Ministers of the Crown probably have the direct least training for their than any occupation in the nation. The wonder is not that you get an occasional Collins, Bedall or Kelly, but that there are not more of them.
The most stark illustration of lack of theoretical knowledge of the job of Minister came when Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen was asked during the Fitzgerald inquiry what he understood by the doctrine of separation of powers. He had been a frontbencher for two decades yet did not have a clue. As Premier with a rubber-stamp Parliament he had no need for such a doctrine. He imagined that as the practical power to create or change legislation was his, too, Ministers did not have to bother much about what it said. In theory, the courts interpreted and applied legislation in particular cases and could question executive action made under it. And so the separation of the powers helps prevent tyranny and abuse of power. When, however, one party led by one person gets a majority in a single-house parliament for a long time, the legislative and executive functions and powers tend to fuse. And sometime later parts of the judiciary fall, too. In the future, I suspect we are going to see the doctrine of the separation of powers less easily pushed aside, for several reasons: the composition of parliaments; greater intrusion of federal power; and more active pressure groups. Australia is seeing more minority governments and Upper Houses not controlled by the governing party. It means more legislation has to go through by compromise and watchful non-government MPs do not like legislation that gives Ministers too much power. Legislation tends to have far fewer words like “”The Minister may do X, Y or Z” and more words like “”The Minister (ital) shall (end ital) do X, Y and Z”. Greater federal intrusion comes when the Federal Government wants to make political forays in fields not specified in the Constitution as federal powers. Human rights and the environment are prime examples. It does it is two main ways.
One is to enact legislation governing its own instrumentalities’ actions. (A Commonwealth authority like the ABC shall practise EEO, for example). The other is to attach environment or human-rights political aims to specified federal powers in other fields, such as foreign trade, foreign affairs, territories or corporations and therefore indirectly control state, individual or corporate conduct in those fields. Sometimes the Government makes a separation-of-powers rod for its own back, as the woodchip fiasco has revealed.
The Federal Government has steered through the Federal Parliament a foreign-trade law that prohibits foreign trade in a number of items (like woodchips and uranium) unless you have licence. The Minister can only grant a licence if he or she has done certain things _ like considered the environment impact. Both these methods require state and/or federal ministers to obey legislation. Combine that with powerful pressure groups ready to enforce the legislation in the courts, and you have lots of opportunities for the doctrine of separation of powers to rear its exquisite head _ in ways not seen in the good old days when Governments had firm control over legislatures and ministers had smaller portfolios because governments did not seek to be so active in so many areas of life. The doctrine is not only for big-ticket items like woodchipping. For example, an ACT Minister recently approved a water-recycling plant on land which the National Capital Plan has as a road _ the extension of Ginninderra Drive which many residents want to divert traffic from their suburb (including mine, I must add). Federal and Territory legislation would first require a process to change the plan which the Minister for Planning, Bill Wood, admits has not taken place. The executive and legislative powers were not separated. And like the woodchips a testy community group may use the judicial power (the courts) to do the separating. Lessons in the doctrine of the separation of powers are available at most good faculties of law or politics at a university near you. Alas, these things are not taught in the schools _ especially in Queensland.