Parliament of Australia

The Australian Parliament or Commonwealth Parliament (English Parliament ), the legislative body of the Government of Australia. It is a bicameral parliament after the Westminster system, but with some additional influence on the model of the United States Congress. According to Section 1 of the Constitution of Australia, Parliament consists of three components: the Queen of Australia (which is in personal union with the Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth Realms ), the Australian Senate and the Australian House of Representatives. The Queen is here represented by the Governor General.

The lower house, the House of Representatives consists of 150 members, representing the various Australian electoral districts. This number is not fixed and may change along with changes in the electoral system from time to time. In the federal elections in 1984 saw the largest increase of members. The number of people's representatives participated in this year from 125 to 148. In the 1993 elections there were only 147, while it again in 1996 148 members. Since the federal elections in 2001, the number of deputies remained constant at 150 Each constituency (English: Division ) is represented by a deputy. In the Senate 76 members. Each State shall, twelve of them. There are also two members per each territory. The Senators are elected in the form of a single transferable vote. The representatives of both houses meet in different chambers of Parliament of the Parliament House in the capital Canberra. The present Parliament (as of 2008 ) is the 42nd Parliament since the founding of the Australian state in 1901.

History

The Commonwealth Parliament was opened in Melbourne on 9 May 1901. The only building in the whole of Melbourne, which was big enough for the 14,000 guests, was the Royal Exhibition Building. From 1901 to 1927, met in the Old Parliament House, borrowed from the Parliament of Victoria (which instead dodged to the Royal Exhibition Building ). On 9 May 1927, the Parliament moved to the new capital of Canberra. In an imagined only as a transitional building house the Australian Parliament finally met for over 60 years. The current Parliament House (Canberra ) was opened on 9 May 1988. Australia has the most fourth longest continuous still working democracy in the world.

Composition

Subsection 1 of the Australian Constitution states that the British Queen is a component of the Parliament. The Australian Governor-General, however, leads active as a representative of the British Crown, the political business days from. That will be appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister.

The upper house of the Australian Parliament is the Senate with 72 members. As the Senate of the United States, after whose it was created, the Senate has an equal number of members from each state, regardless of its population. The Constitution allows the Parliament to change the number of senators, but all six Australian states must be equally represented. Furthermore, it must be represented each founder state of at least six senators.

By 1949, each state could choose the constitutional minimum of six senators. From 1949, it was initially ten and twelve representatives of each State since 1984 have been permitted to be determined.

Parliament may determine the number of representatives in the House of Representatives. However, the number that should be at least twice the amount Senators under the Constitution. According to the Constitution, the House has 150 members. Each state gets seats according to population, each founding member at least five seats has safely. The Constitution is no representation of the territories is secured. In 1922 the Northern Territory was given a seat and the Capital Territory in 1948 also. This limited representation was only until 1968.

From 1901 to 1949, always 74 or 75 members in the house. Between 1949 and 1984 it had 121-127 members. Since 1984 the House of Commons had always 148-150 members.

Functions

The main function of Parliament is to pass laws. Any deputy or senator may introduce a bill, but this is usually done because of the weighting of ministers. To become law, proposals must pass both houses. The Senate can not issue tax laws, but they only choose or reject.

Privileges

The members of the Australian Parliament have no immunity. You can be punished just as any other Australian citizen. However, they have indemnity, which means they can not for the things they have said in Parliament itself, be prosecuted.