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Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts

Australian government department, 2020-2022

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ96418307
Source-derived summary

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts (DITRDCSA) is a department of the Australian Government responsible for providing advice on, and delivering policies and programs for, infrastructure, transport, regional development, communications, cultural affairs, sports, and the arts.

History

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts (DITRDCA) was formed from the former Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications. It was established and named under an Administrative Arrangements Order made on 1 July 2022, after the 2022 Australian election, under the new Albanese government.

It was renamed to Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts (DITRDCSA) on 13 May 2025, gaining the sport and recreation policy and functions from the Department of Health and Aged Care. However, land and planning policy and cities and urban policy were transferred to the Treasury.

Description

The department is responsible for delivering Australian Government policy and programs for infrastructure, transport, regional development, communications, cultural affairs, and the arts.

Ministers

As of May 2025 the Ministers of State for the Department are:

Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government: Catherine King

Minister for Northern Australia: Madeleine King

Minister for Communications: Anika Wells

Minister for Sport: Anika Wells

Minister for the Arts: Tony Burke

Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories: Kristy McBain

Assistant Minister for Regional Development: Anthony Chisholm

Assistant Minister for Northern Australia: Nita Green

Other staff

As of July 2025 Jim Betts is Secretary of the department.

Operational activities

In an Administrative Arrangements Order made on 13 May 2025, the functions of the department were broadly classified into the following matters:

Infrastructure planning and co-ordination

Transport safety, including investigations

Land transport

Civil aviation and airports

Maritime transport including shipping

Major projects, including implementation of all non-Defence development projects

Administration of the Jervis Bay Territory, the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands, the Territory of Christmas Island, the Coral Sea Islands Territory, the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands, and Norfolk Island

Constitutional development of the Northern Territory

Constitutional development of the Australian Capital Territory

Delivery of regional and territory specific services and programmes

Planning and land management in the Australian Capital Territory

Regional development

Matters relating to local government

Regional policy and co-ordination

Northern Australia policy and coordination

Broadband policy and programmes

Postal and telecommunications policies and programmes

Spectrum policy management

Broadcasting policy

Content policy relating to the information economy

Cultural affairs, including movable cultural heritage and support for the arts

Classification

Management of government records

Old Parliament House

Sport and recreation

Significant policies

Cultural policy

The Office for the Arts issued the national cultural policy, called "Revive: a place for every story, a story for every place", in January 2023. Under the policy, which is set to run for five years, the Creative Futures Fund was set up under the auspices of Creative Australia in July 2025 to fund ambitious cross-sector projects across the nation. A quota was introduced in November 2025, by Minister for the Arts Tony Burke, requiring global streaming media companies with over a million Australian subscribers to spend either 7.5% of revenues, or 10% of Australian expenditures on local original content.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts” as australian government department, 2020-2022. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful synthesis for locating the documentary relationships between formal authority, participants and affected communities. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2022, 2025, 2023—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—2020, 2020-02-01—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. The account is most persuasive where Department, Infrastructure and Transport can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as australian government department, 2020-2022. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q96418307. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2022, 2025 and 2023.

Critical limits

Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts primary sources, Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts archive and Department research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts”?
  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.