One source of information is the briefings departments prepare for incoming Ministers. The briefings are kept in the Minister’s office, are available from the department and may cover the following themes.
Overview of the department
- Departmental objectives, functions and operating environment; vision and mission, corporate plan and strategic priorities
- Organisational context, summarising the formation and development of the department and any agencies, and outlining any recent machinery of government or major organisational changes
- Overview of major client groups and services
- Overview of major areas of activity (eg. programs, service delivery, regulation, enforcement).
Overview of the portfolio’s public entities
- Objectives, functions and operating environment; vision and mission, corporate plan and strategic priorities
- Overview of major client groups and services
- Overview of major areas of activity (eg. programs, service delivery, regulation, enforcement)
- Overview of budget including planning and performance requirements
- Lines of communication (eg. regular meetings).
Minister’s legislated authority
- Legislation administered
- Legislated powers, functions and obligations
Critical situations requiring immediate attention
- Background and issues
- Options
- Recommended action.
Summary of strategic issues
- Critical and strategic priorities (eg. potential legal exposure, large public expenditure, governance or management issues, public sensitivity, trends and capacity to deliver services).
Potential / identified major risks
- Outstanding legal actions
- Performance audits / investigations of the department, administrative offices or public entities scheduled or underway
- Parliamentary committee reviews scheduled / underway
- Current media attention and, if so, issues
- Significant freedom of information requests
- Processes for managing these risks / issues
- Any potential conflicts of interest.
Department budget
Recurrent expenditure initiatives:
- New budget initiatives
- Savings strategies
- Workforce and other implications.
Recurrent expenditure performance, for each output group (and where applicable each element in the output group):
- Budget
- Expenditure to date
- Estimated end of year expenditure on an unchanged policy basis
- Action currently in hand or proposed to achieve recurrent expenditure budget
- Revenue initiatives (from latest state budget).
Revenue performance:
- Budget
- Received to date
- Estimated end of year revenue on unchanged policy basis
- Action currently in hand or proposed to achieve revenue budget.
Major and other capital projects overview:
- Budget
- Start date
- Total cost to date
- Latest state budget commitment
- Estimated completion date
- Total estimated cost.
Assets and liabilities.
Legislative and regulatory reform
- Bills before Parliament
- What legislative / regulatory reforms are planned and whether these reforms sit within:
- A national reform agenda
- The annual statement of government intentions
- Other whole-of-government strategies
- Portfolio or departmental strategic plans.
Commonwealth / state matters
- Issues for the portfolio relating to national reform issues on the Council of Australian Governments reform agenda
- Background to relevant ministerial councils, a statement of issues currently being addressed by these ministerial councils and the priority issues on each for Victoria
- Issues for Victoria within the portfolio’s area of responsibility in relation to commonwealth funding, including a short description of all intergovernmental agreements, including national partnership agreements and implementation plans both finalised and under negotiation
- Any other commonwealth / state matters of priority for the department
- Any matters of priority in relation to dealings with other states (eg. cross-border issues).
Stakeholders
- Main stakeholders, issues and lines of communication (eg. peak bodies, advocacy groups, client groups, advisory committees, major service providers, unions, associations)
- Who the Minister should meet early within his or her term
- Opportunities to meet and engage with stakeholders.
Committees
- What internal and external committees the Minister is on (eg. inter-jurisdictional committees, ministerial councils, cabinet sub-committees, policy taskforces, etc.)
- Accountability of committees
- Role of and accountability to these committees
- Committee membership
- Why the committee was established
- Issues
- Structures in place to support ongoing evaluation of the role and effectiveness of the committee.
Dates
- Dates for the year ahead
- Leave arrangements for the Minister and the secretary.