Responsible government has three main parts. They are:

• Legislature
• Executive
• Judiciary

The Legislature has two parts:

• Upper House
• Lower House

This is based on the British or Westminster system. In Britain the upper house or House of Lords is hereditary. The lower house, the House of Commons, is elected.

Today in Australia both the upper and lower houses are elected, though different electoral systems are used to vote for each houses. People who are 18 years of age or older can vote.

In Victoria the upper house is called the Legislative Council. It has 44 members. Victoria is divided into 22 Council Provinces or divisions. Two members represent each Province. When responsible government was first introduced in 1855, you had to be at least 30 years of age, and own freehold property worth 5,000 pounds or more to stand as a candidate for election to the Legislative Council. To vote you had to:

• be at least 21 years old
• own property worth at least 1000 pounds, or lease property with an annual value of 100 pounds, or be from one of the professions such as barrister, solicitor, medical practitioner or a university graduate.

Members of the army could also vote.

In Victoria the lower house is called the Legislative Assembly. It has 88 members. Victoria is divided into 88 electorates. One member represents each electorate.

Elections are held every four years in November. It used to be every three years.

The political party that has the majority of Members of Parliament in the Legislative Assembly forms the Government. The second largest party is called the Opposition.

The leader of the government is called the Premier. The main decision-makers, the executive, is made up of Ministers. Each Minister is responsible for one department. Another name for the executive is the Cabinet.

Legislature

The legislature is the group of people called Members of Parliament who make the laws of the state.

In Victoria there are two Houses of Parliament that make up the legislature. They are the:

• Legislative Assembly or Lower House
• Legislative Council or Upper House.

The Government is formed in the lower house from the party that has the most Members of Parliament.

Most laws begin in the lower house. There is a process that must be followed when making a law. Find out how laws are made. When you read the chart remember that the House of Representatives is the lower house in Canberra just as Victoria has the Legislative Assembly. The Senate and Legislative Council are both upper houses. The same process is used in Victoria as is used in Canberra.

Executive

These are the members of the government who decide the policies of the government and how they will be introduced. They must answer to the parliament about the work of their departments in implementing this policy and how the money for which they are responsible is spent.

Today the executive is called the Cabinet. It is made up of the Premier and the Ministers. Sometimes the Premier, several senior ministers and the Governor who represents the Queen of Australia meet as the Executive Council to approve decisions made by the government.

Judiciary

The judiciary is another name for the court system. The court is responsible for making sure laws are kept, and for dealing with people who break these laws.

Sometimes the highest court will be asked to decide what a part of the Constitution or a law really means. This happens when parliament or other citizens cannot agree on the meaning of a law. The court will be asked to decide what the Members of Parliament meant when they introduced a law. This is called interpreting the law.

Westminster System

There are different ways in which governments in different countries are organised and operate.

In Australia we use the Westminster System. This is named after the Palace of Westminster or Houses of Parliament in London. You may have seen photographs of the British Houses of Parliament and the clock tower, known as Big Ben.

In this system there are two Houses of Parliament: the upper and lower houses. The government is formed from the political party which has the majority of Members of Parliament in the lower house (in Victoria, it is known as the Legislative Assembly). The upper house (in Victoria, the legislative Council) acts as a check on the work of the lower house.

• Democracy
• Government
• Representative government
• Responsible government
• Self-government
• Structure of responsible government
• Towards responsible government
• The Constitution
• Lucy Bell
• Thomas Henty
• William Barak
• Elias Andrews
• John Chandler
• Frederick Thomas Sargood
• William Foster Stawell
• Acts of Parliament about Voting and becoming an MP
• Voting systems
• Acts relating to land use and care
• Consolidation Acts
• Land Acts in Victoria
• The Chaffey Agreement