Improving The Future For Commonwealth Ministerial Responsibility And Responsible Government? The Bell Inquiry and Beyond

Prime Minister Morrison’s secret appointment to five government ministries was a remarkable legalpolitical revelation, departing from and contesting the doctrine of responsible government. The core issues and implications of the appointments turned upon both a tension and disjuncture between a minimalist political conception of the doctrine and broader characteristics of a traditional, conventional institutional doctrine.

This disjuncture created various identifiable risks to Commonwealth ministerial and parliamentary practice and government accountability standards. The Bell Inquiry exposed these risks, emerging from a bare legality of the appointments and a weakness in shared commitment to the broader institutional rationales of the responsible government convention. Several themes provide insights into and the implications of this minimalist conception of ministerial responsibility.

Australian and international political and electoral studies around confidence in and contestation of Parliamentary democracy also afford perspective and context highlighting the gravity of the Bell Inquiry findings. Effective remedial responses require implementation of Inquiry recommendations and various supplementary measures, reconceptualised as part of a broader government restorative integrity project. Comprehensively understanding the characteristics of this incident will help inform responses to close a disjuncture in the conception and application of the ministerial responsibility doctrine, important through the strong Australian preference for parliamentary accountability mechanisms.