Hon John Key
Prime Minister
19 December 2008 Media Release
Cabinet committees announced
Details of the make-up of the new National-led Government’s Cabinet committees were announced today by Prime Minister
John Key.
“A new development is the inclusion of support party Ministers as members of Cabinet committees,” says Mr Key.
“I welcome the involvement of Ministers from the Maori Party, Act and United Future on committees which they are members
of. I am sure they will make a valuable contribution.
“We entered into the relationship with these support parties in good faith, and I am sure that these arrangements will
ensure that the strong relationship continues.”
--
Cabinet committees: http://beehive.govt.nz/sites/all/files/Committee_membership.pdf
Note on role of Support party Ministers
1. Support party Ministers will be members of a number of committees. This is a further development of the support party
Minister model. Under the previous government, support party Ministers were not members of Cabinet committees, but did
attend meetings for their papers.
2. Under the new arrangements, where a support party Minister is a member of a committee, they will receive the agenda
and all papers for that committee, and can attend the committee meetings for all items on the agenda, in the same way as
other committee members. Support party Ministers will only be bound by collective responsibility in respect of their own
portfolios, but they will be bound by confidentiality in respect of everything else (the content of papers and the
discussion at committee meetings).
3. Support party Ministers will be free to disagree with government decisions in areas outside their portfolios, once
those decisions have been announced. On some issues, they may decide to opt out by not receiving papers or being
involved in discussions, to remove themselves completely from the decision-making process on an important issue of
differentiation.
4. For committees where they are not members, support party Ministers will receive copies of any papers relevant to
their portfolios, and may attend committee meetings for those items.
ENDS