The Australian Parliamentary System- Part TWO

Legal Studies 2013- JEDWARDS

Introduction...

The Parliament of Victoria consists of two houses and the Governor as the Queens representative in Victoria. The Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the Victorian Parliament and comprises 88 members (elected for four-year terms), who represent people in their electorates.

Victorian Constitution Act 1855- outlined structure and powers of Victorians Parliament. Changed in 1975 to pass its own Constitutional Act, which replaced the British act.

Coalition...

The party or coalition that has a majority of members in the LA is known as the government and the leader of the government is known as the premier.

Legislative Assembly

Lower House in the Victorian Parliament

Made up of 88 elected members- each member represents one Victorian electorate.

Tim McCurdy (spelling!!) Each MLA (Member of the Legislative

Assembly) is elected for four years.

Legislative Council

Upper house in the Victorian Parliament

There are 40 elected members (MLC)- five members from each of eight different regions

The Legisliatve Council acts as a house of review for legislation coming from the lower house.

Fill in the table...

VICTORIAN PARLIAMENT

COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENT

Name of the lower house and number of members

Name of upper house and number of members

Queens Representative

Leader of the government

Period between elections

Answers

VICTORIAN PARLIAMENT

COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENT

Name of the lower house and number of members

Legislative Assembly88 members

House of Representatives150 members

Name of upper house and number of members

Legislative Council40 members elected every four years

Senate76 members elected every six years

Queens Representative

Governor Governor-General

Leader of the government

Premier Prime Minister

Period between elections

Four years Three Years

Principals of the Australian Parliamentary system

Commonwealth of Australia

Constitutional Act (1900)

Federation (1st Jan 1901) Six Colonies form a federation

Crown and Bicameral parliamentary system

Governor General, Senate (upper

House), House of Representatives (Lower House)

Separation of powers

Executive (the business of

Government), Legislature

(Parliament), Judiciary (Courts)

Representative Government

Members of Parliament are

elected by the people and represent their interests and values

Responsible Government

Parliamentarians must act in a

responsible manner or resign from office

Representative Government

A fundamental aspect of the Australian Parliamentary system is the principal of representative government.

This means that the government must represent the concerns and expectations of the people who voted them in at the last election.

Any government that fails to represent the needs for the people will generally be voted out of offive at the next election.

Responsible Government

Responsible Government is a chain of accountability for the executive to the parliament to the people.

The government and parliament must both be accountable for how they use their power The people keep the parliament accountable through

elections The parliament keeps the government accountable

through question time, when members of parliament can question Government ministers about their actions and their departments

We have responsible government to make sure that the government and parliament don’t abuse their power.

The Separation of Powers

The constitution contains a model of how Australia is to be governed.

The powers of government in a parliamentary democracy are separated between the legislature (Parliament), the executive (the government) and the judiciary (the Courts). This is called the separation of powers.

Think of the Separation of powers like a tree with three branches (the executive branch, the legislature branch and the judiciary branch). In order for the tree to grow straight and tall, no one branch should be allowed to grow out of control, leading the tree to fall over.

Checks and balances??

Our parliamentary systems is set up in a similar way, so that each branch balances the others power through a system of checks and balances.

EXAMPLE..........

The government (executive) must obtain approval from the parliament before prospective legislation is enacted ad, in this way ‘checks’ the power of the government on the day so that the system (or tree) remains balanced.

Another way in which the system of checks and balances works is the requirement that the Governor-General gives royal assent to bills approved by Parliament (the Governor-General must sign any bill before it can become law).

ROLE OF THE CROWN!

Role of the CrownThe Governor-

General

Acting of advice of Parliament

The Governor General gives royal assent to Bills that have

passed both houses of Parliament to make them Law.

Acting of advice of the Prime Minister

The Governor-General is head of the executive, and so

will do things like appoint ministers and approve

delegated legislation on advice of the PM.

Doesn’t need advice to ActReserve powers are the only powers that hte Governor-

General can exercise without being told to. These powers include dismissing a prime

minister who has lost support of the lower house of

Parliament

KEEPING UP WITH THE NEWS- HOMEWORK

Find ONE current article on an issue which concerns state or federal law Not a crime report or a court report An issue – eg a proposed change to the law, or

community concern about the efficacy of a law PRINT your article Write down:

Author, source, date. Federal or State? Summarise the issue in 2-3 sentences.