The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (also called DIMA) was an

Australian government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

that existed between March 1996 and November 2001. Its slogan was "Enriching Australia through migration."

Scope

Information about the department's functions and/or government funding allocation could be found in the Administrative Arrangements Orders, the annual Portfolio Budget Statements, in the Department's annual reports and on the Department's website. According to the Administrative Arrangements Order (AAO) made on 11 March 1996, the Department dealt with: *Migration, including refugees *Citizenship *Ethnic affairs *Post-arrival arrangements for migrants, other than migrant child education *Multicultural affairs

Structure

The Department was an

Australian Public Service The Australian Public Service (APS) is the federal civil service of the Commonwealth of Australia responsible for the public administration, public policy, and public services of the departments and executive and statutory agencies of the G ...

department, staffed by officials who were responsible to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs,

Philip Ruddock Philip Maxwell Ruddock (born 12 March 1943 in Canberra) is an Australian politician and the current mayor of Hornsby Shire. Ruddock is a member of the Liberal Party of Australia and currently the state president of the party's New South W ...

. The Secretary of the Department was Helen Williams (until February 1998) and then

Bill Farmer Bill Farmer (born November 14, 1952) is an American voice actor, comedian and impressionist. He has performed the voice of the Disney character Goofy since 1987, and has also been the voice of Pluto and Horace Horsecollar since 1990. Early li ...

. In 2000, the Department had approximately 3600 staff.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (1996-2001) Ministries established in 1996 Immigration and Multicultural Affairs 1996 establishments in Australia 2001 disestablishments in Australia