The position of Minister for Human Services within Australian politics is currently held by the Hon. Tanya Plibersek

Tanya Plibersek

Tanya Joan Plibersek, MP , is an Australian politician with the Australian Labor Party, and Federal Minister for Social Inclusion and Minister for Human Services. She has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 1998, representing the seat of Sydney, New South Wales...

 MP. The Minister is responsible for a number of welfare agencies and administers her portfolio through the Department of Human Services

Department of Human Services (Australia)

The Department of Human Services is an Australian Government agency which is responsible for delivering a range of welfare, social services, health services and other services for the Australian Government....

 and its component bodies:

• Child Support Agency
  Child Support Agency Australia
  The Child Support Agency is an Australian Government organisation which was established in 1988 to administer the assessment and collection of child support under the Australian Government's Child Support Scheme.-Overview:...
  
  
• Centrelink
  Centrelink
  Centrelink is the trading name of the Commonwealth Service Delivery Agency , a statutory authority responsible for delivering human services on behalf of agencies of the Commonwealth Government of Australia. The majority of Centrelink's services are the disbursement of social security payments...
  
  
• Australian Hearing
  Australian Hearing
  Australian Hearing is the largest Australian hearing aid dispensing company. They provide hearing care and technologies. One of their areas of interest is hearing testing and rehabilitation of children before they turn 21....
  
  
• CRS Australia
• Medicare Australia
  Medicare Australia
  Medicare Australia is an agency of the Australian Government that administers health-related programs including Medicare, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme , and others. It is a prescribed agency under the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 and a statutory agency within the...
  
  

Tanya Plibersek was appointed as the Minister for Human Services on 14 September 2010.

The Department of Human Services was created on 26 October 2004, as part of the Finance Portfolio, to improve the development and delivery of Government social and health related services to the Australian people.

As a result of the Administrative Arrangements Orders (AAOs) issued on 30 January 2007, the Department of Human Services and its agencies were transferred to a newly created Human Services Portfolio.

The Department of Human Services provides a central policy and coordination role for the delivery of services across the Portfolio as well as being the delivery agency for child support and vocational rehabilitation services. The AAOs of 25 January 2008 clarified the Department’s responsibility for the development of policy or service delivery, directed at ensuring the effective, innovative, and efficient delivery of Government services. The Department works with other departments and agencies to ensure early consideration of service delivery issues in the policy development process to improve the quality and cost effectiveness of service delivery by agencies in the Human Services Portfolio.

List of Ministers for Human Services

There was a Minister for Social Services or Social Security continuously from 1939 to 1998, when service delivery was partially privatised and residual functions were transferred to the Minister for Finance and Administration. In 2004, the position of Minister for Human Services was recreated to handle the residual functions.

