What makes parliament

There are up to 17 ministers in the cabinet executive government. The leader of the winning party is the Premier, who chairs cabinet meetings and makes the recommendation to the Governor to appoint ministers. Ministers are vested with the responsibility for administering one or more government departments or portfolios. Ministers and members of the party, or alliance of parties, that forms the government are referred to as government members or members of the government. Parliament represents the interests of the people and ensures those interests are taken into account by government.

Government is unable to pass laws or raise taxes without the agreement of the Parliament. Parliament comprises the members of parties that the community has elected to represent them.

Western Australia has a bicameral system of Parliament, meaning it has two houses:. While government ministers sit within Parliament, the majority of their work is undertaken in relation to government departments and agencies.

This dates back to events in 17th-century England when, at a time of conflict between the King and Parliament, King Charles I himself entered the debating chamber to arrest members who had offended him. The supremacy of Parliament over the Sovereign was established in England by the Bill of Rights Now it is unicameral.

This means it has only one chamber the House of Representatives and there is no upper house, such as a senate. Every time there is a general election or a by-election, voters elect members to the House of Representatives. The functions of the House are set out below. The Government also known as the Executive is then responsible for day-to-day administration of the country.

Since the introduction of the mixed member proportional MMP voting system, it is unlikely that any one party will have a majority of seats in the House. In these circumstances, different parties are likely to negotiate with each other to obtain the support necessary to form a Government.

A defeat for the Government on a vote in the House is rare. But in itself a defeat does not mean that the House has lost confidence in the Government.

It simply means there is insufficient support in the House for that proposal. If, however, a particular vote is identified as a confidence issue, a lost vote could lead to another party forming a Government or the need for an election.

One of the most important visible functions of the House is to pass the legislation laws by which the country is governed.

It does this by examining and amending bills proposed laws introduced by its members. In recognition of the Government having the confidence of the House, and therefore the right to govern see above , House procedures provide more time for processing Government bills than for non-Government bills. However, procedures are in place to ensure individual members other than Ministers can introduce bills. Parliamentary debate is one means by which members of Parliament formally carry out this representative function.

Another is to present petitions to the House from members of the public asking the House to act on a matter of public policy or law, or to put right a local or private concern petitions are made once legal remedies have been exhausted. This is the connection between each individual voter and the actions that affect the way the country is governed.

If individual voters do not like what they hear, they can exercise their votes at the next election to change their representation to better reflect their interests and expectations. There is a well-established democratic principle that there should be no taxation without representation.

It is therefore illegal for the Government to impose a tax without parliamentary authority given in the form of legislation agreed by Parliament. This is affirmed in the Bill of Rights These must be debated in the House and each debate represents an opportunity for the House to renew its confidence or otherwise in the Government.

Failure to obtain supply would almost certainly lead to either a change of Government or a general election because this would be an indication that the House had lost confidence in the Government. Without supply the Government would be unable to pay its creditors, including its employees.

Denial of supply is an ever-present danger for any Government, especially one that depends on other parties to obtain it. If the power to approve supply were eroded, the House could be rendered ineffective as a control on the Government. The House has several processes by which it holds the Government to account. A new prime minister and cabinet of executive ministers may be selected by newly elected members of the parliament. A few parliamentary democracies function as semi-presidential systems.

They have a president, elected by direct vote of the people, who exercises significant foreign policy powers apart from the prime minister. They also have a constitutional court with strong powers of constitutional or judicial review.

For example, the constitutional democracy of Lithuania is a parliamentary system with characteristics of a presidential system, such as a president of the republic who is directly elected by the people and who has significant powers regarding national defense, military command, and international relations. Advocates of the parliamentary system claim it is more efficient than the presidential alternative because it is not encumbered by checks and balances among power-sharing departments, which usually slow down the operations of government and sometimes create paralyzing gridlocks.

Further, in the parliamentary system, a government that has lost favor with the people can be voted out of office immediately. Advocates claim that by responding more readily to the will of the people the parliamentary system is more democratic than the presidential alternative.