Robert Garran Offices, head office of the Attorney-General's Department, Barton, Australian Capital Territory. | |
Department overview | |
---|---|
Formed | 1 January 1901 [1] |
Jurisdiction | Commonwealth of Australia |
Employees | 1,195 (estimate for 2024–25) [2] |
Annual budget | A$1.138 billion (2024–25) [3] |
Minister responsible | |
Department executive | |
Child agencies |
|
Website | www |
Agency ID | NAA CA 5 |
The Attorney-General's Department, also known as the Department of the Attorney-General, is the law enforcement and justice department of the Australian Government. The department is responsible for the enforcement and compliance of federal law, the administration of justice and oversight of industrial relations. [4] The department also oversees various sub-agencies and services including the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The head of the department is Attorney-General for Australia, currently Mark Dreyfus, who is assisted by the Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department, currently Katherine Jones PSM .
The Attorney-General's Department is one of seven original Commonwealth Departments of state, commencing with the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. It is one of only three departments, along with Defence and Treasury, to have operated continuously under their original name and charter since Federation. [5]
The department is organised into five groups, each headed by a Deputy Secretary. These Deputy Secretaries report to the Secretary who co-ordinates and devises departmental structure and policy.
These five groups are:
The Attorney-General's Department is located at the Robert Garran Offices, 3-5 National Circuit, Barton in the Australian Capital Territory. [6]
The permanent secretary of the Attorney-General's Department is the non-political public service head of the department. This role dates from federation, and the first incumbent, Sir Robert Garran, was the first (and for a time the only) public servant employed by the federal government. In that role, he was responsible for overseeing the first federal election and setting up the rest of the federal bureaucracy by transferring state government functions to the federal government.
From 1916, when the position of Solicitor-General of Australia was created as the second law officer and deputy of the Attorney-General, the permanent secretary served concurrently as Solicitor-General, until the two roles were separated in 1964. Under the Law Officers Act passed that year, the Solicitor-General's role was clarified as statutory counsel deputising for the Attorney-General, separate from the role of the permanent secretary.
On the recommendation of the Prime Minister, the Governor-General has appointed the following individuals as Secretary of the department:
Order | Official | Official title | Date appointment commenced | Date appointment ceased | Term in office | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sir Robert Garran | Secretary of the Attorney‑General's Department | 1 January 1901 | 9 February 1932 | 31 years, 39 days | [7] |
2 | Sir George Knowles | 10 February 1932 | 8 May 1946 | 14 years, 87 days | [8] | |
3 | Sir Kenneth Bailey | 9 May 1946 | 2 February 1964 | 17 years, 269 days | [9] | |
4 | Ted Hook | 3 February 1964 | 2 February 1970 | 5 years, 364 days | [9] [10] | |
5 | Sir Clarrie Harders OBE | 1970 | July 1979 | 9 years | [11] [12] | |
6 | Alan Neaves | July 1979 | March 1983 | 4 years | [13] | |
7 | Pat Brazil AO | 16 March 1983 | 1989 | 6 years | [14] | |
8 | Alan Rose AO | 1989 | 23 May 1994 | 5 years | [15] | |
9 | Stephen Skehill | 23 May 1994 | 1998 | 4 years | [16] | |
10 | Tony Blunn AO | 1998 | 17 December 1999 | 2 years | [17] | |
11 | Robert Cornall AO | 24 January 2000 | 31 August 2008 | 8 years, 220 days | [17] [18] | |
12 | Roger Wilkins AO | 1 September 2008 | 31 August 2014 | 5 years, 364 days | [18] [19] [20] | |
13 | Chris Moraitis PSM | 15 September 2014 | 15 September 2021 | 6 years, 110 days | [21] [22] [23] | |
14 | Katherine Jones PSM | 16 August 2021 | incumbent | 3 years, 140 days | [24] |
The mission of the department is "achieving a just and secure society". In pursuing this mission, the department works towards achieving *A just and secure society through the maintenance and improvement of Australia's law and justice framework and its national security and emergency management system".[ citation needed ]
The Administrative Arrangements Order made on 1 June 2022 details the following responsibilities to the Department: [25]
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries. The department is headed by the U.S. attorney general, who reports directly to the president of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet. Merrick Garland has served as attorney general since March 2021.
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enforcement, prosecutions or even responsibility for legal affairs generally. In practice, the extent to which the attorney general personally provides legal advice to the government varies between jurisdictions, and even between individual office-holders within the same jurisdiction, often depending on the level and nature of the office-holder's prior legal experience.
A solicitor general is a government official who serves as the chief representative of the government in courtroom proceedings. In systems based on the English common law that have an attorney general or equivalent position, the solicitor general is often the second-ranked law officer of the state and a deputy of the attorney general. The extent to which a solicitor general actually provides legal advice to or represents the government in court varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and sometimes varies between individual office holders in the same jurisdiction.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Duncan James Colquhoun Kerr, SC is a barrister. He is a former justice of the Federal Court of Australia. He also served as President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal from 2012 to 2017.
