Glossary - O Flashcards
Officers of the Parliament
A term covering the permanent appointed officers who provide support services for the parliament. They include the Clerks of the upper and the lower house, the Usher of the Back Rod in the upper house and the Sergeant-at-Arms in the lower house.
Obiter Dictum
Literally means ‘sayings by the way’. Obiter dictum is all the parts of a legal judgement that are not part of the core statement or reasons for judgement (the ratio decidendi).
Oligarchy
Government by a few or a minority class. The term is often used to describe any system in which power is consistently concentrated in the hands of a minority even if they are democratically selected.
Ombudsman
An official appointed by parliament to investigate complaints against government administration and to report back to the parliament.
One Vote One Person
The equal right of individuals to vote. Under this key democratic principle each voter can only cast a single vote in an election.
One Vote One Value
The principle that all votes must have the same value or weighting. One-vote-one-value requires that all electorates as near as possible contain an equal number of voters. This is regarded as an essential feature of democratic elections in most modern democracies.
Onus of Proof
The requirement that the person who makes a legal claim (the plaintiff in civil proceedings and the prosecution in a criminal trial) is responsible for sustaining their case.
Open Government
(Freedom of information laws) The principle is that citizens should have maximum opportunity to know what government has decided and how and why it was decided. Freedom of information laws give citizens a statutory right to see most government reports and papers.
Opposition
The second largest party in the lower house of parliament. The functions of the opposition are to act as a ‘devil’s advocate’ by highlighting alternatives to specific government initiatives, scrutinise government bills and administration, and to develop alternative policies.
Optional Preferential Voting
A voting system where voters can decide how many preferences to list on the ballot and therefore don’t have to show preferences for candidates they reject or know little about.
Original Jurisdiction
The disputes that a court hears on their first presentation. For example, the Magistrates Court has original jurisdiction over misdemeanours, the Supreme Court over civil disputes concerning values of over $750,000 and the High Court has original jurisdiction over disputes concerning the Australian Constitution.
Outer Ministry
Those ministers with less major responsibilities, whose portfolios are subsidiary to the major responsibilities held by cabinet ministers (eg; Department of Aged Care is administrative as part of the Department of Health).
Over-Representation
The tendency for elections based on single member electorates to create election results in which the winning party gains a greater proportion of parliamentary seats than the proportion of the overall national vote they achieved.
Overruling
When a higher courting decision in a similar but subsequent case departs from a lower court judgement on the basis that the lower court wrongly decided the original case.
