hass exam study

Study Notes

Australia's system of government is based on democracy, with a constitutional monarch and three levels of government: federal, local, and state.
The Australian Constitution came into force on January 1, 1901, and is based on the British Westminster system.
The Commonwealth Parliament and all state parliaments except Queensland are bicameral, consisting of a lower house and an upper house.
The three arms of government in Australia are the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial, with a system of checks and balances to prevent excessive concentration of power.

The Legislative arm refers to the parliament's function to make new laws or change and remove existing ones.
The Commonwealth Parliament consists of the House of Representatives (lower house), the Senate (upper house), and the Crown (Governor-General).
Parliament is the supreme law maker.

The Executive arm administers the legislation passed by parliament.
Executive power officially lies with the Governor-General or the Governor, representing the Crown, but government ministers and the public service actually exercise this power.

The Judicial arm can declare laws passed by parliament as unconstitutional or require particular actions if they believe a branch of government is not performing a constitutional duty.

The voting system for the House of Representatives is called the preferential system.
To win a seat in the HOR, a candidate must get an absolute majority – half the number of formal votes plus one.

The Senate voting system is based on the proportion of the vote achieved by each party.
Candidates are elected according to the proportion of the vote achieved by their party.

The Republic of Indonesia was declared in 1945 following independence from Dutch colonial rule and Japanese wartime occupation.
The Constitution was written during the Japanese occupation at the end of World War II.
Indonesia's political transition to a democracy has been unstable since then.
The original constitution of 1945 was replaced by the federal constitution of 1949 and then the provisional constitution of 1950.
Indonesia's first election after independence was not held until 1955.
President Sukarno introduced a form of government called guided democracy in 1959 and dissolved the elected parliament.
The 1945 constitution of Indonesia was reintroduced, and Sukarno's successor, President Suharto, established an authoritarian regime called New Order.