The Department of Transport and Communications 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 July 1987 and December 1993.

History

The Department of Transport and Communications was one of 16 'super-ministries' announced as part of a major restructuring of the administration and economy by Prime Minister

Bob Hawke Robert James Lee Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was an Australian politician and union organiser who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (A ...

in July 1987. The Department oversaw the development of a third runway at

Kingsford Smith Airport Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (colloquially Mascot Airport, Kingsford Smith Airport, or Sydney Airport; ; ) is an international airport in Sydney, Australia, located 8 km (5 mi) south of the Sydney central business district, in the ...

, achieved new industry structures for aviation and reform of the shipping and waterfront sectors, progressed Australia towards a national railway system and uniform national road regulation, introduced new regulatory arrangements for telecommunications, broadcasting and radio communications and arranged for sale of communications licences for more than a billion dollars.

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 Administrative Arrangements Order (AAO) made on 24 July 1997, the Department dealt with: *Shipping and marine navigation *Land transport (including road safety) *Civil aviation and air navigation *Aviation security *Postal and telecommunications services *Management of the electromagnetic spectrum *Television and radio

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 responsible to the Minister of the day. Department officials were headed by a Secretary, initially Peter Wilenski (until September 1988) and then G.C. Evans (from October 1988).

References

{{Authority control Ministries established in 1987 Transport and Communications Defunct transport organisations based in Australia 1987 establishments in Australia 1993 disestablishments in Australia