What are the 3 levels of the government?

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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The three levels of Government

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Australia is a representative democracy in which it is compulsory for all Australians over 18 years of age to enrol and vote for people to represent them.

There are three levels of government in Australia, and we vote to elect representatives to each of these levels: federal, state or territory and local.

Poster: The three levels of Government

The decision-making body of the federal government is Federal Parliament, which consists of two houses – the House of Representatives and the Senate.

People elected to the House of Representatives each represent a separate division or electorate in Australia. The leader of the federal government is called the Prime Minister. This is a person who has been elected (by their fellow party members) as the leader of the party that has won the majority of members elected to the House of Representatives. 

The Senate is also often referred to as the ‘state’s house’ or the ‘house of review’ and plays a joint role with the House of Representatives in reviewing, debating and voting on proposed laws. Representatives elected to the Senate are called senators. They represent a whole state or territory - there are 12 senators for every state and two senators for each territory.

Federal government responsibilities include: foreign affairs, social security, industrial relations, trade, immigration, currency, defence.

The decision-making body of state government is the state parliament which meets in the Parliament House of the particular state. Each state parliament, except for the Queensland Parliament, is made up of two houses.

Representatives elected to state parliaments are generally known as 'Members' – Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) or Members of the House of Assembly (MHA) or Members of the Legislative Council (MLC). The leader of a state government is called the Premier.

The Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory have a different arrangement. Each territory parliament has one house called the Legislative Assembly. The leader of each territory government is called the Chief Minister.

State and territory government responsibilities include: justice, consumer affairs, health, education, forestry, public transport, main roads.

The decision-making body of local government is usually called the city council or shire council. Councils are established by state governments to look after the particular needs of a city or local community.

The people's representatives who form the Council are called aldermen or councillors. The head of the Council is the Mayor or Shire President.

Local government responsibilities include: local road maintenance, garbage collection, building regulations and land subdivisions, public health and recreation facilities such as swimming pools.

Updated: 3 December 2019

This fact sheet introduces the three levels of government in Australia: the federal – Australian – Parliament, state and territory parliaments, and local councils. It includes the roles and responsibilities of each level.

Australia has three levels of government that work together to provide us with the services we need.

The three levels are:

• federal – Australian – Parliament, in Canberra
• state and territory parliaments, in each state and territory capital city
• local councils – also called shires or municipalities – across Australia.

How the federal and state parliaments work together is sometimes referred to as the division of powers.

There are 6 state and 2 territory parliaments. They are:

There are over 500 local councils around Australia.

Responsibility

Representatives are elected to federal Parliament, state and territory parliaments, and local councils, so that all Australians have someone to represent them at each level of government. Parliaments and councils make laws; governments put these laws into action.

Each level of government provides different services to Australians. Sometimes these services overlap.

All levels of government raise money, through collecting taxes, to pay for services provided to Australians. Local councils also receive funding from the federal government and state governments.

The Australian Constitution

Section 51 of the Australian Constitution contains a long list of areas in which the federal Parliament can make laws. For some of these—defence, foreign affairs, immigration etc—the federal Parliament has the exclusive – sole – power to make laws. The concurrent powers – shared powers – of the federal and state parliaments include education, health and water management. Section 109 of the Constitution states that if a state parliament and the federal Parliament pass conflicting laws on the same subject, then the federal law overrides the state law.

Territories

Section 122 of the Constitution allows the federal Parliament to override a territory law at any time. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) does not have local councils. The ACT Legislative Assembly is responsible for both state and local government responsibilities.

Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)

This diagram illustrates the three levels of government—the law-making bodies in Australia with three maps of Australia: Local councils (located around Australia in each local council division); State/territory parliaments (located in the capital cities of each of the 6 states and 2 territories); and federal Parliament (located in Canberra, the nation's capital).