Important mandatory requirement information

What must I do?

Reference should be made to the ‘Australian Government’ rather than to the ‘Commonwealth Government’ or the ‘Federal Government’.

Why must I?

The Australian Government decided in June 2003 that common branding would apply to Australian Government departments and agencies. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is responsible for the Australian Government Branding Design Guidelines (updated September 2009).

How do I?

Reference to ‘Australian Government’

References to the ‘Commonwealth Government’ or the Federal Government’ should now be to the ‘Australian Government’ in all cases and on all products.

In the case of differentiating the three levels of government you should refer to either ‘the Australian, state and territory governments’ or ‘the Commonwealth, and state and territory governments’ in accordance with the use of the term ‘Commonwealth’ detailed below.

Departmental names

When making reference to itself in the text of a document, if previous reference would have been to ‘the Commonwealth Department of XYZ’, it should now be ‘the Australian Government Department of XYZ’.

Use of the term ‘Commonwealth’

The ‘Commonwealth of Australia’ is the legal entity established by the Constitution. It is sometimes referred to simply as ‘the Commonwealth’. Where the term ‘Commonwealth Government’ was previously used, it is now appropriate to replace that term with ‘Australian Government’. It is not appropriate to replace references to the ‘Commonwealth of Australia’ or ‘the Commonwealth’, where that term is used to describe the entity established by the Constitution or in a geographic sense, with references to the Australian Government.

Content published prior to June 2003 should only be amended to reflect this guidance if it describes the agencies current functions and/or responsibilities, current programs and policies.

Do not change previous years’ Annual reports, media releases or publications that have been tabled in Parliament, previous policy or program documents, previous years’ financial statements, documents describing agencies legal entity or legislation, or anything that alters the official record.

Subjects:

• reference