Parliamentary government means that the executive government comes from parliament; Good governance means that the executive government is accountable to parliament. This is the central feature of a Westminster-style government that follows the model of the United Kingdom – unlike other systems of government where executive power is quite distinct and not directly subordinate to the legislature – for example, in the United States of America. The Australian legal system has several forms. It includes a written constitution, unwritten constitutional conventions, statutes, ordinances and the common law system established by the courts. Its legal institutions and traditions are essentially derived from those of the English legal system. [1] Australia is a common law jurisdiction whose judicial system has its origins in the common law system of English law. The common law of the land is applied uniformly in all states (subject to expansion by law). [2] Prior to colonization, the only legal systems that existed in Australia were the various customary law systems of Indigenous Australians. Indigenous legal systems were deliberately ignored by the colonial legal system and were only partially recognized as legally important by Australian courts in the post-colonial era. [5] A system of government is the structure and systems by which a country is governed. Australia is a democratic country with a mixed system of government. The Constitution can only be amended by national referendum, a provision based on the Swiss cantonal system.
A system of government is the structure by which a country is governed. Some examples are democracy, communism, dictatorship, monarchy and republic. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed by the Federation of Independent Colonies (which later became states). That is why we call the creation of the Commonwealth a « federation » and our system of government in Australia a « federal » system. In a federal system of government, power is divided between the federal government and the governments of each state or territory. The Australian Constitution establishes a federal system of government. There is a national legislature with the power to pass laws of superior force on a number of explicit matters. [3] States are separate jurisdictions with their own system of courts and parliaments and have powers.
Some Australian territories such as the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory have been given a regional Commonwealth legislature. Legislative and executive functions overlap with parliamentary government, as members of the executive government – ministers – come from parliament. In the Australian system, however, there are still checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches – ministers are subject to the scrutiny of other members of parliament, led by an officially recognised opposition. Moreover, the executive does not necessarily control both houses of Parliament (see below). The Australian colonies were merged into the Commonwealth in 1901. To do this, the British Parliament issued a written constitution, which was drafted by Australian settlers. The document was influenced by the constitutional systems of Great Britain, the United States and Switzerland. [18] [19] The Australian system of government is based on the British Westminster system. We are all involved in the Australian legal system because it regulates what we can and cannot do as members of the Australian community, and because we elect those who make the laws: full legislative independence was finally established by the Australia Act 1986, which was passed by the UK Parliament. It eliminated the possibility of legislating with the consent and request of a dominion and applied to both the states and the Commonwealth.
It also provided for the complete abolition of appeals to the Privy Council by any Australian court. The Australia Act represented an important symbolic break with Britain, underscored by Queen Elizabeth II`s visit to Australia to sign the bill in her legally distinct capacity as Queen of Australia. While the government, by definition, has the support of a majority of members in the House of Representatives, the electoral system used for senatorial elections offers greater opportunities for minority and independent parties, and the government often does not have a majority in the Senate. Neither the Prime Minister nor the Cabinet are mentioned in the Constitution – the framers of the Constitution took their existence for granted, as did the various conventions of the Westminster system of government inherited from the UK. A country can choose to change its system of government. For example, India, Fiji and Ireland were constitutional monarchies, but are now republics with a president at the head of state. Australia`s system of government is based on the rule of law. This means that everyone must obey the law; that no one, no matter how important or powerful, is above the law.
This means that the law applies not only to citizens, but also to organizations and individuals within government, including the prime minister, heads of ministries and members of the armed forces. The same law that criminalizes stealing someone`s property applies to everyone. Another aspect of the rule of law is that no one can exercise powers other than those conferred on him by law. At the end of the 19th century, there was a movement towards a central government for the whole country. Representatives of the six colonies (New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia) met in the 1890s for a series of congresses to work on the formulation of a constitution. A referendum was held in each colony to approve the draft constitution. The Australian Constitution was passed as an Act of the British Parliament and came into force on 1 January 1901. The creation of the Australian Constitution in 1901 marked the beginning of an independent Australian legal system that is part of the Australian system of government. In addition to the text of the document, Australian constitutional law is influenced by the structure of the document. The division of the three branches of government into chapters is understood to establish a doctrine of separation of powers in Australia.
By 1824, the Acts of the British Parliament had created a judicial system based essentially on the English model. [13] The New South Wales Act of 1823 provided for the creation of a Supreme Court empowered to deal with all criminal and civil matters « as thoroughly and completely as the Court of King`s Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer of Westminster. » [13] Subordinate courts have also been established, including courts for general or quarterly meetings and courts for investigations. The manner in which power is divided is defined in the Constitution Act of the Commonwealth of Australia (United Kingdom) (the Constitution), 1900. Section 51 of the Constitution enumerates the powers of the federal government. State and territory governments have power over everything else within their borders, that is, everything not mentioned in section 51. [1] The Constitution is structured this way because the states came together to create the Commonwealth, and they agreed among themselves on the powers that the Commonwealth they created could exercise and the powers they would retain. The High Court is the supreme court of Australia. He has the final say in the judicial decision on all legal matters.
It hears appeals from all other courts in the country and has jurisdiction in the first instance. [4] The Constitution of Australia establishes the federal government by providing for parliament, the executive and the judiciary (more commonly known as the judiciary) – sometimes referred to as the « three branches of government ». However, some of the central features of Australia`s system of government (called parliamentary government or responsible government) are not set out in the constitution, but are based on customs and conventions.