Topic 1

Question 1

Structure of Victorian Parliament

Answer 1

Legislative Assembly:
- 88 members
- Lower House
- Politicians elected for 4 years

Legislative Council:
- 40 members
- Upper house
- Politicians elected for 4 years

Question 2

Structure of Australian Parliament

Answer 2

Senate:
- 76 members
- Upper House
- Politicians elected for 6 years

House of Representatives:
- 151 members
- Lower house
- Politicians elected for 3 years

Question 3

Role of the Kings representative

Answer 3

Called the Governor General (Commonwealth) or Governor (Vic)
The Governor General/Governor is not elected by voters but rather is appointed by the King.

The Governor General/Governor cannot introduce new bills, but they must give their assent (consent, approval) before any new laws passed by Parliament become law – this is called Royal Assent

Question 4

Roles of people involved in lawmaking

Question 5

Process of law making: First Reading (First house)

Answer 5

The clerk reads out only the title of the bill
- No discussion, No debating, No voting

Question 6

Process of law making: Second Reading (First house)

Answer 6

The member introducing the bill gives a speech where they outline the need for and key features of the bill.

Other members, who by now have read the bill, get to give a speech and give their opinion on the bill.

After everyone who wants to give their opinion has had their say, there is a vote about whether to keep going with this bill.

Question 7

Process of law making: Consideration in Detail (First house)

Answer 7

During this stage, the bill is reviewed in detail sentence by sentence.

Amendments or changes may be suggested, debated and recommended. Any changes will be reported back to the house.

Question 8

Process of law making: Third Reading (First house)

Answer 8

After all of the words have been debated and agreed, it goes back to the house.

This is one last vote on the bill.

Question 9

Process of law making: Passed through the first house

Answer 9

After the bill has been successful in the first house the exact same process is repeated again in the exact same way
- First Reading
- Second Reading
- Consideration in Detail
- Third Reading
If the bill gets changed at all then it must go back to the first house to review and vote on it again

If the bill is successful in the second house it then goes to the Kings Representative

Question 10

Process of law making: (Royal Assent)

Answer 10

If the bill is passed in the second house, it is presented to the Governor in Executive Council for royal assent. If the Governor signs it, the bill then becomes a law we must all now follow.

Question 11

Process for changing a law

Answer 11

The process for changing an existing law is exactly the same as the process when a new law is made:
Parliament has to pass a law

In either case, the new law still has to pass through that long process in both houses of parliament (three readings, all the votes and scrutiny and debate) and receive royal assent

Question 12

Reasons why laws need to change

Answer 12

• Response to change in the world (eg technology, economic circumstances, criminal activity)
• Response to pressure from groups outside of parliament such as the media or the public
• A different political party wins the election and they want to change things
• Change in policy of the party who is in govt

Question 13

Demonstrations - what is it

Answer 13

Gathering of a group of people to try to influence government policy/legislation
There might be speeches, marches, chanting,

There are many different forms of demonstrations
- marches.
- Protests
- petitions.
etc

Question 14

Demonstrations – what is it purpose/why do they happen

Answer 14

To influence law makers to give them what the people want

Question 15

Strengths and weaknesses of demonstrations

Answer 15

Strengths:
- Easy to organise
- Can gather new support
- Can attract a lot of media attention

Weaknesses:
- If it gets violent it can also attract negative attention
- Parliament can easily just not listen
- It may be hard to gather a lot of attention as people have to physically make an effort to attend

Question 16

Strengths and weaknesses of the balance of power

Answer 16

Strengths:
- It means the government does not have too much power
- The views of more members of the community and members of parliament are represented rather then just a singular party

Weaknesses:
- The party in charge might not actually get to do what they want as the minorities may outvote them
- It is not very democratic because the parties who hold the balance of power hold a lot of power even thought they didnt get many votes

Question 17

What does balance of power mean

Answer 17

Balance of power refers to the position held by minor parties or individual members of parliament when their vote is necessary for bills or motions to be passed.

Without their support, the government cannot get enough votes to pass bills

Question 18

Balance of power
Victoria – Legislative Council

Answer 18

In the lower house in Victoria the ALP (Australian Labour Party) has 56/88 so it already has majority for all votes however in the upper house it is 6 short of majority so it relies on the smaller parties to get them enough votes.

Therefore in the upper house in Victoria the minor parties hold the balance of power because the government does not already have majority.

Question 19

balance of power
Australia – Senate

Answer 19

In the lower house the government already has majority so the minor parties don’t hold the balance of power however in the Senate the minor parties hold the balance of power as the government needs them to get majority votes.

Question 20

What does the balance of power do for minor parties

Answer 20

It gives the minor parties a lot of power

Often government will promise the minor parties things in return of giving them their vote like a promise to support cause that that party wants.

Question 21

Why do we need the Victorian Law Reform Commission (VLRC)

Answer 21

Members of parliament do not know everything about everything

Sometimes, there are topics where they know they wanna change the existing law – they know that a new or updated law is needed - but they do not know what the new law should look like so this is where the VLRC is used.

Question 22

Process used by VLRC

Answer 22

Parliament thinks we need new laws on a topic

Parliament does not know exactly what the new laws should look like

It can ask the VLRC to investigate the topic and make recommendations

The VLRC does a lot of research then makes recommendation to the Attorney General

Attorney General has to share VLRC’s thoughts with Parliament
Parliament then debates whether to accept the VLRC’s recommendations – or to do something else

Question 23

Role of VLRC

Answer 23

Make recommendations to Parliament on major areas of law referred to them by the Attorney-General
- They cannot research these major topics unless asked to

Make recommendations to Parliament on minor areas of law reform
- VLRC can research smaller topics whenever they want to

Question 24

Limitations of the VLRC

Answer 24

• They CANNOT ever change laws as they are not the government
• The government does not have to listen to their suggestions. They are only suggestions and do not have to be followed
• They cannot do research about major topics unless requested to by a member of parliament