Legislation Liaison Officers

EL 1 - $115,663 - $124,403 per annum plus superannuation
- Chief Counsel Division
- Canberra, ACT
- _Take a leadership role in managing a growing, exciting, and dedicated Commonwealth legislation practice._
- _Canberra based role, including regular time at Parliament House._
- _Ongoing position._
- _High profile Commonwealth Department._

**Who we are**
The Chief Counsel Division is managed by the Chief Counsel and is comprised of both lawyers and non-lawyers. Together we are responsible for all legal services required by the department. We partner with the business areas of the department, the Executive, and the Secretary to identify and manage legal risk across the department and facilitate excellent legal outcomes for our clients.

As a member of the Division you will be part of growing our legal practice, and will be involved in interesting and important work which may span environment protection, energy, climate change and heritage, and on-ground operations in Commonwealth national parks and Antarctica. Work we do includes:

- providing legal advice on a broad range of issues including statutory interpretation and administrative law, regulatory actions and investigations and commercial work and funding activities,
- managing the department’s litigation across a broad range of matters including merits review, judicial review, regulatory enforcement, commercial disputes, and Work Health and Safety matters, in a range of Courts and Tribunals,
- developing legal risk and mitigation strategies, particularly in areas of novel or complex work,
- developing and coordinating legislation bids and processes, including drafting instructions for the department’s ambitious legislative reform agenda,
- developing legal guidance resources and delivering training to the department,
- coordinating freedom of information requests and privacy advice, and
- providing administrative and financial support services to the Division.

The Chief Counsel Division operates in a fast paced, exciting environment. We focus on ensuring our staff are supported and developed so that they are in the best position to take on and enjoy the challenges of the work. We provide competitive conditions and remuneration.

The Legislation Liaison Officers work as part of the Legislation Governance and Instruments team in the Legislation Practice to provide advice to Ministers’ Offices, and across the department, on a range of legislation process matters, including requirements for the introduction of Bills, parliamentary procedures, and decision making by the Federal Executive Council.

**The Job**
The specific duties of the role are:

- providing advice on legislation, parliamentary and Executive Council decision making processes to Ministers’ Offices and stakeholders across the department,
- maintaining key relationships and information flows about department’s legislation between Ministers’ Offices, law and policy leads and external authorities for legislation (such as the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Executive Council Secretariat, Parliamentary Liaison Officers and Tabling Offices, the Attorney-General’s Department, and the Office of Parliamentary Counsel),
- overseeing the coordination and end-stage delivery of briefing and text approval materials for Bills, regulations, and instruments,
- collaborating closely with colleagues in the Legislation Practice and the Division, and policy teams within the department to develop timeframes for the development of draft legislation and briefing products, and tracking delivery milestones and pressures across the department’s legislation program,
- working collaboratively and flexibly with all colleagues in the Legislation Practice to deliver on priority projects,
- regularly reporting on the status of the department’s legislation program,
- supervising at least one APS level staff and playing a leadership role in the Legislation Practice.

**What we are looking for**

**Knowledge and experience**

**Skills and capabilities**
- have, or have the ability to quickly gain, an understanding of the legislation and parliamentary processes, decision-making processes, and guidelines relevant to the Commonwealth generally and the department specifically,
- understand priorities and adapt when those priorities change, take responsibility for their workload, and understand when to escalate issues,
- demonstrate an ability to lead department-wide coordination tasks efficiently, effectively, and appropriately,
- demonstrate an ability to oversee and prepare regular high-quality reporting on the status of the department’s legislation program for distribution across the department’s Senior Executive Service,
- build effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders as a trusted adviser with expertise in legislation and parliamentary processes,
- work collaboratively and cooperatively as a member of a team, contributing to ideas, coordinating projects, suggesting