Hass Revision

Houses of Parliament

  • 2 Houses: House of Representatives, Senate

  • House of Representatives: 151 seats

  • Senate: 76 seats

Systems of Government

  • Key features:

    • federal system (Power is divided between the Federal government and 6 state governments)

    • Separation of power (Gov is divided into 3 Branches: Legislative, executive, judiciary)

      • Legislative: Make laws

      • Executive: Enforce Laws

      • Judiciary: Interpret laws

  • Compulsory voting for citizens over 18

  • Australia follows a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy.

  • Constitutional Monarchy: Australia recognises the British monarch as head of state, currently represented by the Governor General.

  • Parliamentary democracy: A system of government where elected representatives make decisions on behalf of the people.

Elections

  • Preferential voting: A system of voting where voters rank the candidates in order of their preference. 1 is for their most preferred candidate, while the following numbers rank the rest of the candidates in their order.

  • Voter eligibility: Any Australian citizen over 18 who is on the electoral roll and not currently serving a prison sentence of more than three years is eligible to vote and must attend a voting booth.

  • To form a government, a political party must secure the majority of the votes. In the House of Representatives, a party must win 76 votes; in the Senate, a party must win 39 votes.

  • For an election to be fair, it must be free, fair and regular.

  • Free election: Voters can vote for whichever candidate they choose without external pressure or fear of punishment.

  • Fair election: All votes are counted fairly and equally and hold equal value and power.

  • Regular election: citizens must be allowed to regularly participate in government by voting at regular intervals.

  • Parties often join together to form a coalition when no single political party secures a majority of votes in an election. If a party falls short of this threshold, it may negotiate with other parties to combine its support and create a coalition government, allowing it to achieve the necessary majority to govern effectively.

Political parties and Political ideology

  • Main political parties: Labour, Liberals, Nationals, Greens

    • Labour Party:

      Leader: Anthony Albanese

      Key Policy Position: Advocates for workers' rights and aims to improve conditions for the working class, including implementing higher minimum wage policies.

    • Liberal Party

      Leader: Peter Dutton

      Key Policy Position: Focuses on free-market policies, emphasising the importance of economic growth and advocating for lower taxes to encourage investment.

    • Nationals

      Leader: David Littleproud

      Key Policy Position: Represents regional interests, often supporting agricultural and rural development policies to assist farmers and rural communities.

    • Greens

      Leader: Adam Bandt

      Key Policy Position: Strong focus on environmental issues, advocating for policies aimed at combating climate change and promoting sustainability.

      Where the political parties sit on the spectrum.

An ideology is a party’s belief about how a country should be run, while a policy is an actual law that a party would like to create and implement based on the parties beliefs. Therefor, the cause and effect ideology and policy is that ideology’s influence and create policies.

Factors that influence voter behaviour

  • 3 factors that influence voter behaviour include:

    • Appeal to voters via platform and policies: Parties align their platform and policies with voters’ values and needs to gain support.

    • Debates/negative campaigning: Attacking opposing parties’ policies and platforms through debates and ads to influence voters by creating doubts.

    • Biased media coverage: Media can present false/misleading information to change the opinions of viewers and align them with a specific party.