Meeting timetable

70. Cabinet meets in the Cabinet room at Parliament House, Canberra, in most weeks of the year. Special Cabinet meetings may be held at other times and other places, as necessary, for example in Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices in a state capital city.
71. Cabinet Committees generally meet once a month or more frequently if their business requires.
72. The Parliamentary Business Committee (PBC) meets weekly during each Parliamentary sitting period and at other times, as necessary.

Meeting Chairs

73. Where the Prime Minister is unable to attend the Cabinet, the next most senior minister takes the Chair. The same principle is adopted for Cabinet Committees, if the Chair and Deputy Chair are absent.

Ministerial attendance

74. For the effective operation of the principle of collective responsibility, Cabinet and Cabinet Committee meetings must take precedence over all other ministerial business with the exception of attendance at the Federal Executive Council.
75. Ministers must seek to ensure that the routine business of the Parliament does not interrupt their Cabinet attendance. Ministers are responsible for making appropriate ‘pairing’ arrangements and for organising their routine chamber duty to be performed by other ministers where there is a conflict with Cabinet or Cabinet Committee meetings. It may not, however, be possible for ministers to attend Cabinet if the meeting coincides with their responsibilities for taking legislation through the House of Representatives or the Senate.
76. Ministers should ensure that neither they nor their offices commit to engagements that might conflict with scheduled Cabinet and Cabinet Committee meetings.
77. The Cabinet Secretary must be advised in writing of any planned absence from Cabinet or Cabinet Committee meetings. If a minister is absent, they generally cannot delegate their Cabinet or Cabinet Committee attendance to another minister.
78. However, when ministers are overseas or on leave, the Prime Minister will nominate another minister to exercise their full authority. Where the nominated minister is a Cabinet minister, this authority extends to matters under Cabinet consideration. Ministers not in Cabinet, who are acting portfolio ministers, do not represent the portfolio in the Cabinet or Cabinet Committees, unless expressly invited to do so by the Prime Minister or the Cabinet Secretary.
79. Cabinet ministers may seek the Cabinet Secretary’s agreement for another minister to represent them for portfolio‐specific items (see Annex C – Conduct of Cabinet and Cabinet Committee meetings).

Co‐opting ministers who are not members of the Cabinet

80. When Cabinet (or a Cabinet Committee) is scheduled to discuss a matter within the portfolio responsibility of a minister who is not a member of the Cabinet (or the relevant Cabinet Committee), that minister will receive access to the relevant papers and the Cabinet Secretary will co‐opt the relevant minister to attend the meeting for discussion of the item(s) concerned.
81. Ministers not in the Cabinet (including assistant ministers) with a portfolio interest in an item listed for Cabinet (or Cabinet Committee) consideration, who have not been co‐opted, may seek to be co‐opted for that item by having the responsible portfolio minister make a request to the Cabinet Secretary.
82. Co‐opted ministers leave the meeting once their item has been dealt with in the Cabinet room.

Quorum

83. There is no quorum for Cabinet or Cabinet Committees. The decision to proceed with a Cabinet or Cabinet Committee meeting is made by the Chair taking into account:
    1. the importance of the items under consideration
    2. the presence of relevant ministers
    3. the advisability of taking decisions if few ministers are present.
84. Chairs may seek the advice of the Cabinet Secretary. 
     

Declarations of interest

85. Any matter which may give rise to an actual or perceived conflict between duty and interest must be declared in line with the Code of Conduct for Ministers.
86. Ministers (including assistant ministers) attending Cabinet or Cabinet Committee meetings must, in relation to the matters under discussion, declare any private interests which give rise to, or are likely to give rise to, a conflict with their public duties. Generally, declarations should be made in all cases where an interest exists which could not be said to be shared with the rest of the community.
87. Ministers must adopt a broad interpretation of the requirement and take into account pecuniary and non‐pecuniary interests, the interests of family members and all interests of their own when considering whether there is a conflict (or potential conflict) which should be declared.
88. Ministers need not automatically absent themselves from the discussion; the Chair must decide, in consultation with the Cabinet Secretary, whether to excuse the minister or explicitly agree to them taking part in discussions and the decision (see Annex C – Conduct of Cabinet and Cabinet Committee meetings).

Acknowledgement of Country

89. All Cabinet and Cabinet Committee meetings commence with an Acknowledgement of Country. Cabinet Division is responsible for ensuring that the Acknowledgement of Country is the first item on the agenda for each Cabinet and Cabinet Committee meeting.

Official note takers

90. Generally there are three official note takers in the room during Cabinet discussions. These officers are from PM&C and together they are responsible for drafting the Cabinet minute for the Cabinet Secretary’s approval. Each note taker has distinct responsibilities in support of the meeting and the preparation of the minutes, as detailed in the Guide for Note Takers.
91. The notes taken are intended purely as an aide‐memoire for drafting the formal Cabinet minute after the meeting (see Annex F – Decisions of the Cabinet).
92. Note takers must use the Cabinet notebooks issued by Cabinet Division and must not make any other record of the discussion. Note takers use their discretion in judging what to record in their notes, but they are required to take a full record of any conflict of interest declared by a minister.
93. Note takers do not take a verbatim record but their notes may from time to time record the individual views of ministers and as such these notebooks are highly sensitive documents.
94. The notebooks remain the property of the Secretary of PM&C and are protected from early public release under the Archives Act 1983 and cannot be sought under the Freedom of Information Act 1982. Cabinet notebooks are publicly released once they enter the open access period (currently after 30 years). 
     

Officials attending the Cabinet and Cabinet Committee meetings

95. Attendance of officials (other than from Cabinet Division) at Cabinet Committee meetings is kept to a strict minimum in order to ensure the proper emphasis on the role of ministers in the peak decision‐making forum of the Government.
96. PM&C provides the official note takers and attendants to both Cabinet and Cabinet Committees (see Annex C – Conduct of Cabinet and Cabinet Committee meetings). No one attending Cabinet or Cabinet Committees, other than official note takers and the Cabinet Secretary, should take personal notes of the discussion.

Cabinet

97. With the exception of official note takers, officials and ministerial advisers do not attend meetings of the Cabinet. The Prime Minister or Cabinet Secretary may agree to the attendance of an individual to present an overview of a report, review or inquiry that they were commissioned to undertake, or to explain a highly technical proposal. The presenter withdraws before ministers begin their deliberations.
98. Note takers are not present for political discussions. Ministers may request that a comment or discussion, not relevant to policy consideration, not be recorded (see Annex C – Conduct of Cabinet and Cabinet Committee meetings).

Cabinet Committees

99. As Cabinet Committees are a forum for considering and developing outcomes for Cabinet consideration or for considering specialised issues, officials and ministerial staff may attend certain Cabinet Committee meetings. However, ministerial staff or officials cannot attend as their minister’s representative.
100. Attendance is, however, generally limited to the most senior levels of the public service (secretaries and agency heads) and ministerial staff (chiefs of staff) with the approval of the Cabinet Secretary.
101. Officials attending Cabinet Committee meetings should familiarise themselves with the Australian Public Service Code of Conduct, in particular the need to maintain appropriate confidentiality about dealings that the employee has with any minister or minister’s member of staff.
102. Ministerial staff should also be aware of the Ministerial Staff Code of Conduct, particularly the requirement to acknowledge the role of ministers and public servants in making executive decisions, and of maintaining appropriate confidentiality of their dealings with ministers.
103. Visiting dignitaries and subject matter experts may occasionally be invited to meet with members of the Cabinet in the Cabinet room. Such invitations should not be issued until the Prime Minister’s approval has been obtained and arrangements made with the Cabinet Division.