The Howard Government Ministry 1996-98

This is the status of the Howard Government Ministry at the start of 1998, a year that could well be an election year.

Cabinet Ministers in bold

1. Prime Minister – The Hon. John Winston Howard MP
2. Minister for Trade and Deputy Prime Minister – The Hon.Timothy Andrew Fischer MP
3. Treasurer – The Hon. Peter Howard Costello MP
4. Minister for Primary Industries and Energy – The Hon. John Duncan Anderson MP
5. Minister for the Environment and Leader of the Government in the Senate – Senator the Hon. Robert Murray Hill
6. Minister for Communications and the Arts and Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate – Senator the Hon. Richard Kenneth Robert Alston
7. Minister for Workplace Relations and Small Business, and Leader of the Government in the House of Representatives – The Hon. Peter Keaston Reith MP [since 11-07-97, formerly Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service]
8. Minister for Social Security and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women – Senator the Hon. Jocelyn Margaret Newman
9. Minister for Foreign Affairs – The Hon. Alexander John Gosse Downer MP
10. Minister for Industry, Science and Tourism and Vice President of the Executive Council – The Hon. John Colinton Moore MP
11. Minister for Defence – The Hon. Ian Murray McLachlan AO, MP
12. Minister for Transport and Regional Development – The Hon. John Randall Sharp MP [resigned 24-09-97]
13. Minister for Health and Family Services – The Hon. Michael Richard Lewis Wooldridge MP
14. Minister for Finance – The Hon. John Joseph Fahey MP
15. Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs – Senator the Hon. Amanda Eloise Vanstone
16. Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs – The Hon. Philip Maxwell Ruddock
17. Minister for Science and Technology and Deputy Leader of the House – The Hon. Peter John McGauran MP [resigned 26-09-97]
18. Minister for Schools, Vocational Education and Training, Minister Assisting the Minister for Finance for Privatisation and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service [since 11-07-97] – The Hon. David Alistair Kemp MP
19. Assistant Treasurer and Manager of Government Business in the Senate – Senator the Hon. Charles Roderick Kemp [formerly Senator the Hon. James Robert Short – resignation announced 13-10-96]
20. Minister for Resources and Energy – Senator the Hon. Warwick Raymond Parer
21. Minister for Family Services – The Hon. Judith Eleanor Moylan MP
22. Minister for Defence Industry, Science and Personnel – The Hon. Bronwyn Kathleen Bishop MP
23. Attorney-General and Minister for Justice – The Hon. Daryl Robert Williams AM, QC, MP
24. Minister for Sport, Territories and Local Government – The Hon. Warwick Leslie Smith MP
25. Minister for Veterans’ Affairs – The Hon. Bruce Craig Scott MP
26. Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs – Senator the Hon. John Herron
27. Minister for Administrative Services – The Hon. David Francis Jull MP [resigned 24-09-97]
28. Minister for Customs and Consumer Affairs – The Hon. Christopher Ellison MP [since 11-07-97]

Parliamentary Secretaries

1. Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet) to the Prime Minister – The Hon. Christopher Gordon Miles MP
2. Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister – Senator the Hon. Nick Minchin
3. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Trade and the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy – Senator the Hon. David Gordon Cadell Brownhill
4. Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer – Senator the Hon. Ian Campbell [formerly Senator the Hon. Brian Francis Gibson – resigned 15-10-96]
5. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Security – Senator the Hon. Grant Tambling [formerly Senator the Hon. Charles Roderick Kemp – to 14-10-96]
6. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment – Senator the Hon. Ian Macdonald [formerly Senator the Hon. Ian Gordon Campbell]
7. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs – The Hon. Andrew Peter Thomson MP
8. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Transport and Regional Development – Hon. Michael Ronaldson [formerly Senator the Hon. Grant Ernest John Tambling]
9. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Family Services and the Attorney-General – The Hon. Trish Worth MP [ formerly Senator the Hon. Christopher Ellison (till 11-07-97), formerly Senator the Hon. Robert Leslie Woods (till February 1997)]
10. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs – The Hon. Anthony John Abbott MP
11. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Workplace Relations and Small Business – The Hon. Alan Cadman MP [since 11-07-97]

Departures

1. Assistant Treasurer – Senator the Hon. Charles Senator the Hon. James Robert Short [resigned 13-10-96]
2. Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer – Senator the Hon. Brian Francis Gibson [resigned 15-10-96]
3. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Family Services and the Attorney-General – Senator the Hon. Robert Leslie Woods [resigned February 1997]
4. Minister for Small Business and Consumer Affairs – The Hon. Geoffrey Daniel Prosser MP [resigned 11-07-97]
5. Minister for Administrative Services – The Hon. David Francis Jull MP [resigned 24-09-97]
6. Minister for Transport and Regional Development – The Hon. John Randall Sharp MP [resigned 24-09-97]
7. Minister for Science and Technology and Deputy Leader of the House – The Hon. Peter John McGauran MP [resigned 26-09-97]