PROTECTED SENSITIVE: LEGAL
Payne: MA16-003151
Ref:
MINISTERIAL ADVICE
Minister for Defence – For action
Minister for Defence Industry – For information
Minister for Defence Personnel – For information
Through: Secretary / CDF (delete this line if not applicable)
Copies to: Secretary, CDF, (add SLG members as appropriate)
Krombholz v Commonwealth & Ors - Federal Court Proceedings (Use 13 point bold
uppercase Times New Roman for the title)
Critical Date: (Blank if N/A) Reason:
(Required if there is a critical date, otherwise ‘Routine’)
Recommendation/s: (List recommendations – examples as follows)
Note: for information briefs it is not acceptable to just ask the Minister to note the information in the
brief. You must outline what the Minister should be noting – see recommendation 2 below as an
example.
Agreed / Not agreed
1. That you agree to Option B.
2. That you note that progress will be reviewed and a report provided to
Noted / Please discuss
you by 21 November 2016.
Signed / Not signed
3. That you sign the attached letter to the Prime Minister.
Minister for Defence………………………………….. Date / /
Key Points: (List the main points in numbered paragraphs. The Minister’s preference is that the key
points be concise and fit on the front page only).
1.
2.
3.
………………………………..
Name
Contact officer:
(Please ensure that the contact
Title
officer will be available during the period the
Group
brief is being considered by the Minister’s Office)
Telephone:
Contact officer phone:
Page 1 of 4
PROTECTED SENSITIVE: LEGAL
PROTECTED SENSITIVE: LEGAL
Payne: MA16-003151
201
Ref:
Page 2 of 4
PROTECTED SENSITIVE: LEGAL
PROTECTED SENSITIVE: LEGAL
Payne: MA16-003151
Ref:
Sensitivity:
Yes/No.
(State here if there are any sensitive issues the Minister should be made aware of. If
applicable, include electorate and/or media information and/or any adverse reaction anticipated from
those affected by the recommended course of action. Ensure clearance of any associated Talking Points
through MediaOps by emailing coo-mecc-pa xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xx or phoning 02 6127 1999.
Financial Impacts:
If there are no financial impacts please state this and insert the words – “There are no financial
impacts”. If there are financial impacts show the impact on the fiscal balance, underlying cash and
operating result (where relevant). The impact on assets can also be shown if different to the operating
result. Note that the Chief Financial Officer must be consulted when there is a financial impact. Show
the impact on each financial year as follows:
2013–14
2014–15
2015–16 2016–17 2017–18
$m
$m
$m
$m
$m
FASRA must be consulted through your group finance officer and agree to any resource implication,
and DEPSEC DP (DGWP point of contact) must be consulted and agree to any workforce implications.
Where ministerial advice relates to ADF financial conditions or superannuation, FASRA must agree to
the resource implications of the advice, and DGPECC must also be consulted. Any such advice must be
jointly signed by the Secretary and CDF.
Summary of Attachments: (If the brief has any attachments they are to be listed here. Also note that
the attachments are not part of the body of the brief and therefore should not be included in the page
numbering, e.g. “Page 4 of 5” etc).
A –
B –
C –
Background:
4
. State here if you have provided preliminary advice to the Minister’s office on this matter; when and
how this was done. For example, ‘Initial advice about this matter was provided to your office on
xx October 2015’.
5.
6.
Related Briefs:
(List related briefs that are currently with the Minister's office, such as question briefs or senate briefs.
You should not list previous briefs here for background purposes. If you wish to reference a previous
brief as background, this should be listed under the summary of attachments, and the last signed version
attached to the PDR).
Consultation:
Yes/No.
(State here who you have consulted - this section must be completed and the brief will not be
submitted to the Minister’s office if it is incomplete. Consultation with other Groups and Services should
be enforced at the SES/star rank level. You must state the name(s) and position(s) of the SES/star-ranked
officer(s) who were consulted. If no consultation has been required, then just advise ‘No’).
Page 3 of 4
PROTECTED SENSITIVE: LEGAL
PROTECTED SENSITIVE: LEGAL
Payne: MA16-003151
Ref:
Notes – Preparing Briefs
1. Ensure that briefing text is concise and focused. It is important to include clear facts, figures and
dates in the brief. For example, the $ value of things is always important, the number of staff
committed to deliver a program or the like.
2. If your brief refers to attachments please ensure that they are typed underlined e.g. Attachment A. If
your brief refers to a report or other published material, please attach a copy to the brief.
