questions

Question 1

Question 2:
Describe the purpose of Question time in Parliament.

Answer 1

During Question time, Members of parliament scrutinise the government and ensure that they’ve been doing their job properly and keeping up their promises. Members of the parliament also use this time to show off what they’ve done.

Question 2

Question 3:
Provide two diff and two similarities between the key features of government in Australia and United States OR Indonesia.

Answer 2

Two differences: Indonesia’s three levels are national, provincial and district, not federal, state and local. Indonesia’s Parliament does not have a senate, they have regional representatives instead.
Two similarities: Both Australia and Indonesia are Bi-cameral. Both have the same three separation of powers; executive, legislative and judicial.

Question 3

Question 4:
Describe the three types of readings that a bill must go through in Parliament before it can become a law

Answer 3

First reading is when the clerk reads out the bill and goes through the details of the bill. Second reading is when a copy of a bill is passed to the MPs, a member will introduce bill aswell as explaining it and the house begins to debate the principles but not the details. Third reading is the last opportunity to debate on the bill though it is restricted and rare. Most of majority need to be in favour of the bill for it to be passed on to the other house of parliament.

Question 4

Question 5:
Using an example, define the term mandate and show how it is linked to policy making

Answer 4

A mandate is a policy that the government promises to form made before they have become the government. A political develops a target for a particular issue based on their party platform; the issue is then brought up into the parliament for voting.

Question 5

Question 7:
Define the term party platform. Compare the platforms of two political parties you have studied this unit

Answer 5

Party Platform is the organisation that represents a certain group of people with set goals, principles and values that a specific political party stands for. The Greens stand by the fact that there should be a reduction of waste and no harm on earth, and improve our environment by being ecologically sustainable. Meanwhile, The liberal party runs with conservative policies, very constricted values that are expected to be followed and expects the rich to be even richer.

Question 6

Question 8:
a) Describe the voting system used for electing politicians to the house of reps. In your response, discuss the process used and what is required to become the government of Australia

b) Explore how this system of voting differs to first-past-post-voting

Answer 6

a) A politician is elected through a preferential voting, where there are a number of candidates on a ballot paper and voters have to number the candidates in order of preference using the process of elimination where the least voted candidate is eliminated. It is required for the government of Australia to have the absolute majority from the voting of people.

b) The first-past-post-voting is where there is one vote casted by each person for a single candidate. The candidate with the most votes ends up taking the position as a politician. Preferential is different from this as it has more candidates, more accurate and fair voting.

Question 7

Question 9:
Discover the role of ministers in the cabinet, the opposition, and members of parliament in developing laws in parliament

Answer 7

Ministers follow what is being said in their portfolio, the opposition keeps the checks and balances as they check if they’re doing as they’ve promised. The members of the parliament are doing other roles in their electorate when they’re not sitting but they answer questions when the whole parliament is sitting.

Question 8

Analyse one challenge that may prevent a government from being able to have their policy made into law

Answer 8

One challenge that may occur in making a policy into law is that there are people who go against what the government wants, and there may be protests and petition signed by others. This puts the government at risk as the amount of votes for the government may decrease and end up losing their current position.