Prime Ministerial Power

The influence of the prime minister is determined by the range of his interest. For example at the moment we have a Liberal central government and all Labor regional governments, and it is often noted how the Premiers ‘lash out’ at the PM over certain issues, however if you has a Central Liberal Government with all Liberal States, the ability of a Prime Minister to assert policy direction over the states would be far more easier then it would when you have a different party running the Central Government than that to running the regions. As chair of the cabinet, the Prime Minister seeks consensus on government initiatives, formal votes are rare; and in any case senior Ministers particularly those holding economic portfolios tend to have a greater say on policy direction. Long standing Queensland Premier - Bjelke Peterson, described his relationship with journalists as ‘feeding the chooks’. Critical to this power source, is the ability for the Prime Minister to have a strong director for the department, in 1996 when Howard came to power he automatically sought out the relentless and ruthless Max Moore-Wilton to be his ‘right hand man’ through his Prime Minister-ship. Looking at leadership styles; Fraser was a dominating Prime Minister and placed a major emphasis on authority and control, this intimidated other ministers in cabinet therefore allowing him to roll out more of his personal policy agenda . Griffith University’s Pat Weller commented recently “Everything that matters now goes into the PM’s office. When the 1993 Keating of 1996 Howard landslide election victories occurred this was a big boost for these two men’s personalities and also the ability to project with now such a large majority of the population behind these two men and there policies. A Liberal PM also has some constraints especially when choosing his ministry, as he has to take into account the Coalition with the National Party, and assign the deputy Prime Minster position to the leader of the National Party, and ensure that when making portfolio assignments all those to do with rural and trade are assigned to National Party Parliamentarians. This department is the only government department in the entire nation which knows about all issues affecting the Prime Minister, and reports to Prime Minister on these issues. After the 1996 Port Author Massacre with the Prime Minister now adamant about banning fire arms in Australia the Australian Shooters Association set about a series of rally’s and demonstration and firstly slowed the implementation of the legislation and also managed to make amendments to certain aspects. A majorly dissatisfied Senate in the Governments performance and public opinion against the government can even defer money bills in the Senate causing the Parliament to come to an absolute stalemate, such as 1975 causing the dissolution of a Government.

The ever expanding power base of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet along with the Office of the Prime Minister are secure sources of power for a Prime Minister and are becoming the focal point of the decision making process. The Australian Labor Party (ALP) overall see’s there leader as the ‘first among the equals’ and the Party is far more influential over the Leaders policy direction than a Liberal PM, also Unions (not so much as before) can have a major impact on the policies of the leader also and the last yet most major flaw s that a ALP PM cannot change the rules of the party without the full consent of the party.

No Prime Minister is Media ‘Savvy’ regardless of how effective the PM’s Department is on ‘spinning stories’ for the media, there will be times where the Prime Ministers media coverage will be presented as a true leader for Australia, however there will also be times when the Media is putting significant pressure on the Prime Minister to resign or amend legislation etc.