3. Briefs should be prepared well in advance of a CRITICAL DATE. The Minister’s Office requires a
minimum of five working days to clear a brief.
4. This template is to be used for all advice EXCEPT meeting/event/visit briefs.
5. Consultation – the submission/brief should provide a ‘whole-of-Defence’ view – not numerous
single Group or Service views. You should consider whether another Group or Service may have
valid input to your advice and, if so, consult with that Group or Service and note that consultation
as per (2) above.
6. Advice contained in the letter that is not contained in the brief – the brief should stand alone; the
Minister should not have to read the letter to understand the matter.
7. Decisions contained in the letter that are not contained in the recommendations at the end of the
brief – the letter should not contain any decisions which the Minister has not agreed to in the
recommendations in the brief. The most common error is the letter stating that the Minister now
considers a matter closed, and that no further correspondence is warranted. If the Minister has not
explicitly been asked to agree to such in the recommendations in the submission/brief, the letter
should not contain such a decision.
8. Gross/numerous grammatical errors/spelling mistakes – in particular, you should correctly spell the
names and titles of the Ministers.
9. Not answering the question(s) posed by correspondence – read the original correspondence and the
proposed draft response letter side-by-side to ensure the response is adequate.
Page 4 of 4
PROTECTED SENSITIVE: LEGAL
INSERT CLASSIFICATION (DELETE IF NOT REQUIRED)
Senator the Hon Marise Payne
Minister for Defence
Parliament House
Telephone: 02 6277 7800
CANBERRA ACT 2600
MA16-003151
Mr John Smith
123 Park Street
CANBERRA ACT 2600
(2 spaces)
Dear NAME
(1 space)
Thank you for your <letter/email/representation> of <date 2015> <on behalf of name>
about <subject>. <I apologise for the delay in responding (if 20 or more days overdue).>
Refer to Style Guide for advice on preparing correspondence. There are preferred opening
and closing paragraphs, mandatory naming conventions for ministers and other
conventions.
The Style Guide is available at
http://drnet.defence.gov.au/dsrg/DMPLS/Documents/Ministerial style guide Jun 14 clea
n.pdf
The draft response should be prepared as per this template. The text is left aligned, Calibri
12 point, with two spaces between sentences. In the address block, use three spaces
between the city, state and postcode. If a post office box address is provided, it should be
used in preference to a street address. When a correspondent has written by email and
their address is not known, the address block in the response should include the name and
email address only:
Mrs Joanne Smith
xxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Use plain English and avoid jargon or overly technical language. Military ranks should be
spelt out in full with only the first letter of each word capitalised. Abbreviations and
acronyms should be used sparingly, and should be spelt out the first time they are used, in
the format: Australian Defence Force (ADF). Use the word ‘regret’ rather than ‘sorry’ or
‘apologise’. Use the active voice rather than the passive voice. Always use a considerate,
understanding tone.
The letter should address all issues raised in the original correspondence.
INSERT CLASSIFICATION (DELETE IF NOT REQUIRED)
INSERT CLASSIFICATION (DELETE IF NOT REQUIRED)
Do not number or letter paragraphs – for subparagraphs use dot points. The response
should not contain:
classified information
any referrals of blame to the author or other organisations
vague statements that are open to interpretation
politically sensitive or inflammatory statements.
Numbers should be spelt out up to nine and written as numerals from 10 onwards.
When including a reference to a website, it should appear as: Further information can be
found at www.defence.gov.au.
For multiple websites, indent the links as follows. Further information can be found at:
www.defence.gov.au; and
www.australia.gov.au
Use ‘www.’ but not ‘http://’. Do not underline or create a hyperlink. Intranet links are not
accessible outside Defence and should not be used.
Include a Defence point of contact if appropriate:
Mr John Smith
Director Ministerial and Executive
Department of Defence
R1–5–A003
PO Box 7902
CANBERRA BC ACT 2610
Telephone: 02 6265 4416
Fax: 02 6265 2033
Email: xxxx.xxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xx
If enclosures are to be sent, ensure they are referenced in the text of the response and type
‘Encl’ directly after the signature block – no spaces.
Refer to the style guide for suggested closing paragraphs, which should reflect the tone of
the letter and the opening paragraph.
(1 space)
Yours sincerely
(5 spaces)
MARISE PAYNE
Encl (delete if not required)
INSERT CLASSIFICATION (DELETE IF NOT REQUIRED)
