NetNotes - Australian Government information

provided by Camille Peters

Finding Australian government websites is relatively easy as there are several directories or portals. Commonwealth government departments may be located using:
http://www.gold.gov.au/ [Commonwealth Government On-line Directory]
http://www.fed.gov.au/KSP/ [Australian Government Entry Point]
http://www.gov.au/
http://australia.gov.au
The latter two websites also cover State and Territory governments.

http://www.pmc.gov.au/docs/aao.cfm
Sometimes it is not clear which government department is responsible for a particular matter. A solution to this problem is to use the current Administrative Arrangements Order - the Commonwealth one is available on the Dept of the Prime Minister and Cabinet website: http://www.pmc.gov.au/docs/aao.cfm This lists the legislation and matters dealt with by specific government departments. So, for example, you can find out that the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts is responsible for the National Library Act.

http://www.asic.gov.au/asic/asic.nsfv
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission have one of the more interesting government websites. As well as useful general information on financial matters, it has information on how to get your money back from the government. This is the place to start looking to track down monies from old bank accounts, shares from companies and life insurance policies. Some of the amounts are surprisingly large, especially when you consider that bank accounts are only transferred to the government after they have been dormant for seven years and bank fees would certainly dent the balance in most accounts. The lists of unclaimed bank accounts for 1995 to 2000, published annually as "Do we have any of your money?" are available to download or search. Lost superannuation funds are not the responsibility of ASIC but their website gives you the contact details for the Australian Taxation Office. State treasuries also take care of unclaimed monies from stale cheques, unclaimed wages, refunds, and other sources. The WA Treasury's Register of Unclaimed Monies from 1997 onward is available at http://www.treasury.wa.gov.au/

http://www.auslig.gov.au/index.htm
The National Mapping Division, formerly known as AUSLIG, has a number of useful features. It is possible to search for a place name from the over 274 000 names in the Gazetteer of Australia 2001 or find out the distance 'as the cocky flies' between two places. Librarians who deal with the public will appreciate the moon phase data which lets you check the date of the next full moon. There is also a handy index map to the various series of Australian topographic maps (1:250 000, 1:100 000, 1:50 000) at http://www.auslig.gov.au/mapping/index/index.htm

http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/
You can search the Australian Honours List from 1901 to the present and find out who won a particular Imperial or Australian award. All awards except long service and campaign medals are covered. There is information on the role of the awards, the order of wearing, and pictures of some of the medals. Another website which covers awards is the Australian War Memorial. The biographical databases are available at: http://www.awm.gov.au/database/biographical.asp They include the Roll of Honour (Australia's war dead), nominal rolls for the Boer War and the First World War, and Honours and Awards (awards made to those who served in the Australian armed forces between the Boer War and the Vietnam War). The Honours and Awards database gives the date of the citation in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette and, if applicable, the London Gazette.

http://www.aph.gov.au
Just about any question about Federal parliament can be answered by the Australian Parliament website: The full text of Hansard from 1981 onwards, the current and historical Ministry lists, biographical information on current and past members of parliament, current bills list, election dates, and the current index to parliamentary papers, to name just a few of the features, are available.

Thanks to Camille Peters who put together this month's NetNotes.
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