14033 (2025). Camilla Belich to the Minister for Vocational Education

14033 (2025). Camilla Belich to the Minister for Vocational Education: On how many occasions, if any, since 27 November 2023, has the Minister intervened in, overruled, or influenced a decision made by any agency under their responsibility, and what were the circumstances of each instance?

Hon Penny Simmonds: In my capacity as Minister, I am the Responsible Minister for the Tertiary Education Commission. The roles and responsibility of a minister are set out in the Cabinet Manual, which is available on the following website: Ministers and the public service | Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC). As a Minister, I am responsible for deciding both the direction of and the priorities for the agencies for which I hold portfolio responsibilities and I may give those agencies lawful directions. As a result, there are some occasions on which I have appropriately had input into the agencies’ actions but these inputs are not collated or registered in a way that could be included in a single answer.