Australia's Nation Was Created at the Ballot Box - Example

Australa’s nation was created at the ballot box abstract Australia is a country that follows federal from of governance. That is to say the central government has got no room of power in Australia bestows equal power over its citizens an state and this is the reason that the state is having the democratic procedure of choosing their representative of each state. There are general elections held in order to choose the representative from the citizens. People literally vote for the formation of their government. Every state is independent under their governing bodies and all their functionalities are administered by the public representatives. This paper is a study of this form of federal government which is democratic at the same time. It is an attempt to establish that federation is an important event in Australian History, and is taught in both Primary and Secondary schools throughout the country. Acknowledgement Contents List abstract 2 Acknowledgement 3 Content list 4 1. Introduction 5 2. constitutional conventions 6 3. The Federal Constitution 7 4. Australian electoral system 8 5. Commonwealth of Australia 9 6. Conclusion 10 References 11 Bibliography 11 1. Introduction In Australia the national level elections are held once every three years. Just like a democratic country here too the Prime Minister has got the entire authorisation to advice the Governor-General for the matter related to election for the House of Representatives1. However there are some restrictions regarding the Senate elections and for the purpose the functionalities are all done through the prescribed regulations of the Constitution. The Parliament of Australia is of Commonwealth structure. It has got two chambers for all sorts of legislative proceedings. One is the House of Representatives that comprises of 150 members. All these members are elected for a consecutive term of three years. These members get elected by the means of alternative vote. This alternative vote is called the full preferential voting. The next is the Senate with 76 members. All these members are elected through a preferential system in 12-seat state. These are the constituencies that also get the two-seat territorial constituencies with a system of single transferable vote for a term of six years Initially for Senate election, Australia has got 'first past the post' voting arrangement that got totally changed in 1948. After the voting systems that was initiated during 1989-90. The whole legislative format got structured through the significance of referendums that was the federation process of the Commonwealth of Australia. These referendums paved the way for the involvement of people in the functioning of the legislature and the government started getting elected through the ballot boxes. 2. constitutional conventions Australia got the formation of a federal government my means of the growth of federal leagues and a nationalist organisation was followed. It was a static development of committed to federation. It was Corowa and Bathurst that led the initiation for this federal structure. In the year 1895 there came up a proposal by the premiers of the Australian colonies. This was the proposal that was given for the establishment of a Convention by popular vote. In the process the resulting draft must be submitted to the electors of each colony. This was declared through a referendum. The Convention was followed by many initiations from Adelaide in 1897 to Melbourne in March 1898. As this was a successful initiation the colonial Parliaments structured a debate for the Bills that are needed along with the mandatory changes. The most strong point was fort he emergence of a responsible government in the country. There was the adoption of democratic ways of forming government the follow up of a constitutional structure was the primary necessity. As declared by Williams J, in his "'With Eyes Open': Andrew Inglis Clark and our Republican Tradition" (1995), it started with the Senate that was decided to be chosen by popular vote with the voters of each State acting as one electorate2. As a progression to this, in 1898 a draft bill was drawn up and sent to each colony. The purpose was to have the reactions of each electorate. In June 1898, there were specifically four numbers of referendums were held. However it failed due to the acceptance that was supposed to be done on the basis of the acceptance and the denial of the electorates. Again it came to be held in June 1899, except Western Australia. This year the referendum received the entire acceptance and as such was held to be a positive step. After the acceptance of the Bill by the colonies it was sent to Britain for ratification by the British Parliament. referendum NSW Qld SA Tas Vic WA total 1898 yes 71,595 35,800 11,797 100,520 219,712 no 66,228 17,320 2,716 22,099 108,363 1899 yes 107,420 38,488 65,900 13,437 152,653 377,898 no 82,741 30,996 17,953 791 9,805 142,286 1900 yes 44,800 44,800 no 19,691 19,691 Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Federation 3. The Federal Constitution As per