'Australia's political institutions and practices follow the Western liberal democratic tradition, reflecting British and North American experience.
Broadly, the Australian federation has a three-tier system of government based in the Westminster tradition and characterised by the separation of powers to provide checks and balances:'
Here's how 'Hop' saw federation in 1898 - 'Federation - more or less in the air'.
Elections are held regularly and governing political parties change periodically.
The Constitution
The powers of the Federal Parliament are laid down in a written 
Norman Lindsay saw the Australian Constitution as 'No Throughfare' in 1911.
The Australian Constitution can be changed only by referendum and then only if a majority of voters in at least four of the six States, as well as an overall national majority of voters, favour it. Before a referendum can be put to the people it must either be passed by both Houses of Parliament or, if one House refuses to pass it or passes it with amendments not agreed by the other House, it can be presented to the people by the Governor-General.
Look at the options paper, prepared by Paul Keating's Republic Advisory Committee, on the minimal Constitutional changes necessary to allow Australia to become a republic at "http://www.mpce.mq.edu.au/~brendan/arm/rac.html.
State Constitutions, like the Australian Constitution, originate from British statutes. Power to change them, however, lies with their parliaments and not with a combination of parliament and the people voting at referendums.
Broadly, the division of powers between the Federal and State Parliaments follows the American model of federation. Powers exercised by the Federal Parliament and Government are specified, leaving all others to the States. A federal law overrides any State law not consistent with it.
The Federal Parliament is bicameral, having two chambers: the House of Representatives (Lower House) and the Senate (Upper House).
A system of Cabinet or "responsible" government based in the British Westminster tradition is practised. The party or coalition of parties commanding a majority in the House of Representatives becomes the government and provides the ministers (including the Prime Minister), all of whom must be members of the Parliament. The Ministry remains collectively responsible to the Parliament, and through it to the electors, for government actions.
The Constitution requires membership of the Australian House of Representatives to be, as nearly as practicable, twice that of the Senate. The House has 148 members - 50 from New South Wales, 37 from Victoria, 26 from Queensland, 12 from South Australia, 14 from Western Australia, five from Tasmania, three from the Australian Capital Territory and one from the Northern Territory. Elections for the House of Representatives are held at least every three years.
The House of Representatives parallels the British House of Commons and is, traditionally, the Australian Parliament's more important chamber. The Prime Minister is normally drawn from its membership and, if the Government ceases to command a House of Representatives majority, it is obliged to go to an election or resign.
A government need not command a majority in the Senate which has an equal number of members - 12 - from each State. The Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory were not represented in the Federal Parliament until 1975 when they each gained two Senators.
Normally, Senators serve a six-year term with half the Senate retiring every three years. Senators elected to represent the Territories, however, serve a maximum of three years and their terms coincide with those of the members of the House of Representatives. In Senate elections, the people of each State and Territory vote as single electorates.
At a double dissolution election, all Senators retire and each State must elect 12 Senators. The first six selected each serve a six year term while the remaining six serve for three years.
The federal Labour Government led by Mr Paul Keating was re-elected on 13 March 1993. The Australian Labor Party (ALP) won 80 of the (then) 147 seats in the House of Representatives, the Liberal Party 49 and its coalition partner, the National Party, 16, and Independents two seats. The Labour Government came to power on 5 March 1983 after the Liberal-National Coalition had governed for seven years.
After the 13 March 1993 half-Senate election, held concurrently with the general election for the House of Representatives, the membership of the full Senate was ALP - 30, Liberal Party - 30, National Party - five, Australian Democrats - seven, Western Australian Greens - two, Country Liberal Party - one, and Harradine Independents - one, making a total of 76 Senators.
The Australian Labor Party had its genesis in the trade union movement last century but today represents a broader band of Australian society on the left of the political spectrum. The Liberal Party, which traditionally represents the business community, and its coalition partner the National Party, which predominantly represents rural interests, are on the right of the political spectrum. The Australian Democrats and the West Australian Greens, political parties with close ties to the environmental movement, were formed to capture the balance of power in the Senate, where neither of the major political parties has a majority.
All State parliaments except Queensland, which abolished its Upper House in 1922, are bicameral, with two Houses of Parliament.
The Lower House in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia is known as the Legislative Assembly; in South Australia and Tasmania it is called the House of Assembly. Each of the five State Upper Houses is known as the Legislative Council.
Under the federal Constitution, State Governments are responsible for the residue of powers not administered by the Federal Government. These include education, transport, law enforcement, health services and agriculture.
At December 1994, all State governments, except for Queensland which was Labor, were Liberal. The Northern Territory had a Country Liberal Government and the Australian Capital Territory a Labor Government.
The powers of local government vary from State to State and are the responsibility of State Governments under the relevant legislation. In general they include town planning, construction and maintenance of roads, streets and bridges, water, sewerage and drainage systems, public health and sanitary services, supervision of building, administration of slaughtering, weights and measures and other regulations, and the development and maintenance of parks, recreation grounds, swimming pools, public libraries and community centres.
Some local government bodies operate public business undertakings such as transport systems or gas and electricity reticulation.
The powers of local government normally derive from legislation enacted by their State parliaments and their operations usually are subject to supervision by a department of their State Government. Finance for their undertakings is obtained through rates and from the Federal and State Governments.
Though an independent nation, Australia, like Canada, retains close constitutional links with Britain and gives allegiance to Queen Elizabeth 11 of Great Britain and Northern Ireland who is also formally Queen of Australia.
The Queen is represented in Australia by a Governor-General and six State Governors. Under the Constitution, the Governor-General's powers and duties include summoning, proroguing and dissolving Parliament, assenting to Bills, appointing Ministers, setting up Departments of State, commanding the armed forces and appointing judges. By convention, however, the Governor-General acts only on the advice of Ministers in virtually all matters and the appointee to the office is selected on the advice of the Government. The six State Governors perform similar roles in their States.
The Cabinet is the major policy-making agency of Federal Government in Australia and is presided over by the Prime Minister.
Cabinet meets in camera. Apart from announcements of decisions by the Prime Minister or other authorised Ministers, there is no public record of its proceedings. Cabinet is serviced by a secretariat within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Where necessary, legal effect is given to Cabinet decisions by the Executive Council, a formal body presided over by the Governor-General and usually attended by two or three Ministers of State, although all Ministers are members. The purpose of the Executive Council, like the Queen's Privy Council in Britain, is essentially to receive formal advice, make appointments, accept resignations, issue proclamations and regulations, and approve the signing of formal documents. Similar procedures of Cabinet decision-making are followed by Australia's State Governments.
Policy advice and the implementation and administration of Federal Government programs are undertaken by the Australian Public Service, six State and two Territory Public Services. All are career services and, generally, staff are recruited on a permanent basis.
A Minister of State is responsible to Parliament for each department's functions and activities. Under the Minister is the head of a department, usually a career public servant.
In the Federal and State Governments, there are three broad categories of government institution: those serving directly the respective parliaments; Departments of State for whose operations, in all respects, individual Ministers are responsible to their parliament; and a miscellaneous category which includes statutory agencies, corporations, tribunals and commissions.'
Aboriginal icons - Commonwealth of Australia copyright reproduced by permission. ATSIEIS Calendar 1995, Australian Electoral Commission, Canberra.ACT.
Back to Table of Contents