Administrative Arrangements Order - 29 May 2019

Administrative Arrangements Order (AAOs) formally allocate executive responsibility among ministers. They set out which matters and legislation are administered by which department or portfolio.

Amendments made 8 August 2019 and 1 December 2019.

Summary of changes

On 29 May 2019, the Governor-General made a new Administrative Arrangements Order (AAO) to replace the Order made on 4 April 2019. The new Order reflects changes to administrative arrangements recommended by the Prime Minister.

The new AAO reflects the following changes:

• transfer of responsibility for industrial relations from the Employment portfolio to the Attorney‑General’s portfolio;
• transfer of responsibility for vocational education and training, and apprenticeships from the Education portfolio to the Employment portfolio;
• transfer of responsibility for migrant adult education from the Education portfolio to the Home Affairs portfolio;
• transfer of settlement services for refugees and humanitarian migrants from the Social Services portfolio to the Home Affairs portfolio;
• transfer of responsibility for whole of government service delivery from the Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio to Services Australia;
• transfer of responsibility for population policy from the Infrastructure portfolio to the Treasury portfolio;
• transfer of responsibility for housing affordability from the Social Services portfolio to the Treasury portfolio;
• update of the legislation listed in the AAO to reflect new, repealed and amended legislation as well as minor corrections; and
• correction of other matters, including Ministers’ titles, to reflect the Ministry list.

In addition to these changes, five departments have been renamed, as detailed below: