(DPMC 2015, p. 64). Selection of ministers is generally a key prerogative of
the prime minister (though it would be misleading to say that they had a free
hand: apart from addressing the claims of leadingfigures in the party, in both
Australia and Canada it has been wise for prime ministers to have regard for
the federal distribution). The big exception has been the century-long practice
of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). From the second Labor government, the
Fisher government, 1908–9, ministers in Labor governments have been
elected by the party caucus. This practice was abandoned in 2007 by newly
elected leader, Kevin Rudd. However, following Rudd’s return to the party
leadership (and prime ministership) late in 2013, he established a method of
electing the party leader which included party members as well as the parlia-
mentary party; at the same time, election of ministers was returned to the
caucus. Under both systems, allocation of portfolios remained a prerogative of
the prime minister.
Since 1949, Cabinet decisions have been issued by a Cabinet Secretary who
attends meetings. From 1949 until 1968, and from 1971 until 1996, the
Cabinet Secretary has been the head of the Prime Minister’s Department
(Prime Minister and Cabinet from 1971). In the interval there was a separate
Department of the Cabinet Office whose secretary was also Secretary to the
Cabinet.
In 1996, the newly installed Howard government appointed a separate
Cabinet Secretary under the Members of Parliament (Staffing) Act 1984; this
practice was resumed under the Abbott government when it took office in
- From September 2015, the Turnbull government appointed a minister
as Cabinet Secretary. In the Labor governments 2007 to 2013, a minister
performed the role. Notwithstanding these innovations, the head of DPMC
and other senior officials continue to attend and service Cabinet meetings.
Practice in the UK and Canada is different from Australia, and, in terms of
governmental orthodoxy, much more conventional. Cabinet meetings are
shorter in both; more business is carried out by committees of the Cabinet.
Second, in both countries the Cabinet Secretary is the top civil (public) servant
and, among other roles, is the adviser to the prime minister on top civil
(public) service appointments (as is the Secretary to the Department of the
Prime Minister and Cabinet in Australia). In the UK, the Cabinet Secretary has
been, from 1956 until 1963, and since 1981, usually head of the Home Civil
Service; and has been so by statute in Canada in recent decades. There is no
comparable title in Australian government though it is sometimes attached to
the Secretary to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet with the
adjective,‘effective’(or‘de facto’).
Heads of the DPMC in Australia are not invariably drawn from the
public service itself. In the past four decades, four have been appointed
from outside. All had previously been in the public service, two of
J. R. Nethercote