Guidance on Caretaker Conventions

7. Avoiding APS involvement in election activities

7.1 Political participation by officials

7.1.1 The APS Values set out in the Public Service Act 1999 include the value of being ‘Impartial’, which states that “The APS is apolitical and provides the Government with advice that is frank, honest, timely and based on the best available evidence”.

7.1.2 The APS Code of Conduct requires officials to:

  • disclose, and take reasonable steps to avoid, any conflicts of interests (real or apparent) in connection with their employment
  • use Australian Government resources in a proper manner
  • refrain from making improper use of their position to gain, or seek to gain, a benefit or advantage for themselves or any other person.

Further information on the APS Values and Employment Principles is available on the Australian Public Service Commission’s (APSC) website.

7.1.3 Officials should not use Australian Government resources or their positions to support particular issues or parties at any time. The APSC’s publication, APS Values and Code of Conduct in Practice, especially the sections on ‘Working with the Government and the Parliament’, ‘Managing information’, ‘Employees as citizens’ and ‘Using Commonwealth Resources’, provides further guidance.

7.1.4 Officials should exercise judgment if they are scheduled to speak at public functions during the caretaker period. In general, officials should:

  • decline invitations to speak on controversial issues
  • avoid publicly explaining or promoting government policies.

Officials may choose to speak on non-controversial issues but should explain that the Government is in caretaker mode and that they will limit their statements to factual issues, and matters of administration.

7.1.5 Individual public servants who engage online in either a professional or personal capacity during the caretaker period should review the publication Social media: Guidance for Australian Public Service Employees and Agencies, and guidance on ‘Employees as Citizens’ in APS Values and Code of Conduct in Practice, available on the Australian Public Service Commission’s website.

7.2 Departmental Liaison Officers

7.2.1 Departmental Liaison Officers (DLOs) are APS employees provided to assist ministers’ offices to undertake necessary liaison work with agencies. As DLOs are not ministerial staffers employed under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984, they must avoid assisting ministers in ways that could create a perception that they are being used for party political purposes, including and especially during the caretaker period.

7.2.2 If there is ongoing liaison work required during the caretaker period, DLOs may remain with ministers’ offices. The need for this work should be reviewed by agencies at the commencement of the caretaker period.

7.3 Advertising and Information Campaigns

7.3.1 At the start of the caretaker period all campaign advertising is paused, except for campaigns by the Australian Electoral Commission. The Department of Finance (Finance) and PM&C review all advertising campaigns and make recommendations to the Government about whether those campaigns should recommence or be deferred. Bipartisan agreement is sought for campaigns that are recommended to recommence. In general, campaigns that:

  • highlight the role of particular ministers, emphasise the achievements of the Government, or address issues that are a matter of contention between the political parties contesting the election are normally discontinued
  • are operational by nature, such as Australian Defence Force recruiting or public health campaigns, usually recommence.

7.3.2 At the beginning of the caretaker period, agencies should review their individual arrangements for the distribution of publicly communicated material, such as newsletters. Agencies should avoid active distribution of material if it promotes government policies or emphasises the achievements of the Government or a minister. Passive distribution of material, such as continued placement in the agency’s offices or distribution in response to requests, is acceptable.

7.3.3 The conduct of advertising and information activities during the election period is regulated by legislation. Schedule 2 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 deals with radio and television broadcasts and Part XXA of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 deals with a wide range of communications containing ‘electoral matter’ including all publicly communicated material. Broadly, the legislation requires all political communications that are broadcast by television and radio, printed material, social media, voice calls (including robocalls) and text messaging to be authorised.

7.3.4 The Australian Electoral Commission’s website hosts further guidance on the electoral communications and authorisation requirements.

7.3.5 The Australian Communications and Media Authority’s website hosts further guidance on the broadcasting and communication of political and election matters.

7.4 Internet and Electronic Communications

7.4.1 The Digital Transformation Agency’s website hosts guidance on the content and maintenance of agency and ministerial websites. Agencies are expected to ensure that the websites they maintain are consistent with the guidance at all times.

7.4.2 During the caretaker period, agencies need to take additional steps to ensure that Australian Government resources are not used to support any particular political party. Agencies should review their websites and online engagement tools at the beginning of the caretaker period, as outlined in sections 7.4.3 to 7.4.13.

