The Prime Minister appoints Ministers, who takes care of their assigned departments. The Executive is in charge of policy making. Each of these states has their own constitution, which provides for the legislature, judiciary, and executive divisions. Each state government self-governs on matters not controlled by the federal government and is headed by the Premier.
Territories are regions not claimed by any of the states. Three territories have acquired a limited right to self-governance from the federal government. The rest of the territories are governed by the Commonwealth Law. It is recommended that this infosheet be read with Infosheet No. The Australian Coat of Arms signifies the national unity of Australia and is a sign of its identity and authority. Parliamentary government. Parliamentary government means that the Executive Government comes from within the Parliament; responsible government means that the Executive Government is responsible to the Parliament.
This is the central feature of a Westminster-style government following the United Kingdom model—in contrast to other systems of government where the Executive is quite separate and not directly answerable to the Legislature—for example, in the United States of America. The separation of powers. Political theory recognises three powers of government—the legislative power to make laws; the executive power to carry out and enforce the laws; and the judicial power to interpret laws and to judge whether they apply in individual cases.
The principle of the separation of powers is that, in order to prevent oppressive government, the three powers of government should be held by separate bodies—the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary—which can act as checks and balances on each other. With parliamentary government the legislative and executive functions overlap, as the members of the Executive Government—the Ministers—are drawn from the Parliament.
However, in the Australian system there are still checks and balances between the Executive and Legislature—Ministers are subject to the scrutiny of other Members of the Parliament led by an officially recognised opposition. In addition, the Executive does not necessarily control both Houses of the Parliament see below.
Infosheet No. The Parliament. The Constitution gives the legislative power of the Commonwealth—the power to make laws—to the Parliament. The Parliament passes legislation. Proposed laws have to be agreed to by both Houses of Parliament to become law. The two Houses have equal powers, except that there are restrictions on the power of the Senate to introduce or directly amend some kinds of financial legislation.
The Governor-General has a role in the legislative process by assenting to Acts. See later in this infosheet for more information about the role of the Governor-General. The Parliament also authorises the Executive Government often simply called the government or the Executive to spend public money by agreeing to government proposals for expenditure and taxation, scrutinises the administrative actions of the government and serves as a forum for the debate of public policy.
Another function of the Parliament under the Australian system is to provide from its membership the members of the Executive Government. After a general election the political party or coalition of parties with the support of a majority of members in the House of Representatives becomes the governing party and its leader becomes the Prime Minister.
The composition of the House also determines who will form the official opposition. The party or coalition of parties which has the most non-government Members in the House of Representatives becomes the opposition party and its leader becomes the Leader of the Opposition. The opposition has the officially recognised function, established by convention, of opposing the government.
This subject is discussed in more detail in Infosheet No. While the government has, by definition, the support of a majority of Members in the House of Representatives, the system of voting used for Senate elections gives greater opportunity to minority parties and independents, and the government often does not have majority support in the Senate.
The Executive Government. Constitutional provisions. The Executive Government in practice. In reality, the executive power is possessed by the Prime Minister and Cabinet senior Ministers.
Their power derives:. Neither the Prime Minister nor the Cabinet are mentioned in the Constitution—the framers of the Constitution took their existence for granted, as they did the various conventions of the Westminster system of government inherited from the United Kingdom. It includes information about Federation representative democracy and constitutional monarchy, and the role of the separation of powers. A system of government is the structure by which a country is run.
Some examples are democracy, communism, dictatorship, monarchy and republic. Australia has a mixed system of government; it is a representative democracy and a constitutional monarchy. It is also a federation of states. In a representative democracy, citizens choose candidates to represent them in a parliament.
In Australia, federal elections are held approximately every 3 years to select members of parliament to represent Australians and make laws on their behalf. Examples of other representative democracies include the United States, the United Kingdom and Argentina. The senate has 76 members who are elected through a single transferable vote STV proportional representation system.
The house of representatives has members who are elected through an alternative voting system. All responsibilities remaining are retained by previously separate colonies, referred to as the six states.
Each state has its own constitution, so Australia itself has seven sovereign parliaments which cannot impede with the functions of another.
Coat of Arms of Commonwealth of Australia. Grades each country on a scale of 0 to , based on ten freedoms, with representing the greatest amount of economic autonomy from government intervention.
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