Role of the Australian Cabinet System

This essay analyzes the role of the Federal Cabinet system in the context of the Australian political system and examines the constitutional safeguards in place for its effective functioning.

Running head: ROLE OF THE AUSTRALIAN CABINET SYSTEM
Role of the Australian Cabinet System
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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ROLE OF THE AUSTRALIAN CABINET SYSTEM
The effective functioning of any political system is dependent upon the organization of
its government. The government of any nation state of the world has the important obligation of
ensuring the welfare of its people and the maintenance of law and order in the state (Eccleston,
Williams and Hollander 2006). This is only possible when the government itself functions within
a set of rules and regulations. For this purpose, almost all the countries of the world have their
own Constitution. A Constitution is a document which enshrines all the important clauses and
the articles for the effective functioning of the political system (Maley 2015). It therefore, also
provides a set of guidelines for the working of the government and the governmental officials
and departments find their scope of work and activity within such framework of Constitution.
This essay seeks to analyze the role of the Federal Cabinet system in the context of the
Australian political system. In this context, the essay also sees if there are any constitutional
safeguards are in place which ensures the effective working of the Australian Cabinet.
The Cabinet system was not in existence until the middle of the twentieth century
(Eccleston, Williams and Hollander 2006). The country was a colony of the United Kingdom
until that time and not much growth was noticeable in the governing system of the continent.
However, the gradual growth of the ministry in the years of 1940s and 1950s made the entire
representation of the ministry in the Cabinet very impracticable and illogical and it was in the
year of 1956 when the Prime Minster, Robert Menzies, belonging to the liberal ideology, decided
to create a two tiered ministry(Short 2016). The upper tier would consist of the members of the
Cabinet while the remaining members would form part of the outer ministry. This practice has
been in existence in the history of the Australian Government, except during the period of the
Whitlam Government.

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ROLE OF THE AUSTRALIAN CABINET SYSTEM
The Cabinet of Australia located within the Government of Australia comprise of the
senior members of the Government and they are responsible to the Australian Parliament for
their acts of omission and commission (Appleby. and Webster 2016). These Cabinet ministers
are appointed on the recommendations of the Australian Prime Minter by the Governor-General.
The meetings of the Cabinet are private in orientation, meaning that no other members of the
Australian Parliament have the right to take part in such meetings. Moreover, the Cabinet
members meet frequently to hold meetings where issues of national interest and other issues of
similar important nature are discussed and debated upon (McMillan 2016). Besides the Cabinet,
there are other important departments in the Government of Australia, such as the Outer Ministry
and the Assistant Minsters. These departments are responsible for certain senior level policy
making and they report directly to the members of the Cabinet for their decisions and actions.
There exists certain constitutional safeguards in order to ensure that the Cabinet of the
Australian Government functions in an effective manner for achieving the condition of welfarism
of the people (Bentham 2018). In this sense, one of the constitutional requirement is that the
members of the Cabinet should be a member of the Government. In order to be a Cabinet
minister within the Parliament of Australia, there is a requirement that the member should be a
minster belonging either of the House of Representatives or to the House of Senate. If a minster
is not a member of either House of the Australian Parliament, Section 64 of the Constitution of
Australia provides a clause that the concerned minister can become a member of either of the
Houses within a time period of three members (Dowding and Martin 2017). Then, he or she,
would be eligible to continue as a Cabinet minister. This constitutional provision acts as a
safeguard in the sense that it is only by being a member of the Government, a candidate will
become well versed with the key issues faced by the country in terms of maintaining its national

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interest. This helps to ensure that the members of the Cabinet know what the requirement of the
nation is and hence, they can formulate policies according to such requirements and demands of
the people.
Another constitutional safeguard provided for the effective functioning of the Cab9net
members is that of the limited size of the cabinet. Although, this is strictly not constitutional in
its orientation, the Minister of the State Act, 1952, provides that only ministers up to the number
of thirty shall constitute the Cabinet at any point of time (House 2018). This is important as the
Cabinet is the body of the minsters who meet frequently to debate and discuss on important
national issues. If the number of ministers attending the Cabinet meetings is too large then it
would become impossible to take any effective decision making.
A third constitutional safeguard provided by the Constitution of Australia for the
effective management of the country with regard to the functioning of the Cabinet is that of the
condition of collective responsibility (House 2018). The situation of collective responsibility has
a colonial legacy since this first originated in the context of the United Kingdom. Under this
scenario, the members of the Cabinet are responsible to the ministers of the Australian
Parliament for their acts of omission and commission while undertaking any policy decision.
This means that if the policies of the Cabinet are accepted by the ministers of the Parliament,
then the Cabinet continues to function (Eccleston, Williams and Hollander 2006). However, if
any policy of the Cabinet is defeated on the floor of the House, then the majority party in power
has to resign in a collective manner.
In conclusion, it can be observed that the Cabinet system in Australia is guided by the
constitutional provisions which sets the framework for its organization and its functioning. The

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constitution also provides certain safeguards which ensures the effective working of the Cabinet
for the purpose of maintaining law and order in the state.

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References:
Appleby, G. and Webster, A., 2016. Executive power under the constitution: a presidential and
parliamentary system compared. U. Colo. L. Rev., 87, p.1129.
Bentham, J., 2018. Writings on Australia, VI. A Plea for the Constitution.
Dowding, K. and Martin, A., 2017. Political institutions and policy in Australia. In Policy
Agendas in Australia (pp. 59-83). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Eccleston, R.G., Williams, P. and Hollander, R., 2006. Foundations of Australian politics.
House, D., 2018. The Department of the Premier and Cabinet.
Maley, M., 2015. The policy work of Australian political staff. International Journal of Public
Administration, 38(1), pp.46-55.
McMillan, M., 2016. Is Federalism being undermined in the current surge
to'recognise'Indigenous Australians in (and into) the Commonwealth Constitution?. Indigenous
Law Bulletin, 8(25), p.15.
Short, D., 2016. Reconciliation and colonial power: Indigenous rights in Australia. Routledge.