Private offices provide essential assistance to ministers. But some struggle to recruit and retain experienced staff, and fail to deliver the support ministers need to achieve their aims in government. This report sets out how the civil service can improve private offices to ensure that every minister is supported capably.

This handbook is designed to uphold the conventions and principles that guide Cabinet operations, ensuring informed and effective decision-making at the highest levels of government.

After any change of prime minister or general election, a new administration is likely to bring both new policy priorities and new ministers. But making change in policy is not only about policy design and delivery, it is also about paying for those changes and using the resources of the department well. New ministers, particularly...

This guest paper reveals patterns in ministerial leadership styles that have profound impacts on the relationship between ministers and civil servants. The paper identifies two distinct styles of ministerial management and leadership of civil servants – and finds evidence that male and female ministers adopt different approaches.

This document has been prepared in light of a recognition that public office is a public trust, and therefore, the people of Australia are entitled to expect that, as a matter of principle, government ministers will act with due regard for integrity, fairness, accountability, responsibility, and in the public interest.