary, the third person Whitlam had appointed as a Permanent Head of an Australian Government Department after time in that role.[8][9]

Notes
  1. CA 1482: Department of the Media, Central Office, National Archives of Australia, retrieved 14 December 2013
  2. Whitlam, Gough (16 June 1975). "Appointments" (Press release). Archived from the original on 11 January 2014.
  3. National Archives of Australia, Gough Whitlam: In Office, National Archives of Australia, archived from the original on 19 April 2013
  4. Juddery, Bruce (19 December 1975). "Bureaucratic Convulsion: Eight departments go". The Canberra Times. p. 1. Archived from the original on 20 March 2014.
  5. Fraser, Malcolm (18 December 1975). "MAJOR CHANGES IN MINISTERIAL AND DEPARTMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES AND FUNCTIONS" (Press release). Archived from the original on 11 January 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  6. Administrative Arrangements Order of 19 December 1972 (PDF), National Archives of Australia, 19 December 1972, archived from the original (PDF) on 26 April 2013
  7. Inglis 1983, p. 336.
  8. Inglis 1983, p. 337.
  9. "Oswin to be Ambassador to UNESCO in Paris". The Sydney Morning Herald. 17 June 1975. p. 2.

References and further reading
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