Merriwa Suburb in Australia - Relationship between Legislature and the Judiciary - Case Study Example

AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Student Name Instructor Date Merriwa, which lies approximately 36 kilometers north of the central business district of Perth, is one of the outer suburbs in the area. It is bordered by Ridgewood to the east, Butler to the north, Quinns Rocks and Mindarie to the west and Clarkson to the south. It consists mainly of native Australians with only a small percentage of British-born populations. The area is represented by various leaders both in the federal and state governments. One of the state representatives of Merriwa suburb is the Western Australian premier, Colin Barnet of the Liberal Party of Australia. He has been the premier of Western Australia since 2008. Another representative of Merriwa in the state government of Western Australia is the current governor, Kerry Sanderson, from the Australian Labor Party. Additionally, she is the first female governor of Western Australia in 31 years. Another representative for Merriwa in the state government of Western Australia is evangel Eleni. Eleni is an a female politician in Australia, who is the member of the legislative assembly representing Perth in the western Australian Parliament, elected by the Liberal Party of Australia. Correspondingly, the deputy premier for the Western Australian state, Liza Harvey is another representative of Perth. The premier is a native of Western Australia and a Liberal party member. Terry Redman is a National Party representative of Merriwa and other regions of the state of Western Australia as the cabinet minister for Regional Development and Lands and assistant minister for State Development. Peter Collier, a member of the Liberal Party, is the Western Australian cabinet minister for education, electoral and Aboriginal affairs. Another state government representative for Merriwa, Perth is the cabinet minister for Health, culture and Arts, John Day, from the Liberal Party. Furthermore, representing the whole of Western Australia in the ministry of state development is Bill Marmion from the Liberal Party. Perth Merriwa, and Western Australia at large is represented under the Environment and Heritage portfolios by Albert Jacob from the Liberal Party. Other representatives of Merriwa, Perth in the state government o Western Australia are: the opposition leader and shadow minister for regional development from the Labor Party, Mark McGowan and Michel Roberts, the manager of opposition businesses and sleuth minister for police, crime prevention, culture and the arts. Apart from the representation at the state government, Merriwa is correspondingly represented in the federal government of Australia. One of the representatives in the federal government is the Australian Prime Minister and the leader of the Liberal Party, Hon. Malcom Turnbull (Crabb, 2016). The Prime Minister is assisted by the Deputy Prime Minister and minister for agriculture and Water Resources from the Nationals Party of Australia. The other representatives for Merriwa, Perth in the federal government is the attorney general, vice president of the executive and leader of the government in the senate, Hon. George Brandis from the Liberal Party of Australia. Mr. Tim Hammond, who is the Member of Parliament for Perth in the House of Representatives is another Merriwa representative in the federal government. The MP is a member of the Australian Labor Party. Other representatives of Merriwa in the Australian federal government are: the Hon. Julie Bishop, the Australian minister for Foreign Affairs from the Liberal Party, Hon Mathias Corman, the Australian minister of Finance from the Liberal Party, Hon Marise Payne, the Australian minister of Defense from the Liberal party and the Hon. Mitch Fitfield, the minister for Arts and Communication from the Liberal Party. Others are the Hon. Fiona Nash, minister for Regional Development and the Hon. Greg Hunt, minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, all from the Liberal Party. Relationship between Legislature and the Judiciary The Australian federal government, like any other government in the world, comprises the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive. These branches of the federal government have specific functions to perform with relation to the laws of Australia. There is, therefore, the need for these branches of the federal government to work together to ensure effective governance and protection of the Australian laws. The role of the legislature is to make laws and is represented by the Senate and the House of Representatives. Other functions of the Australian parliament are to allocate funds for government projects, provision of a forum for popular representation and examine the actions of the government. The constitution provides for the formation of the high court and the other courts formed by acts of parliament with the mandate of interpreting and applying the Australian laws to decide cases of federal significance. The executive branch of the government comprises of the Prime