law making powers of the government

what are law making powers

• law making powers are powers given to parliament to make, amend or repeal laws in certain areas

what is division of powers

• division of powers refers to the way the constitution has allocated law-making powers to commonwealth and/or state parliaments

• exclusive, concurrent, residual

specific powers

• specific powers are all law-making powers of the commonwealth are written in the constitution law-making.

• the areas that the commonwealth can make laws on

• can be divided into exclusive and concurrent

exclusive powers

• law making powers that can only be utilised by the Commonewealth parliament. meaning that they are the only government body that can make laws in these areas

• outlined in s51 and s52 of the contisituion

• includes defence, currrency, customs and border protection

concurrent powers

• law making powers that the commonwealth and the state parliaments share. This means both the commonwealth and the state parliemanets can make laws in these areas

• examples

  • trade

  • marraige

  • postal services

  • taxation

difference between exclusive and concurrent

• all commonwealth law-making powers are listed in the constitution, so it can be difficult to tell where they are exclusive or concurrent. Powers are presumed to be concurrent unless it is

  • explicitly state in the constitution that a power is exclusive or

  • inferred by the nature of the power. This may needed to be decided by the High court - involves interpreting the constitution

• for example

  • section 51(xii) gives power to the commonwealth to make laws relating to coining money

  • section 115 proives that a state shall not coin money

  • therefore coining money is an exclusive power

residual powers

• law making powers retained by the state parliaments

  • residual powers are not listed specifically in the Australian constitution

  • however, the existence of residual powers is protected by the constitution in s106, s107 and s108

• examples

  • public transport

  • health care

  • education

  • urban planning and environment