The Executive Flashcards
What is the legislative branch?
Parliament (HoR + sovereign/GG)
Who is the executive branch?
The people responsible for the general administration of the country through law - PM, Ministers, Public service, sovereign, etc.
Who is the judicial branch?
The courts.
Which two branches have significant overlap?
The executive and legislature.
Who is the governor general (role + person)?
The personal representative of the sovereign and head of state. Currently Dame Cindy Kiro.
How is the Governor General (GG) appointed?
Appointed by the monarch on the advice of the PM after the PM talks to other political parties about who will be suitable.
On paper, it seems power flows down from the GG to executive/parliament, but what is the reality?
Power largely flows the other way - the ministers have the real power.
Constitutional role of GG has been limited in a couple of ways:
1. GG must remain mutual and impartial (Apolitical)
2. Core constitutional conventions:
1. GG must virtually always follow advice of ministers.
2. GG will only appoint someone as PM if they have majority support in the house.
3. Once PM is appointed, ministers will only be appointed on advice of PM.
What ensures that only the person with majority support of the house is appointed PM?
Constitutional convention
Is the PM’s role political or constitutional? (explain)
Both.
1. Political
- Figure head
- Their policies get enacted
2. Constitutional
- Determining jobs
- Dictates to GG how to use powers
What is the only legal restriction on who the PM can appoint as ministers?
S 6 Constitution Act - outlines who can serve as a minister.
- (must be an MP)
What is the general role of a minister?
They are thepivotalbosses of all political areas, ministries, agencies etc within a specific area. This is the area they have overall responsibility of and answerable to issues in that area
- e.g.
- Health
- Fisheries
- Broadcasting
- Etc.
What are the three key parts of a minister’s role?
- Must implement the government policies of that area
- Exercise statutory powers and functions within the ambit of their portfolio
- Oversee overall performance of servants and agencies that fall within their portfolio
Who is cabinet?
The group and place in which ministers come together and figure out how the country will be run. Not all ministers are members of cabinet - comprised of important ministers.
How big is cabinet?
About 20 ministers.
Who decides cabinet size and membership?
PM
Why is cabinet the size it is?
Allows for good discussion with enough people, but not too big that it cannot function easily.
What dictates how cabinet operates?
The cabinet manual
Where the law gives a minister individual law making power, how is this minister expected to exercise this power?
Within the constraints of cabinet’s decision making as a whole:
- They are to act in the way cabinet decides as a whole
- Political not legal requirement
- Minister has legal power
- But politically, they are expected to work with cabinet
What is the deal with cabinet confidentiality?
Discussions and decisions must remain confidential and within cabinet
- Allows govt to operate in a cohesive and cooperative way.
- Ministers are bound to follow decisions of cabinet. there is an expectation of confidentiality.
What do confidentiality and shared cabinet responsibility reflect?
They reflect that cabinet cannot work as an institution if its members cannot trust each other. Think Peters and Seymore - hate each other but mist work together under the confidentiality of cabinet (disputes not public).
What happens in the time period between the election and the appointing of a new government?
The previous PM and govt remain in a caretaker role.
Examples of constitutional conventions?
- Sovereign willapointthe GG on the advice of the PM after discussion with other parties
- The GG will appoint the PM based on whocomandsthe support of the house
- The GG will always act on advice of ministers, as long as the government continues to enjoy the support of the house
- If the government loses the confidence of the house, it must resign
- Cabinet confidentiality
- Collective cabinet responsibility
What are constitutional conventions (CC)?
Important, central rules of the way our government runs. They tell us about who has the powers, how they are to be used, how long, when, for what purpose.
Are constitutional conventions law?
No, they are soft law constraints. Cannot be looked at by the courts.
What do CCs reflect?
CCs reflect understanding that there are the constitutionally correct ways to do things.
Why are CCs followed?
- People follow conventions because they are conventions
- But we know they are conventions because people follow them
- Governmentactors believe they ought to follow this convention due to the good constitutional convention which underpins it.
- They will follow conventions as it leads to the bet sort of government for us as a whole.
Synical idea:
- Breaking them could carry serious political cost
- Could open them up to ridiculeetc
- They threaten to undermine the way our govt works and the way our society runs
Why don’t we make CC legal rules?
It would invite the courts to become involved with highly political matters - Inappropriatefor courts to be involved? Do we really want them meddling?
What is the caretaker convention?
When it is unclear who has the confidence of the house, the existing government remains in place as a caretaker government.
What can a caretaker government do/not do?
Cannot:
- Make any new policies, etc.
Must:
- Try to avoid big decisions
- If a big decision has to be made they will try choose a temporary option that will be the least binding on the next government.
- If not possible, they must talk to other parties and get majority support for the decision.
Why do we need public sectors?
NZ is a large country geographically speaking, too big for approx 28 people to run. So there are massive public sectors made up of thousands of people who run the country.
