VPRS 11936 Cabinet Committee Records, Cain/Kirner Government

This is an artificial series. It comprises a variety of records which document the activities of Cabinet Committees and Sub Committees during the period of the Labor Governments of John Cain and Joan Kirner between 1982-1992.  Cabinet Committees In April 1982 the Labor Government led by John Cain was elected. This government established a number of standing, ad hoc and general purpose committees which examined and reported to Cabinet on particular issues. The 1987 edition of the Cabinet Handbook (refer VPRS 11953/P1) identified a number of standing Committees, each chaired by the Premier or a Minister. These included the: -- Priorities, Planning and Strategy Committee -- Economics Committee -- Industrial Relations Task Force -- Social Development Committee -- Natural Resources and Environment Committee -- Rural Affairs Committee -- Urban Infrastructure Committee, and -- Regulation Review Committee Other standing committees were appointed subsequently. Ad hoc and specific purpose Committees were also established by Cabinet from time to time. Cabinet and Cabinet Committee Recordkeeping 1982 -- 1992 The Labor Government led by John Cain was elected in April 1982. The new government established the process for the creation and distribution of Cabinet records.  A Cabinet Office within the Department of the Premier and Cabinet was also created to operate as a secretariat. The Cabinet Office also assisted in arranging Committee meeting times and venues, preparing agendas and recording their decisions, although the exact practice varied between different Committees. Cabinet Committees used submissions as a means of bringing matters to Committee in a similar manner to the full Cabinet. Submissions were lodged with the Cabinet Office and distributed to Committee members prior to the meeting. Between 1982 and 1986 submissions to the various committees then in existence were maintained in separate sequences. For further information refer to the various Committee submission series (VPRS 11937, VPRS 11938, VPRS 11939, VPRS 11940, VPRS 11941 and VPRS 11942) and the register of submissions to Cabinet Committees (VPRS 11943). From 1987 all submissions to the various Committees were incorporated into a single sequence of submissions incorporating both Committee and Full Cabinet submissions (refer to VPRS 11944).  In many instances the deliberations of a Cabinet Committee were written into the form of a submission to the full Cabinet. Such submissions may be found in VPRS 11944. There appeared, however, to be few recordkeeping requirements for non-submission based committee records. Consequently the form, arrangement and quantity of these records varied from Committee to Committee. Additionally, it appears that files detailing the operations of some committees were created as part of the Department of Premier and Cabinet's central registry system. Refer to VPRS 8197 General Correspondence Files, Multiple Number System II.  Contents of this series This series comprises the non-submission committee records known to exist at the time of the transfer of the Cain/Kirner cabinet records to PROV in 1996. The completeness of the series in terms of representation of all committees or records for individual committees is unknown. Most of the records in this series are housed in manilla folders. Other items originally found in lever arch folders have been rehoused into folders. Due to the inconsistent method of creation and maintenance, folders may contain either a particular document type or a mixture of documents. Although folder titles also vary, folders generally contain the following types of records: -- administrative arrangements (meeting times and venues, etc). Such papers are typically placed in folders labelled either 'Operational Notes' or 'Meeting Notes'. -- agendas for committee meetings. -- briefing notes. These were usually prepared for Committee members or the Premier and usually pertained to submissions or occasionally other matters to be raised in the Committee meeting. These briefings were not part of VPRS 11951 which appears to deal only with Full Cabinet meetings. -- minutes of meetings. These recorded members present and the results of deliberations made during the meeting. Folders containing such papers are typically labelled either 'Minutes' or 'Decisions'. -- rough minutes as recorded by Cabinet Office staff. Folders containing such papers are typically labelled either 'Rough Minutes' or 'Meeting Notes'. -- reports to Cabinet. These usually comprised a Committee's draft of the submission to be presented to the Full Cabinet meeting, recording the deliberations of a meeting. The actual submission will be found in VPRS 11944. -- extracts from the Cabinet Record. This was the Committee's copy of specially produced portions from VPRS 11948 which was the official record of decisions made by the full Cabinet for this government. The series includes folders which combine all of the above documents or, less frequently, folders pertaining to particular subjects. In order to easily identify such folders in the records description list, the descriptive term 'General file' has been used.