Legislature
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Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government
The Commonwealth Parliament comprises two separate chambers:
- the House of Representatives ('lower house')
- the Senate ('upper house')
Australia's national government is formed by the party which controls the lower house of Parliament following each Federal election.
The House of Representatives comprises 150 members (five elected from Tasmania). The Senate functions as Australia's house of review. It comprises 76 members: 12 from each State and 2 from each Territory.
Under the Constitution, the reigning British monarch is also the Australian monarch, and is therefore Australia's Head of State. The Constitution grants the monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, certain governing powers.
Because of the distance between Australia and Britain, the Queen is permitted to appoint a Governor-General who can exercise the Queen's powers in her absence. The Queen appoints the Governor-General on the advice of the Prime Minister.
The Governor-General's duties are mainly ceremonial but include:
- dissolving Parliament and issuing writs for new elections
- commissioning the Prime Minister and appointing other Ministers after elections
- giving assent to laws when they have been passed by the two Houses of Parliament
- acting on the advice of Ministers through the Executive Council to issue Regulations and proclamations under existing laws
- appointing Federal judges, ambassadors and high commissioners to overseas countries and other senior government officials
- authorising many other executive decisions by Ministers such as raising government loans or approving treaties with foreign governments.
Commonwealth legislation covers a variety of subject matter, including taxation, aviation, copyright, privacy, patents, trademarks, intellectual property, family law and trade practices.
There are more than 1500 Federal Acts and around 1000 Federal Statutory Rules (including Regulations) currently in force.
If the laws of a state ever conflict with the laws of the Commonwealth, the Constitution says that Commonwealth law is to be followed.
This page - http://www.iris.tas.gov.au/governance/federal_governance/legislature - was last published on
24th October 2008 by the Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources, State of Tasmania. Questions concerning this site or its content can be submitted via the feedback form, by mail to GPO Box 936, Hobart, TAS, Australia, 7001 or by phoning +61 3 6233 5168.
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