Politics of Australia

The politics of Australia take place within the framework of a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system under its Constitution, one of the world's oldest, since Federation in 1901. Australia is the world's sixth oldest continuous democracy and largely operates as a two-party system in which voting is compulsory. Australia is also a federation, where power is divided between the federal government and the states and territories.

The federal government is separated into three branches:

File:Au_gov_chart.svg, center, 640px, Structure of the Government of Australia, alt=A high level diagram of the structure of the Government of Australia, the three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial.
rect 575 6 1175 56 Constitution of Australia

rect 575 191 1175 241 Governor General of Australia
rect 725 341 1025 391 Executive Branch
rect 1325 341 1625 391 Judicial Branch

rect 25 491 525 541 Parliament of Australia

rect 25 542 275 642 House of Representatives
rect 275 542 525 642 Senate

rect 625 491 1125 541 Federal Executive Council
rect 625 542 875 642 Current Ministers
rect 875 542 1125 642 Previous Ministers

rect 1225 491 1725 541 High Court of Australia

rect 623 743 873 843 Government Departments

rect 1225 642 1725 692 Other federal courts

* Legislature: the bicameral Parliament, defined in section1 of the constitution as comprising the monarch (represented by the governor-general), the Senate, and the House of Representatives;
* Executive: the Federal Executive Council, which in practice gives legal effect to the decisions of the cabinet, comprising the prime minister and ministers of state who advise the governor-general;
* Judiciary: the High Court of Australia and other federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the governor-general on advice of the Federal Executive Council.

The Australian system of government combines elements derived from the political systems of the United Kingdom ( fused executive, constitutional monarchy) and the United States (federalism, written constitution, strong bicameralism), along with distinctive indigenous features, and has therefore been characterised as a "Washminster mutation".

Legislative

The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, and has been influenced both by the Westminster system and United States federalism. Under Section 1 of the Constitution of Australia, Parliament consists of three components: the Monarch, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.

The Australian House of Representatives has 151 members, each elected for a flexible term of office not exceeding three years, to represent a single electoral division, commonly referred to as an electorate or seat. Voting within each electorate utilises the instant-runoff system of preferential voting, which has its origins in Australia. The party or coalition of parties which commands the confidence of a majority of members of the House of Representatives forms government; a party or coalition with a majority of seats may therefore form government in their own right, while those with a minority of seats must maintain confidence and supply from others such as independents and minor party members. The second-largest party or coalition in the House of Representatives forms the official opposition.

The Australian Senate has 76 members. The six states return twelve senators each, and the two mainland territories return two senators each, elected through the single transferable voting system. Senators are elected for flexible terms not exceeding six years, with half of the senators contesting at each federal election. The Senate is afforded substantial powers by the Australian Constitution, significantly greater than those of Westminster upper houses such as those of the United Kingdom and Canada, and has the power to block legislation originating in the House as well as supply or monetary bills. As such, the Senate has the power to bring down the government, as occurred during the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis.

Because legislation must pass through both houses to become law, it is possible for disagreements between the House of Representatives and the Senate to hold up the progress of government bills indefinitely. Such deadlocks can be resolved through section 57 of the Constitution, using a procedure called a double dissolution election. Such elections are rare, not because the conditions for holding them are seldom met, but because they can pose a significant political risk to any government that chooses to call one. Of the six double dissolution elections that have been held since federation, half have resulted in the fall of a government. Only once, in 1974, has the full procedure for resolving a deadlock been followed, with a joint sitting of the two houses being held to deliberate upon the bills that had originally led to the deadlock. The most recent double dissolution election took place on 2 July 2016, which returned the Turnbull Government with a one-seat majority in the House of Representatives. The two pieces of legislation that triggered the election did not figure prominently in the eight-week election campaign.

Executive

The role of head of state in Australia is held by the Governor-General of Australia

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