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The Pros And Cons Of The Council Of Australian Governments

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Although the six states joined together to form the Commonwealth of Australia, they still each retain the power to make their own laws over matters not controlled by the Commonwealth under Section 51 of the Constitution. State governments also have their own constitutions, as well as a structure of legislature, executive and judiciary. But, as law and its administration become more complicated, members of the federal, state and local executives are required to work together in order to solve problems. In 1992 the federal government established the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), which includes the Prime Minister, state premiers, chief ministers and the president of the Australian Local Government Association, who meet twice a year to discuss intergovernmental matters. In 2008 the federal government set up the Australian Council for Local Government, so it could work directly with local government as well. Ministers from the different levels of government also work together on matters of common concern. For example, the Australian Health Ministers' …show more content…

Originally, federation was formed because particular areas such as free trade, defence and immigration were less complicated if it were to have a staple law for every colony. At present, the social and political issues are still relevant and it is a common belief that the commonwealth is better equipped to handle these situations. For example defence is an area in which commonwealth ‘ownership’ is crucial, infact it was a key element as to why federation happened. “The argument that a united defence force could better protect Australia was strengthened by a report released in 1889 by British Major-General Sir J. Bevan Edwards. It found that the colonies did not have enough soldiers, arms or even ammunition to adequately defend themselves. The report recommended a federal or centralised defence force be

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The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia agreed to unite and form the Commonwealth of Australia, establishing a system of federalism in Australia. George Reid George Reid was born in Scotland on 18th August in 1845. As a child he moved to Australia and ended up joining Australian politics. He became a member of the NSW parliament in 1880, but really didn’t show interest in the federation movement until the md 1890s.

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The British North America Act created an enduring federation that matured into a peaceful, prosperous and well governed state, while challenging successive governments to alter its amending formula and distribution of powers to meet the needs of its inhabitants, except the British North American Act didn’t take many groups of people like the First Nation, Acadians, and Irish into consideration . The B.N.A Act created the dominion of Canada, established powers of the federal government and provincial government from the dominion of Canada. It set out rules of how the government of Canada work. Although not everyone was satisfied with the outcome of the B.N.A Act. Even though the 1867 constitution did establish a workable system of government, it did not prevent disputes over the division of powers in overlapping areas of authority such as taxation and in new areas

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Interest in the South Pacific had been made clear from French, Germany and Russia, many doubted the ability of Britain to defend Australia in the case of such an attack. Prior to Federation, each Australian colony maintained a small military, this was an inefficient use of resources and soldiers. Federation sought to create one powerful Australian defence force, where resources could be pooled and the otherwise insignificant militaries could become one mighty force. Sir Henry Parkes stated “it will be absolutely necessary for us to have a central authority, which could bring all the forces of the different colonies into one army” in his famous federation speech. While some people believed a united army could be achieved without federation, Parkes was strongly of the view that it could only take one national governing body to achieve a strong defence

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1. How did federation in Australia start? Australia became an independent nation on 1 January 1901 when the British Parliament passed legislation allowing the six Australian colonies to rule in their own right as part of the Nation of Australia. The Commonwealth of Australia was recognized as a legal empire. 2.

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As the world grew more populated, to many Australians it seemed that Great Britain was both a physically long way and also very different to Australia. The Australia of pre World War II was now very different to the Australia colonised by the British so many years earlier. In 1919, Australia had, for the very first time, been considered a fully self-governing nation and was asked independently of Great Britain to be a part of the Treaty of Versailles (Carrodus, Delany and McArthur, 2012). Prior to this, Britain was responsible for all political agreements for Australia (Museum of Australian Democracy).

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With alot going on during the creation of the Articles of Confederation, Due to the on going effects and changes of the American Revolution. The colonies had been in search to create a more centralized government. Since most colonies had taken more care of their own individual interests, it had been much easier to agree upon and form state institutions. Rather than focusing on the importance of the growth of a strong united but yet equally independent structure for their own national gorvernment.

