Australia Government
is the
Commonwealth or Federal Government.
The Australian Parliament consists of two houses - the Senate, and the
House of Representatives.
The Senate is the "upper house" - with 76 senators - 12 from every state and territory.
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The House of Representatives is the "lower house" - with 150
'members of Parliament' - how many from each state and territory
depends of the size of the population.
Both senators and MPs
discuss matters of national importance, including laws, and are voted
by people. Not all the members of Parliament belong to a political
party, however most do.
The main political parties in Australia are the Liberals, the Labor, the Nationals and the Greens.
The Australia Government is formed after an election from the party (or
coalition of the parties) that has the majority of members in the House
of Representatives.
The leader of that party becomes the Prime Minister and s/he chooses
Senators and Members of Parliament to become Ministers.
The party with the second largest amount of members forms the Opposition. The
leader of that party
becomes the Leader of the Opposition.
The Federal Government
is responsible
for things like foreign affairs, defence, immigration and
citizenship, national economy, trade, taxation, social security,
employment, air safety and airports, and communication and postal
services.
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There are also the state/territory, and local governments. The state
and territory governments have similar structure to the Federal
Government. Local governments are the local councils.
State and territory
governments are
responsible for roads, railways and public transport,
police,
schools, hospitals and forestry.
Local governments are
responsible for
local roads, bridges and footpaths, traffic controls and street signs,
rubbish collection, building permits, libraries, playgrounds, parks and
swimming pools, social planning, halls and community centres,
libraries, drains, local environmental issues, some aged care and child
care issues, animal and noise control, meat and food inspection, and
camping grounds and caravan parks.
Note:
This site uses
British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will
find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all
correct in the language used in Australia.
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that all the information on this site is correct,
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