Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia)
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet ( PM & C ) is a Department of the Australian Federal Government. It is the Department of the Prime Minister and his cabinet. In the broadest sense, it is comparable with the Federal Chancellery in Berlin.
History
Since the founding of Australia as a state in 1901, there was until 1911 no such ministry, which was assigned to the incumbent Prime Minister, but he possessed the Department of Foreign Affairs ( German: Ministry of Foreign Affairs ). Only then there was the Prime Minister 's Department until it was remodeled in 1971 in the Ministry of the Prime Minister and his cabinet.
Organizational structure
Prime minister
The Prime Minister determines the guidelines of the Australian policy and will also decide on the jurisdiction of each ministry and he appoints the ministers. Cabinet decisions require de facto always to the approval of the Prime Minister can not be taken against his will. The power of the Prime Minister is limited by a number of limitations, as long as he replaced as chairman of his party or if it is withdrawn from the trust in a no-confidence vote by the House of Representatives, he must resign from office or be dismissed by the Governor-General.
Ministry
The task of the Department is to bring claims to the policies of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet in a coherent, coordinated and accountable to the outside shape to coordinate the central program of the government to support official visits, events and ceremonies and to manage state possessions.
The responsibilities of this ministry reach considerably further than in the States that apply the Westminster system, only the New Zealand Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has comparable skills.
The Ministry is divided into different departments, in a cabinet, economic, industrial, infrastructure and environment, national security, social policy and economics, resources, communication and International Division. There are also other special departments that work temporarily single political problems.
The position of Secretary of the Ministry is comparable to the Cabinet Secretary in the UK and Canada.
Since December 2008, there is in Australia a national security adviser, this was 2008-2011 Major General Duncan Lewis and since 2011 this was Margot McCarthy.