The Shadow Ministry of Australia (also known as the Opposition Front Bench) is a group of senior Opposition spokespeople who are regarded as the alternative Cabinet to the Cabinet of Australia, whose members shadow or mark each individual Minister or portfolio of the Government. Neither the Shadow Cabinet nor the Shadow Ministers have any official status in the Parliament of Australia. The Shadow Cabinet's membership is determined by the rules and practices of the Opposition party.
In Australian parliamentary practice, the Opposition or Official Opposition is usually the official title of the second largest party or coalition of parties in the Australian House of Representatives with its leader being given the title Leader of the Opposition. The Opposition serves the same function as the official opposition in other Commonwealth of Nations monarchies that follow the Westminster conventions and practices. It is seen as the alternative government and the existing administration's main opponent in the Australian Parliament and at a general election. By convention, the Opposition Leader in the federal Parliament comes from the House of Representatives, as does the deputy, although the Government and Opposition may also both have leaders in the Senate. The Opposition is sometimes styled as Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition to show that, although the group may be against the sitting government, it remains loyal to the Crown, and thus to Australia.
The Cabinet of Australia is the Australian Government's council of senior ministers of the Crown, responsible to Parliament. Ministers are appointed by the Governor-General, on the advice of the Prime Minister, who serve at the former's pleasure. Cabinet meetings are strictly private and occur once a week where vital issues are discussed and policy formulated. The Cabinet is also composed of a number of Cabinet committees focused on governance and specific policy issues. Outside the Cabinet there is an Outer Ministry and also a number of Assistant Ministers, responsible for a specific policy area and reporting directly to a senior Cabinet minister of their portfolio. The Cabinet, the Outer Ministry, and the Assistant Ministers collectively form the full Commonwealth Ministry of the government of the day.
The Parliament of Australia is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the Crown, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The combination of two elected chambers, in which the members of the Senate represent the states and territories while the members of the House represent electoral divisions according to population, is modelled on the United States Congress. Through both chambers, however, there is a fused executive, drawn from the Westminster system.
Contents
- Members of the current Shadow Cabinet
- Outer Shadow Ministry
- Shadow Assistant Ministers
- Members of the 1st Shadow Cabinet 2013-2015
- Members of the 2nd Shadow Cabinet 2015-2016
- See also
- References
Since the 2013 Labor leadership ballot resulting from the 2013 Australian federal election, the Shadow Cabinet has been led by Opposition Leader Bill Shorten of the Australian Labor Party. Prime Minister Scott Morrison of the Liberal/National Coalition has led the Morrison Government since the 2018 Liberal leadership ballot.
A leadership election was held in October 2013 to select Kevin Rudd's replacement as leader of the Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition. Bill Shorten was elected party leader, and Tanya Plibersek was later confirmed as deputy leader.
A federal election to determine the members of the 44th Parliament of Australia took place on 7 September 2013. The centre-right Liberal/National Coalition opposition led by then-Opposition leader Tony Abbott of the Liberal Party of Australia and Coalition partner the National Party of Australia, led by Warren Truss, defeated the incumbent centre-left Labor Party government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd by a 17-seat 3.6 percentage point two-party swing. Labor had been in government since the 2007 election. Abbott was sworn in by the Governor-General, Quentin Bryce as Australia's 28th Prime Minister on 18 September 2013 along with the Abbott Ministry and the members of the House of Representatives. The 44th Parliament of Australia opened on 12 November 2013, which is taken to be the commencement of the term of members of the House of Representatives. The new senators were sworn in by the next Governor-General Peter Cosgrove on 7 July 2014, with their six-year terms commencing on 1 July.
William Richard Shorten is an Australian politician who has been Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labor Party since October 2013.
