45. These coordination comments form part of the final submission and provide a means for the Cabinet to receive the views of departments and agencies on proposals and the existence and depth of disagreement between departments. This is an important forum for departments to bring issues about adequacy and quality of implementation planning to the attention of the Cabinet.
46. Coordination comments are the impartial advice of Australian Public Service agencies to the Cabinet as a whole. They are not cleared by ministers or ministerial advisers. Any variation to these arrangements would compromise the independence of coordination comments.
47. Coordination comments should be no longer than half a page. They must only raise matters requiring consideration and agreement of ministers. This includes comments about the adequacy and quality of implementation planning. Disagreements between departments over procedural or technical matters that do not have a substantial bearing on the proposal should be handled between departments prior to the submission being considered by the Cabinet (generally, such issues should be resolved during circulation of the exposure drafts).
48. Coordination comments also provide an indication of the adequacy of the consultation undertaken during the development of the submission.
49. The Cabinet Division will not release submissions to ministers until coordination comments have been received from all of the consulted departments. Submissions therefore need to be circulated 48 hours prior to the submission being released to ministers, that is, five days before the Cabinet meeting, to allow adequate time for departments to provide coordination comments. Prompt provision of coordination comments by departments is also critical to ensuring that ministers receive submissions in a timely fashion.
Submission circulation and lodgement deadlines
50. The Cabinet Secretary advises the Prime Minister on the agenda items for meetings of the Cabinet and Cabinet Committees using forward programs maintained by the Cabinet Division (see Annex B – Managing the Cabinet business). Each department's Cabinet Liaison Officer (CLO) holds copies of the Cabinet forward program schedule for their department's items and associated lodgement deadlines.
51. The Cabinet submission deadlines are determined by the need to provide time for both ministers and departments to consider proposals. Understanding these timeframes is particularly important if a Cabinet decision is required by a specific date or within a set timeframe.
52. Deadlines for submissions which would be processed via the '10 Day Rule' (see Annex E – Ten day rule procedures and processes) require 10 working days to have elapsed between lodgement and possible endorsement by the Cabinet.
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