Information about the department's functions and government funding allocation could be found in the Administrative Arrangements Orders, the annual Portfolio Budget Statements, in the department's annual reports and on the Department's website.
At its creation, the department was responsible for the following:[3]
- Manufacturing and commerce including industry and market development
- Industry innovation policy and technology diffusion
- Promotion of industrial research and development, and commercialisation
- Biotechnology, excluding gene technology regulation
- Marketing of manufactures and services
- Enterprise improvement
- Construction industry
- Small business policy and implementation
- Business entry point management
- Facilitation of the development of service industries generally
- Trade marks, plant breeders’ rights and patents of inventions and designs
- Country of origin labelling
- Weights and measures standards
- Civil space issues Analytical laboratory services
- Science policy
- Promotion of collaborative research in science and technology
- Co-ordination of research policy
- Creation and development of research infrastructure
- Commercialisation and utilisation of public sector research relating to portfolio programs and agencies
- Research grants and fellowships
- Information and communications technology industry development
- Food industry policy
- Training, including apprenticeships and training and assessment services
- Support for introduction of a national occupation licensing system
- Higher education, skills and vocational education policy and programs
- Indigenous higher education and vocational training
- Policy, coordination and support for international education
- Income support policies and programs for students and apprentices