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The Australian Political Policy changed in 1975, mainly due to the Vietnam War. After the war between North and South Vietnam, thousands of Vietnamese immigrants migrated to Australia bearing their own political views. The original policy, impacted a larger, broader reach of Australian Society, especially the selected migrants living in Australian capital cities. Prior to the Vietnam War, Vietnam was a democratic nation. After the change of political leadership, there was a dramatic change in critical leaders that were in power previously (source 1).The change in leadership turned Vietnam into an intense war zone.

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Interactions amid the provinces and the federal government, from constitutional issues to the most irresistible topics bang up-to-date in the country, are indemnified beneath the umbrella of “Federalism”. Authorities are shared so that on some matters, the state governments are decision-holders, whereas on the other matters, national government grasps the autonomy. In last twenty-five years, the upsurge of federal fiats on both governments, local and state, has shifted the power amongst state and national governments. Now, the national government is beginning to have more governance over the state’s engagements.

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Finally, government regulations, as a local authority it is of high importance that we follow these regulations and therefore must develop plans for compliance with the regulations. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats when used by a company to gain competitive advantage, is often referred to as a SWOT analysis. The strengths within Havering Council would be that each year the government funds certain projects (e.g. the apprentice cohort) which doesn’t come out of the individual department’s budgets so they don’t have to worry about finding the money to fund it themselves. The weaknesses with the council might be that as they have set prices when it comes to hiring out council owned venues (e.g. library rooms) people may find

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Ministerial responsibility is based on a body of constitutional conventions; it ensures the accountability of the government to the people of Australia. Ministerial responsibility is the responsibility to the parliament by a minister or on a minister’s behalf for actions taken. Ministerial responsibility is a policy that ministers in a government depend on maintaining the support of the parliament. The underlying legal concepts are The Rule of Law, Democracy and the Constitution. The Rule of Law, relates as big decisions about the country are subject to the law.

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An Australian Republic is about us — not the Queen, not Prince Charles or the world economy. We should do it now, without delay. As Nelson Mandela once said, “ For to be free is not merely to cast off one 's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” Until we break our last Constitutional links to the mother country, our nationhood is incomplete. Now after just over 115 years of Federation, Australia must finally join the world of nations as a full equal, unshackled to any other nation.

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The Australian Government divides their powers into different sectors between the legislative, executive and the judiciary to prevent misuse of powers. Each section plays an important role in keeping the entire system fair while running smoothly. Australia allows for more than one party to be in elections, with the second highest voted party stand as the opposition, to give input in the running of Australia instead of one party having absolute power. This allows more ideas to be heard and contribute positively to the decision making of

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169 Words | 1 Pages

Federalism is about maintaining territorial differences within an overarching political system. Its principles reflect this orientation. Federalism seeks to provide the benefits of unity without sacrificing the advantages of local autonomy, community choice and diversity within a nation. It allows different governments to offer different policy mixes or types of services to match local needs and preferences. Australia has adapted cooperative federalism that highlights the intersection between the two reform dynamics – substantial policy reform and reforming the institutional structures of federalism – that has presented the greatest opportunity to improve the operation of the country’s federation.

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Similarly ‘co-operative governance’ is the same idea, albeit using different terminology has been defined as ‘the interlocking of the state and societal groups in a mix of public-private policy networks in the formulation and implementation of public policy’ (Edigheji, 2003). Both definitions envisage arrangements in which governments include organized citizens’ groups in creating and implementing

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944 Words | 4 Pages

Secondly, the parliamentary executives, the cabinet minister and the Prime Minister, share responsibilities. Therefore, the parliament is “jointly responsible for the actions of the government…primus inter pares (first among equals)”. (Haywood, 2007, p. 95) Lastly, a typical feature of the parliamentary system is that the offices of the Head of State and the Head of the Government remain separate from each other. Union is a key feature of the parliamentary governments worldwide.

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