Australia's Multiculturalism and Government

• Australia has a multicultural population of over 26 million, with 30% born overseas, embracing diverse sports, religions, and values while striving for social cohesion.
• Social cohesion defined as the willingness of a community to live peacefully and cooperatively for mutual survival and prosperity.
• Australian laws are made by parliaments, which create and alter laws to reflect majority views, discuss community matters, examine societal problems, and review injustices.
• Parliaments are formal assemblies where elected representatives discuss political issues and make laws.

Australia's System of Government

• Australia operates under a federal parliamentary system where law-making is shared between a national parliament and state parliaments.

Principles of Australia’s Government

• The Australian parliamentary system is based on principles ensuring fairness and justice.
• Governments must protect individual rights and freedoms, reflect the people's views in laws, be accountable, and avoid abusing power.
• Australia's government operates as a liberal democracy, protecting basic human rights and freedoms that promote individual well-being.
• The government should not make excessive laws, with existing laws protecting freedom of speech and assembly while limiting offensive public behavior.
• Freedom of speech: The right to express views on political issues without government punishment, provided statements are not false, hateful, or harmful.
• Freedom of assembly: The right to gather peacefully to pursue a common goal.
• The Australian system is based on representative government, with elected officials making laws on behalf of the people.
• Federal parliament elections are every three years, and state/territory elections are every four years.
• Voting is compulsory for citizens over 18, with a fine of $85 for not enrolling.
• Responsible government ensures that the government is accountable to the people for its actions and decisions, requiring honesty and potential resignation for misconduct.
• Accountability is maintained through: Parliamentary Question Time, public letters/emails to local members, and resignation of dishonored politicians.
• Separation of powers prevents government abuse by ensuring no single body holds more than one of the three main government powers.
• Separation of powers entails that no single group in the parliamentary system can administer the law, make the law, and interpret and apply the law

The Three Main Powers

• Executive power: Administers and implements the law, held by the Governor General, Prime Minister, and senior ministers at the federal level.
• Legislative power: Makes the law, held by parliament.
• Judicial power: Interprets and applies the law, enabling courts to enforce laws and settle disputes.
• Benefits of an independent court system: impartial dispute resolution, freedom from political bias, and acting as a check on parliament to prevent abuse of power.
• Individuals can challenge laws in court if they believe parliament has abused its power; successful challenges can lead to a law being declared invalid.

History of Australia’s Commonwealth Parliament

• Upon the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the British colonists imposed their own laws and legal system, disregarding the established laws, rights, and responsibilities of Australia’s First Peoples.
• The system allowed each state to establish its own parliament mirroring the British Westminster system.
• The Westminster parliamentary system consists of one or two houses as well as the English monarch or ‘The Crown’.
• Australia has a bicameral parliament, consisting of two houses, as does every state excluding Queensland.
• The Crown is represented by: The Governor-General in the federal parliament and the ACT, the Governors in each of the state parliaments, and the Administrator in the Northern Territory.
• Bicameral: A system of government in which the legislature is made up of two houses.
• Problems arose between colonies due to different laws in common areas, leading to constitutional conventions to create a central Commonwealth Parliament.
• The Commonwealth Parliament was granted powers to legislate on national matters like defense, currency, postal services, overseas matters, immigration, and trade.
• Colonial parliaments retained powers over areas like hospitals, roads, education, public transport, water, and law enforcement.
• On January 1, 1901, the British Parliament passed the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900, uniting six colonies into one nation with a federal system.
• The Act created a Commonwealth Parliament, outlining its structure and law-making powers.
• According to the Australian Constitution: The Commonwealth Parliament consists of two houses and the Crown.
• The lower house is called the House of Representatives, and the upper house is called the Senate.

