Separation Of Power In Australia Essay

Power is best shared if it is not to be abused. The Constitution of Australia does this by separating the functions of government and dividing power between the Federation and the States. The separation and division of powers are both important means of preventing the abuse of power and, while both are flawed, they nevertheless do their job better than if they did not exist.

In the Constitution, the separation of powers aimed to make sure that many people are in charge of making, implementing and interpreting law. This was good for democracy, was made to avoid injustice and power imbalance, which could arise if too much authority is held in one sector.

The Constitution separates the government’s powers into three arms:

1. The Executive:

The Prime Ministers and other Ministers
2. The Legislature: The Parliament
3. The Judiciary: The Court
The Executive administer the law, the Legislature make the law, and the Judiciary interpret the law.

The division of powers was also in the Constitution.

It dictates which powers are given to the Commonwealth and which are to remain with the States. When the Constitution was being written, the question of powers was important; the power ended up being divided between the States and the Federal Government. This was done so the reluctant colonies (who were initially not convinced that joining the Federation was desirable) would maintain some power over their own affairs, so they would join the Federation.

Power was divided into three parts:

Exclusive powers, given to the Federal Government, concurrent powers, shared between the states and the Federal Government, and residual powers, which was anything that wasn’t mentioned in the Constitution, and was left in the power of the states.

Because of the rise of party politics, separation of power between the Executive and the Legislature is gone, as the Prime Minister and other Ministers can dictate how the Legislative will vote on a law, and the power is only separated between two arms: the Executive/ Legislative, and the Judiciary.

The only way to solve this is to make the members of the party vote with their own conscience, which is near impossible, as doing so would anger their executive, who would give them no endorsement in the next election, and damage their chance of being

elected.
This isn’t how the separation of powers was supposed to work, but power separated into two arms is still fairer than power that is not separated at all.

The division of power persuaded the reluctant states to join the Federation, but it also created a level of the government that Australia doesn’t necessarily need, which is expensive, and leads to more disputes and slower agreements; the residual powers would be better off in the hands of a single government. A solution is for the Federation to buy back the rights. It is extremely expensive, but the Government has done something like this before, like in 2007, when Kevin Rudd bought back water rights from NSW and QLD, who were using up the water upstream of the Murray-Darling River, and weren’t leaving water for South Australia.