1.
Australian House of Representatives
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The Australian House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the Parliament of Australia. It is referred to as the house, with the Senate being referred to as the upper house. The House is almost always dissolved earlier, usually alone but sometimes in a double dissolution of both Houses, a member of the House may be referred to as a Member of Parliament, while a member of the Senate is usually referred to as a Senator. The government of the day and by extension the Prime Minister must achieve, the House of Representatives currently consists of 150 members, elected by and representing single member districts, known as electoral divisions. The number of members is not fixed, but can vary with boundary changes resulting from electoral redistributions, the most recent overall increase in the size of the House, which came into effect at the 1984 election, increased the number of members from 125 to 148. It reduced to 147 at the 1993 election, returned to 148 at the 1996 election, each division elects one member using full-preference Instant-runoff voting. This was put in place after the 1918 Swan by-election, which Labor unexpectedly won with the largest primary vote, the Nationalist government of the time changed the lower house voting system from first-past-the-post to full-preference preferential voting, effective from the 1919 general election. This system has remained in place since, allowing the Coalition parties to safely contest the same seats, the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act of 1900 established the House of Representatives as part of the new system of dominion government in newly federated Australia. The House is presided over by the Speaker, Members of the House are elected from single member electorates. One vote one value legislation requires all electorates to have approximately the number of voters with a maximum 10% variation. However, the quota for the number of voters in an electorate is determined by the number of voters in the state in which that electorate is found. Meanwhile, all the states except Tasmania have electorates approximately within the same 10% tolerance, voting is by the preferential system, also known as instant-runoff voting. A full allocation of preferences is required for a vote to be considered formal and this allows for a calculation of the two-party-preferred vote. Under Section 24 of the Constitution, each state is entitled to members based on a quota determined from the latest statistics of the Commonwealth. These statistics arise from the census conducted under the auspices of section 51, the parliamentary entitlement of a state or territory is established by the Electoral Commissioner dividing the number of the people of the Commonwealth by twice the number of Senators. This is known as the Nexus Provision, the reasons for this are twofold, to maintain a constant influence for the smaller states and to maintain a constant balance of the two Houses in case of a joint sitting after a double dissolution. The population of state and territory is then divided by this quota to determine the number of members to which each state. Under the Australian Constitution all original states are guaranteed at least five members, the Federal Parliament itself has decided that the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory should have at least one member each
2.
Parliament of Australia
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It consists of three elements, the Queen of Australia, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Queen is represented by the Governor-General, through both Houses, however, there is a fused executive, drawn from the Westminster System. The upper house, the Senate, consists of 76 members, twelve for each state, Senators are elected using the single transferable vote proportional representation system and as a result, the chamber features a multitude of parties vying for power. The governing party or coalition rarely has a majority in the Senate and usually needs to negotiate with other parties and this tends to lead to the chamber being dominated by two major parties, the Liberal/National Coalition and the Labor Party. The government of the day must achieve the confidence of this House in order to gain and remain in power, although elections can be called early, each 3 years the full House of Representatives and half of the Senate is dissolved and goes up for reelection. The two Houses meet in separate chambers of Parliament House on Capital Hill in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, the Commonwealth of Australia came into being on 1 January 1901 with the federation of the six Australian colonies. The inaugural election took place on 29 and 30 March and the first Australian Parliament was opened on 9 May 1901 in Melbourne by Prince George, Duke of Cornwall and York, later King George V. The only building in Melbourne that was enough to accommodate the 14,000 guests was the western annexe of the Royal Exhibition Building. After the official opening, from 1901 to 1927, the Parliament met in Parliament House, Melbourne and it had always been intended that the national Parliament would sit in a new national capital. This was a compromise at Federation due to the rivalry between the two largest Australian cities, Sydney and Melbourne, which wished to become the new capital. The site of Canberra was selected for the location of the capital city in 1908. A competition was announced on 30 June 1914 to design Parliament House, however, due to the start of World War I the next month, the competition was cancelled. It was re-announced in August 1916, but again postponed indefinitely on 24 November 1916, in the meantime, John Smith Murdoch, the Commonwealths Chief Architect, worked on the design as part of his official duties. He had little enthusiasm for the project, as he felt it was a waste of money. Nevertheless, he designed the building by default, the construction of Old Parliament House, as it is called today, was commenced on 28 August 1923 and completed in early 1927. It was built by the Commonwealth Department of Works, using tradesmen, the final cost was about £600,000, which was more than three times the original estimate. It was designed to house the parliament for a maximum of 50 years until a permanent facility could be built, the building was opened on 9 May 1927 by the Duke and Duchess of York. The opening ceremonies were both splendid and incongruous, given the sparsely built nature of Canberra of the time and its small population, the building was extensively decorated with British Empire and Australian flags and bunting
3.
