VPRS 11948 Cabinet Record, Cain/Kirner Government

This series was created mostly to document decisions made in Cabinet meetings during the Labor government led by John Cain and Later Joan Kirner between 1982-1992. Cabinet Recordkeeping Prior to 1982 Few records relating to Cabinet meetings were created prior to the election of the Cain government in April 1982.  A "Cabinet Record" in the form that this series takes was not created. Most of the pre April 1982 Cabinet records are held in VPRS 11935 Cabinet Records. Cabinet Recordkeeping 1982 -- 1992 In April 1982 a Labor Government led by John Cain was elected. The new government established the process for the creation and distribution of Cabinet records. A Cabinet Office within the Department of Premier and Cabinet was also created to operate as a Secretariat. Precise records creating requirements were introduced and a system of using submissions to bring matters before Cabinet was established. This system was set out in detail in the 1989 Cabinet Handbook (see VPRS 11953). The Cabinet Record The Cabinet Record was prepared after each Cabinet meeting by the Parliamentary Secretary. Cabinet Records were not complete "minutes" of the meeting in that they did not provide a detailed record of discussion but rather recorded decisions reached or matters noted. Each Cabinet Record was approved and signed by the Premier then numbered copies were sent to all Cabinet members. The master set was retained in the Office of the Parliamentary Secretary initially in folders. Most of these were ultimately bound into volumes.  The Cabinet Office retained a reference set of certified copies, which comprised the P0002 consignment until its destruction in 2016. The Cabinet Record for each meeting followed a common format which corresponded to the format of Cabinet meeting agendas. Items usually included were: -- The names of Cabinet members present and apologies -- Invitations received from various organisations for Ministers to attend functions. These were tabled and allocated to Cabinet members -- Current political matters. These included any issue requiring Cabinet agreement -- Bills in Principle (that is undrafted Bills proposed for inclusion in the government's legislative program) -- Bills at Cabinet (that is Bills approved in principle by Cabinet, drafted by the Chief Parliamentary Counsel and yet to proceed to Parliament) -- Appointments to senior government positions and statutory positions, and -- Committee reports for Cabinet endorsement. Each decision made by Cabinet was numbered in a single number sequence which commenced at number 1 in April 1982 and by September 1992 had reached number 17,721. Cabinet decision numbers were written next to the decision to which they referred on the right hand side of each page of the Cabinet record. Where an entry in the Cabinet record related to a submission to Cabinet the number of the submission was noted on the left hand side of the page. These submissions can be found in VPRS 11944. This series ceased when the Labor government lost office in 1992.