Structure of the Commonwealth Parliament

• All laws require approval by a majority in both houses and the Crown.
• The House of Representatives has 151 members elected for 3-year terms, the Senate has 76 members elected for 6-year terms, and the Governor-General is chosen by the government for a 5-year term.
• The House of Representatives consists of 151 members, each elected by voters in 151 electoral divisions.
• Electoral Divisions: A geographical area containing a specified number of people who can vote in an election.
• The House of Representatives decides the government, which is the party with an absolute majority; it also discusses, debates, and scrutinizes laws.
• The Senate has 76 members, with 12 from each state and 2 from each territory.
• It represents the interests of the states and reviews new laws, acting as a house of review for laws initiated in the lower house.
• The Crown is represented by the Governor-General, appointed by the Queen on the Prime Minister's advice.
• The Governor-General grants royal assessment for bills to become law, performs ceremonial duties, and may dissolve parliament and call elections if houses disagree on significant laws.

State and Territory Parliaments

• Each state has a lower house (Legislative Assembly or House of Assembly) and, except for Queensland, an upper house (Legislative Council).
• The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Northern Territory (NT) also have Legislative Assemblies.
• Each state employs a Governor to represent the crown excluding the ACT and NT, the ACT uses the Governor-General and the NT uses an Administrator.

Preferential Voting

• Voting occurs at all three levels of government: Local, State, and Federal.
• You vote to elect members into both houses for federal government.
• The people of each state and territory vote for their members in both the state/territory government.
• Residents/property owners vote for their representatives to the local council.
• When electing members to the House of Representatives, voters use a green ballot paper, ranking candidates in order of preference from 1-8; all boxes must be numbered for the vote to count.
• Winning a seat requires absolute majority; if no candidate achieves this with first preferences, subsequent preferences are counted.
• Absolute majority: Half of the formal votes, plus one
• When voting for the Senate, you must vote either above or below the line:
• Above the line: You must number at least six boxes 1-6
• Below the line: You must number at least 12 boxes
• Winning a seat requires achieving a set proportion of votes, known as proportional representation.
• Proportional representation: Parties, groups and independent candidates are elected to the Parliament in proportion to the number of votes they receive.

First Past the Post Voting

• Elects a candidate who simply receives the most amount of votes.
• Preferential voting is fairer than first past the post because it requires candidates to secure 50% of the total votes, not just receive the most votes, enabling smaller parties to succeed and better representing the people’s values.

Maintaining Fair Elections

• State, territory, and federal electoral commissions ensure elections are free, fair, and comply with the law.
• The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) manages federal elections and maintains the Commonwealth electoral roll.
• The AEC ensures all eligible voters can cast their vote in secret, each citizen votes only once, and each vote has equal value.
• Voting takes place at polling booths on election day, early voting stations, or via postal votes.
• The AEC is responsible for ensuring an honest vote count.

Roles of Government Officials

• Main roles of the Prime Minister: Selects members of government to be ministers, leads the cabinet, chairs meetings, acts as chief spokesperson, represents Australia overseas, and advises the Governor-General.
• The Cabinet is the top decision-making body, comprising the prime minister and 20 senior ministers, responsible for developing policy and addressing national issues.
• In Cabinet meetings, ministers can: Discuss their plans to take action on issues - policies, come up with solutions to national problems, and present bills, recommending whether they should be introduced to parliament.
• The Opposition's role is to hold the cabinet and prime minister accountable by scrutinizing the government's work, asking for explanations of actions, debating bills, working on committees, and providing alternative policies.
• Opposition: The largest party or coalition of parties that does not have majority support in the House of representatives.
• The Crossbench consists of independent senators and members and members of minor parties, allows members to take part in debates, introduce bills, and make individual decisions on how to vote.
• The role of the UN, according to the UN is: maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, cooperate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for human rights, and be a centre for harmonising the actions of nations.
• The UN has 193 member states.
• Australia actively collaborates: Human Rights, Health, Humanitarian issues, Migration, and the Environment.
• The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is the main policy-making organ and is comprised of all member states.
• Every one of the UN's 193 member countries gets an equal vote.