Australia's first national cabinet is finally doing what countless reviews, academics and government watches have pleaded for. Governments of all colours, and their agencies, working as one, in a form of co-operative federalism many officials had only dreamed of.
Formed at the Friday Council of Australian Government (COAG) meeting, the "wartime" national cabinet is made up of the nation's first ministers – the Prime Minister, premiers and territory leaders – to co-ordinate and deliver a consistent national response to COVID-19.
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He says the national cabinet has "
the status of a cabinet meeting" that would exist at a federal level, meaning it has the same confidentiality and Freedom of Information protections and protocols as the federal cabinet.
Two key co-ordinating arrangements – the chief medical officers group, known as the Australian Health Protection Principals Committee (AHPPC), and what is known as the National Co-ordinating Measure (NCM) – have also been given cabinet status.
The NCM operationalises the
National Communicable Disease Plan and is managed through the Department of Home Affairs' Crisis Coordination Centre (CCC).
The CCC is co-ordinating the federal, states and territory whole-of-government responses to non-health issues related to COVID-19.
The CCC is leading the engagement with individual sectors such as education, banking, transport, food and agriculture to manage the many issues that need to be addressed, and to assess the range of capabilities available to meet those challenges within government, industry and the community.
This is the group that federal and state portfolios are co-ordinating with as they seek to work with business and community service providers across a range of issues. These include ensuring supply chains and critical infrastructure are being fortified, public facilities are being regularly cleaned and borders and travel are being consistently managed.
While to outsiders this may seem administrative humdrum, standing up a sophisticated new legal and managerial federal infrastructure is critical to making the national cabinet a workable government entity.
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Strictly, cabinet decisions
do not of themselves have legal authority. This comes from the executive council (or Chapter II of the Constitution) which endorses and gives legal force to decisions already made by the cabinet.
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According to the federal cabinet handbook, "
this means members of the Cabinet must publicly support all Government decisions made in the Cabinet, even if they do not agree with them. Cabinet ministers cannot dissociate themselves from, or repudiate the decisions of their Cabinet colleagues unless they resign from the Cabinet."
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"While the participants might agree that confidentiality should apply, the principle of collective ministerial responsibility could not apply, as they are not collectively responsible to one Parliament."
Others are less sanguine and
suspect the wrapping of the term cabinet around the COAG first ministers group removes it from FOI review and more generally accountability.
As one former COAG leader observed,
with no parliament to be directly accountable to, it gives the national cabinet enormous power to execute what are going to be highly invasive actions for citizens, business and community groups.
The rapid set up of the leadership group marks a new era in federal relations as the full force of Australia's nine governments come together to fight the coronavirus.
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