Cabinet of Australia

Cabinet of Australia

Coat of Arms of Australia
Formation	1 January 1901; 123 years ago (1901-01-01)
Legal status	By convention
Purpose	Chief decision-making body of the Australian Government
Location	Cabinet Room, Parliament House
Prime Minister	Anthony Albanese
Membership	23 Cabinet ministers
Website	www.directory.gov.au/commonwealth-parliament/cabinet

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The Cabinet of Australia, also known as the Federal Cabinet, is the chief decision-making body of the Australian government. The cabinet is appointed by the prime minister of Australia and is composed of senior government ministers who head the executive departments and ministries of the federal government. The cabinet is separate to the federal Department of the Prime Ministers and Cabinet.

Ministers are appointed by the governor-general, on the advice of the prime minister, who is the leader of the Cabinet. Cabinet meetings are strictly private and occur once a week where vital issues are discussed and policy formulated. There are several Cabinet committees focused on governance and specific policy issues. Outside the Cabinet there is an outer ministry and also a number of assistant ministers (designated as parliamentary secretaries under the Ministers of State Act 1952),^[1] responsible for a specific policy area and reporting directly to a senior Cabinet minister of their portfolio. The Cabinet, the outer ministry, and the assistant ministers collectively form the full Commonwealth ministry of the government of the day.

As with the prime minister of Australia, the Constitution of Australia does not recognise the Cabinet as a legal entity; these roles actually exist solely by vice-president of the Executive Council and acts as presiding officer of the Executive Council in place of the governor-general.^[2]