New South Wales
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New South Wales is a state on the east coast of Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south and it has a coast line with the Tasman Sea on its east side. The Australian Capital Territory is an enclave within the state, New South Wales state capital is Sydney, which is also Australias most populous city. In March 2014, the population of New South Wales was 7.5 million. Just under two-thirds of the population,4.67 million. Inhabitants of New South Wales are referred to as New South Welshmen, the Colony of New South Wales was founded as a penal colony in 1788. It originally comprised a more than half of the Australian mainland with its western boundary set at 129th meridian east in 1825, in addition, the colony also included the island territories of New Zealand, Van Diemens Land, Lord Howe Island, and Norfolk Island. During the 19th century, most of the area was detached to form separate British colonies that eventually became New Zealand. However, the Swan River Colony has never administered as part of New South Wales. Lord Howe Island remains part of New South Wales, while Norfolk Island has become a federal Territory, as have the now known as the Australian Capital Territory. The prior inhabitants of New South Wales were the Aboriginal tribes who arrived in Australia about 40,000 to 60,000 years ago, before European settlement there were an estimated 250,000 Aboriginal people in the region. The Wodi Wodi people are the custodians of the Illawarra region of South Sydney. The Bundjalung people are the custodians of parts of the northern coastal areas. The European discovery of New South Wales was made by Captain James Cook during his 1770 survey along the eastern coast of the Dutch-named continent of New Holland. In his original journal covering the survey, in triplicate to satisfy Admiralty Orders, Cook first named the land New Wales, however, in the copy held by the Admiralty, he revised the wording to New South Wales. After years of chaos and anarchy after the overthrow of Governor William Bligh, macquaries legacy is still evident today. During the 19th century, large areas were separated to form the British colonies of Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria. Responsible government was granted to the New South Wales colony in 1855, following the Treaty of Waitangi, William Hobson declared British sovereignty over New Zealand in 1840
4.
Whitton, New South Wales
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Whitton is a small town located in Leeton Shire in the Australian state of New South Wales. Founded in 1850, it is named after John Whitton, Engineer-in-Charge of the New South Wales Government Railways, the railway reached Whitton in 1881. At the 2006 census, Whitton had a population of 394, hulong Post Office opened on 15 October 1881 and was renamed Whitton in 1883. Whitton contains the Ricebowl Hotel,2 general stores, a post office, St Carthage Catholic Church, St Johns Anglican Church, a station, a bowling club
5.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
6.
Australian Labor Party
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The Australian Labor Party is a political party in Australia. The party has been in opposition at federal level since the 2013 election, Bill Shorten has been the partys federal parliamentary leader since 13 October 2013. The party is a party with branches in each state. Labor is in government in the states of Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, the party competes against the Liberal/National Coalition for political office at the federal and state levels. Labors current National Platform describes the party as a social democratic party, the party of opportunity and security for working people. The ALP was not founded as a party until after the first sitting of the Australian Parliament in 1901. Nevertheless, it is regarded as descended from labour parties founded in the various Australian colonies by the labour movement in Australia. Labor is thus the countrys oldest political party, colonial labour parties contested seats from 1891, and federal seats following Federation at the 1901 federal election. Labor was the first party in Australia to win a majority in either house of the Australian Parliament, internationally, the ALP is a member of the Progressive Alliance network of social-democratic parties, having previously been a member of the Socialist International. The Australian Labor Party has its origins in the Labour parties founded in the 1890s in the Australian colonies prior to federation, Labor tradition ascribes the founding of Queensland Labour to a meeting of striking pastoral workers under a ghost gum tree in Barcaldine, Queensland in 1891. The Balmain, New South Wales branch of the party claims to be the oldest in Australia, Labour as a parliamentary party dates from 1891 in New South Wales and South Australia,1893 in Queensland, and later in the other colonies. The first election contested by Labour candidates was the 1891 New South Wales election, the major parties were the Protectionist and Free Trade parties and Labour held the balance of power. It offered parliamentary support in exchange for policy concessions, the United Labor Party of South Australia was founded in 1891, and three candidates were that year elected to the South Australian Legislative Council. The first successful South Australian House of Assembly candidate was John McPherson at the 1892 East Adelaide by-election, at the 1893 South Australian elections the ULP was immediately elevated to balance of power status with 10 of 54 lower house seats. The liberal government of Charles Kingston was formed with the support of the ULP, so successful, less than a decade later at the 1905 election, Thomas Price would form the worlds first stable Labor government. John Verran led Labor to form the states first of many majority governments at the 1910 election, in 1899, Anderson Dawson formed a minority Labour government in Queensland, the first in the world, which lasted one week while the conservatives regrouped after a split. The colonial Labour parties and the unions were mixed in their support for the Federation of Australia. They feared that federation would further entrench the power of the conservative forces, the first Labour leader and Prime Minister, Chris Watson, however, was a supporter of federation
7.
