Levels of Government in Australia

84 Barker Street

Kingsford, NSW

2032

19 May 2017

Dear, Jeremy

According to your concern to continue your postgraduate study in Australia. I would like to share several things you need to know and I found interesting in these topics

As a postgraduate student and your sister, I am pleased that you would turn to me for legal counsel. If you follow my suggestions below you will surely be able to settle your postgrad form.

1. Australian Government

www.peo.gov.au

Australia is both a representative democracy and a constitutional monarchy. A representative democracy is a system in which the general population vote for delegates to speak to their interests in a parliament it means, members of parliament are elected to the Senate or the House of Representatives to represent the Australian people and make laws on their behalf.

A constitutional monarchy is a framework in which a king or queen is the head of state, yet should act as per a constitution. In Australia, the power of the Queen has been appointed to her delegate, the Governor-General.

LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT IN AUSTRALIA

Almost everywhere in Australia has three elected governments- Federal, State(or Territory) and Local. Each of these levels has its own powers, responsibilities and services.

www.peo.gov.au

The structure of the Commonwealth Government is set out in the Constitution, which divides the government into three ‘arms’ or ‘government’ or ‘branches’. Those three branches are:

• The legislature

• The executive

• The judicature www.peo.gov.au

THE LEGISLATURE

• FEDERAL PARLIAMENT

Federal Parliament is made up of the House of Representatives, which is sometimes called ‘the lower house’, and the Senate, or ‘upper house’. Members of the Senate use the title ‘Senator’ in front of their name, while Members of the House of Representatives use the initials ‘MP’ (for member of parliament) after their name.

Members are elected to each of the two houses of federal parliament by Australian citizens who are enrolled to vote on the date of the federal election. However, there are different systems for electing members to the state and territory parliaments. Except for Queensland, all of the state legislatures have two ‘houses’ or ‘chambers’ of parliament.

• STATUTORY LAW

www.parliament.gov.au

Is the law making body which means has a central role in making statute law (individual laws are called ‘Acts’). Usually begin their formal process of becoming law as a ‘Bill’ (a draft Act) in the lower house. Together with the Governor of NSW. As well as law making, Parliament represents people (through elections) and determines the Government (the party with an elected majority in the lower House). It also provides a check on the activities of Executive Government.

• DELEGATED LEGISLATION

The law making body can designate obligation to the official to make laws under the authority of a statute. This is called ‘delegated legislation’. In Commonwealth level, a legislative instrument must be registered and tabled (presented) in both houses of Federal Parliament.

THE EXECUTIVE

The Ministers are appointed from amongst the majority party in Parliament and remain members of Parliament and are responsible to Parliament. Interestingly, there is no reference to Ministers in the Constitution. The role of the head of state is to give final approval to a Bill becoming law. This is done on the advice of the executive.

• THE EXECUTIVE’S INVOLVEMENT IN MAKING LAWS

 identifying the need for a new law;

 researching what the law needs to cover and how it should be written to achieve what is needed;

 preparing the draft Bill; (Not all draft Bills are made available for comment as exposure drafts)

 making the draft Bill available for community comment in the form of an ‘Exposure Draft’

 reviewing the comments made by the community and changing the Bill;

 presenting the Bill to the Cabinet for its approval to be presented to parliament.

THE JUDICIARY

Is comprised of independent judges delegated to an arrangement of courts, the most noteworthy being the NSW Supreme Court. There are additionally government courts, and the highest court for the entire of Australia is the Commonwealth High Court. Executive Government names judges yet can not be expelled aside from by parliamentary procedure. Judges decipher the laws – in the most astounding courts, they can even forbid laws which are observed to be illegal. They guarantee the law is applied fairly to all. Australia's Constitution.

LIMITS ON THE POWER OF THE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT

The Australian government does not strictly comply with the separation of powers doctrine because the legislature and the executive are not completely separated. Australia maintains a system of responsible government, which upholds the principle that the executive be responsible to the legislature, Additionally, the legislature may confer power and delegate legislation to the executive government. The essential element of the doctrine is that the judiciary be completely separate from the executive and from the legislature. There are two key principles of the doctrine that are set out in the Constitution. Firstly, federal judicial power may only be vested in a Court that is defined as per Chapter III of the Constitution. Secondly, a court that is defined in Chapter III cannot be vested with non-judicial powers. A Ch III Court is described in the Constitution as the High Court of Australia and ‘such other federal courts as the Parliament creates, and in such other courts as it invests with federal jurisdiction’. The two criteria

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