Minister	Party affiliation	Period	Prime Minister	Ministerial Title
Frederick Stewart Frederick Stewart (Australian politician) Sir Frederick Harold Stewart was an Australian businessman, politician and government minister. His continuing political commitment was to the establishment of a national insurance scheme and the shortening of working hours to improve social conditions during the Great Depression, despite the...	United Australia Party United Australia Party The United Australia Party was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. It was the political successor to the Nationalist Party of Australia and predecessor to the Liberal Party of Australia...	26 April 1939 – 29 August 1941	Menzies Robert Menzies Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....	Minister for Social Services
		29 August 1941 – 7 October 1941	Fadden Arthur Fadden Sir Arthur William Fadden, GCMG was an Australian politician and, briefly, the 13th Prime Minister of Australia.-Introduction:...
Jack Holloway	Australian Labor Party Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...	7 October 1941 – 21 September 1943	Curtin John Curtin John Joseph Curtin , Australian politician, served as the 14th Prime Minister of Australia. Labor under Curtin formed a minority government in 1941 after the crossbench consisting of two independent MPs crossed the floor in the House of Representatives, bringing down the Coalition minority...
James Fraser James Fraser (Western Australian politician) James McIntosh Fraser was an Australian trade unionist and politician.Fraser was born in Forres, Morayshire, Scotland and educated locally. He emigrated to Australia and married Ellen Simmons in April 1912 in Perth...		21 September 1943 – 6 July 1945
		6–13 July 1945	Forde Frank Forde Francis Michael Forde PC was an Australian politician and the 15th Prime Minister of Australia. He was the shortest serving Prime Minister in Australia's history, being in office for only eight days.-Early life:...
		13 July 1945 – 18 June 1946	Chifley Ben Chifley Joseph Benedict Chifley , Australian politician, was the 16th Prime Minister of Australia. He took over the Australian Labor Party leadership and Prime Ministership after the death of John Curtin in 1945, and went on to retain government at the 1946 election, before being defeated at the 1949...
Nick McKenna		18 June 1946 – 19 December 1949
Bill Spooner	Liberal Party Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...	19 December 1949 – 11 May 1951	Menzies Robert Menzies Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
Athol Townley Athol Townley Athol Gordon Townley was an Australian politician and Minister for Defence.Townley was born in Hobart and educated at Elizabeth Street State School and Hobart High School, and at Hobart Technical College. He qualified as a pharmaceutical chemist in 1928 and in 1930 found a job looking after...		11 May 1951 – 9 July 1954
William McMahon William McMahon Sir William "Billy" McMahon, GCMG, CH , was an Australian Liberal politician and the 20th Prime Minister of Australia...		9 July 1954 – 28 February 1956
Hugh Roberton Hugh Roberton Hugh Stevenson Roberton was an Australian politician.Roberton was born in Glasgow, Scotland, son of Sir Hugh Roberton, a Scottish composer and founder of the Glasgow Orpheus Choir. He was educated at the West of Scotland Agricultural College and Glasgow University and emigrated to Australia in...	Country Party National Party of Australia The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...	28 February 1956 – 21 January 1965
Reginald Swartz Reginald Swartz Sir Reginald William Colin Swartz KBE , best known as Reg Swartz, was a Minister during the governments of Sir Robert Menzies, Harold Holt and John Gorton in Australia...	Liberal Party	21 January 1965 – 22 February 1965
Ian Sinclair Ian Sinclair Ian McCahon Sinclair AC , is an Australian politician and former leader of the National Party of Australia.Sinclair was born in Sydney, the son of a suburban accountant. He was educated at Knox Grammar School and at the University of Sydney, where he graduated in arts and law...	Country Party	22 February 1965 – 26 January 1966
		26 January 1966 – 19 December 1967	Holt Harold Holt Harold Edward Holt, CH was an Australian politician and the 17th Prime Minister of Australia.His term as Prime Minister was brought to an early and dramatic end in December 1967 when he disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria, and was presumed drowned.Holt spent 32 years...
		19 December 1967 – 10 January 1968	McEwen John McEwen Sir John "Black Jack" McEwen, GCMG, CH , was an Australian politician and the 18th Prime Minister of Australia...
		10 January 1968 – 28 February 1968	Gorton John Gorton Sir John Grey Gorton, GCMG, AC, CH , Australian politician, was the 19th Prime Minister of Australia.-Early life:...
William Wentworth	Liberal Party	28 February 1968 – 10 March 1971
		10 March 1971 – 5 December 1972	McMahon William McMahon Sir William "Billy" McMahon, GCMG, CH , was an Australian Liberal politician and the 20th Prime Minister of Australia...
Lance Barnard Lance Barnard Lance Herbert Barnard AO , Australian politician, was Deputy Prime Minister of Australia for most of the Labor government of Gough Whitlam....	Australian Labor Party	5–19 December 1972	Whitlam Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
