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Title

Ch2 House, Government and Opposition / GOVERNMENT AND PARLIAMENT / Aspects of ministerial responsibility / Collective Cabinet responsibility

Database

House Practice

Date

01-05-2005

Source

House of Reps

Parl No.

41

Chapter

House, Government and Opposition

Chapter No.

Chapter 02

Page

47

Section No.

 

System Id

procedural/practcer/chapter02.08.doc


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Ch2 House, Government and Opposition / GOVERNMENT AND PARLIAMENT / Aspects of ministerial responsibility / Collective Cabinet responsibility



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House of Representatives                                Ch 2                                                 p 47

 

House, Government and Opposition / GOVERNMENT AND PARLIAMENT / Aspects of ministerial responsibility

 

Collective Cabinet responsibility

Cabinet is collectively responsible to the people, through the Parliament, for determining and implementing policies for national government. Broadly, it is required by convention that all Ministers must be prepared to accept collective responsibility for, and defend publicly, the policies and actions of the Government. The Cabinet Handbook states ‘All Ministers are expected to give their support in public debate to decisions of the Government’. 1

Most importantly, the convention has also been regarded as requiring that the loss of a vote on a no-confidence motion in the House or on a major issue is expected to lead to the resignation of the whole Government (including Ministers not in the Cabinet) or, alternatively, the Prime Minister is expected to recommend to the Governor-General that the House be dissolved for an election. Such events are, in the ordinary course, unlikely, given the strength of party discipline. Further, contemporary thinking is that, should a Government lose a vote on a major issue, it would be entitled to propose a motion of confidence to test or confirm its position before resigning or recommending an election. 2

It has been stated that among the principles implicit in the convention each Minister is required to abide by the following: 3

  • he or she must be prepared not only to refrain from publicly criticising other Ministers and their actions but also to defend them publicly, or else resign;

  • he or she must not announce a major new policy without previous Cabinet consent—if a Minister does, Cabinet must either provide support or request his or her resignation;

  • he or she must not express private views on government policies nor speak about or otherwise become involved in a ministerial colleague’s portfolio without first consulting that colleague and possibly the Prime Minister; and

  • government advice to the Governor-General must be assumed to be unanimous.

    • Not all principles associated with the convention have always been scrupulously upheld. At times governments have perhaps chosen to espouse the convention for political expediency or have chosen not to follow it for the same reason. Where crucial political advantage or disadvantage has been involved party political considerations have sometimes predominated over strict adherence to the convention.

    While there have been departures from the convention the following comment on the controversy concerning the vitality of the convention places the matter in perspective:

    Most of the current disagreement turns on degree. Some critics have been concerned to point to the increasing number of deviations from the traditional rules; this article has been emphasising the overwhelming majority of cases in which the rules are still followed. The break with the past is less than has been thought. 4

    For precedents of resignations by individual Ministers in accordance with the convention see p.  65 .



    Cabinet handbook , 5th edn, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2000, p. 4. See also Prime Minister, A guide on key elements of ministerial responsibility , Dec. 1998, pp. 2, 4.



    See ‘Motions of no confidence or censure’ in Ch. on ‘Motions’.



    See , for example: L. F. Crisp, Australian national government , 5th edn, pp. 354-6; Hugh V. Emy, The politics of Australian democracy , 2nd edn, Macmillan, South Melbourne, 1978, pp. 246, 312-13; S. Encel, Cabinet government in Australia , 2nd edn, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1974, p. 107.



    David Butler, ‘Ministerial responsibility in Australia and Britain’, Parliamentary Affairs XXVI, 4, 1973, pp. 413-14.