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1.9 – Role and characteristics of subordinate authorities in law-making

Key Concept

Barking dogs, the neighbour's new cubby house, street parties and noisy neighbours! These are just some of the areas that your local council has made laws about. We know that parliament is the supreme law-making body; however, parliament does delegate law-making powers to other bodies such as your local council.

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Government Departments

Government departments are responsible for the administration of each area of government policy.

They all have a minister overseeing them and secretaries who are public servants in charge of each department.

These departments often make suggestions for new legislation and also provide the regulations that help laws work.

Any regulations made by these departments have to be approved by the executive council.

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Executive Council - Statutory Authorities

The executive council comprises the governor (at the state level) or Governor-General (federal level) and ministers.

At the state level, it is called the governor-in-council

At the federal level it is the Governor-General-in-council.

They meet regularly and the various government departments and statutory authorities have their regulations ready to be looked at and formally approved.

They also have the power to add detail to many laws in the form of regulations, proclamations and orders-in-council.

Parliament passes enabling Acts to establish statutory authorities.

These bodies are created by a statute and include the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA)

Statutory regulations made by these authorities must also be approved by the executive council.

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Local Councils – Advantages/Disadvantages of delegated legislation

Local councils make the laws and regulations for their specific areas.

They have obtained this power from the state Local Government Act 1989 (Vic.).

The jurisdiction of each council covers only suburbs and surrounding areas that come within that council boundary.

Local councils make most of the rules and regulations that affect our day-to-day living, such as permission to build a garage or house extensions, what size recycle bins we can have, when our rubbish is to be collected, if our cat has to be registered and what routes our buses take.

Read case studies on pages 31 - 33

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Your Turn

Complete questions 1 – 5

(Page 33 of text)