Charles Sturt University
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Charles Sturt University is an Australian multi-campus public university located in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory. Established in 1989, it was named in honour of Captain Charles Sturt, the University has multiple campuses in Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst, Dubbo, Goulburn, Orange, Port Macquarie, Wagga Wagga and Canberra. The University also facilitates specialist centres in North Parramatta, Manly, Wangaratta as well as Regional University Study Centres in Griffith, courses are also delivered in conjunction with Study Group Australia in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Charles Sturt University offers various Distance Education programs at Bachelor and Post-Graduate level as well as the Single Subject Study program, CSU also has various course delivery partnerships with several TAFE institutions across the country. It is named in honour of explorer Charles Sturt, the Mitchell College of Advanced Education had been formed on 1 January 1970, and the Riverina Murray Institute of Education campus in Wagga Wagga and Albury-Wodonga had operated since 1984. In 1998, CSU established the first Study Centre in Sydney and these study centres are operated by a private education group called Study Group Australia. On 1 January 2005, CSU formalised moves to control of the University of Sydneys Orange campus. In 2013 the University implemented a gas engine cogeneration power plant to help minimise fuel costs, between 2005 and 2015, CSU had expand an offshore campus in Burlington, Ontario in Canada. On July 2015, CSU regretfully ceased to operate its Ontario campus due to the legislative, on 14 February 2011 CSU changed its logo. The sturt desert pea flower is now stylised and made prominent, on 1 May 2012, a milestone was reached as CSU open a new campus in Port Macquarie, CSUs first coastal, regional campus. This made Higher Education accessible to the Port Macquarie and the Hastings region and it provides opportunities for students with the desire to study close to the beach, as well as options for local students to access the resources of a world-class university close to home. On 18 April 2016, staff and students moved into Stage One of their purpose built campus, two more stages are expected to be complete over the coming years with an expected student intake of 5000 by the year 2030. On 28 July 2016, CSU has been declared Australias First Official Carbon Neutral University, CSU has Three Main Faculties, each offering a range of courses and discipline opportunities. The Arts Discipline cover subject segments of visual arts, performing arts, communications, history, human services, literature, philosophy, sociology, the Business Discipline has garner attention by employers for producing graduates excelling in todays business world challenges. Their distance education postgraduate PhD/DBA and Masters programs are eagerly sought-after, CSUs Faculty of Science is one of the most broadly based scientific academic concentrations in Australasia. NSW HSC Online, an abbreviation of New South Wales Higher School Certificate Online, is a partnership between the NSW Department of Education and Training and Charles Sturt University. NSW HSC Online is supported by the Board of Studies NSW, Speech Pathology masters degree claims to provide academic qualifications in Speech Pathology by distance learning through the SP Masters programme. This degree was not accredited by Speech Pathology Australia in 2016, graduates of the SP Masters degree in 2016, are not able to practice as Speech Pathologists until further study or practical experience is provided by Charles Sturt University and SPA
8.
