Commonwealth

About Parliament | History | Commonwealth symbols | Chartist checkbox | Did you know?

About Parliament

• Under the Australian Constitution, the Commonwealth Parliament has the power to make laws for all Australians. The Parliament consists of the British monarch, represented by the Governor-General, and two Houses: the Upper House and the Lower House.
• The Upper House is called the Senate. The Lower House is the House of Representatives. Proposed laws, known as Bills, have to be passed by both Houses and assented to by the Governor-General before they can become laws, or Acts of Parliament.
• Both Houses of Parliament have to agree to all terms of a Bill before it can become law. The Senate has almost the same power to make laws as the House of Representatives, except that it cannot initiate or amend Money Bills, the laws which allow the government to collect taxes and spend money on policies and programs.
• Currently the House of Representatives has 150 Members. Members are elected for a term of up to three years.
• The House of Representatives is also known as the 'House of Government'. This is because the party or coalition that holds the most seats in this House forms the Government.
• The Senate has 76 Senators - 12 elected from each of six States and two each from the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. State Senators are elected for a fixed six-year term; Territory Senators for three-year terms. Half the membership of the Senate is replaced on 1 July every three years.
• Historically, the Senate has been regarded as the States' House. Unlike the House of Representatives, the Senate allows the States equal representation regardless of their population. For this reason, State matters continue to be important to Senators.
• Federal elections are held at least every three years. The voting systems used to elect the House of Representatives and the Senate are both preferential systems. But for the Senate, this is combined with a proportional representation system because, unlike the single member House of Representatives electorates, the Senate electorates (the States and Territories) constitute multimember electorates.
• All Australian citizens who are aged 18 years or older are eligible to enrol as voters and their names are then listed on the electoral roll. There are only a few groups of citizens who are not eligible to enrol, such as persons of 'an unsound mind' or people serving prison sentences for serious crimes.
• According to the law, all people who are eligible to enrol must do so and voting is compulsory for all people listed on the electoral roll. People who are enrolled but do not vote may be fined.

History

• Australia did not always exist as a united nation. From 1788 until the 1850s, Australia's six colonies were ruled by British governors. These governors had far-reaching powers and were responsible only to the British government.
• Not everyone was happy that only one man in each colony - the governor - should have all the power to govern and make laws. From the 1820s, colonists such as William Wentworth began to speak out against the power of the governors and campaigned for the introduction of representative government.
• In the 1850s, the British Parliament passed the Australian Colonies Government Act and began granting the Australian colonies independent government with separate colonial parliaments elected by the people.
• During the late 1800s, many of the colonies' leading political figures began to argue for federation. They wanted the colonial governments to be united by a national government to form a single nation. The idea of creating a single national parliament was spurred on by issues such as immigration, defence and a growing sense of national identity.
• During the 1890s, a number of conventions were held to work out the details of the new system of government. In 1901, the six separate colonies were finally federated to form the Commonwealth of Australia.

Commonwealth symbols

Australia has no official bird or animal emblem. However, because of their association with the Coat of Arms, the emu and the kangaroo are traditionally seen as national symbols. The kangaroo and emu are especially symbolic of an 'advancing' Australia, as it is said that neither animal is able to take a backward step.

Used with permission of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.	The Commonwealth Coat of Arms was granted in 1912 by King George V of England. It shows a kangaroo and an emu holding a shield which contains the badges of the six Australian States. The shield has an ermine border, which represents federation bringing the States together. The crest of the Coat of Arms is a blue and gold wreath topped by a seven-pointed star called the Commonwealth Star. This star represents the federation of Australia's colonies in 1901 and has one point for each of the six original States and one for all of the territories. The Coat of Arms is usually shown with a decoration of wattle branches and a scroll bearing the word ‘Australia’, although these are not an official part of the Arms.
	The Australian flag consists of the British Union Flag and six stars on a blue background. The five stars to the right of the Union Flag represent the Southern Cross, a constellation visible in the southern hemisphere. The Commonwealth Star appears on the left, beneath the Union Flag. The flag differs slightly from the original design which was the result of a nationwide competition held in 1901. In 1903, the design was changed so that all but the smallest star in the Southern Cross had seven points and in 1908 the number of points on the Commonwealth Star was increased to seven following Australia's acquisition of the Territory of Papua in 1906. The number of points on the Commonwealth remained at seven when the Northern Territory and the ACT were made Federal Territories in 1911. Throughout this period there were two versions of the flag – the blue version was reserved for official government use and there was a red one for use by the general public. The blue flag now in use did not become the official national flag until the Flags Act was passed by Parliament in 1953. This Act was given the personal assent of Queen Elizabeth II on 15 April 1954.
	The Wattle became the national Flower Emblem in August 1988.
	Australia adopted green and gold as its national colours in 1984. Before that time, Australia had no official colours although green and gold had been worn by Australian Olympic teams since 1912.
© AUSPIC	The Federal Parliament House Canberra was opened in 1989. Sited on Capital Hill at Canberra's centre, it is a striking symbol of Australian democracy. Its materials are drawn from all over Australia and its design, from the Aboriginal mosaic in the forecourt to the eucalypt colours inside, represents the Australian landscape and culture.

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Commonwealth of Australia (formed 1901)

Did you know?

• Women were granted the vote for the Commonwealth Parliament in 1902.
• All Indigenous people were granted the right to vote for the Commonwealth Parliament in 1962, even those who could not attain that right in their respective States.
• The House of Representatives is sometimes known as 'the People's House'. This is a reference to its role as a place where the views and wishes of the Australian people can be heard and put into action. Each of the House's 150 Members represents a single electoral division. Each division contains roughly the same number of voters. This means that all Australia's voters are represented equally in the House of Representatives.
• Because of Australia's uneven population distribution, electoral divisions for the House of Representatives differ greatly in area. The smallest electorate, only 26 sq km, is Wentworth in New South Wales. The largest electorate is Kalgoorlie in Western Australia which is over 2.2 million sq km.
• Sometimes the Senate and the House of Representatives cannot reach agreement on the terms of a Bill, which may result in a double dissolution of parliament. This means that the Prime Minister calls upon the Governor-General to disband, or dissolve, both Houses of Parliament at the same time.
• The number of representatives that each State and Territory is allowed in the House of Representatives is determined by their population, but States are guaranteed a minimum of five Members in the House of Representatives.
• The Australian Head of State is the British monarch who appoints the Governor-General as his or her representative. The Governor-General is appointed by the monarch on advice from the Prime Minister.
• One of the Governor-General's constitutional and statutory tasks is to give the Royal Assent to Bills which have been passed by both Houses of Parliament. This must be done before a Bill can become law.
• The Prime Minister is assisted by a group of senior Government Ministers who make up the Cabinet.