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Saturday 11 April 2020

The National Cabinet assembled for the COVID-19 emergency

The Australian National Cabinet is a governing body devised at federal level to provide bipartisan leadership to address the national emergency of COVID-19 consisting of the seven state Premiers, two territory Chief Ministers and Prime Minister as chairman.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian from the telepresence room at Parliament House. Picture: Getty Images

The National Cabinet was assembled out of necessity to provide the leadership from a state perspective. Australia is an assembly of states with state governments each running their state receiving funding from federal tax collection.

Services such as health, education, transport and emergency services are run at state level. The federal government runs immigration, quarantine and the military is a federal jurisdiction. There is a federal health minister

On the recommendation of the state Premiers, there was no requirement for Opposition Leaders at the meetings including the Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese. This was to not to become a political vehicle racked with infighting and indecision.

This is a new model of emergency decision-making, the states have jurisdiction over their states and territory whilst still following a national strategy. Each state has the ability to act in their best interest without political power struggles, conflict and blame-shifting.

This is an extraordinary Cabinet insofar as both political spectrums are represented with state Labor governments working with a federal Liberal leadership. So now the Chief Health Officers meet without political interference from State Health Ministers then provide their advice directly to the National Cabinet.

The Chief Health Officers receive advice from sources like the AMA (Australian Medical Association) as well as the state branches of the AMA. Leading experts in their respective fields advise the Chief Health Officers who then advise the politicians but only elected officials form the National Cabinet.

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