Agency websites

7.4.3 In most cases, agency websites may retain material placed on the website before the commencement of the caretaker period. Exceptions may include recent ministerial statements that include negative references to the Opposition. Agencies should check the wording of any icons and links on their websites to ensure that they cannot be interpreted as promoting government policy.

7.4.4 Agencies should add only the following material to their websites during the caretaker period:

  • portfolio-related announcements consistent with usual practice (for example, a ministerial press release relating to a public health warning) requiring judgment within each individual agency
  • purely factual material, including costings prepared and published under the Charter of Budget Honesty Act 1998 (see section 7.7 for further information)
  • information on existing policies and programs, unless the information includes negative references to the Opposition or other political statements.

If agency websites contain links to websites outside the ‘gov.au’ domain, agencies should consider the need for entry/exit messages (see section 7.4.10 for further information).

7.4.5 The interactive functions of websites within the gov.au domain which allow unmoderated comment or debate (for example in discussion groups, chat rooms or blogs) should be moderated by agencies during the caretaker period. Agencies may choose to provide a disclaimer to this effect:

Example text: “In the period preceding an election for the House of Representatives, the Australian Government assumes a caretaker role. It is important during that time that Australian Government resources are not used to communicate political material. As this website is hosted by the [Department of …], the site will be moderated from the time the House of Representatives is dissolved until after the election to ensure that political material is not placed on the site.”

Ministerial websites

7.4.6 Agencies do not need to withdraw existing IT services provided to ministers’ offices during the caretaker period. If agencies are managing ministerial websites, they may also continue to fund and/or otherwise maintain the website if that was the practice prior to the caretaker period. Material placed on the minister’s website before the caretaker period may be retained, including links between the minister’s and agency’s websites.

7.4.7. When adding material to ministerial websites during the caretaker period:

  • Agencies should only add material relating to matters of existing policy, or purely factual material. Agencies must not add material concerning future policies, election commitments, how-to-vote material or media releases and speeches that criticise opponents, promote the Government or pursue election issues.
  • Agencies may choose to place a notice on the ministerial website advising that political and election-related material is not available on the website. The notice could refer visitors to the minister’s party’s website, or include a link to that website.
  • If the maintenance of the ministerial website has become the responsibility of the minister rather than the agency, ministerial staff may add any material to the website as long as there is no cost to the Australian Government. A notice must also be added to advise that, since the commencement of the caretaker period, the website is not administered or funded by the agency.

7.4.8 Ministerial media releases and alerts should be placed on the website of the minister’s political party during the caretaker period. Where ministers determine a need to issue media releases and alerts in their own name through Australian Government agency-maintained and/or funded websites, these should be restricted to time-sensitive, administrative or operational information in the public interest (for example, public health warnings, travel advisories, military operations or counter terrorism alerts).

7.4.9 If the minister’s website is personal and not maintained by the agency, the minister may consider placing a disclaimer on the website to the effect that no Australian Government agency resources are being used to communicate political material.

7.4.10 If an agency-maintained and/or agency-funded ministerial website contains links to websites outside the ‘gov.au’ domain, such as political party websites, agencies should include appropriate entry/exit messages:

Example text: “You are now leaving the website of [the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet]. The website you are entering is not maintained or funded by [the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet]”.

Social media accounts

7.4.11 The use and administration of social media accounts by agencies should observe the same practices that apply to ministerial websites, as set out in sections 7.4.6 to 7.4.10 of the Guidance. Externally-hosted, third-party engagement tools (for example, Facebook and X) are inherently harder to control than the interactive functions of websites. For example, an agency may have a Facebook page which allows minimal moderation of the content that is posted to it, or an X account which may be sent publicly-viewable messages containing political content.

7.4.12 It may not be possible to completely prevent political material from being posted by members of the public to agency social media accounts operated by third-parties. At the start of the caretaker period, agencies should review the functions and settings of their social media accounts, and other similar online engagement tools, to identify ways to minimise political content associated with their presence (even if the content is not directly attributable to the agency). Actions to achieve this may include:

  • not posting new content to the account for the duration of the caretaker period
  • disabling or opting for pre-moderation of comment sections, if possible, and closer monitoring of public contributions, if not
  • posting a notice that the agency is operating in a caretaker period and cannot respond to political content.

