What is the difference between a state parliament and a territory parliament?
Thanks Fatna for your question. The main difference between a state parliament and a territory parliament is where they get their powers to make laws.
Each state has its own constitution. A constitution is a set of rules that set out how a country or state is run. A state's constitution lists the powers of its parliament, including the ability to make laws.
States began as British colonies and had their own parliaments before Australia became a nation in 1901. When the colonies joined together at Federation to form the Commonwealth of Australia, they kept their own constitutions and parliaments.
In contrast, the territories do not have their own constitutions. This is because the territories were created after Federation in a different way to the states. The Northern Territory was created in 1911 when South Australia transferred management of this area to the Australian Government. The Australian Capital Territory was also formed in 1911 when New South Wales gave this land to the government for the creation of the national capital.
Section 122 of the Australian Constitution gives the Australian Parliament the power to make laws for territories. Using this power, the Australian Parliament passed laws that created the Northern Territory and ACT legislative assemblies and gave them the power to make laws. The Australian Parliament can override any law made by the legislative assemblies, although this very rarely happens.
Three levels of government in Australia
Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)
Three levels of government in Australia
Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)
Description
The three levels of government – the law-making bodies in Australia. The Federal Parliament is located in Canberra, the nation's capital. State/territory parliaments are located in the capital cities of each of the 6 states and 2 territories. Local councils are located around Australia in each local council division.
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