Australian Office of Parliamentary Counsel – Canberra ACT
Work as part of a team of drafters providing legislative drafting services (partly to contribute to project outputs but primarily to acquire the skills required to provide legislative drafting services).
Work as part of a team of drafters providing legislative drafting services (partly to contribute to project outputs but primarily to acquire the skills required to provide legislative drafting services).
The key duties of the position include:
In this role, you will:
Acquire the skills required to provide legislative drafting services by completing on the job training and participating in formal training courses.
Assist the Senior Executive Service team leader to provide legislative drafting services and, under the supervisor's close oversight, assume progressively higher levels of independent responsibility for providing legislative drafting services.
Carry out or participate in such product development (e.g. plain English) or operations support (e.g. IT development, participation in office committees and reviews, delivery of external training) as may be assigned, or such other duties relevant to the service provided by the OPC as may be assigned.
Legislative drafting services are services by which a drafter:
assists in identifying, analysing and considering legal, logical, policy and implementation issues connected with legislative proposals; and
plans and manages legislative projects; and
maintains effective working relationships with members of the drafting team, clients, other OPC staff and other relevant parts of the government, parliament and the public service; and




expresses legislative proposals in draft legislation that gives effect to the client's requirements; and is well structured and organised; and is clearly expressed; and is likely to be understood by its target audience.
Key capabilities
Important skills needed to provide legislative drafting services are:
analytical, problem-solving and legal skills; and
communication skills; and
interpersonal and team participation skills; and
judgement; and
learning skills.
Selection Criteria
1 Development potential
A combination of learning skills (including willingness to learn), other skills, attributes and knowledge that demonstrates a solid potential to progress to the Assistant Parliamentary Counsel Grade 2 level in a relatively short period of time and then at least to the Assistant Parliamentary Counsel Grade 3 level.
Note:It is expected that people would be ready to progress to the APC 2 level within about 2 years and to the APC 3 level within another 2 to 3 years.
2 Analytical, problem-solving and legal skills
Analytical and problem-solving ability, and legal and practical knowledge, that would enable a person to assist in providing legislative drafting services.
3 Communication skills
Oral and written communication skills (especially written English ability) that would enable a person to assist in providing legislative drafting services. Attention to detail in written work, including a sound knowledge of English grammar, usage, spelling and punctuation.



Well-developed oral communication skills by which a person is able to sustain effective working relations with other people.
4 Interpersonal skills and team participation skills
Empathy, assertiveness and conflict resolution skills that would enable a person to sustain effective working relations with other people, including as part of a team.
5 Judgement
An ability to respond appropriately when confronted with difficult or subtle choices, especially in areas relevant to legislative drafting and human relations management.
6 Legal qualifications
Either:
admission as a legal practitioner of the High Court or the Supreme Court of an Australian State or Territory; or
a degree in laws of an Australian tertiary institution (or a comparable overseas qualification which, in the opinion of First Parliamentary Counsel, is appropriate to the duties of the position).
Note that if you are not admitted, we will require you to become admitted within a reasonable period.
Eligibility
To be eligible for the role, you must:
be an Australian Citizen;
be able to obtain and maintain an Australian Government Security Vetting Agency (AGSVA) clearance to Baseline status.
Getting to know the Office of Parliamentary Counsel
The Office of Parliamentary Counsel (OPC) is a small Commonwealth government agency which provides clear, effective and accessible Commonwealth law for all Australians.We do this by drafting Bills for the Commonwealth government, and a significant proportion of Commonwealth legislative instruments. We also provide comprehensive, free access to Commonwealth legislation through the Federal Register of Legislation website, preparing compilations of Commonwealth legislation, and registering Commonwealth Acts and instruments on behalf of more than 70 agencies.
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📌 Assistant Parliamentary Counsel Grade 1 (Canberra)
🏢 Australian Office of Parliamentary Counsel
📍 Canberra