Minister and the cabinet minister and is the overall decision making body of the government. The Marriage Equality law is an act of parliament that was tabled in the Australian Capital Legislative Assembly with the aim of making gay marriages legal (Barrow, 2013). The Act was first presented to parliament in 2013 by Simon Corbel, the then attorney general of the ACT. It was passed by the Legislative Assembly in the same year. In passing the act, the Australian legislative Assembly argued that each person has the right to enjoy the rights provided in the constitution without discrimination. Moreover, it was argued that each Australian individual has the right to protection by the government without discrimination. The premier act that regulates the marriage institution in Australia is the Marriage Act (1961). The Marriage Act, was, however, amended in 2004. Currently, the act defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman with the exclusion of all the others (In Gallo et al., 2013). Consequently, it is difficult to accept gay marriages in Australia, especially the federal government of Australia. Following the refusal of the Commonwealth Parliament to pass the Marriage Equality law to date, several legislators have opted for other options such as the local implementation of the law. Although the Australia Marriage Act (1961) opposes the existence of gay marriages within the country, several legislation bodies have shown immense support of the law since it was established in 2013. The Australian federal government comprises the State and Commonwealth parliaments as the legislative powers of the government. There have been several attempts to enact the provisions of the Marriage Equality law in several states of Australia. Although the different states of Australia are entitled to make their own laws concerning marriages, the federal state government opposes the enactment of such laws in the country, making their implementation difficult. The Australian federal law recognizes same sex marriages as defacto unions. With regards to the Federal Family Act of 1975, a defacto union refers to a union in which people live together in conjugal relationships for at least three years without marriage or civil unions. This illustrates that the federal government of Australia does not recognize the existence of gay marriages. The position of the Australian judiciary on the Marriage Equality law is undisputable. Following the introduction of the bill in parliament and its passing into law in 2013, several legal battles have been fought in courts by different government branches. The Australian commonwealth government, for instance, challenged the implementation of the Marriage Equality law in the Australian High Court in 2013. A jury of six judges heard the case, giving a ruling that the provisions of the Marriage Equality law were not in line with the Marriage Act (1961) and the Family Law Act (1975). According to the High Court, the Marriage Equality law was considered inconsistent since its definition of marriage was different from the definition in the Marriage Act and could not work simultaneously with the Marriage Act (1961), which is the premier law for the marriage institutions in Australia (DiGiacomo, 2016). Definitions Democracy refers to a system of governance in which the representatives operate under the principles of classical liberalism. In democratic regimes, supreme powers are vested in the hands of the people or the electorate and exercised by them through representatives elected by the people. Democracy in the Australian government system is evident in the parliament and electorates (In Carson, 2013). The Australian government system, is, however not completely democratic because it has a monarchy and a federation. Federalism refers to a mode of governance that defines the relationship between the central government, at the national level and the constituent units at the regional state and local governments (Gagnon and Keil, 2012). In this kind of regime, the power and authority is allocated between the central government and the local government such that each unit is given a portion of power that it can exercise. The Australian government for instance, is a federal government consisting of the commonwealth government and several state governments. References Barrow, D (2013). Bolt: Worth Fighting. Insights and Reflections. Pan Macmillan, UK Crabb, A. (2016). Stop at nothing. The Life and Adventures of Malcom Turnbull. Schwartz Publishers, Carlton, Australia. DiGiacomo, G. (2016). Human rights: Current issues and controversies. Waterloo, Ontario : Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Gagnon, A.G and Keil, S (2012). Understanding Federation and Federalism. Routledge; Taylor and Francis Group. London and NY. Carson, L. (2013). The Australian Citizens' Parliament and the future of deliberative democracy. University Park, Pennsylvania:Pennsylvania State University Press Gallo, D., Paladini, L., Pustorino, P., & De, B. G. (2013). Same-sex couples before national, supranational and international jurisdictions. Berlin:Springer . Read More