The Department of Defence Support was an

Australian government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

department that existed between May 1982 and December 1984.

History

The department was established by the

Fraser government The Fraser government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. It was made up of members of a Liberal–Country party coalition in the Australian Parliament from November 1975 to March 1983. Init ...

after a recommendation from the Defence Review Committee, which concluded that there were disadvantages in the previous large structure of the Defence Department. Charles Halton became Secretary of the new department. In July 1984 a 27-person senior executive team was appointed to assist the departmental Secretary, of which only one was a woman. The department was abolished in December 1984, after

Bob Hawke Robert James Lee Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was an Australian politician and trade unionist who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991. He held office as the Australian Labor Party, leader of the La ...

was elected Prime Minister in the 1983 Australian federal election. Hawke reasoned that the needs of defence policy making in Australia would be better served if all responsibilities were bought together within the one portfolio.

Scope

Information about the department's functions and government funding allocation could be found in the Administrative Arrangements Orders, the annual Portfolio Budget Statements and in the Department's annual reports. Functions of the Department at its creation were: *Within defence policies approved by the Minister for Defence the following support for defence purposes - **Purchase of goods and services **Manufacture of goods and provision of services **Research and development **Development of Australian industry **Dockyard support.

Structure

The Department was an

Australian Public Service The Australian Public Service (APS) is the federal civil service of the Commonwealth of Australia responsible for the public administration, public policy, and public services of the departments and executive and statutory agencies of the G ...

department, staffed by officials who were responsible to the Minister for Defence Support.

References

Defence Support Ministries established in 1982 1982 establishments in Australia {{Australia-gov-stub