Responsible Government

Question 1

Responsible Government

What is it

Ministers

Whole government

Answer 1

The government’s responsibility to the voters.

Ministers are responsible for the actions of their departments. Ministers are drawn from within the government and they must maintain the confidence of the government. Members of parliament can question ministers. Ministers must carry out their duties with integrity or resign.

A democratically elected government must be answerable and accountable to the people for its actions. The Senate is able to scrutinise Bills before they are passed and become law. This helps to ensure the government is being accountable to the people. If the government loses the confidence of the people it must resign.

Question 2

Ministerial Accountability

Answer 2

Ministers are responsible to parliament and therefore to the people – a minister can be called upon to explain in parliament his or her actions and those of the department and agencies under his or her control.

Question 3

Responsible government public scrutiny

Answer 3

There are opportunities for public scrutiny of the law-making process so the public can hold the government accountable for its actions; the government must respond to concerns of the parliament and the people and must answer questions where appropriate – a record of parliamentary proceedings is kept in Hansard, which is available to the public, and the public can view parliament in operation.

Question 4

If govt loses support

Answer 4

If the government loses the support of the lower house it must resign, hence the government is responsible to parliament. The parliament in return is responsible to the people