Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Executive government
served its opponents for 23 years without interruption. This practice was continued
and expanded upon by the Fraser government and given legal form by the Hawke
government in 1984. 19
Today, Australia has around 450 political staff at the federal level. Political
staff have become an institutionalised component of executive office. They offer
both partisan and personal support to their ministers. Staff also support ministers’
executive function by undertaking overtly partisan policy work, such as agenda
setting, bargaining and negotiating within government. They also undertake other
policy work that overlaps with the roles of the minster and the bureaucracy, such
as meeting with stakeholders and working with the bureaucracy to ‘deliver’
outcomes. 20 However, political staff are not accountable in the same manner as
ministers or senior public servants. They are not required to present themselves
before parliament and cannot be called before parliamentary committees.
Centralisation of power
In recent times, there has been a growing debate about the decline of Cabinet
government and the increasing dominance of the prime minister. Part of the debate
is driven by the establishment and expansion of political institutions supporting the
prime minister. In 1911, the PMC was established. However, PMC’s role was largely
administrative until the prime ministership of John Gorton (1967–70). After this
time, PMC developed the capacity to act as both a co-ordinator across government
and a source of separate, and rival, departmental advice to the prime minister. The
concurrent development of the prime minister’s personal office (PMO), which is
by far the largest and best resourced, has also reinforced and extended existing
information and power (hiring and firing) asymmetries between prime ministers
and ministers. 21
Access to advice and additional capacity for oversight has made it possible for
prime ministers with high standing to dominate their governments. John Howard
achieved dominance over his government through the skilful use of the resources of
the PMO and PMC, in combination with his personal leadership qualities and style.
Importantly, however, as government becomes more complex, there is growing
need for oversight and co-ordination across departments. Given that ministers are
responsible to the prime minister and that the prime minister is the head of the
government, centralisation is a pragmatic response to the complexity of governing.
However, we should not make the mistake of crudely translating prime ministerial
prerogative as strength. Consider the example of Kevin Rudd, who was able
to dominate his Cabinet by usurping the right to hire and fire ministers from the
19 Maley 2018.
20 Maley 2000.
21 Strangio, t’Hart and Walter 2017.
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