All people employed by ministers in their Parliament House and electorate offices where cabinet documents are circulated and stored are required to have the clearances.

With a change of government there was a complete turnover of personnel as the new ministers brought in their political support staff. These new employees are taken in under the Member of Parliament Staff Act.

A spokeswoman for the Finance Department, which administers people employed under the Act, said typically a top-secret security clearance took more than three months to complete.

Special arrangements were made to speed up clearances for key staff.

Since the election, Finance had requested the two security-vetting agencies begin the clearance process for the 315 employees.

To date, 101 employees had returned their completed security pack to the vetting agencies and 19 clearances had been granted.

No one had had a clearance refused.

In addition to the political support staff, every minister's office has at least one department liaison officer. These officers would already have security clearances and would be able to handle sensitive material.

Some departments have given a waiver to ministerial staff who do not yet have a clearance to enable them to get on with their work.

While the clearance process may seem slow, it is picking up momentum.

Special Minister of State John Faulkner told the Senate estimates committee in mid-February that as of February 7, there had been 253 requests for clearance and eight security clearances had been granted.

He said it was a high priority to ensure that all staff had the appropriate level of clearance.

A spokesman for Senator Faulkner said the lack of clearance was not holding up work.

Senior people were having their clearances given priority and there would probably be a lot more clearances soon.