What is the responsibility of the state government?

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A set of 8 social strategy scenario task cards that explore issues and ideas related to International Women’s Day.

There are three levels of government in Australia:

• federal government;
• state (or territory) government; and
• local government.

These three levels developed at different times.

Colonial governments, which later became state governments, were the first level of government to be established after the British began settling on the continent in 1788.

Throughout the 1800s, local governments were progressively created by the six self-governing colonies. Later, following a series of referendums held in the 1890s, a federation was created under the Australian Constitution—in 1901, the six colonies became states to form the new nation of Australia with a national, or federal, government.

The two territory governments (the Australian Capital Territory [ACT] and the Northern Territory [NT]), were created by legislation of the Federal Parliament—the NT in 1978 and the ACT in 1988.

Under the constitution, the state/territory governments and the Federal Government have different powers and responsibilities. Local governments are not mentioned in the Constitution.

Federal

The Federal Parliament has four main functions:

• a legislative function (making laws);
• a representative function (representing the interests of voters and citizens);
• forming a government to administer laws and managing the affairs of the Commonwealth; and
• a scrutiny and accountability function (questioning the government to see if it is doing a good job).

The powers of the Federal Parliament are listed under Section 51 of the Australian Constitution and include responsibility for foreign policy, defence, income taxation, social services, migration, trade and currency. The Federal Parliament is bicameral, which means it has two houses:

• The House of Representatives, also called the ‘lower house’, is made up of 151 members elected from individual electorates all around Australia.
• The second house—the Senate or ‘upper house’—has 76 elected representatives elected by voters from each state and territory. Each state has 12 elected senators, and the territories each have two senators representing them. One of the reasons the constitution created an upper house was to ensure the interests of the states, particularly the smaller states, were adequately represented in the Commonwealth Parliament.

In bicameral parliaments (federal and state), legislation has to pass with a majority vote in both the lower and upper houses before it becomes a law.

State/Territory

State/territory government responsibilities include everything not listed as a federal responsibility in the Constitution, including:

• hospitals and schools;
• emergency services;
• law and order;
• public transport; and
• the distribution of water, gas and electricity.

State governments raise revenue through indirect taxes such as banking and gambling taxes and by charging for services such as public transport. They are not permitted to raise other taxes such as income taxation but they do receive federal funding to help pay for the services they deliver.

Just like the Federal Parliament, all the state parliaments except Queensland, are bicameral. The lower houses in these parliaments are called either the Legislative Assembly or House of Assembly, and upper houses are named Legislative Councils. The parliaments of Queensland, Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory are unicameral—they only have one house called the Legislative Assembly.

The Legislative Assembly for the ACT is the only parliament with responsibility for both state/territory and local government functions.

Local

Every state/territory, except the ACT, has a separate system of local government. States and territories have local government regions are known as councils, shires, boroughs, or municipalities. Each is administered by a council (or equivalent) which makes decisions on local, town or city matters. In addition to receiving federal and state grants, local government authorities also raise money from their residents, usually through rates and other fees and charges. Local governments do not have the power to raise taxes.

In the ACT, the Legislative Assembly is accountable for local government functions (for example: garbage collection; looking after parks and gardens; libraries; and maintaining drains, roads and footpaths), as well as all the normal state responsibilities.

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Australia is a Federation. In other words, the country is co-governed by the State and Federal Governments, which have different areas of responsibility. It's important to know which government is responsible for the area that you're running a campaign in.

These responsibilities are set out in Section 51 of the Australian Constitution. The Federal government is broadly responsible for:

• Foreign affairs
• The defence of Australia
• Trade and commerce with other countries, and among the states
• Trading or financial corporations
• Conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes extending beyond the limits of any one state
• Marriage, divorce & parental rights, and the custody and guardianship of infants
• Pensions of all kinds - maternity allowances, widows' pensions, child endowment, unemployment, pharmaceutical, sickness and hospital benefits, medical and dental services, benefits to students and family allowances, invalid and old-age pensions
• The people of any race for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws
• Postal (Australia Post), telegraphic, telephonic (Telstra), and other like services (television, the internet)
• A long list of minor matters such as bankruptcy and insolvency, naturalisation and citizenship, immigration and emigration, quarantine, the census, the mint, weights and measures, copyrights and patents, customs and tariffs, fisheries, astronomical and meteorological observations, lighthouses, lightships, beacons and buoys, and the influx of criminals.

Anything not mentioned in Section 51 is known as a "residual" power, which theoretically means that the states are responsible for it.

The reality, however, is that there's a lot of overlap between the responsibility of the Commonwealth and the states. It's also important to note that the Federal Government is generally considered to have the upper hand in this division of power.

It is generally accepted that over time the Federal Government has increased its powers. It has done this in two key ways. Firstly, it collects the vast majority of tax in the country. Under Section 96 of the Constitution, the Federal Government can use things called "tied grants" to distribute the revenue it has collected for the states; however, this money usually comes with conditions on how to spend that money, so while the states may administer that money, they do so under conditions set by the Federal Government. Very occasionally, these conditions lead to state governments refusing the money. The amount of tax collected by the Federal Government and distributed to the states has increased with the introduction of the GST.

The Federal Government has also increased its powers is through High Court decisions. The High Court decides constitutional cases, and is therefore the highest court in Australia. Its judges are appointed by the Federal Government. The High Court has ruled that the Commonwealth Government has power to legislate on anything involving corporations, which means almost everything, and Canberra is extending its claims under this head year by year to cover areas such as universities and water.

If there's a conflict between state legislation and federal legislation, federal legislation overrules state.

Local Government

The Australian constitution doesn't mention local governments. Generally speaking they're created by state legislation, but they aren't featured in, or protected by, state constitutions. This means that local governments can be changed at will by the state governments and are accountable to them. Essentially they play the role of service providers - while the state government is responsible for childcare, it's local governments that administer the childcare centres.

Local governments are generally responsible for locality-specific issues such as rubbish collection, road maintenance, beautification, and community facilities.

Advocating at the right level

With this information in mind you should now have a pretty good idea of the level of governance that you need to address when running your campaign. However, be sure to keep in mind all the conditions mentioned in this help sheet. You may be campaigning for an issue that the State Government has responsibility for, but you may know that the Federal Government is more sympathetic to your cause (or vice versa). In such a case it may be better to lobby the Federal Government to add conditions to its "tied grants" in order to achieve your aims.

To find out who represents you at the Federal, State and Local levels see the Your representatives page.