The Parliament can set up a parliamentary committee to examine a current issue. If the issue requires action, the committee may suggest that a bill be introduced.
History The law-making process used in the Australian Parliament comes from the practices of the British Parliament, developed over many centuries. The usual path of a bill. Parliamentary Education Office peo.
In the House of Representatives a bill goes through the following stages: 1st reading—the bill is introduced to the House of Representatives. House committee optional stage —public inquiry into the bill and reporting back to the House.
Consideration in detail optional stage —members discuss the bill in detail, including any changes to the bill. The bill is passed in the House of Representatives and sent to the Senate. In the Senate a bill goes through the following stages: 1st reading—the bill is introduced to the Senate. Senate committee optional stage —public inquiry into the bill and reporting back to the Senate. Committee of the whole optional stage —senators discuss the bill in detail, including any changes to the bill.
The bill is passed in the Senate. The bill becomes an Act of Parliament—a law for Australia. You are free to share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work. Non-commercial — you may not use this work for commercial purposes. Unfortunately, many Australians never attempt to use the democratic power they have. Not everyone has the opportunity to learn about politics at school, so it is easy to make it to voting age without fully understanding how elections work, how laws are made or how Parliament operates.
The following pages are designed to help you understand the basics and find answers to your questions. The boundaries of every electorate are carefully mapped out to ensure that each one contains roughly the same number of voters.
This means that a state which has more people living in it, such as New South Wales, will also have more electorates and more MPs in the House of Representatives. This is very important to ensure that the vote of every Australian is given the same value. Your local MP is the person elected to represent the area you live in. They are your direct link to the Federal Parliament and travels to Canberra whenever Parliament sits, which is around 20 weeks a year.
While the government has, by definition, the support of a majority of Members in the House of Representatives, the system of voting used for Senate elections gives greater opportunity to minority parties and independents, and the government often does not have majority support in the Senate.
The Executive Government. Constitutional provisions. The Executive Government in practice. In reality, the executive power is possessed by the Prime Minister and Cabinet senior Ministers. Their power derives:. Neither the Prime Minister nor the Cabinet are mentioned in the Constitution—the framers of the Constitution took their existence for granted, as they did the various conventions of the Westminster system of government inherited from the United Kingdom. Table 1 below gives a comparison of the constitutional provisions and the actual practice according to the conventions which have operated in Australia.
Composition of the Ministry. The Prime Minister is the head of the government. They achieve this position by being the elected leader of the party in government in the case of a coalition government, the major party. Major policy and legislative proposals are decided by the Cabinet.
The Prime Minister selects Ministers for Cabinet positions. Ministers are selected by the Prime Minister. Legislation currently allows for up to 30 Ministers. About 20 or so senior Ministers administer the major departments and are, usually, members of Cabinet.
Other Ministers are responsible for particular areas of administration within a major department, or may be in charge of a small department. Ministers are appointed from both Houses of Parliament, although most about two thirds are Members of the House of Representatives.
Up to 12 Members and Senators are appointed by the Prime Minister as Parliamentary Secretaries also referred to as Assistant Ministers to assist or represent Ministers in their administrative responsibilities. The role of the Governor-General. The Governor-General performs the ceremonial functions of head of state on behalf of the Queen. The Governor-General also has executive powers under many Acts of Parliament—for example, the power to proclaim legislation that is, bring it into effect and to make regulations and other kinds of delegated legislation that is, legislative powers that the Parliament has delegated to the Executive Government.
Most of the executive actions taken by the Governor-General are of this kind. In practice, except when reserve powers are involved—see below—these functions are exercised as advised by the Prime Minister and Ministers.
In some matters the Constitution gives the Governor-General powers to act independently. These include the power to dissolve the House of Representatives and, in certain situations, both Houses see Infosheet No. However, in other than exceptional circumstances, the Governor-General will follow the advice of a Prime Minister who retains the confidence of the House. Constitutional experts do not agree on their precise extent or on the nature of the exceptional circumstances in which they may be exercised.
The Federal Executive Council. The Federal Executive Council is the constitutional mechanism for providing ministerial advice to the Governor-General. It is not a forum for policy debate or deliberation and its proceedings are entirely formal. In practice the minimum number of Ministers or Parliamentary Secretaries that is, two in addition to the person presiding are rostered to attend. Meetings of the Council are presided over by the Governor-General or a deputy appointed by the Governor-General usually the Minister with the title Vice President of the Executive Council.
Law-making To make or change a law, a bill must be introduced into the Parliament. Bills and legislation Parliamentary committees Parliamentary committees investigate specific matters of policy or government administration or performance. Committees Senate Brief no. Senators and members Formation of government The Parliament forms government from the party or coalition of parties which achieve a majority in the House of Representatives following a federal election.
Executive government The Prime Minister is appointed by the Governor-General, who by convention under the Constitution, must appoint the parliamentary leader of the party, or coalition of parties, which has a majority of seats in the House of Representatives. Parliamentary Education Office - Government Checking the work of the government The Parliament scrutinises the work of the government in several ways: investigating bills in debates and committees reviewing government decisions participating in Senate estimates hearings to investigate government expenditure questioning the government during question time in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The Governor-General The Governor-General is appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister and performs a large number of functions which are defined by the Constitution. Governor-General's website.
The Constitution A constitution is a set of rules by which a country or state is governed. Federation Federation is the name given to the union of the six self-governing colonies of Australia on 1 January , to form one nation as a union of states under a central authority.
Elections The essence of a parliamentary democracy is that citizens elect representatives to make laws on their behalf. Australian Electoral Commission Senate Brief no. What is Parliament? Parliament House Calendar. Month view Week view November Previous Next.
0コメント