1. The Australian Parliamentary System- Part TWO
Legal Studies JEDWARDS

2. Introduction...
The Parliament of Victoria consists of two houses and the Governor as the Queens representative in Victoria. The Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the Victorian Parliament and comprises 88 members (elected for four-year terms), who represent people in their electorates.
Victorian Constitution Act outlined structure and powers of Victorians Parliament. Changed in 1975 to pass its own Constitutional Act, which replaced the British act.

3. Coalition...
The party or coalition that has a majority of members in the LA is known as the government and the leader of the government is known as the premier.

4. Legislative Assembly Lower House in the Victorian Parliament
Made up of 88 elected members- each member represents one Victorian electorate.
Tim McCurdy (spelling!!)
Each MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) is elected for four years.

5. Legislative Council Upper house in the Victorian Parliament
There are 40 elected members (MLC)- five members from each of eight different regions
The Legisliatve Council acts as a house of review for legislation coming from the lower house.

6. Fill in the table... VICTORIAN PARLIAMENT COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENT
Name of the lower house and number of members
Name of upper house and number of members
Queens Representative
Leader of the government
Period between elections

7. Answers VICTORIAN PARLIAMENT COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENT
Name of the lower house and number of members
Legislative Assembly
88 members
House of Representatives
150 members
Name of upper house and number of members
Legislative Council
40 members elected every four years
Senate
76 members elected every six years
Queens Representative
Governor
Governor-General
Leader of the government
Premier
Prime Minister
Period between elections
Four years
Three Years

8. Principals of the Australian Parliamentary system
Commonwealth of Australia Constitutional Act (1900)
Federation (1st Jan 1901) Six Colonies form a federation
Crown and Bicameral parliamentary system
Governor General, Senate (upper House), House of Representatives (Lower House)
Separation of powers
Executive (the business of Government), Legislature (Parliament), Judiciary (Courts)
Representative Government
Members of Parliament are elected by the people and represent their interests and values
Responsible Government
Parliamentarians must act in a responsible manner or resign from office

9. Representative Government
A fundamental aspect of the Australian Parliamentary system is the principal of representative government.
This means that the government must represent the concerns and expectations of the people who voted them in at the last election.
Any government that fails to represent the needs for the people will generally be voted out of offive at the next election.

10. Responsible Government
Responsible Government is a chain of accountability for the executive to the parliament to the people.
The government and parliament must both be accountable for how they use their power
The people keep the parliament accountable through elections
The parliament keeps the government accountable through question time, when members of parliament can question Government ministers about their actions and their departments
We have responsible government to make sure that the government and parliament don’t abuse their power.

11. The Separation of Powers
The constitution contains a model of how Australia is to be governed.
The powers of government in a parliamentary democracy are separated between the legislature (Parliament), the executive (the government) and the judiciary (the Courts). This is called the separation of powers.

12. Think of the Separation of powers like a tree with three branches (the executive branch, the legislature branch and the judiciary branch). In order for the tree to grow straight and tall, no one branch should be allowed to grow out of control, leading the tree to fall over.

13. Checks and balances??
Our parliamentary systems is set up in a similar way, so that each branch balances the others power through a system of checks and balances.

14. EXAMPLE
The government (executive) must obtain approval from the parliament before prospective legislation is enacted ad, in this way ‘checks’ the power of the government on the day so that the system (or tree) remains balanced.
Another way in which the system of checks and balances works is the requirement that the Governor-General gives royal assent to bills approved by Parliament (the Governor-General must sign any bill before it can become law).

15. ROLE OF THE CROWN! Role of the Crown The Governor- General
Acting of advice of Parliament
The Governor General gives royal assent to Bills that have passed both houses of Parliament to make them Law.
Acting of advice of the Prime Minister
The Governor-General is head of the executive, and so will do things like appoint ministers and approve delegated legislation on advice of the PM.
Doesn’t need advice to Act
Reserve powers are the only powers that hte Governor-General can exercise without being told to. These powers include dismissing a prime minister who has lost support of the lower house of Parliament

16. KEEPING UP WITH THE NEWS- HOMEWORK
Find ONE current article on an issue which concerns state or federal law
Not a crime report or a court report
An issue – eg a proposed change to the law, or community concern about the efficacy of a law
PRINT your article
Write down:
Author, source, date.
Federal or State?
Summarise the issue in 2-3 sentences.