The Department of Science 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 December 1975 and December 1978. It was the second so-named Australian Government department.

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 and in the department's annual reports. According to the National Archives of Australia, at its creation, the department was responsible for: *Science and technology, including research, support of research and support of civil space programs *Meteorology *Ionospheric Prediction Service *Analytical laboratory service *Weights and measures

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 Science, James Webster. The department was headed by a Secretary, initially

Hugh Ennor Sir Arnold Hughes "Hugh" Ennor (10 October 1912 – 14 October 1977) was a senior Australian public servant and policymaker. Life and career Ennor was born in Melbourne, the son of a joiner. For schooling, he attended a local Roman Catholic sch ...

(until October 1977) and then

John Farrands Dr John Law Farrands (11 March 1921 – 14 July 1996) was a scientist and senior Australian Public Servant. Life and career John Farrands was born on 11 March 1921 in Melbourne. He studied part-time at University of Melbourne for his Bachelor ...

Controversy

In December 1975, a task force of the Royal Commission on Australian Government accused the department of questionable logic, misinterpretation of facts and faulty data.

References

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

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