Political parties and governments

People who have opinions about the laws we should have can join a political party, whose members have similar views.

Members of political parties help each other to get elected to parliament, where they try to make the sorts of laws they think we should have.

The party with the most members in parliament becomes the government. It is the government’s job to make laws, provide services, such as schools and hospitals, and to make sure that people obey the law.

Governments in Australia are divided into three levels:

• Federal
• State & territory
• Local

The next biggest party in the parliament is the opposition. The opposition tells us whenever they think the government has made a mistake, and try to persuade us to vote for them at the next election.

The leader of the Australian Government is the prime minister. The leader of a state government is called the premier.

Keywords

• Prime minister
  
• Premier
  
• Political party
  
• Opposition leader

Let’s find out

1. How many political parties can you name? Can you find their web sites? What are their key policies or ideas that they want to make into laws?
   
2. Which party is now the Australian Government?
   
3. Who is the prime minister?
   
4. Who is the premier of your state?

What have we learnt?

• Laws are made by parliaments.
• We vote for people who speak for us in parliament.
• The political party with the most members in parliament is called the government.
• The leader of the Australian Government is called the prime minister.
• The leader of a state government is called the premier.