The Liberal Democracy In The Australian Parliamentary System

The role of the minor parties within the Australian political system can be as their title suggests, quite minor. On the other hand, a minor party can influence the political proceedings of this country in more ways than one. Minor parties can highlight socio-economic problems that quite often fly under the radar of the larger political parties, or simply can broaden electoral debate. Often spawning from a social, or in the case of the Greens, an environmental movement, minor parties tend to only last through one election, due to a lack of support and relevance in the mainstream social fabric. The minor parties can become crucial players come election time, due to Australia’s law of Compulsory preferential voting. Jaensch (1983, p.21)

As the Prime Minister of Australia, it is my duty to present my democratic nation with their elected desires. The current issue is concerning the movement of Australia’s governing system from a constitutional monarchy to a republic. I believe that Australia should become a republic, as our sunburnt country has overtime developed culturally and democratically since 1901 when we become the Commonwealth of Australia, and started living under the ruling of Queen Elizabeth the Second. We have created a place that is in no way similar to the British Empire. As Australians we respect and acknowledge the traditional owners of our land, the Aborigines. Over time, it seems as though we have taken this country out of their hands and handed it to the

Australia’s current political system is a Constitutional Monarchy. A constitutional monarchy requires that a hereditary monarch is appointed as the head of state. The monarch in a constitutional monarchy has got a largely a figurative and official role than a practical one. In this current system, the responsibility to pass legislation is tasked only to the democratically elected parliament. In Australia’s case, the hereditary monarch Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of Australia and the Head of the Commonwealth, of which Australia is a part of. The position held by Her Majesty, cannot be contested by an election like the Prime Ministers, however it is a birth right of those in her lineage. Due to the exclusivity of the position as the hereditary

A representative of democracy is the system of government in Australia. This means that every citizen can vote for their representative to take their place as government. When Australia was federated in 1901 the democracy system was established. The rules have were changed since the Constitution was first used in 1901. These changes had a huge impact on how Australians live and how they are treated.

Where there are problems, they are often with the way the Australian federal system operates, rather than with federalism itself. Rather than criticising our federal system, we should be working to make better use of its advantages
in order to improve our prosperity. In particular, the reform of the allocation of powers and responsibilities between the Commonwealth and the States, and reform of fiscal federalism, are desperately needed. (Twomey and Withers, 2007)

The political system used within Australia should be that of an aristocracy. This is superior to that of the democratic society we live. Today I shall be discussing what an aristocracy is and why it is superior to other political systems. Some issues being addressed are the values of equality, despite the classes within an aristocracy and the rights for the upper class or rulers of their society to be just and uphold the idea of society as a whole opposed to that of a democracy where individuals are favoured. This is followed by the cons of the other political systems and lastly the military and defence, which is presented in an aristocratic society.

The Australian government system has been originally created in 1901 through the Constitution. With the fundamentals carved in the Constitution, the Australian System is often referred to as a ‘Washminster System’ as it is a hybrid of the Washington (US) and Westminster (UK) system of government. With the fusion of North America and the United Kingdom’s government systems, the phenomenon of the bicameral system was implemented in the Australian system. Bicameralism’s origins are from England and it was later established in the United States. Hence, the onset of the Australian system’s structures was anglocentric by reflecting the foundations and concepts of England. However, the concept of bicameralism is known to have existed since medieval times and has since been in the chronical of the Western political progress for centuries. Bicameralism is an important system in the Australian government. It refers to a government which consists of two chambers, or houses. Alike North America, the houses are known as the House of Representatives (the lower house) and the Senate (the upper house). On the other hand, in the United Kingdom, the chambers are known as the ‘House of Commons’ (the lower house) and the ‘House of Lords’ (the upper house). In 1789, North America altered their constitution in order to ratify how the American citizens were represented. Through bicameralism, the House of Representative would represent the people equally by population, whereas the Senate would

The main parties of Australia are: the Labour Party, Liberal Party, National Party, and the Australian Democrats; these parties are voted in through a preferential system of voting (“Australia’s Political Structure,” 2011). All citizens over the age of 18 are required to vote for these parties because of compulsory voting (adopted in 1924). Australia followed many other democracies on there decision to implement compulsory voting during the 1920s. However, the country unusually added mandatory voting without other previsions (Birch, 2009). Australia was able to do so because of several strong factors supporting the measure.

Good morning everyone. Today I will be covering David Docherty’s book Legislatures. The work covers various aspects of the functions, procedures and evolution of Canadian legislatures, both provincial and federal. The analysis undertaken by Docherty, as expressed in his own words, constitutes an audit of the existing legislatures and their procedures as they have historically operated as well as in their modern iterations.

The Senate (Upper house) was designed by the founders to act as a reviewer or sometimes even just a ‘rubber stamp’ if the elected government has an overwhelming majority in both the Upper and Lower houses. The founders had given the Senate the power to reject a government’s budget all together, but it had never been used. The Opposition was using this alleged power to reject the government’s budgets; not because they objected to it, they only wanted the elected government to essentially run out of money and be forced to hold an election. These actions questioned the functioning of the Lower and Upper houses and endangered the structure of responsible government in Australian politics. Whitlam argued that the Senate did not have the power to stop a government from running the country and make them face the people. The Opposition said this power existed in the Constitution and ‘interpreted’ that it then must be alright for them to use it. Whitlam stated that by using this power the Opposition was breaking a tradition, a convention, which must be adhered to if there was any hope for a responsible Senate and

Australia is a Representative Democracy, which is an electoral system where the public gets to choose who represents them in both houses of parliament, the House of Representatives and the Senate. The people elect the candidates to which they would like to see who puts forward their interests and concerns. Those elected meet in parliament to discuss and make laws on behalf of the whole community. A translation of democracy means ‘the power of the people’ which comes from an ancient Greek and philosophical term. As a democracy, Australia has their own values and principles that are protected by the constitution and the law.

Since 1867, the parliamentary precinct has been the heart of Canada’s democracy. In parliament, issues of the day are examined, the government is held accountable, and policies and laws are decided upon. After attending a question period and a parliamentary committee meeting, the importance of parliament to Canadian governance became more evident as Canada’s history and future can been seen on Parliament Hill.

The constitution holds the power of deciding how fair and just the society is for Australian citizens by stating what the parliament can do. “The Constitution was approved by a vote of the people in referendums” (Parliamentary Education Office) and so the Constitution can decide how fair and just the society can be. The parliament decides most major government decisions, but “the executive power of the Commonwealth is vested in the Queen” (Constitution Act, Chapter II). That makes Australia a constitutional monarchy, where a royal family in control, but a government still exists.

In order to thoroughly answer the question I will firstly start off by stating what the theory of pluralism entails by discussing the pluralist views of power. Secondly, I will highlight the characteristics of pluralism within Australia’s democratic society and prevalence of such characteristics to the distribution of political power in Australia. Thirdly I will discuss the major limitations and critiques of the pluralist theory to the distribution of political power in Australia. I will then conclude with the role that pluralism is likely to play in the distribution of power within Australia’s political future.

The Australian system of government is a federal system incorporating characteristics of both the British system and that of the United States. The Australian Constitution provides for a Westminster type parliament, an upper house (Senate) and