Australian Political & Legal System Flashcards
Australia is a representative democracy with a constitutional monarchy, organised as a federation with a responsible parliamentary government.
Explain Australia’s federation.
In 1901, Australia experienced the uniting of 6 previously separated colonies into one federal commonwealth.
Explain federalism in Australia.
Federalism divides or allocates political power between the different parts of the Federation.
In Australia, it is divided into 3 levels of government:
1. Federal Government (Commonwealth)
2. State Government (Territories)
3. Local Government
By doing so, federalism strengthens parliamentary representative democracy, and promotes local decision-making.
How does federalism apply into the division of powers.
Dividing power across 3 levels of government, each level has its division of power:
1. Federal - Specific & Exclusive powers
2. State - Concurrent powers (shared with Federal)
3. Local - Residual powers
Explain the idea of a responsible parliamentary government.
A responsible parliamentary government is the formation of the executive within (and drawn from) the parliament and its constant accountability to the parliament.
This means that public service departments are accountable to the executive government; the executive (PM & cabinet) accountable to the Parliament; and ultimately Parliament accountable to the people.
This process can be referred to as a chain of accountability from government, through parliament, to citizens.
Where was this responsible parliamentary government derived from?
The Westminster conventions of:
- Individual Ministerial Responsibility (IMR) - minister is responsible to parliament.
- Collective Ministerial Responsibility (CMR) - entirety of government is responsible to parliament.
How is Australia a constitutional monarchy?
“The King (King Charles III), Governor-General (David Hurley)t, and Federal Executive Council (EXCO) are all institutions of Australia’s constitutional monarchy.”
Head of State (Queen) - the British monarchy is also Australia’s monarchy due to British colonialism, uninvolved in policy making and primarily giving Royal Assent to proposed bills.
Governor-General (Crown) - physical representative of the Head of State, living in Australia to exercise its role on behalf of the Queen.
EXCO - the structure between the formal executive (the Crown - ‘above politics’), and the political executive (the Cabinet - ‘politics is carried out’).
How is separation of powers applied in Australia?
The allocation and division of power between the following three institutions, prevents the concentration of power:
- Legislative: Parliament → create, amend, repeal laws.
- Executive: Cabinet & Public Service → each portfolio (department of industry) carries out the law.
- Judiciary: Courts & Judges → interprets and applies the law.
With respect to the executive branch, outline its three main roles.
- Formal executive (Head of State - monarch & Governor-General) - ‘above politics’ and is uninvolved in policy-making, unless in exceptional circumstances when political executive cannot function.
- Political executive (Cabinet & Prime Minister) - ‘politics is carried out’ by its ministers who run portfolios exercising real executive power by developing policies, allocating public resources through the federal budget. Having won the majority in the House of Representatives (home of the executive government), they obtain democratic legitimacy.
- Administrative executive (public services of agencies and departments) - makes administrative decisions within their specialised department to carry out the law.
