The Role of Cabinet
Cabinet members can determine collectively how Cabinet will operate. However, many of the principles under which such a determination might be made are well established as a matter of convention. In Australia, the current Cabinet Handbook, (first published in 1983) is now in its 5th edition (dated January 2000). The central purpose of Cabinet is discernible from the Prime Minister's forward to the Handbook that states:

The Cabinet Handbook lays down the principles and conventions by which the Cabinet system operates. It also lays down the procedures designed to ensure that the Cabinet process fulfils its central purposes of contributing to consistency in public policy formulation, supporting ministers in meeting their individual and collective responsibilities, facilitating co-ordinated and strategic policy development and enabling informed decision-making on all issues requiring collective determination.

Much depends on the leadership style and capabilities of the prime minister.

Parliamentary Secretaries to Cabinet

Relationships between Ministers and the Cabinet

Moreover, the expectation that ministers will champion the cause of their departments in laying claim on scarce resources to fund departmental programmes. 

Cabinet Confidentiality
Some secrecy surround cabinet deliberations that suppresses information about any differences that may have existed in cabinet. A 30 year rule applies to release of most cabinet documents from secrecy provisions although some documents deemed sensitive to living persons may be retained indefinitely.

Individual Ministerial Responsibility
Supposedly under a convention of ministerial responsibility, ministers will set an example by their proper personal behaviour, decide issues in a reasonable and consistent manner and be answerable regarding the performance of departments under their direct control. Being responsible implies answering questions asked by members of parliament either in the parliament (as in question time) or on personal basis between a member and the minister concerned.

Questioning of a minister by a member of parliament may originate from events such as the research or experience of a person in the electorate, research by a member's personal staff or the member's personal interests and inclinations. An ability to ask questions sensibly depends on a flow of accurate  information about ministerial or departmental performance. Thus, issues of access to government information and the privacy of individuals are brought into consideration.

Collective Responsibility
The convention holds that ministers should accept a collective responsibility for collective decisions. Ministers may express differences of opinion in arriving at a collective decisions. However, disallowing comment on these differences allows Cabinet to present a united front once decisions are made. If called upon, a minister should defend collective decisions publicly and maintain 'cabinet solidarity'. A minister unable to support a collective decision should resign.

Maintaining a facade of cabinet solidarity tends to conceal an undercurrent of conflicting ideas. A minister may receive information from departmental advisers that conflicts with advice received by other ministers from other advisers. 

Problems of communication magnify as specialisation grows. Specialised knowledge involve specialised language. Policy advice translated from a specialised language into a simpler language for wider public dissemination may well lose something in the translation. The ethical issue is whether simplification helps lay persons understand issues without being too misleading or whether the simplification becomes deceptive and allows people to be 'blinded by science'.

Scrutiny by the Mass Media
The mass media is an important avenue of communication to the public at large on how well government performs. Identifying how well the mass media performs this role is a study in itself. However, the main players have conflicting interests and gives many opportunities for bias. Players involved include:

The mass media provides information on the performance of government on a frequent basis. the so called freedom of the press.

Scrutiny through the Growth of Administrative Law
A growth in administrative law has accompanied the growing complexity of modern government. Institutions have grown to check abuses of executive power and hold people accountable for particular types of decisions at various levels in the government. Among these institutions are:

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