the ratification made by the British Parliament, the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (UK) was passed on 5 July 1900. After the acceptance of the full fledged approval it was given Royal Assent by Queen Victoria on 9 July 1900. The Proclamation of the Commonwealth of Australia was held on 1 January 1901 in Centennial Park, Sydney. Here Sir Edmund Barton was sworn in as the interim Prime Minister of Australia along with an interim Federal ministry of nine members. This is the way that the new constitution got established with a bicameral Parliament. Added to this the office of Governor-General was established and was considered a representative of the British government in the country3. Then the High Court was established and as such all the demarcations are made between states and the new Commonwealth government. Initially there was great uproar regarding the establishment of the federal capital. The conflict was between Sydney and Melbourne. As such it was established in a separate territory within New South Wales called Canberra. However it was decided that the parliament would sit in Melbourne. 4. Australian electoral system The Australian electoral system is a steady development through a span of 150 years. Thai is to say the federal elections are a part of Australian legislature since the mid of 19th century. As stated by Timothy Doyle and Aynsley Kellow, (1995), Australia has been a completely democratic government. It has got the systems for compulsory voting and the means of preferential voting. There is also the use of proportional voting to elect the upper house that is the Australian Senate4. The compulsory voting as has been followed in Australia includes a compulsory process of voting that was introduced in 19245. During the earlier elections the voting percentage that turn around was 59.38%6, the simple reason is for being the federal elections for the states. In Australia voting is very much compulsory, whether be it the federal elections or the elections for the state and territory legislatures of the country. There is also the practice of preferential voting for almost all elections in Australia. Here the voters can independently number the candidates on the ballot paper. After the numbering gets over the preference of the suitable candidate gets determined. 5. Commonwealth of Australia In Australia the governmental practice is very unique in its kind. We get a federative constitutional monarchy that functions under a parliamentary democracy of representatives elected by the people. Australia got its status of being a Commonwealth in 1901. this happened after the acceptance of an agreement between six self-governing British colonies, which became the six States in the later part of political development of the country. In fact all these terms were embodied by Australian Constitution, with an involvement towards the functioning of Constitutional Convention. It was also ratified by the people of the colonies at referendums. Australian Government thus is a unique amalgamation of federalism and the separation of powers into legislative, executive and judiciary branches of the ruling government the structure of the Constitution encourages the separation of powers and thus implies all the rules related to it in different branches of descriptions. 6. Conclusion Thus we can see that how even after being a federal state Australia still selects its ministers for the governing body through elections. It is the ballot box that ultimately decides who is going to have the power to govern the country as a whole. The functionality is tough but it is smooth in Australia. References Scott Bennett and Rob Lundie, 'Australian Electoral Systems', Research Paper no. 5 2007-08, Department of the Parliamentary Library, Canberra. http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/RP/2007-08/08RP05.pdf [retrieved on 13.06.08] Matt Rosenberg, Compulsory Voting, About.com: geography, http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa060100a.htm, [retrieved on 13.06.08] Office of the Governor-General. "The Governor-General is Interviewed by Greg Turnbull on the Ten Network's Meet The Press". Press release. (2005-05-29) http://www.gg.gov.au/governorgeneral/news.php?action=view&id=40 [retrieved on 13.06.08] Timothy Doyle and Aynsley Kellow, Environmental Politics and Policy Making in Australia, Macmillan, Melbourne, 1995, pp 130-131 Worsley, Ben. "Rudd seizes power from factions", Australian Broadcasting Corporation, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/29/2046939.htm [retrieved on 13.06.08] Williams J, "'With Eyes Open': Andrew Inglis Clark and our Republican Tradition" (1995) 23(2) Federal Law Review 149 at 165. Bibliography Hunt, Lyall (editor) (2000)Towards Federation: Why Western Australia joined the Australian Federation in 1901 Nedlands, W.A. Royal Western Australian Historical Society ISBN 0909845034 La Nauze J, The Making of the Australian Constitution (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1972). McGrath F, The Framers of the Australian Constitution (Brighton-le-Sands: Frank McGrath, 2003). Read More