Australia is a constitutional monarchy, a federation of states and a representative democracy, that means that the legal framework with which Australia operates is the constitution, the queen and a federal system. For the representative democracy a political government is carried out by representatives that have been elected by the people. The Australian parliamentary system is based on the British Westminster system, which was adopted into the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900. The Commonwealth constitution established the Commonwealth Parliament and it’s lawmaking abilities. As Australia is a Commonwealth country, this means that the head of state is the Queen of England and is therefore part of the parliamentary system. In Australia the Queen’s representative is the
Governor General at a federal level and the Governor at a state level. The commonwealth and state parliament operate on a bicameral system. This means that there are two houses; the upper house and the lower house. The Commonwealth Parliament consists of the Crown, represented by the GovernorGeneral, the upper house, which is the Senate, and the Lower house, which is the House of Representatives.
The senate holds 76 members, and the House of Representatives holds 150 members. The monarch is the third element of the Commonwealth parliament, which is represented by the
GovernorGeneral. The GovernorGeneral gives royal assent; the formal signing of a Bill to indicate the monarch’s approval, to legislation that has been passed by both houses of parliament. According to the constitution the GovernorGeneral also has the right to withhold