National MP Louise Upston in Select Committee Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
There is a saying that "laws are like sausages - it's best if you don't see them being made". The suggestion being that the more you know about policy development, the less you respect it.
In New Zealand, the ultimate aspects of policy development and approval are handled by the Cabinet. But the real cabinet-level work is done by subcommittees. They are government's workhorses but little known by the public. All policies and legislation are tested there before cabinet approval and parliamentary debate.
RNZ's The House sat down with Louise Upston (Minister for Social Development and Employment), to shed some light on the operation of Cabinet committees.
Cabinet is the chief decision-making body within the Executive (the government). It meets most Mondays, around a ring shaped table on the tenth floor of the Beehive, to discuss Government issues, typically in the form of Cabinet papers. Its discussions are strictly confidential, with the media and public having to wait until the post-Cabinet press conference for clues as to what was discussed.
But Cabinet is not where details are hammered out, it is where final sign-off is given. The sausages are made in Cabinet's committees. These committees are not to be confused with Parliament's subject select committees which examine and scrutinize legislation.
What they do have in common is that they are both a forum for more detailed consideration of policy, but in Cabinet committees that consideration is done exclusively by ministers. In most cases, before any paper goes up to Cabinet on a Monday, it goes through a cabinet committee.
There are currently eight Cabinet committees. Three are chaired by the Prime Minister, with the rest chaired by senior ministers. The Minister for Social Development and Employment, Louise Upston, is one of those.
Upston chairs the Cabinet Social Outcomes Committee, which covers a broad array of issues in areas like welfare, education, health, and so on. In those committee meetings, debate focuses on the merits, risks, challenges, and portfolio crossover of the particular paper they are discussing, she said.
Invariably, Cabinet papers have already been through a number of consultation hoops before they land on the committee table. "There's quite a lengthy process to even get a paper that goes up to the cabinet committee ahead of it going to cabinet," Upston said.
Once a cabinet paper is drafted, it is distributed to other Ministers, as well as to the relevant departments for consultation.
"[If that process] runs smoothly, if you have a paper at a cabinet committee, and it's all all fine; then on the Monday at Cabinet, it's reported back. So, you don't necessarily then go through it in detail with the whole cabinet."
Upston said the consultation process is "really important," especially when you're trying to land on a consensus where fellow ministers might have differing opinions.
"There'll be differences of opinion, as there always are," Upston said. "So, part of what the job of the Chair is, you know, balancing out when you've got competing interests to get to a point. You might defer a paper. You might send a paper away for more work. You might say to a minister you need to work with these colleagues and come back with a paper that is more agreeable for competing interests across ministers, or you might make some changes to the recommendations before it goes up to Cabinet."
Unlike a Cabinet meeting, which is strictly Cabinet ministers (plus the Cabinet secretary), Cabinet Committees often invite officials from the relevant ministries to attend, and explain the more complicated details of a topic.
This process can be straightforward and prompt, with a bill or policy eventuating soon after. Other times, the minister in charge will go back to the drawing board, with further inter-ministerial consultation or further engagement with other officials.
"It might be me as a minister taking a paper [to committee]," Upston said. "But I'm relying on my colleagues and the other agencies to have really had a decent look to see if there's anything, any unintended consequences or any touchpoints with other agencies that we need to take into account."
Upston said it is important that the public know Cabinet decisions aren't made on a whim, so from the outside, it can seem like the Government is slow to act.
"You said you were going to do this thing. Why isn't it done yet?" Upston said, putting the public complaint.
People are impatient for action but the process is slow.
"The process from a policy, a decision being made, Cabinet giving approval, legislation being drafted, legislation coming back to another Cabinet committees …the bill being introduced, before it gets passed, is months, and can be years,"
"It's being thorough, which is what New Zealanders would expect us to do. There is nothing more frustrating than having missed something."
She said it's likely that the alternative (hasty lawmaking), would be both legislatively reckless and politically unpopular.
To listen to The House's chat with Louise Upston about Cabinet Committees click the link near the top of the page.
*RNZ's The House, with insights into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with funding from Parliament's Office of the Clerk.
