Prime Minister has too much power over national cabinet, says expert

Constitutional law expert Anne Twomey has sounded the alarm on the ‘structure and status of the national cabinet’.

Constitutional law expert Anne Twomey. Picture: John Feder

Constitutional law expert Anne Twomey has sounded the alarm on the “structure and status of the national cabinet” as a body to steer the federation into the ­future, warning the prime minister wields too much power over the grouping.

Professor Twomey — a member of the NSW federal financial relations review panel looking at the state’s revenue system — has also warned that the national cabinet does not have the standard cabinet protection for documents and discussions.

Writing in The Australian on Monday, Professor Twomey says the problems could result in the ­national cabinet returning to the “dysfunctional COAG days” when meetings were irregular, determined “at the whim” of the prime minister and the agenda controlled by the commonwealth.

Professor Twomey notes that the national cabinet is constituted as a “Cabinet Office Policy Committee” of the federal cabinet, of which the prime minister is the only permanent member.

“This committee derives its power from the commonwealth cabinet, and any of its decisions may be altered by the commonwealth cabinet,” she says.

“The prime minister controls its membership, sets its agenda and determines when and where meetings take place.

“Where the committee cannot agree, the prime minister’s view is authoritative.”

Professor Twomey warns this arrangement could “completely undermine the effectiveness of the national cabinet as a council of equals”.

“While the ability to hold frank discussions is important, the legal protection afforded to the national cabinet’s documents and discussions is probably illusory,” she says.

“The national cabinet is clearly not a ‘cabinet’ in its legal or political sense.”

She argues that communications of the national cabinet would fall within the category of “intergovernmental relations”.