7.4.13 Intranet, e-mail and other similar internal communication systems provided by agencies should not be used to publish political material. Material related to political parties and how-to-vote material produced by any organisation should not be displayed using these systems, or in agencies’ physical premises.

7.5 Use of agency premises

7.5.1 While political parties may responsibly use agency premises that are normally open to the public, the use of the premises should: occur with notice to the agency; not unreasonably disrupt the normal operations of the agency; not engage APS employees in political dialogue; not compromise the security of the premises and not involve any assistance by the agency to the political party (see section 7.1 for further information).

7.5.2 Agencies should be fair and equal in allowing access to premises to both the Government and Opposition in accordance with section 7.5.1.

7.5.3 There may be appropriate occasions where agency premises can be used for government activities such as media conferences or announcements that go to the day-to-day business of government (for example opening a building or a media conference held in response to a natural disaster).

7.5.4 Nothing in this Guidance interferes with the ability of ministers to visit agencies for the conduct of routine government business, in accordance with the caretaker conventions.

7.6 Requests from ministers’ offices for information

7.6.1 Ministers may continue to request factual material and information from agencies during the caretaker period. Agencies should supply material relating to the day‑to‑day business of government to ministers in the usual way.

7.6.2 Ministers are ultimately responsible for determining the purpose for requesting material from agencies and how it is used during the caretaker period. Consistent with the APS value of impartiality, it may be appropriate for an agency to decline a request from a minister if it required the use of significant resources, and/or was clearly for use in the election campaign. If in doubt, agencies should discuss the purpose for which material is to be used with the minister or their senior staff before responding to a request.

7.6.3 In most instances, agencies should also decline requests from ministers’ offices for policy advice during the caretaker period. However, there may be urgent domestic or international issues on which policy advice should be provided to enable responsible ongoing administration, or to protect Australia’s interests. Requests for legal advice on issues affecting the minister in their capacity as a political candidate should be declined.

7.6.4 Agencies can proceed with policy development work during the caretaker period so that they are in a position to provide advice to the incoming government, provided that contact with ministers’ offices is not required.

7.7 Charter of Budget Honesty and other policy costings

7.7.1 The costing of the Government’s and the Opposition’s election commitments by the Treasury and Finance is regulated by the Charter of Budget Honesty Act 1998 (the Act). The Secretaries of the Treasury and Finance issue Policy Costing Guidelines under the Act around the commencement of the caretaker period.

7.7.2 The Act provides for the Secretaries of the Treasury and Finance to prepare costings of publicly announced Government and Opposition election commitments during the caretaker period. The Act does not apply to:

  • costings outside the caretaker period
  • costings by agencies other than the Treasury or Finance during the caretaker period
  • costing of minor party and independents’ commitments during the caretaker period.

7.7.3 Ministers can request costing information from other agencies in accordance with longstanding practice. Where necessary, agencies may seek advice from the Treasury and Finance on strictly factual issues and costing methodology. The Treasury and Finance do not endorse or confirm costings through the provision of this advice to agencies, and costings of this nature must not be presented as costings under the Charter of Budget Honesty.

7.7.4 Ministers can also request any agency, including the Treasury and Finance, to provide costing information in relation to minor parties’ and independents’ commitments. Any requests of this nature to the Treasury and Finance should go through the offices of the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance.

7.7.5 The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) as a separate Parliamentary Department, and the Parliamentary Budget Officer as an independent statutory office holder are established by Part 7, Division 2 of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999. The PBO may prepare policy costings on request both during and outside of caretaker periods.

7.7.6 During the caretaker period, authorised members of Parliamentary parties and independent members can request policy costings of their publicly announced policies:

  • The PBO can provide policy costings to Parliamentary parties with fewer than five members and to independent members (policy costings are not available to these groups under the Charter of Budget Honesty).
  • The requests and costings must be publicly released.
  • The Treasury and Finance are not authorised to prepare a Parliamentary party’s policy costing during a caretaker period if a member of that party has already requested the PBO to prepare a costing of the same (or a substantially similar) policy, and vice versa, during the same caretaker period. This is to prevent duplicate costings being undertaken.

7.7.7 Outside of a caretaker period, Senators and Members of the House can request policy costings. These requests and the costings can be kept confidential outside of a caretaker period, if directed by the requestor.

7.7.8 The Australian Parliament House website hosts further information on the role and operations of the PBO.