ABSTRACT

This chapter outlines the changes that advisers have wrought on the system of advice and support to ministers in Australia and Britain. It explores the 1997 'Travel Rorts' affair, key questions about the role adviser’s play in the ethical conduct of ministers using an Australian case study. The chapter focuses on the institutional and individual factors which condition the conduct of advisers, and of their ministers, and considers whether advisers are 'part of the problem' or 'part of the solution' in motivating ministers to behave ethically. In Australia the expansion of ministerial staff, and especially prime ministerial staff capacity, has continued under successive governments. In Australia advisers provide political, policy, administrative and personal support to the minister. Advisers are an important source of advice to ministers, including advice on issues requiring ethical judgement. The Travel Rorts case study exposes an important ethical dilemma in which ministerial staff played a significant role.