Global InformationCabinet of Australia information
 Coat of Arms of Australia | |
| Formation | 1 January 1901 |
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| Legal status | By convention |
| Purpose | Chief decision-making body of the Australian Government |
| Location |
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Prime Minister | Anthony Albanese |
Membership | 23 Cabinet ministers |
| Website | www |
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The Cabinet of Australia, also known as the Federal Cabinet, is the chief decision-making body of the Australian government. The cabinet is appointed by the prime minister of Australia and is composed of senior government ministers who head the executive departments and ministries of the federal government. The cabinet is separate to the federal Department of the Prime Ministers and Cabinet.
Ministers are appointed by the governor-general, on the advice of the prime minister, who is the leader of the Cabinet. Cabinet meetings are strictly private and occur once a week where vital issues are discussed and policy formulated. There are several Cabinet committees focused on governance and specific policy issues. Outside the Cabinet there is an outer ministry and also a number of assistant ministers (designated as parliamentary secretaries under the Ministers of State Act 1952),[1] responsible for a specific policy area and reporting directly to a senior Cabinet minister of their portfolio. The Cabinet, the outer ministry, and the assistant ministers collectively form the full Commonwealth ministry of the government of the day.
As with the prime minister of Australia, the Constitution of Australia does not recognise the Cabinet as a legal entity; these roles actually exist solely by convention. Decisions of Cabinet do not in and of themselves have legal force. Instead, it convenes to function as a practical "foreshadowing" of the business of the Federal Executive Council, which is, officially (per the Constitution), Australia's highest formal governmental body established by Chapter II of the Constitution of Australia. In practice, the Federal Executive Council meets solely to endorse and give legal force to decisions already made by the Cabinet.
All members of the Cabinet are members of the Executive Council; whereas the nominal presiding officer, the governor-general, almost never attends Executive Council meetings. A senior member of the Cabinet holds the office of vice-president of the Executive Council and acts as presiding officer of the Executive Council in place of the governor-general.[2]
- ^ "Current Ministry List – Parliament of Australia". Home – Parliament of Australia. 24 August 2018. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
- ^ "Federal Executive Council Handbook" (PDF). Government of Australia. June 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 July 2007. Retrieved 7 July 2007.