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Roles and responsibilities. Members of the Assembly. The Speaker and office holders. Ethics and accountability. This fact sheet examines the role of each group and the related principle of responsible government. The Australian Constitution is the set of rules by which Australia is run.
The first 3 chapters of the Constitution define 3 mostly separate groups—the Parliament, the Executive and the Judiciary—and the roles they play in the governing of Australia. The power to make and manage Australian law is divided between these 3 groups. This division is based on the principle of the 'separation of powers'. Under this principle, the power to govern should be distributed between the Parliament, the Executive and the Judiciary to avoid any group having all the power.
Each group should work within defined areas of responsibility to keep a check on the actions of the others. Parliament also referred to as the Legislature is made up of the Queen represented by the Governor-General , the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Judiciary is made up of the High Court of Australia and other federal courts. Ministers and members of the party, or alliance of parties, that forms the government are referred to as government members or members of the government.
Parliament represents the interests of the people and ensures those interests are taken into account by government. Government is unable to pass laws or raise taxes without the agreement of the Parliament. Parliament comprises the members of parties that the community has elected to represent them. Western Australia has a bicameral system of Parliament, meaning it has two houses:. While government ministers sit within Parliament, the majority of their work is undertaken in relation to government departments and agencies.
The government administers government policy, the legislative agenda, taxes, how best to deliver public services and which services and activities funding should be allocated to. Three levels of government in Australia.
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Australia has three levels of government that work together to provide us with the services we need. How the federal and state parliaments work together is sometimes referred to as the division of powers.
Each level of government has its own responsibilities, although in some cases these responsibilities are shared. Australians aged 18 years and over vote to elect representatives to federal, state and territory parliaments, and local councils to make decisions on their behalf. This means Australians have someone to represent them at each level of government. Up until the s each colony was run by a non-elected governor appointed by the British Parliament.
By all the colonies, apart from Western Australia, had been granted partial self-government by Britain. Western Australia became self-governing in Each had its own written constitution, parliament and laws, although the British Parliament retained the power to make laws for the colonies and could over-rule laws passed by the colonial parliaments.
By the end of the 19th century, many colonists felt a national government was needed to deal with issues such as defence, immigration and trade.
For Federation to happen, it was necessary to find a way to unite the colonies as a nation with a central or national government, while allowing the colonial parliaments to maintain their authority. The Australian Constitution , which sets out the legal framework by which Australia is governed, resolved this issue by giving Australia a federal system of government. This means power is shared between the federal - Australian - government and state governments.
Under the Constitution the states kept their own parliaments and most of their existing powers but the federal Parliament was given responsibility for areas that affected the whole nation. State parliaments in turn gave local councils the task of looking after the particular needs of their local communities.
The Constitution established an Australian - federal - Parliament. The members of the Australian Parliament—76 in the Senate and in the House of Representatives—are responsible for making federal laws.
Sections 51 and 52 of the Constitution describe the law-making powers of the federal Parliament. Section 51 lists 39 areas over which the federal Parliament has legislative - law-making - power.
These include:. Under section 51 of the Constitution, state parliaments can refer matters to the federal Parliament. That is, they can ask the federal Parliament to make laws about an issue that is otherwise a state responsibility. Any federal law then made about the issue only applies in the state or states who referred the matter to federal Parliament or who decide to adopt the law.
Some of the powers listed in section 51 are exclusive powers of the federal Parliament; that is, only the federal Parliament can make laws in these areas.
Some powers are shared with the state and territory parliaments. These powers are said to be concurrent. Exclusive powers of the federal Parliament are also included in sections 52 , 86 , 90 , , and Because the federal Parliament and the state parliaments can make laws in the same areas, sometimes these laws conflict.
Section of the Constitution states that if the federal Parliament and a state parliament pass conflicting laws on the same subject, then the federal law overrides the state law or the part of the state law that is inconsistent with it.
The law-making powers of the federal Parliament. Australia has 6 state parliaments. It also has 2 territory parliaments known as legislative assemblies. These parliaments are located in Australia's 8 capital cities. Each state, apart from Queensland, has a parliament that consists of 2 houses. The Queensland Parliament has only 1 house—the Legislative Assembly—making it unicameral - single-house.
The Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory parliaments are also unicameral— both have one house called the Legislative Assembly. The Australian Capital Territory is unique in Australia because its parliament combines the responsibilities of both a local and state government. Section of the Constitution gives the federal Parliament the power to make laws for the territories. Until they were granted self-government, the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory were administered - managed - by the federal government.
Most have an appointed Administrator. State and territory parliaments make laws that are enforced within their state or territory.
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