Australian ministerial advisers and the Royal Commission on government administration

The role of the ministerial office was one of the key issues investigated by the Royal Commission on Australian Gvoernment Administration (RCA GA) in 1976. At the time the ministerial office was undergoing new and controversial developments. In the 25 years since the Royal Commission the new ministerial office has become a permanent and accepted part of our machinery of government. This paper reviews RCAGA's analysis of ministerial advisers and uses research on the Keating advisers in 1995-96 to track how the institution of the ministerial office has developed since the time of the Royal Commission.