Australian Constitution - Essay

- Like the American political system, the Australian system is divided into two levels (federal and local), For instance the FED cannot tell the local government how to make their local laws and regulate their government and the local can’t do that to the FED.
- The Australian Government is different from the United States though in that it has a Parliament like the British. The government is made up of the Prime Minister and his cabinet and at any time the Parliament (which is just like the American Congress) can remove the Government or force it to call an in which neither level can change the power of the other nor make laws that the other has rights over. election. - Also the Australian Constitution does not say that a politician’s term has to be fixed like an American politician’s does. For instance the President will without a doubt serve a full four years baring impeachment or assignation, but in Australia Governor-General or Prime Minister can be kicked out at anytime
- The U.S. Constitution clearly describes the separation of powers. The members of the executive branch cannot sit in Congress and so forth, but in the Australian Government has what they call an independent judiciary system where the government and parliament are not separated. The ministers can be members of parliament and the Prime Minister can dissolve parliament if he so chooses.
- Like the U.S. the Australian Constitution is written down and is entrenched and very hard to change. Their constitution does most everything the American one does including separation of powers, division and powers of the different branches of government, has a form of supremacy clause which says commonwealth law is supreme over state law, and the last chapter deals with amending or changing the constitution.
- Where the U.S. has a President who is head of the executive branch, the Australians have a Queen and her representative the Governor-General, who in many ways is like a president in that he is the Comand in Chief of the military. The Governor-General can however dissolve both houses of Parliament if they are deadlocked and he can appoint sitting time for the Parliament. As discussed earlier the Australians like the British have a Prime Minister.
- Like the American Constitution the Australian one has a preamble but the constitution itself is divided into chapters, parts, and sections that deal with each specific form of government with the first being Parliament. The preamble is divided into parts where the rest of the constitution is in chapters with sections within each chapter.
- Overall the Australian Constitution is very much like ours in that it has to deal with the same problems that we do. It has sections that deal with race, equality, elections, and many other things. It seems that while the Australians seem to be more British in their political set up, they are in fact very much like us as well. While the country is trying to decide whether to be more like a monarchy as always or change into somewhat of a republic, their constitution remains unchanging and the Supreme Law of the Land.