AGLC4 Rule 2.1.6: Ministers and Officers of the Commonwealth, States and Territories, and Government Departments

Name a Minister or government officer by the usual short form of the office. Where both the office and the personal name appear, cite only the office; where only the personal name appears, cite the name. A jurisdiction that forms part of the title but is not evident from the short form is added in brackets as an abbreviation, and an officer of a department is named by position, then the department.

AGLC4 page 42

Formatting

  • The whole party, including any bracketed jurisdiction, is italic as part of the case name.
  • The office is given in its usual short form, not its full statutory style.
  • Where the report shows both an office and a personal name, only the office is cited; where it shows only a personal name, that name is cited.
  • A jurisdiction contained in the official title is not spelt out but added after the title as an abbreviation in round brackets, using the forms in rule 3.1.3.
  • For a secretary, under secretary or other departmental officer, the position is followed by a comma, a space and the department's name.
  • A jurisdiction contained in a department's title goes in round brackets, abbreviated, after the department's name.
  • A leading The is omitted.

Examples

Quoted from the Guide, page 42
  1. 18
    MacCormick v Federal Commissioner of Taxation (1984) 158 CLR 622. [Not: MacCormick v Commissioner of Taxation of the Commonwealth of Australia …]
  2. 19
    M238 of 2002 v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs [2003] FCAFC 260. [Not: … Ruddock, The Minister for Immigration …]
  3. 20
    Hicks v Ruddock (2007) 156 FCR 574.
  4. 21
    Zhu v Treasurer (NSW) (2004) 218 CLR 530. [Not: Zhu v Treasurer of New South Wales …]
  5. 22
    Houssein v Under Secretary, Department of Industrial Relations and Technology (NSW) [1980] 2 NSWLR 398.

Not

Quoted from the Guide, page 42
  • [Not: MacCormick v Commissioner of Taxation of the Commonwealth of Australia …]
    the full statutory style of the office is used instead of its short form
  • [Not: … Ruddock, The Minister for Immigration …]
    the personal name and The are included alongside the office
  • [Not: Zhu v Treasurer of New South Wales …]
    the jurisdiction is spelt out instead of being added as a bracketed abbreviation

See also

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Formats, examples, passages, tables and the forms marked Not are quoted from the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed, Melbourne University Law Review Association, 2018), with the page of the Guide they appear on. Titles, summaries and explanations are our own.