A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but rather the head of government, serving as the chief of the executive under either a monarch or a president in a republican form of government.
The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister is the chair of the Cabinet of Australia and thus the head of the federal executive government. Under the principles of responsible government, the prime minister is both responsible to and a member of the Commonwealth Parliament. The current prime minister is Anthony Albanese of the Australian Labor Party, who assumed the office on 23 May 2022.
The prime minister of Canada is the head of government of Canada. Not outlined in any constitutional document, the office exists only per long-established convention. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the confidence of a majority of the elected House of Commons; as such, the prime minister typically sits as a member of Parliament (MP) and leads the largest party or a coalition of parties. The prime minister is appointed by the monarch's representative, the governor general, and, as first minister, selects other ministers to form the Cabinet and chairs it. Constitutionally, executive authority is vested in the monarch, but, in practice, the powers of the monarch and governor general are nearly always exercised on the advice of the Cabinet, which is collectively responsible to the House of Commons. Canadian prime ministers are appointed to the Privy Council and styled as the Right Honourable, a privilege maintained for life.
The Westminster system, or Westminster model, is a type of parliamentary government that incorporates a series of procedures for operating a legislature, first developed in England. Key aspects of the system include an executive branch made up of members of the legislature, and that is responsible to the legislature; the presence of parliamentary opposition parties; and a ceremonial head of state who is separate from the head of government. The term derives from the Palace of Westminster, which has been the seat of the Westminster Parliament in England and later the United Kingdom since the 13th century. The Westminster system is often contrasted with the presidential system that originated in the United States, or with the semi-presidential system, based on the government of France.
Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior ministers. In the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries, "minister of state" is a junior rank subordinate to ministers of higher rank. In Brazil and Japan, all ministers of cabinet rank hold the title, while in Australia "minister of state" is the designation applied to all government ministers regardless of rank.
A cabinet secretary is usually a senior official who provides services and advice to a cabinet of ministers as part of the Cabinet Office. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powers, including general responsibility for the entire civil service.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, also known as the Foreign Minister, is the minister of state of the Commonwealth of Australia charged with overseeing the creation and implementation of international diplomacy, relations and foreign affairs policy, as the head of the foreign affairs section of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The current Foreign Minister is Senator Penny Wong, who was appointed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in May 2022 following the 2022 federal election.
The Cabinet of Australia, also known as the Federal Cabinet, is the chief decision-making body of the Australian government. The cabinet is selected by the prime minister and is composed of senior government ministers who administer the executive departments and ministries of the federal government.
A parliamentary private secretary (PPS) is a member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a government minister or a shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the "eyes and ears" of the minister in the House of Commons.
In Canada from 1993 to 2003 and again from 2007 to 2008, secretary of state was a title given to junior ministers of state in the Government of Canada that sat outside Cabinet. Because it was a position that was assigned to assist Cabinet ministers, a secretary of state was legally a minister of state; the distinction is that, unlike a minister, a secretary is not a full cabinet portfolio itself and thus not considered a member of Cabinet. (They were hence considered junior to ministers of state.) The Secretary of State (Training and Youth), for instance, would assist the Minister for Human Resources and Development. This usage is opposite to that in the United Kingdom, where junior ministers generally report to more senior secretaries of state. Secretaries of state were, however, members of the ministry and the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.
A minister of state is a junior cabinet minister in the Cabinet of Canada, usually given specific responsibilities to assist a senior cabinet minister in a specific area. A secretary of state also holds many similar responsibilities in assisting senior cabinet members, being members of the Ministry and the King's Privy Council for Canada. A secretary of state is legally a minister of state styled as secretaries. However, secretaries of state are considered junior to ministers of state and are not members of Cabinet.
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or the Federal Government, is the national executive government of the Commonwealth of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive government consists of the prime minister and other ministers that currently have the support of a majority of members of the House of Representatives and in some contexts also includes the departments and other executive bodies that ministers oversee. The current executive government consists of Anthony Albanese and other Australian Labor Party ministers, in place since the 2022 federal election.
The government of Spain is the central government which leads the executive branch and the General State Administration of the Kingdom of Spain.
A permanent secretary is the most senior civil servant of a department or ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are the non-political civil service chief executives of government departments or ministries, who generally hold their position for a number of years at a ministry as distinct from the changing political secretaries of state to whom they report and provide advice. The role originated in the civil service of the United Kingdom and has been adopted in several Commonwealth countries as well as other countries influenced by the Westminster system.
The governor-general of Ceylon was the representative of the Ceylonese monarch in the Dominion of Ceylon from the country's independence in 1948 until it became the republic of Sri Lanka in 1972.
A private secretary (PS) is a civil servant in a governmental department or ministry, responsible to a secretary of state or minister; or a public servant in a royal household, responsible to a member of the royal family.
The Government of France, officially the Government of the French Republic, exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the prime minister, who is the head of government, as well as both senior and junior ministers.
A cabinet in governing is a group of people with the constitutional or legal task to rule a country or state, or advise a head of state, usually from the executive branch. Their members are known as ministers and secretaries and they are often appointed by the head of state or prime minister. Cabinets are typically the body responsible for the day-to-day management of the government and response to sudden events, whereas the legislative and judicial branches work in a measured pace, in sessions according to lengthy procedures.
The second Turnbull ministry was the 70th ministry of the Government of Australia, led by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. It succeeded the first Turnbull ministry following the 2016 Australian federal election on 2 July 2016.
Cabinet Secretary is a ministerial portfolio within the Australian federal government. It has existed in three periods, from 2007 to 2013, from 2015 to 2017, and since 2022. The minister is responsible for assisting the Prime Minister of Australia in managing the day-to-day procedural and operational matters of the Cabinet and any Cabinet committees. The Cabinet Secretary's portfolio falls within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
