Built to
The standards behind correspondence, ministerial and council support
Ministerial correspondence guidelines, parliamentary questions, cabinet handbooks, model codes of meeting practice and conduct, conflicts of interest, decisions and delegations registers, records and access, plain language and accessibility.
| Standard | Source | Requirement | Where it shows up here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ministerial correspondence | Australian Government and state ministerial correspondence guidelines (10 to 20 day standards); Cabinet Office guidance on handling correspondence (UK, 20 working days) | Acknowledge, draft with the facts and the policy, answer within the standard, signed by the minister or delegate. | Standards per kind; the agent drafts with history and policy attached and chases the date; the minister or chief of staff signs (GL-MC-02, 03, 04). |
| Questions on notice | Parliamentary standing orders (answers within 30 days); Hansard practice | Accurate, sourced answers within the period, signed by the minister. | Counts drawn from the services with their sources; ministerial sign-off; 30-day clock. |
| Cabinet papers | Cabinet handbooks (Cth, states); coordination comments; cabinet-in-confidence | Submissions on the template with consultation and costings; confidentiality maintained. | Cabinet submissions assembled from the record with sources; sensitivity travels with the brief and keeps it off public pages (GL-MC-08). |
| Council meeting practice | Model Code of Meeting Practice (NSW, 2021); Local Government Act meeting provisions; Local Government (General) Regulation; equivalent state codes | Business papers at least three business days before; public access; resolutions recorded with movers, seconders and votes; minutes confirmed. | Papers due date three business days before; resolutions with mover, seconder and votes; minutes drafted from the record and confirmed by the chair (GL-MC-05, 09). |
| Conflicts of interest | Model Code of Conduct for councils (pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests; disclosure returns); ministerial codes of conduct; APS Values | Interests disclosed and returned; a member with a pecuniary or significant non-pecuniary interest declares, leaves and does not vote. | Interests register with returns; every agenda item checked before papers issue; a flagged member cannot be recorded as voting (GL-MC-06). |
| Decisions register | Local Government (General) Regulation resolutions register; ministerial decision records; open government | Every resolution and decision on a public register with its actions tracked. | Decisions register with actions, owners and due dates; overdue actions surfaced by the registers agent (GL-MC-07). |
| Delegations | Instruments of delegation; Local Government Act s 377; Interpretation Acts | A register of who may decide what, enforced. | The register lives in MG-12 and is enforced in code at every decision across the platform; this service reports it to the council. |
| Elected authority | Constitutional and statutory allocation of decisions to ministers, cabinet and councils | Decisions of elected bodies are made by them, not by officers or systems. | Every resolution and ministerial decision is recorded against the elected person or body who made it; agents assemble and recommend only (GL-MC-01). |
| Records and access | ISO 15489; FOI and GIPA Acts (cabinet and deliberative exemptions); public access to business papers and minutes | The reply as sent, the papers, the minutes and the registers are records; public where the law says so. | Replies, briefs, papers, minutes and registers on the platform; public pages carry only what is public. |
| Accessibility and plain language | WCAG 2.2 AA; ISO 24495-1 | Business papers and replies a person can read; screens usable with assistive technology. | Interfaces designed against WCAG 2.2 AA with conformance evidenced per deployment; replies drafted plainly. |