The portfolio approach was very much an outcome of the 1987 changes in departmental organisation, which first involved having several ministers in the one portfolio with the one department. Each department had a portfolio minister in the cabinet, some with junior ministers outside the cabinet. An explicit purpose behind this new arrangement was to streamline cabinet business and to give more responsibility to portfolio ministers and their departments.

In line with this approach, the budget process was aligned more formally with portfolios and ministers were expected to prioritise across their wider responsibilities including across portfolio agencies. Some such processes had always operated, but it became firmer after 1987 and has remained so.

The Uhrig Report in 2004 on statutory authorities and statutory office-holders raised the question of the role of portfolio secretaries, at long last leading to formal recognition of their role in such matters as advising on appointments and reviewing performance, while not detracting from the statutory independence of such agencies.

A subsequent change to establish the Human Services portfolio including Centrelink and Medicare Australia does present new challenges for portfolio secretaries while offering opportunities for closer attention to service delivery matters. The challenges go to the relationship between such service providers and their respective policy departments and the relationships in turn with the Human Services department. I am not convinced that such separation of policy from administration will prove sustainable.