Cabinet of New Zealand

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The Cabinet of New Zealand (Māori: Te Rūnanga o te Kāwanatanga o Aotearoa)^{[lower-alpha 1]} is the New Zealand Government's body of senior ministers, responsible to the New Zealand Parliament. Cabinet meetings, chaired by the Prime Minister, occur once a week; in them, vital issues are discussed and government policy is formulated. Though not established by any statute, Cabinet has significant power in the New Zealand political system and nearly all bills proposed by the Cabinet in Parliament are enacted.

The New Zealand Cabinet copies the traditions of the British cabinet system; it follows the principle of cabinet collective responsibility. While the Cabinet is responsible to Parliament for making policy decisions, Cabinet discussions are confidential and are not disclosed to the public apart from the announcement of decisions.

All ministers in Cabinet also serve as members of the Executive Council, the body tasked with advising the Governor-General in the exercise of his or her formal constitutional functions. Outside Cabinet, there are a number of non-Cabinet ministers, responsible for a specific policy area and reporting directly to a senior Cabinet minister. Ministers outside Cabinet are also part of Cabinet committees and will regularly attend Cabinet meetings which concern their portfolios. Therefore, although operating outside of Cabinet directly, these ministers do not lack power and influence as they are still very much part of the decision making process.^[1]

Constitutional basis

Cabinet has no formal statutory basis and is not established by any legislative act: it exists purely by constitutional convention.^[2] This convention carries sufficient weight for many official declarations and regulations to refer to Cabinet, and a government department—the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet—is responsible for supporting it. 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.^[2][3]

The structure of Cabinet has as its basis the formal institution known as the Executive Council, the body tasked with advising the Governor-General in the exercise of his or her formal constitutional functions (i.e. the Governor-in-Council). Most ministers hold membership of both bodies, but some Executive Councillors—known as "ministers outside Cabinet"—do not attend Cabinet. The convention of members of the Executive Council meeting separately from the Governor began during Edward Stafford's first tenure as Premier (1856–1861).^[4] 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".^[5] Additionally, Winston Peters is styled as The Right Honourable, having been appointed a member of the Privy Council prior to the change in rules regarding the use of the style.^[6]

The table below lists New Zealand's Cabinet ministers and ministers outside Cabinet as of 20 September 2018.^[7]

All Ministers, both inside and outside Cabinet are Executive Council Members.

Parliamentary Private Secretaries have no Government rank, but merely assist the Ministers from a Parliamentary standpoint, and represent the Minister they assist when they are unavailable.^[8]

Powers and functions

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.

Electoral reform and cabinet structure

The 1993 referendum in New Zealand (see Electoral reform in New Zealand) resulted in a number of structural changes to Cabinet. The change to the MMP system ultimately led to a larger number of political parties in Parliament, as under the new voting system, any political party could be in Parliament if they received five percent of the party vote or won one electoral seat.^[13] The increased representation resulted in the need to form coalitions between parties as it is unlikely one party will receive a majority of votes under MMP.

In order to govern in a coalition under MMP, it is likely that a major party will have to relinquish and offer Cabinet positions to members of a minority party. The 1996 General Election highlighted the changes which were predicted to result from MMP. New Zealand First received 13.4% of the party vote, giving them 17 total seats in the House of Representatives (compared to 8.5% in the 1993 General Election, conducted under the FPP voting system).^[14] This ultimately resulted in the National-New Zealand First coalition as the National Party, who received 33.8% of the party vote, translating to 44 seats in the House, could not govern alone.^[15]

Negotiations forming the new government took nearly two months however the ultimate result being that New Zealand First were to have five ministers inside Cabinet and four outside. This translated to having 36.4% of representation in the new government.^[16] The Prime Minister following the 1996 election, Jim Bolger, was forced to tell his caucus during negotiations with New Zealand First, that he would not be able to satisfy all ambitions of the caucus, due to the forced inclusion of the minority party into the governmental framework, thus highlighting one of the challenged that came with MMP.^[16]

The result of MMP on Cabinet structure in New Zealand is also highlighted above under the 'Members' heading. In the coalition deal following the election New Zealand First leader Winston Peters was given the position of Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First were given a number of ministerial portfolios including Foreign Affairs, Infrastructure, Regional Economic Development and Internal Affairs.^[17]

Meetings

The ministers of the Sixth Labour Government, with Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy, 26 October 2017

The Cabinet typically meets weekly in the Beehive (the executive wing of the Parliament Buildings),^[5] 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. There are currently 10 Cabinet Committees.^[18]

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.

See also

• List of New Zealand governments
• Category:Members of the Cabinet of New Zealand

Notes

References

External links

• Cabinet Manual 2017 - DPMC