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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 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.
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 which also equate to the department’s
output groups:
- Output Group 1 – 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.
- Output Group 2 – 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.
- Output Group 3 – Procedure
Office - provides advisory and drafting services to non-government senators;
secretariat support to the legislative scrutiny committees and policy support
for interparliamentary relations; conducts parliamentary research and training
including for Parliaments overseas; and promotes community awareness and
knowledge of the Senate and the Parliament.
- Output Group 4 - Committee
Office – provides secretariat support for most Senate and certain joint
committees and strives to increase the public’s awareness of the work of
committees.
- Output Group 5 - 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 1: 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 2008-09 financial year.
Figure 2: Departmental appropriation by output group
($’000)
Figure 3: Departmental appropriation by output group (%
of total)
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