George Henry Brandis is an Australian former politician. He was a Senator for Queensland from 2000 to 2018, representing the Liberal Party, and was a cabinet minister in the Abbott and Turnbull governments. He was later High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2018 to 2022.
Sir Robert Randolph Garran was an Australian lawyer who became "Australia's first public servant" – the first federal government employee after the federation of the Australian colonies. He served as the departmental secretary of the Attorney-General's Department from 1901 to 1932, and after 1916 also held the position of Solicitor-General of Australia.
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 prime minister and other cabinet ministers that currently have the support of a majority of the members of the House of Representatives and also includes the departments and other executive bodies that ministers oversee. The current executive government consists of Anthony Albanese and other ministers of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), in office since the 2022 federal election.
The solicitor-general of Australia is the country's second highest-ranking law officer, after the Attorney-General for Australia. The current officeholder is Stephen Donaghue, who took office on 16 January 2017 following the resignation of Justin Gleeson.
The Australian Intelligence Community (AIC) and the National Intelligence Community (NIC) or National Security Community of the Australian Government are the collectives of statutory intelligence agencies, policy departments, and other government agencies concerned with protecting and advancing the national security and national interests of the Commonwealth of Australia. The intelligence and security agencies of the Australian Government have evolved since the Second World War and the Cold War and saw transformation and expansion during the Global War on Terrorism with military deployments in Afghanistan, Iraq and against ISIS in Syria. Key international and national security issues for the Australian Intelligence Community include terrorism and violent extremism, cybersecurity, transnational crime, the rise of China, and Pacific regional security.
The Department of Justice is under the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for upholding the rule of law in the Philippines. It is the government's principal law agency, serving as its legal counsel and prosecution arm. It has its headquarters at the DOJ Building in Padre Faura Street, Ermita, Manila.
The Department of Finance is a department of the Government of Australia that is charged with the responsibility of assisting the government across a wide range of policy areas to ensure its outcomes are met, particularly with regard to expenditure, financial management, and the operations of government.
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) is a department of the Australian Government with broad-ranging responsibilities; notably, intergovernmental and whole of government policy coordination and assisting the prime minister of Australia in managing the Federal Cabinet. The PM&C was established in 1971 and traces its origins back to the Prime Minister's Department established in 1911.
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 Government of Australia. The Australian Public Service was established at the Federation of Australia in 1901 as the Commonwealth Public Service and modelled on the Westminster system and United Kingdom's Civil Service. The establishment and operation of the Australian Public Service is governed by the Public Service Act 1999 of the Parliament of Australia as an "apolitical public service that is efficient and effective in serving the Government, the Parliament and the Australian public". The conduct of Australian public servants is also governed by a Code of Conduct and guided by the APS Values set by the Australian Public Service Commission.
Robert James Ellicott, was an Australian barrister, politician and judge. He served as Solicitor-General of Australia (1969–1973) before entering the House of Representatives at the 1974 federal election as a member of the Liberal Party. He held senior ministerial office in the Fraser government, serving as Attorney-General (1975–1977), Minister for Home Affairs (1977–1980), the Capital Territory (1977–1980), and Home Affairs and the Environment (1980–1981). He retired from politics to be appointed to the Federal Court of Australia, serving as a judge from 1981 to 1983.
The Department of Justice is the current Western Australian government department responsible for the provision of high quality and accessible justice, legal, registry, guardianship and trustee services to meet the needs of the community and the Western Australian Government.
The Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions or, informally, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) is an independent prosecuting service and government agency within the portfolio of the Attorney-General of Australia, as a part of the Attorney-General's Department. It was established by the Director of Public Prosecutions Act 1983 (Cth) and began its operations in 1984.
The New South Wales Crown Solicitor's Office (CSO) is an executive government agency of the New South Wales Department of Justice in Australia that has the role of providing legal services to the government, its agencies, and its statutory authorities. The Office practices in twelve areas of law, namely administrative law, child protection law, commercial law, community law, constitutional law, coronial law and inquiries, criminal law, employment law, government law, native title law, property law, and tort law. The Office frequently instructs barristers with regard to civil matters.
Robert John Cornall is a retired Australian senior public servant, he was head of the Attorney-General's Department between 2000 and 2008.
The Department of Home Affairs is a department of the Government of Australia that is charged with responsibilities for national security, protective services, emergency management, border control, immigration, refugees, citizenship, transport security and multicultural affairs. The Home Affairs portfolio reports to the Minister for Home Affairs, currently held by Tony Burke, and is led by the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, Stephanie Foster.
The Attorney-General's Department was one of the seven original Commonwealth departments of State. It is one of only three departments, along with Defence and The Treasury, which have operated for over one hundred years under their original name and broad charter.