Government

Question 1

What does the local government do?

Answer 1

Look after health centres, rubbish collections, parks, gardens

Question 2

What does the state government do?

Answer 2

Look after education, transport, hospitals, road laws, public works, local government

Question 3

What does the federal government do?

Answer 3

Look after defence, currency, trade, social services, post, telecommunications, immigration

Question 4

What is a representative democracy?

Answer 4

Democratic governments rely on citizens to vote for a representatives. These elected people represent the citizens views in debates and proposed laws

Question 5

What are the main political parties in Australia

Answer 5

Labour (ALP) and Liberal

Question 6

Information about Labour Party

Answer 6

Leader= Bill Shorten
Policies= free education, health, environment, jobs, families, social security, arts and culture
Who votes?= families, working class people, seniors, young people
Major achievements= medicare, equality, opportunity for everyone

Question 7

Information about Liberal party

Answer 7

Leader= Malcolm Turnbull
Policies= encourages imports/exports in businesses, supports small businesses and health care and national security
Who votes?= businessmen and wealthy people
Major achievements= Banks and gas

Question 8

What do the Nationals usually do?

Answer 8

Act in patents hip with the liberal party to form a coalition

Question 9

What are some minor political parties?

Answer 9

Australian greens, family first and Australian democrats

Question 10

What is the House of Representatives?

Answer 10

Lower house

Question 11

What is the senate?

Answer 11

Upper house.

Question 12

How many seats in the House of Representatives?

Answer 12

150 members in the HOR. Each member represents one of Australia’s 150 electorates.
The political party which holds the majority of seats in the HOR forms the government

Question 13

What do the members of he House of Representatives do?

Answer 13

Represent the views of Australians and discuss matters of national and international importance
Make and change federal law by debating and voting

Question 14

What colour is the House of Representatives?

Answer 14

Green which is linked to the House of Commons in Britain

Question 15

How many seats in the senate?

Answer 15

The senate is made up of 76 senators. 12 for each state and 2 for each territory.

Question 16

What do the members of the senate do?

Answer 16

Represent the views of Australians and discuss matter of national and international importance
Safeguard the interests of all states
Act as a house of review (any law passed by the HOR must first be passed by the senate before it becomes law
Represent the interest of the voters

Question 17

What colour is the senate?

Answer 17

Red which is linked to the House of Lords in the British parliament

Question 18

Who can vote?

Answer 18

Australian citizens who are over the age of 18. However people are are serving time in prison for longer than 3 years or people who don’t understand voting (unsound mind) cannot vote.

Question 19

How often are elections held?

Answer 19

Every 3 years

Question 20

How is the winner decided?

Answer 20

By majority rule

Question 21

What is an electorate?

Answer 21

There are 150 electorates in Australia. Each electorate has about 100,000 voters. The voters in each electorate chose one person to represent that electorate in the HOR.

Question 22

What is preferential voting?

Answer 22

A system of voting in which votes are allocated to candidates in order of preference. It is used to elect member to the HOR. The voter must place a number in the box next to each name in preferential order

Question 23

What is majority voting?

Answer 23

Means that the majority of voter wanted he person to be elected. 50 and 1 = absolute majority

Question 24

Who is the state leader?

Answer 24

Daniel Andrews

Question 25

Who is the federal leader?

Answer 25

Malcolm Turnbull

Question 26

What is federation?

Answer 26

The joining together of individual states for a common purpose

Question 27

What are the three levels of government

Answer 27

Local, state, federal