When do ministers have to resign

Ministers are accountable to parliament, both collectively and individually. Although this also applies to state secretaries, ministers bear final responsibility. The government and individual ministers must enjoy the confidence of parliament. In practice, this applies only to the House of Representatives. Parliament can withdraw this confidence by passing a motion of no confidence. Parliament should reject the blind trust, too, because voters should know the financial interests of those who represent them.

This has opened a flaw in the disclosure regime. Porter only needed the financial help because he launched a defamation case against the ABC over its report of a claim that he raped a woman in January , a claim he has emphatically and repeatedly denied. The debate about this claim is so divisive, so poisonous, that those who helped to fund his case would have been vilified in some quarters if Porter had pushed to reveal their names.

Like anyone else, Porter deserves the presumption of innocence. The woman who made the claim against him to NSW Police withdrew her complaint and took her own life. This means a cabinet minister has lost his portfolio, been moved to a different job and later dropped to the backbench when the claim that started it all can never be properly tested in court. But Porter is not like anyone else in one key respect. As a minister, he was bound by a set of rules that are meant to disclose financial interests and protect against any conflicts of interest.

There is no way out of this. Standards are higher for ministers. They have to be. Main menu. Subjects Shop Courses Live Jobs board. View shopping cart. View mytutor2u. Account Shopping cart Logout. Explore Politics Politics Search. Explore Blog Reference library Collections Shop. In the News When do Ministers Resign?

Mike McCartney 11th October Share: Facebook Twitter Email Print page. Where does ministerial responsibility lie with the current Education Secretary? Defining collective ministerial responsibility Collective ministerial responsibility CMR is a convention that can be described as the glue which holds Cabinet government together.

It is convention that all ministers publicly support decisions of Cabinet even if they disagree in private or its committees or resign, e.