Victorian Government style guide

Victorian Government-specific guidance

Welcome to Country

Find out if you should do a Welcome to Country or Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners for your event.

Avoid the use of 'they' or 'their'.

Examples:

• I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet today, the [insert name] people of the [insert nation name] nation and pay my respects to Elders past and present.
• The Victorian Government acknowledges Aboriginal Traditional Owners of Country throughout Victoria and pays respect to their cultures and Elders past, present and emerging. [Source: Victoria Aboriginal Heritage Council]
• The Victorian Government acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Custodians of the land and acknowledges and pays respect to their Elders, past and present. [Source: firstpeoplesrelations.vic.gov.au]
• We acknowledge Victorian Traditional Owners and their Elders past and present as the original custodians of Victoria's land and waters and commit to genuinely partnering with them and Victoria's Aboriginal community to progress their aspirations. [Source: DEWLP email footer]
• We acknowledge the traditional Aboriginal owners of country throughout Victoria and pay our respect to them, their culture and their Elders past, present and future. [Source: DTF email footer]

Apolitical language

Victorian Government writing must be clearly distinguishable from party-political messages. It must not use party-political slogans, images or language.

Examples:

Capitalisation of government terms

Use capitals for proper nouns, the start of sentences and official or abbreviated specific titles, but not for generic or plural references. Some exceptions apply.

* The Budget prefers this format; this is an exception. Per AGSM, ranges of numbers use an en dash.

Capitalisation of other terms commonly used in government

• Act(s)
• the Bar
• the Bench
• Bill(s)
• Ordinance(s)
• Regulation(s)
• Traditional Owner

Capitalising names of policies and programs

Capitalise the titles of government policies or programs.

‘Policy’ or ‘program’ should only be capitalised where they are part of the official program or policy title.

Capitalisation for education

Year (e.g. Year 9, Years P to 12, Prep)

VCE subjects (e.g. Theatre Studies)

Departments

Departmental initialisms are widely used within government but not generally understood outside of government. Only use an initialism if the term is repeated a lot in a page or document.

• DE: Department of Education
• DEECA: Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action
• DFFH: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing
• DGS: Department of Government Services
• DH: Department of Health
• DJCS: Department of Justice and Community Safety Victoria
• DJSIR: Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions
• DPC: Department of Premier and Cabinet
• DTF: Department of Treasury and Finance
• DTP: Department of Transport and Planning

Former Victorian department names that occasionally appear:

• DET (training moved to DJSIR as of 1 January 2023)
• DHHS (split into DH and DFFH as of 1 February 2021)
• DEDJTR (split into DJPR and DoT as of 1 January 2019)
• DELWP (mostly formed into DEECA as of 1 January 2023)
• DJPR (mostly formed into DJSIR as of 1 January 2023)
• DoT (now DTP with Planning moved from DELWP as of 1 January 2023)

Forms of address

How to address members of the Parliament of Victoria

How to address government officials

Victorian Government ministers' naming preferences

Refer to the list of current ministers on the Parliament of Victoria website to check ministers' naming preferences.

Ministers may choose to use the title ‘The Honourable’ (abbreviated to 'the Hon'). This title is granted for life, so former ministers may also use the title. The title is optional; before use, check if a member is using the title on the Parliament of Victoria website.

The President of the Senate or Legislative Council and the Speaker may use the title ‘The Honourable’ while in office.

Victorian regions and place names

Vicnames is the Victorian register of geographic names; you can use this to check the correct spelling of places, roads and historical information about geographic places in Victoria.

VICNAMES is Victoria’s official place names database. It has approximately 200,000 road names and 45,000 place names. This includes geographic features such as mountains, rivers, bounded localities such as suburbs and towns and physical infrastructure such as roads, reserves and schools.

VICNAMES is used to ensure that names are not duplicated, provide details on the location and extent on geographic features, localities and roads and to record or find historical information on place names.

Additional Victorian Government resources

Branding

All government departments, agencies and entities must comply with the Brand Victoria guidelines for logos, colours, fonts and co-branding.

Accessibility

• See our guide on making content accessible. For topics not covered by this guide, refer directly to the WCAG.
• See Accessible and inclusive content on the Australian Government Style Manual.
• The South Australian government's Online accessibility toolkit has been endorsed for use by all state governments.

Content in languages other than English

Refer to the Victorian Government digital guide on multilingual content for advice on developing and publishing multilingual content.

Inclusive language

See our LGBTIQ+ Inclusive Language Guide to understand how to use language respectfully and inclusively.

The Australian Government Style Manual has a section on Inclusive language that covers:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• Age diversity
• Cultural and linguistic diversity
• Gender and sexual diversity
• People with disability