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Title

Ch2 House, Government and Opposition / GOVERNMENT AND PARLIAMENT / Relationships

Database

House Practice

Date

01-05-2005

Source

House of Reps

Parl No.

41

Chapter

House, Government and Opposition

Chapter No.

Chapter 02

Page

41

Section No.

 

System Id

procedural/practcer/chapter02.02.doc


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Ch2 House, Government and Opposition / GOVERNMENT AND PARLIAMENT / Relationships



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House of Representatives                                Ch 2                                                 p 41

 

House, Government and Opposition / GOVERNMENT AND PARLIAMENT

 

Relationships

The relationship between the groups is governed by a combination of constitutional provisions, convention and political reality, which can be simplified as follows:

  • Members are individually elected to represent constituents within each electoral division and collectively form the House of Representatives. 1

  • In most cases Members belong to and support a particular political party.

  • The party (or parties 2 ) having the support of the majority of Members becomes the government party.

  • The party (or parties) opposed to the party supporting the government forms the ‘official’ Opposition.

  • The party having the support of the majority of Members elects one of its members as leader, who is commissioned by the Governor-General as Prime Minister to form a Government.

  • The party supporting the Government may elect, 3 or the Prime Minister may appoint, a specified number of its members to be Ministers of State (the Ministry) who form the Federal Executive Council (the body which, in a formal sense, advises the Governor-General in the executive government of the Commonwealth) and who administer the Departments of State of the Commonwealth.

  • The full Ministry, 4 or a selected group from within the Ministry, becomes the principal policy and decision-making group of government which is commonly known as the Cabinet.

    • With its membership drawn from the Parliament, the Executive Government is required to seek the Parliament’s approval of new legislation, including financial legislation. Thus, as many of the more important executive actions are subject to parliamentary approval, the Government is responsible to the Parliament and through it to the electors. In this lies the distinctiveness of the Westminster model—the interrelation of the Executive Government and the Parliament. It is the essence of what in Westminster terms is called ‘parliamentary government’.

    A Government is subject to the judgment of the electors at periodical general elections, but between elections a Government can only maintain office while it retains the confidence of the House of Representatives. In 1975 a third element came into play when the Government was effectively subjected to the will of the Senate which, in the circumstances, forced the Government to the electors. 5

    This basic dissection of the way Government relates to Parliament points to the fact that our system of parliamentary government is not entirely based on provisions of the written Constitution ( see p . 46 ). A correct analysis can only be made from an understanding of the development of the Westminster system of responsible government adopted by Australia. 6



    For discussion of the Member as the basic unit of the House see Ch. on ‘Members’.



    That is, two or more parties which combine their numbers to form a coalition government.



    The method used by the Australian Labor Party when in government with the exception of the first Labor Government in 1904 when Prime Minister Watson chose the members of his Ministry.



    The practice until 1956, and from 1972 to 1975.



    See Ch. on ‘Disagreements between the Houses’.



    For recent commentaries on the relationship between Government and Parliament see , for example, J. Uhr, ‘Parliament’ in Government, politics, power and policy in Australia , Longman Cheshire, 1994; and J. Uhr, Deliberative democracy in Australia: The changing place of Parliament , Cambridge University Press, 1998.