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The Cabinet of New Zealand (Māori: Te Rūnanga o te Kāwanatanga o Aotearoa) is a council of senior Government ministers, responsible to the New Zealand Parliament. Cabinet meetings, chaired by the Prime Minister, occur once a week where vital issues are discussed and government policy formulated. The Cabinet has significant power in the New Zealand political system and nearly all bills proposed by the Cabinet in Parliament are enacted.
Contents
- Legislative basis
- Members
- Powers
- Meetings
- Committees
- Portfolios represented
- Members and other ministers
- References
All Cabinet ministers also serve as members of the Executive Council. Outside the Cabinet, there is an outer ministry and also a number of non-Cabinet ministers, responsible for a specific policy area and reporting directly to a senior Cabinet minister.
Legislative basis
No legislative act established the Cabinet: rather, it exists purely by constitutional convention. This convention carries sufficient weight for many official declarations and regulations to refer to the Cabinet, and a government department exists with responsibility for supporting it (the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet). Although Cabinet lacks any direct legislative framework for its existence, the Cabinet Manual has become the official document which governs its functions, and on which its convention rests.
The structure of Cabinet has as its basis the formal institution known as the Executive Council. Most Ministers hold membership of both bodies, but some Executive Councillors – known as "ministers outside Cabinet" – do not have Cabinet positions. The convention of members of the Executive Council meeting separately from the Governor began during Edward Stafford's first tenure as Premier (1856–1861). Stafford, a long-time advocate of responsible government in New Zealand, believed the colonial government should have full control over all its affairs, without the intervention of the Governor. Because the Governor chaired the Executive Council, Stafford intentionally met with his ministers without the Governor present.
Members
All ministers have the style of "The Honourable", except for the Prime Minister, who is styled "The Right Honourable".
Powers
The lack of formal legislation establishing Cabinet leaves the powers of its members only loosely defined. The Cabinet generally directs and controls policy (releasing government policy statements) and is responsible to Parliament. It also has significant influence over lawmaking. Convention regarding the Cabinet's authority has considerable force, and generally proves strong enough to bind its participants. Theoretically, each minister operates independently, having received a ministerial warrant over a certain field from the Crown (represented by the Governor-General). But the Governor-General can dismiss a minister at any time, conventionally on the advice of the Prime Minister, so ministers are largely obliged to work within a certain framework.
Cabinet itself acts as the accepted forum for establishing this framework. Ministers will jointly discuss the policy which the government as a whole will pursue, and ministers who do not exercise their respective powers in a manner compatible with Cabinet's decision risk losing those powers. This has become known as the doctrine of collective responsibility. Problems arise when the Prime Minister breaches collective responsibility. Since ministerial appointments and dismissals are in practice in the hands of the Prime Minister, the Cabinet can not directly initiate any action against a Prime Minister who openly disagrees with his government's policy. On the other hand, a Prime Minister who tries to act against concerted opposition from his Cabinet risks losing the confidence of his party colleagues. An example is former Prime Minister David Lange, who publicly spoke against a tax reform package which was sponsored by then-Finance Minister Roger Douglas and supported by Cabinet. Lange dismissed Douglas, but when the Cabinet supported Douglas against Lange, Lange himself resigned as Prime Minister.
Meetings
The Cabinet typically meets weekly in the Beehive (the executive wing of the Parliament Buildings), where it discusses important political issues. The Prime Minister usually chairs the meeting and sets the agenda.
Committees
A Cabinet Committee comprises a subset of the larger Cabinet, consisting of a number of ministers who have responsibility in related areas of policy. Cabinet Committees go into considerably more detail than can be achieved at regular Cabinet meetings, discussing issues which do not need the input of ministers holding unrelated portfolios.
Cabinet Committees will often discuss matters referred to them by Cabinet itself, and then report back the results of their deliberation. This can sometimes become a powerful tool for advancing certain policies, as was demonstrated in the Lange government. Roger Douglas, Minister of Finance, and his allies succeeded in dominating the finance committee, enabling them to determine what it recommended to Cabinet. The official recommendation of the finance committee was much harder for his opponents to fight than his individual claims in Cabinet would be. Douglas was able to pass measures that, had Cabinet deliberated on them itself rather than pass them to Committee, would have been defeated.
Portfolios represented
Currently, significant ministers include:
Other ministers (some outside Cabinet) include:
Members and other ministers
The tables below list New Zealand's cabinet ministers and ministers outside Cabinet as of December 2016.
Cabinet Ministers
Ministers outside Cabinet
Ministers from other Political Parties that signed a confidence and supply agreement