What is the principle of ministerial responsibility?
The federal government is responsible to the Parliament and to all Australians, and so all ministers are expected to answer questions in parliament about their work and the work of their departments. The principle of ministerial responsibility underpins the convention that a minister found to be corrupt or incompetent should resign. Some governments set their own minimum standards of ministerial responsibility. The Hon. John Howard was the first Australian Prime Minister to establish a public ministerial code. The current Prime Minister, the Hon. Kevin Rudd also established a ministerial code of conduct, which he announced after his government’s first Cabinet meeting in December 2007. However, since the code of conduct is not a law or a regulation there is nothing to prevent it from being changed. Thus the code is controlled by the Executive itself rather than the Parliament.
The federal government is responsible to the Parliament and to all Australians, and so all ministers are expected to answer questions in parliament about their work and the work of their departments. The principle of ministerial responsibility underpins the convention that a minister found to be corrupt or incompetent should resign. Some governments set their own minimum standards of ministerial responsibility. The Hon. John Howard was the first Australian Prime Minister to establish a public ministerial code. The former Prime Minister, the Hon. Kevin Rudd also established a ministerial code of conduct, which he announced after his government’s first Cabinet meeting in December 2007. However, since the code of conduct is not a law or a regulation there is nothing to prevent it from being changed. Thus the code is controlled by the Executive itself rather than the Parliament.
