The Role and Responsibilities of the Cabinet
The Cabinet consists of the Prime Minister, who is appointed by the President and other Ministers (of whom one shall be the Attorney General) chosen from among the members of the House of Representatives and the Senators appointed by the President acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister.
The President, acting on the advice of the Prime Minister, may assign any Minister responsibility for any business of the government including the administration of any department of government.
The functions of the Cabinet are initiating and deciding on policy. The exercise of these functions is initially affected by the fact that the Cabinet is a group of party representatives, depending upon majority support in the House of Representatives.
The Cabinet meets in private and its proceedings are confidential. Normally, Cabinet meets for a few hours once a week and these meetings take place at the Office of the Prime Minister, Whitehall.
The Cabinet Secretariat serves Ministers collectively in the conduct of Cabinet business and the co-ordination of policy at the highest level.
Ministerial responsibility refers both to the collective responsibility for government policy and actions, which Ministers have and to their individual responsibilities for their departments’ work.
The doctrine of collective responsibility means that the Cabinet acts unanimously even when Cabinet Ministers do not all agree on a subject.
The individual responsibility of Ministers for the work of their departments means that they are answerable to Parliament for matters pertaining to their departments.