Which members of the government are considered a part of the Executive government and the Cabinet?

Graphic of ‘The Executive’ shows a group of people.

The Executive government graphic.

Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)

The Executive government graphic.

Graphic of ‘The Executive’ shows a group of people.

Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)

Description

In this graphic the Executive is represented by a group of different types of people. The Executive includes the Prime Minister and ministers and has the power to put law into action.

Creative Commons License

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.

All members of the party or coalition of parties that have formed government are members of the government. Only the Prime Minister and ministers are part of the Executive government.

The Australian Constitution gives the King executive power; in reality, it is the Prime Minister and ministers who perform the work of the Executive government. The Executive has the power to put the law into action. 

The Cabinet is a group within the Executive. The Prime Minister and top-level ministers make up this group. They:

  • set government policy
  • decide on bills to be put before Parliament
  • administer government departments
  • develop approaches to national problems.