Parliament
Quick e-introduction to parliament:
Further reading suggestions
- Department of the House of Representatives 2003.@@@A House for a Nation@@@[CD Rom] A useful multimedia resource produced to mark the 2001 centenary of Australia’s parliament.@@@
http://www.houseforthenation.gov.au/explore/index.htm - Singleton, G., Aitkin D, Jinks B. and Warhurst J. 2009.@@@Australian Political Institutions. 9th edn. (Frenchs Forrest: Pearson). Chapter.5 on ‘The Australian Parliament’ provides a more detailed description of the organisation and procedures of Parliament than we do in Politics One.
- Summers, J. 2009. ‘Parliament and Responsible Government’ in D. Woodward, A. Parkin, and J. Summers (eds)@@@Government, Politics, Power and Policy in Australia. 9th edn. (Frenchs Forest NSW: Pearson.) This chapter sets a discussion of parliamentary government alongside responsible government.
Useful links
A further note on Parliamentary committees.@@@
The House of Representatives and the Senate have each developed an extensive committee system. For more information
Discussion point@@@
John Uhr@@@says that: ‘Parliament works best when it “adds value” to government by acting independently of the government of the day, which is accountable to Parliament. Despite their misgivings, governments have to learn to share power with parliaments.’ But a difficulty with this argument is that Australia has a system of responsible party government—that parties form governments and seek to control parliamentary proceedings in their own political interests.@@@
Is it likely that governments will ever learn to share power with parliaments?