(1) Session 3 slides
If you would like a copy of the slides for session 3 just pop us an email and we’ll get them through to you ASAP.
(2) Lunch in schools Cabinet paper
Here is the Cabinet paper we looked at in session 3.
This is good example of a Cabinet paper that clearly states the problem, the proposed solution, how the prototype is being paid for, and what the next steps will be. The end of the document also includes the Cabinet ‘minute’ which records what ministers actually agreed to.
Cabinet and Cabinet committees consider in excess of 1,000 Cabinet papers every year.
(3) Further reading
Cabinet Manual, DPMC
The Cabinet Manual is the rule-book for all things Cabinet, Cabinet committees and portfolios. Pretty much everything we covered off in session 3 is drawn from the rules and guidance laid down in this document. So if you want to know any more detail about the topics we discussed, you guaranteed to find it in chapter 5 “Cabinet Decision-making”.
Ministerial list, DPMC
This document shows the all the current ministers, the portfolios they hold, and the numerical ranking attached to the Labour Cabinet ministers. Note that the numerical rankings for Cabinet ministers only go to 17 - all Labour Cabinet ministers (with the exception of Winston Peters who is ranked at 2 as Deputy Prime Minister). The three other NZ First ministers - Ron Mark, Tracey Martin and Shane Jones - are not given a numerical ranking. Rather they simply appear after the 17th ranked Minister.
(4) FAQs
What’s with the ‘Hon’ thing in front of ministers’ names?
‘Hon’ is short for ‘Honourable’. All ministers are given the title and they will usually keep it after they finish being ministers, e.g. former opposition MPs who were ministers in a previous government may still carry ‘Hon’ in front of their name.
‘Rt Hon’ is short for ‘Right Honourable’. This is technically more prestigious that simply ‘Honourable’, though its application is a bit more complicated.
Prior to 2010, it was given to senior ministers and judges, thereby making them a member of the Privy Council in Britain (which is an advisory body to the Queen, but with no real political power). This is why Winston Peters carries the title "‘Rt Hon’ as he was a minister as far back as 1990.
Following some changes in 2010, ‘Rt Hon’ is only given to the Governor-General, the Prime Minister (head of the Executive branch), the Speaker (head of the Parliament branch) and the Chief Justice (head of the Judicial branch). People permitted to have ‘Rt Hon’ from 2010 onwards are not members of the Privy Council, so the title actually doesn't mean anything as such.
I’m a bit confused between Cabinet committees and Select committees. What’s the difference again?
This goes back to our separation of powers model from session 1.
Cabinet committees are from the Executive branch. They are a closed room meeting of Ministers deciding on policy, money and appointments. Cabinet papers discussed at one of the 11 Cabinet committees are then considered by Cabinet.
Select committees are from the Parliament branch. They have MPs drawn from all parties on them. Select committees spend a lot of their time, amongst other things, scrutinising government bills. Those bills will be implementing some policy previously agreed to by ministers at Cabinet committees and then Cabinet, e.g. to create a new criminal offence or to tighten the rules around overseas investment.
Can a ‘Minister outside Cabinet’ or a ‘Support party minister’ take up a Cabinet paper for a Cabinet committee to consider?
Yes they can and do quite regularly.
All ministers - whether they’re inside or outside Cabinet - are required to put issues of significance before other ministers for a collective decision. Because the ‘Ministers outside Cabinet’ and the ‘Support party ministers’ are members of Cabinet committees, they can take up a Cabinet paper to a Cabinet Committee as they need to.
However they won’t be around the Cabinet table when Cabinet considers the paper the following week (since they aren’t members of Cabinet). This isn’t as problematic as it sounds. For one, most of the detailed discussion on a Cabinet paper happens at Cabinet committees anyway rather than Cabinet. Second, if they really feel strongly about the need to be at Cabinet to discuss one of their Cabinet papers, they can seek the permission of the PM to attend Cabinet for that one item.
What do Ministers get paid? I heard they took a pay cut recently.
Yes they did in light of COVID-19. They took a 20% pay cut for 6 months (commencing in April 2020). The image below sets out their pre and post Covid pay. One interesting thing to note is that the Chief Executives of several government departments are paid more than the Prime Minister. For example, the Chief Executive of The Treasury earned around 680,000 per year in 2019. All department Chief Executive salaries are publically available here. Departmental Chief Executives have also taken a 20% pay cut for 6 months.
