What section in the Commonwealth Constitution in Australia lists the legislative powers of the Commonwealth government?

Índice Show

State/Territory
What Will I Learn

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.

Return to the resources page

Thanks for your question.

The Australian Constitution divides the power to make laws between the federal and state parliaments by listing the areas which the federal parliament can make laws about.

Section 52 lists the areas which only the federal parliament can make laws about (exclusive powers). It gives the federal parliament the power to decide on the federal seat of government and authority over the federal public service.

The law-making powers of state parliaments.

Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)

The law-making powers of the state parliaments include:

Schools
Hospitals
Roads and railways
Public transport
Electricity
Water supply
Gas supply
Mining
Agriculture
Forests
Community services
Consumer affairs
Police
Prisons
Ambulance services

Parliamentary Education Office

Top

What Will I Learn

The following information and activities will help you to develop an understanding of the concept of the ‘division of powers’
You will learn how it applies in Australia and NSW

Australia’s system of government operates from a set of rules and structures based on a written document called the Australian Constitution. It came into existence at Federation in 1901 and created three levels of government. Federal Parliament and the state parliaments are two of the levels and the third level of government are local councils (shires and municipalities).

The division of powers in the Australian Constitution is also often referred to as the three levels of government in which no one level of government can control all the laws and activities in the nation.

Generally, there are four different types of legislative power:

Specific
Exclusive
Concurrent
Residual

WHAT POWER?	DEFINITION	EXAMPLE
Specific	These are law making powers given to the Federal Parliament and listed in sections 51 and 52 of the Constitution. They provide the Commonwealth with the power to make laws for ‘peace, order and good government of Australia’.	Immigration
Exclusive	Some powers are also exclusive to the Commonwealth. They are powers that only the Commonwealth can make laws for and the States cannot. The states are excluded from legislating about areas such as immigration, defence and currency. For example, it would make life in Australia a bit difficult if every state had their own currency, which is why this type of power suits the Australian Parliament.	Currency
Concurrent	Some powers are non-exclusive and shared with the states. They are called concurrent powers because both the Federal Parliament and the State Parliaments can make legislation about these areas. However if a State were to make a law that conflicted with a law of the Federal Parliament, s 109 of the Constitution states that the Federal legislation will override state legislation.	Taxation
Residual	These are the law making powers of each state agreed to at Federation when each of the colonies discussed the powers they wanted to retain and what they were willing to cede to the new Federal Parliament. The law-making powers of the states are not written in the Australian Constitution and are far-reaching, and the New South Wales Constitution does not list law-making powers either. Instead, it provides the Parliament with a broad grant to “make laws for the peace, welfare, and good government of New South Wales” (section 5 of the Constitution Act 1902)	Schools

The Parliament of Australia in Canberra

As well as being based on Britain’s Westminster system, some features of Australia’s federal system were inspired by the federal system of the United States. These include:

outlining the powers of Federal Parliament (s 51)
giving of ‘residual’ power to the states (s 108)
an inconsistency clause (s 109)
strong bicameralism, with a Senate in which the states are equally represented notwithstanding great disparities in population (s 7)
election of senators in alternating electoral cycles (s 13)
the establishment of a High Court of Australia as a supreme court empowered to declare actions of either level of government unconstitutional (s 71)
a complex procedure to alter the Constitution through referendum (s 128)

NSW Parliament in Sydney

Each level of government provides services for the people of Australia. Each of them is elected by the people that they provide services for.

WHAT LEVEL?	LEADER	EXECUTIVE BODY	SOME KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
THE WHOLE NATION	Prime Minister	Federal Parliament in Canberra House of Representatives with 150 members each representing their own electorate (including 48 in NSW) Senate with 76 members 12 from each state, 2 from each of the two territories	Foreign Affairs Trade Immigration Borders & Travel Currency Defence Airports Post and Telecommunications Social Services Tertiary Education
STATE (OR TERRITORY)	Premier (or Chief Minister in territories)	In NSW New South Wales Parliament on Macquarie Street in Sydney Legislative Assembly with 93 members representing 93 electorates Legislative Council with 42 members representing the whole State	Fair Trade Hospitals Transport Schools Utilities Public Works Main roads Ports & Waterways
LOCAL AREA	Mayor (or Lord Mayor)	City, Municipal or Shire Council Local government administration offices are located in larger local centres. Councils have between 5-15 Councillors. Each usually represents one section (Ward or Riding) within the local government area.	Local roads and street Libraries Waste disposal Recycling Community services Parks and sporting facilities Swimming pools