Universal franchise and regular elections means that every eligible adult must have the right to vote regardless of their sex, race, cultural background and religious or personal beliefs. It is also important that the representatives are held accountable to the voters at regular elections. This ensures that the people can have their say at regular intervals and if they do not want a certain government to hold power then they have the right to elect a new government.
One vote one value and secret ballot means that each vote must have equal value of others and should be conducted in privacy to prevent intimidation or corruption.
To allow all members of the community to participate in democracy, all politicians must be paid. If political members were not paid, then only wealthy people would be able to stand for parliament, thus only the wealthy would be represented.
Parliamentary privilege allows open and candid debate on all issues before parliament, protecting members from being sued for defamation.
The right to freedom of association and expression of political beliefs must be protected by law. Without these freedoms, political ideas would be subdued and the democratic process would be restricted.
Open parliamentary debates allow the public to have general access to parliamentary sittings so they can make their decisions about the worth of representative government and the performance of their individual members.
Separation of powers means that the three powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial, must be separate so that each power can act as a preventative measure in the misuse of government powers.
b) Describe the division of powers between the states
The division of powers can be illustrated showing the relationship between the commonwealth and state powers.
Power is divided between the commonwealth and the states. In the constitution the commonwealth’s power is specified and all the powers not mentioned stay with the states. If a dispute arises concerning these power sharing relations, the High Court of Australia is called to interpret the wording of the constitution to resolve it.
The Doctrine of Powers categorises law making powers into five areas: Specific powers, exclusive powers, prohibited powers, concurrent powers and residual powers.
The states surrender specific powers to the commonwealth. Theses powers are written in the constitution and most of them are called heads of power. Examples of heads of powers are:
- Trade and commerce with other countries
- Taxation
- Postal, telegraphic telephonic and other like services
- Marriage and divorce
- Referral of powers
Exclusive powers can only be exercised by the commonwealth. They are considered to be of federal nature and the states were deliberately excluded from them. Examples of exclusive powers are:
The commonwealth constitution also contains a number of legislative prohibitions.
Examples that restrain the commonwealth include:
- Taxation must not discriminate between states or parts of states.
- Property must be acquired on just terms.
- The commonwealth is prohibited to make laws about religion.
The states are given the residual power residing in the constitution. This means that the states are allowed to make laws in the subject areas not formally written in the constitution. Theses areas include:
- Civil and criminal law
- Environment
- Women and children
- Public health, education and housing
Many of the heads of power are concurrent with the states. This means that both the commonwealth and the states can make laws on them. The inconsistency rule was included to deal with the possibility of differing federal and state law.
Section 109 states;
When a law of a state is inconsistent with a law of commonwealth, the latter shall prevail, and former shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be invalid.