What is the prime minister's role?
Role of the Prime Minister in Australia.
Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)
Description
This graphic shows that the Prime Minister is the most senior minister in the Australian Government as well as being key spokesperson for Australia, the head of Cabinet and the leader of the government.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
You are free to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work.
Attribution – you must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
Non-commercial – you may not use this work for commercial purposes.
No derivative works – you may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.
Waiver – any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
Thanks for your question. As the leader of the government, the Prime Minister has many roles, including:
- selecting members of the government to be ministers
- leading Cabinet – the Prime Minister and senior ministers – in deciding government policy
- chairing meetings in which the government discusses policies and examines bills – proposed laws
- acting as the chief government spokesperson in Parliament and in the community
- representing the Australian Government overseas
- advising the Governor-General about important issues such as the appointment of ambassadors and heads of government departments and when to call a federal election
- advising the Governor-General about constitutional matters.