Cabinet meetings are strictly private and occur once a week where vital issues are discussed and policy formulated.

The prime minister of the day determines the shape, structure and operation of the Cabinet and its Committees.

Decisions of Cabinet (formally known as Cabinet minutes) do not in and of themselves have legal force, requiring the endorsement from individual ministers, holders of statutory office, Parliament or the governor-general as advised by the non-deliberative Federal Executive Council—the highest formal executive body mentioned in the Constitution.

In practice, the Federal Executive Council meets solely to endorse and give legal force to decisions already made by the Cabinet.

[6] According to reporting by the Sydney Morning Herald, ministerial positions are allocated by the Left and Right factions proportionally according to their representation in the Parliament.

[7] Under two-tier ministerial arrangements introduced in 1987, each senior or portfolio minister was a member of the Cabinet.

[2] Members of both the House of Representatives and Senate are eligible to serve as ministers and parliamentary secretaries.

Cabinet meetings are chaired by the prime minister, and a senior public servant is present to write the minutes and record decisions.

Similarly, the governor-general, in acting on ministerial advice, needs to be confident that they only give effect to government policy.

The principle of collective responsibility requires that ministers should be able to express their views frankly in Cabinet meetings in the expectation that they can argue freely in private while maintaining a united front in public when decisions have been reached.

The documents revealed the inner workings of recent governments, and were characterised by the ABC as the largest breach of cabinet security in the nation's history.

As of 2024, the Cabinet committees are:[12] The National Security Committee (NSC) focuses on major international security issues of strategic importance to Australia, border protection policy, national responses to developing situations (either domestic or international) and classified matters relating to aspects of operation and activities of the Australian Intelligence Community.

The Parliamentary Business Committee (PBC) considers priorities for the Australian government's legislation program and requests to the prime minister for the presentation of ministerial statements.

When Labor has been in Opposition, the caucus has elected the shadow ministry and the leader has allocated portfolios.

This article incorporates text from this source, which is by Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Australian Government available under the CC BY 4.0 license.