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The 'Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet' (PM&C) is an Australian Government department. The Department was first established in 1911 (it was then known as the Prime Minister's Department; the later title was created in 1968). Its role is to ensure that policy proposals put to the Prime Minister and to Cabinet are developed in a coherent, informed and coordinated fashion, to co-ordinate the implementation of key government programmes, to support official visits, ceremonies and state occasions and, to manage the operations of the official residences. The responsibilities of the Department are considerably wider than in most other Westminster systems, although the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in New Zealand has similar responsibilities.

Contents

Department organisation

Wikipedia WikiScanner affair

See also

References

External links

Department organisation

The Department is organised into a Cabinet Division, an Economic Division, an Industry, Infrastructure and Environment Division, an International Division, a National Security Division, a Social Policy Division and a People, Resources and Communications Division and numerous Task Forces to deal with particular problems. The Secretary of the Department is the equivalent of the Cabinet Secretary in Britain or the Clerk of the Privy Council in Canada.

Wikipedia WikiScanner affair

On August 24, 2007 reports in the Australian print and electronic media were made of anonymous edits to Wikipedia by staff in this Department in order to remove potentially damaging details from articles related to the Government. Information found using the software tool WikiScanner showed 126 anonymous edits from the Department to sometimes controversial articles such as the Children Overboard Affair, Mandatory detention in Australia, and to articles on government ministers, including removing a reference to the nickname "Captain Smirk" for Treasurer Peter Costello^[1][2]. The Department responded by saying that Prime Minister John Howard did not direct his staff to modify the articles^[3], and later that day the head of the Department, Dr Peter Shergold, said that the changes were not made by anyone in his department or the Prime Minister's office, but by another user with the same Internet Service Provider (ISP)^[4]. The same reports also identified the Department of Defence as having made more than 5,000 anonymous edits on a range of topics, prompting Defence to block staff from editing Wikipedia^[5].

See also

★ Prime Minister of Australia

★ List of Australian Commonwealth Government entities

References

1. PM's staff edited Wikipedia
2. Government caught Wiki-watching
3. PM 'not behind Wikipedia edits'
4. PM's Dept denies making Wikipedia changes
5. Defence blocks staff's Wikipedia access

External links

★ Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Website