The National Cabinet was formed to develop a rapid response to COVID among federal, state and territory governments. But can it be adapted to function into the future?
It would be a wasted opportunity if our political leaders came back again in six months without a long-term plan about how to fund and improve the system.
University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and Director of the Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis, Dr Lain Dare discuss the week in politics.
This is a proportional response to managing risk at this stage of the pandemic, with so many of us vaccinated and receiving boosters. However, we need to monitor these changes.
National cabinet, like COAG before it, had early success that then dissolved into discord. It will survive the pandemic - but the question is whether it will be effective.
In an open democracy, there is no rationale for withholding information about National Cabinet’s decisions or any documents these decisions are based on.
The legal decision that national cabinet is not a cabinet means how the body operates, and the decisions it makes, cannot be protected by cabinet confidentiality.
The Morrison government has been dealt a blow with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruling national cabinet is not a committee of federal cabinet and therefore is not covered by cabinet confidentiality.