Bill Hayden Bill Hayden William George "Bill" Hayden AC was the 21st Governor-General of Australia. Prior to this, he represented the Australian Labor Party in parliament; he was a minister in the government of Gough Whitlam, and later became Leader of the Opposition, narrowly losing the 1980 federal election to the...		19 December 1972 – 6 June 1975		Minister for Social Security
John Wheeldon John Wheeldon John Murray Wheeldon was an Australian federal politician and briefly a minister. He is mainly notable for his views on Australian foreign policy....		6 June 1975 – 11 November 1975
Don Chipp Don Chipp Donald Leslie Chipp, AO was an Australian politician, and the inaugural leader of the Australian Democrats.-Early life:...	Liberal Party	12 November 1975 – 22 December 1975	Fraser Malcolm Fraser John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role...
Margaret Guilfoyle Margaret Guilfoyle Dame Margaret Georgina Constance Guilfoyle, AC, DBE was a British-born Australian Senator for the state of Victoria from 1971 to 1987. She was the second woman to receive a federal ministerial portfolio, after Dame Enid Lyons...		22 December 1975 – 3 November 1980
Fred Chaney Fred Chaney Frederick Michael Chaney, AO is a former Western Australian politician who, until April 2007, held the position of deputy chairman of the Australian Native Title Tribunal and is Chair of Desert Knowledge Australia and on the Board of Directors of Reconciliation Australia.Chaney was born in Perth,...		3 November 1980 – 11 March 1983
Don Grimes Don Grimes Donald James "Don" Grimes AO is an Australian former politician. He was a minister in the Labor government of Bob Hawke.-Biography:...	Australian Labor Party	11 March 1983 – 13 December 1984	Hawke Bob Hawke Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
Brian Howe Brian Howe (politician) Brian Leslie Howe, AO , Australian politician, was Deputy Prime Minister in the Labor government of Paul Keating from 1991 to 1995....		13 December 1984 – 4 April 1990
Graham Richardson Graham Richardson Graham Frederick Richardson , a former Australian politician, was a Senator for New South Wales from 1983–94 for the Australian Labor Party, a senior minister in Hawke and Keating governments, and is now a political lobbyist, public speaker, and media commentator. During his time in politics,...		4 April 1990 – 20 December 1991
		20–27 December 1991	Keating Paul Keating Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
Neal Blewett Neal Blewett Neal Blewett, AC , Australian politician, was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives representing the Division of Bonython, South Australia from 1977 to 1994.-Education and academic career:...		27 December 1991 – 24 March 1993
Peter Baldwin Peter Baldwin (Australian politician) Peter Jeremy Baldwin is a former Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1983 to 1998....		24 March 1993 – 11 March 1996
Jocelyn Newman Jocelyn Newman Jocelyn Margaret Newman was an Australian Senator for Tasmania for 15 years.Newman was born in Melbourne and was a Barrister and solicitor before entering Parliament. She married Kevin Newman in 1961. Her son Campbell Newman is the Lord Mayor of Brisbane.Newman was appointed to the Senate on 13...	Liberal Party	11 March 1996 – 21 October 1998	Howard John Howard John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
Joe Hockey Joe Hockey Joseph Benedict "Joe" Hockey , is an Australian politician and member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of North Sydney for the Liberal Party of Australia since 1996....		26 October 2004 – 30 January 2007		Minister for Human Services
Ian Campbell Ian Campbell (Australian politician) Ian Gordon Campbell , Australian politician, was a Liberal member of the Australian Senate representing Western Australia between 1990 and 2007.-Early life:...		30 January 2007 – 9 March 2007
Chris Ellison Chris Ellison Christopher Martin Ellison , is a former Liberal member of the Australian Senate. He represented Western Australia in the Senate from July 1993 to January 2009.-Background:...		9 March 2007 – 3 December 2007
Joe Ludwig Joe Ludwig Senator the Hon Joseph William Ludwig , Australian politician, has been a member of the Australian Senate for the state of Queensland since July 1999, representing the Australian Labor Party.-Biography:...	Australian Labor Party	3 December 2007 – 9 June 2009	Rudd Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
Chris Bowen Chris Bowen Christopher Eyles "Chris" Bowen , an Australian federal politician, is a member of the Australian House of Representatives, initially elected to represent the seat of Prospect in western Sydney for the Australian Labor Party at the 2004 federal election...		9 June 2009 – 24 June 2010
		24 June 2010 – 14 September 2010	Gillard Julia Gillard Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
Tanya Plibersek Tanya Plibersek Tanya Joan Plibersek, MP , is an Australian politician with the Australian Labor Party, and Federal Minister for Social Inclusion and Minister for Human Services. She has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 1998, representing the seat of Sydney, New South Wales...		14 September 2010 –