National Cabinet

What is National Cabinet?

National Cabinet

Anthony Albanese, via Instagram

National Cabinet

Anthony Albanese, via Instagram

Description

A National Cabinet meeting, where leaders of Australia's national, state and territory governments are seated in 2 rows to speak to the media at Australian Parliament House in 2023. The Prime Minister is seated in the middle of the front row. National Cabinet meetings include 9 people:

• the Prime Minister
• the 6 state premiers (NSW, Vic, Qld, SA, WA and Tas)
• the chief ministers of the territories (ACT and NT).

National Cabinet meets to plan and develop policies to address issues across the different levels of government. 

Copyright information

Used on the PEO website with permission. Contact the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet for other use.

National Cabinet is a meeting of leaders from the Australian, and the state and territory governments. In National Cabinet, leaders consider important issues facing the country and how they can work together to solve them. The Prime Minister, state premiers and territory chief ministers participate in National Cabinet. 

National Cabinet was established in March 2020 to coordinate Australia’s response to the COVID19 pandemic. It replaced the Council of Australian Governments (COAG).

The role of National Cabinet

Australia has 3 levels of government – federal, state or territory, and local. They work together to provide the services Australians need. The federal and state levels of government share the power to make laws in some areas – these are called concurrent powers. The different levels of government often need to work together to decide how to deal consistently with national issues.

In National Cabinet, leaders come up with ideas on how they can coordinate plans to deal with issues across the different levels of government. National Cabinet meets to consider issues like:

• healthcare
• disaster recovery
• housing
• disability support.

Putting decisions into action

In National Cabinet, leaders make decisions on what to do. However, laws cannot be made in National Cabinet. Each leader taking part in National Cabinet remains accountable to their own parliament. They are responsible for taking the decisions made in National Cabinet to their own parliament to make them into laws and put them into action.

Operation

National Cabinet meetings are run according to an agreement between the Prime Minister and the state and territory leaders. National Cabinet meets at least four times per year. In National Cabinet meetings:

• the Prime Minister is the chair of the meeting
• consensus decision making is preferred – this means that all members usually need to agree on a decision before it is adopted
• a representative of local government is invited once each year 
• leaders may seek information, advice, or updates from government departments, advisory bodies, or experts to support its work.

The Prime Minister and state and territory leaders work collaboratively to decide which areas to focus on. This list is reviewed and updated regularly.