The department’s Parliamentary team provides high-quality parliamentary services to its Ministers, Assistant Minister, Secretary and portfolio agencies. These include processing, monitoring and quality-assuring ministerial correspondence and briefings, coordinating question time briefs and parliamentary questions, and facilitating Senate Estimates hearings. Parliamentary staff also maintain the department’s Parliamentary Document Management System (PDMS), which electronically stores all parliamentary and executive documentation.
| Responsible area | Ministerial correspondence received) |
Briefings | Question time briefs | Answers to parliamentary questions on notice (tabled) |
Senate Estimates questions on notice (tabled) |
Senate Estimates Briefing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department | 1,633 | 804 | 184 | 28 | 335 | 208 |
Parliamentary staff continued reviewing business practices during the year to streamline parliamentary document processing and increase productivity and efficiency.
Activities included:
- coordinating an incoming ministerial brief following machinery-of-government changes in November 2017
- participating in cross-agency parliamentary workflow solution committee meetings to develop strategic approaches to improve PDMS functionality and achieve efficiencies across government, and
- managing the department’s transition to CabNet +, which replaces the older CabNet system with modern, secure, paperless technology that enhances accessibility and collaboration.
In 2018–19, the Parliamentary team will continue:
- working with APS partners to help improve the PDMS. This includes developing and implementing innovations to deliver new services with a digital focus
- managing further enhancements of CabNet + which are expected to be fully implemented by mid-2019, and
- anticipating business needs and developing staff capabilities to deliver efficient parliamentary services that align with modern technology and the expectations of the department’s future workforce.
