Department of Trade (1956–1963)
Australian government department, 1956-1963
The Department of Trade was an Australian government department that existed between January 1956 and December 1963.
History
The department was created as part of a reshuffle of the seventh Menzies ministry following the Coalition's re-election at the 1955 federal election. Its creation "had the effect of stripping a number of departments of overseas trade-related responsibilities and concentrating them all in the new department". The new department took on the majority of responsibilities of the existing Department of Trade and Customs, with its customs functions split into the new Department of Customs and Excise which had a largely administrative function. At the same time the former Department of Commerce and Agriculture had its agricultural functions split off into the new Department of Primary Industry, with export policy and overseas marketing of rural commodities lying within the new Department of Trade. The new department also took over overseas shipping policy from the Department of Shipping and Transport.
The new department was created by Prime Minister Robert Menzies at the behest of Country Party deputy leader John McEwen, who was previously Minister for Commerce and Agriculture. Given Australia's reliance on overseas trade, the department came to exercise significant influence on economic policy, coming to rival the Department of the Treasury. Additionally, other ministers whose departments touched on overseas trade were expected to consult with McEwen on policy matters.
Scope
Information about the department's functions and government funding allocation could be found in the Administrative Arrangements Orders, the annual Portfolio Budget Statements and in the department's annual reports.
The public source identifies “Department of Trade (1956–1963)” as australian government department, 1956-1963. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Department, Trade and Australian.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16956490. VIAF identifies the subject as 3326149068363665730000. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1956, 1963 and 1955.
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This entry incorporates text from “Department of Trade (1956–1963)” 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.