Department of Employment and Workplace Relations

This article is about the Australian Government Department of Employment and Workplace Relations formed in 2022. For the 2001–2007 Australian Government Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, see Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (2001–2007).

Department of Employment and Workplace Relations

Department overview
Formed	1 July 2022 (2022-07-01) [1]
Preceding Department	Department of Education, Skills and Employment
Jurisdiction	Commonwealth of Australia
Ministers responsible	Amanda Rishworth, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Andrew Giles, Minister for Skills and Training
Department executive	Natalie James, Secretary (2022–present)
Website	dewr.gov.au

The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (also called DEWR) is an Australian government department formed on 1 July 2022. ^[1]

History

The department was formed by way of an Administrative Arrangements Order issued on 1 June 2022. It split the preceding Department of Education, Skills and Employment into the newly formed Department of Education and Department of Employment and Workplace Relations

Preceding departments

• Department of Labor and Immigration (12 June 1974 – 22 December 1975)
• Department of Employment and Industrial Relations (22 December 1975 – 5 December 1978)
• Department of Employment and Youth Affairs (5 December 1978 – 7 May 1982)
• Department of Employment and Industrial Relations (7 May 1982 – 24 July 1987)
• Department of Employment, Education and Training (24 July 1987 – 11 March 1996)
• Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (11 March 1996 – 21 October 1998)
• Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business (21 October 1998 – 26 November 2001)
• Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (26 November 2001 – 3 December 2007)
• Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (3 December 2007 – 18 September 2013)
• Department of Employment (18 September 2013 – 20 December 2017)
• Department of Jobs and Small Business (20 December 2017 – 29 May 2019)
• Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business (29 May 2019 – 1 February 2020)
• Department of Education, Skills and Employment (1 February 2020 – 1 July 2022)

Operational activities

In an Administrative Arrangements Order made on 13 May 2025, the functions of the department were broadly classified into the following matters: ^[2]

• Employment policy, including employment services
• Labour market programmes for people of working age
• Co-ordination of labour market research
• Equal employment opportunity
• Work and family programmes
• Participation, activity test and compliance policy for participation payment recipients
• Work health and safety, rehabilitation and compensation
• Workplace relations policy development, advocacy and implementation
• Skills and vocational education policy regulation and programmes, including vocational education and training in schools
• Training, including apprenticeships and training and skills assessment services
• Training transitions policy and programmes
• Foundation skills for adults
• Careers policy and advice

References

1. "Administrative Order Arrangements" (PDF). Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
2. "Administrative Arrangements Order - 13 May 2025" (PDF). Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia) . 13 May 2025. Retrieved 1 June 2025.  This article incorporates textfrom this source, which is available under the CC BY 4.0 license.