Aboriginal Australians
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Aboriginal Australians are legally defined as people who are members of the Aboriginal race of Australia. Until the 1980s, the legal and administrative criterion for inclusion in this category was race. In the era of colonial and post-colonial government, access to human rights depended upon your race. If you were a full blooded Aboriginal native, the Constitution of Australia, in its original form as of 1901, referred to Aboriginals twice, but without definition. Section 51 gave the Commonwealth parliament power to legislate with respect to the people of any throughout the Commonwealth. The purpose of this provision was to give the Commonwealth power to regulate non-white immigrant workers, the only other reference, Section 127, provided simply that aboriginal natives shall not be counted in reckoning the size of the population of the Commonwealth or any part of it. The purpose of section 127 was to prevent the inclusion of Aboriginal people in section 24 determinations of the distribution of House of Representatives seats amongst the states and territories, after both of these references were removed by the 1967 referendum, the Australian Constitution had no references to Aboriginals. Since that time, there have been a number of proposals to amend the constitution to specifically mention Indigenous Australians, the change to Section 51 gave the Commonwealth parliament the power to make laws specifically with respect to Aboriginal peoples as a race. The case concerned an application of legislation that would preserve cultural heritage of Aboriginal Tasmanians and it was held that Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, together or separately, and any part of either, could be regarded as a race for this purpose. As to the criteria for identifying a person as a member of such a race, Deane said, It is unnecessary, for the purposes of the present case, to consider the meaning to be given to the phrase people of any race in s.51. Plainly, the words have a wide and non-technical meaning, the phrase is, in my view, apposite to refer to all Australian Aboriginals collectively. Any doubt, which might otherwise exist in regard, is removed by reference to the wording of par. The phrase is also apposite to refer to any identifiable racial sub-group among Australian Aboriginals, while Deanes three-part definition reaches beyond the biological criterion to individuals self-identification, it has been criticised as continuing to accept the biological criterion as primary. It has been difficult to apply, both in each of its parts and as to the relations among the parts, biological descent has been a fall-back criterion. If it is to be used to refer to us as a group of people. This has just really crept up on us and we are very happy with our involvement with indigenous people around the world, on the international forum because theyre our brothers and sisters. But we do object to it being used here in Australia and her lecture offered a new perspective on the terms urban, traditional and of Indigenous descent as used to define and categorise Aboriginal Australians. She said, Not only are these categories inappropriate, they serve to divide us, governments insistence on categorising us with modern words like urban, traditional and of Aboriginal descent are really only replacing old terms half-caste and full-blood – based on our colouring
9.
Leeton, New South Wales
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Leeton is a town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Leeton is situated approximately 550 km west of Sydney and 450 km north of Melbourne in the productive Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, Leeton is administered by Leeton Shire Council. Leetons urban population in 2011 was 6,733 and as of 2001, Leeton is situated in one of the most productive farming regions in the state, with citrus, rice, grapes and wheat farms found throughout the Leeton Shire. Leeton is Australias Rice Capital as it is home to the SunRice headquarters, other industry includes Freedom Foods, Berri Juices, Riverina Beef and Murrumbidgee Irrigation. Leeton is renowned as The Heart of SunRice Country, Leeton holds a number of town landmarks, including the Roxy Theatre, War Memorial, Madonna Place, St Peters Church, and the historic Hydro Motor Inn which are located in the centre of town. Leetons areas also feature large towers that store the towns water, Leeton is a purpose-built town designed by Walter Burley Griffin after the irrigation schemes were announced by the New South Wales Government in the early 1900s. The town has a circular structure and streetscape. Leeton has distinct commercial, administrative, industrial, residential, educational, health, recreational and cultural areas, the unique design of Leeton is still considered a practical method of planning even though Leeton was founded over 90 years ago. The town is named after Charles Alfred Lee, a Minister for Public Works in New South Wales from 1904 to 1910, in 1912 a water tower was built to supply water to the then tent town. Leeton Post Office opened on 6 September 1912, on 3 April 1913 the first block of land was sold in the town. During 1913 a kurrajong tree which became known as the Pioneers Tree, was planted as a feature in Kurrajong Avenue, and a butter factory was established in the town. In 1914 World War I broke out, of the population of 2000 people,200 men were serving in the armed forces making it difficult to maintain the plantings in the irrigation area. During 1914 and 1915 an abattoir and canning factory were established in the town, in August 1913 Walter Burley Griffin visited the town to complete its design. The Commission chose and appointed an Advisory Board which was made up of farmers which already had been in operation in the Yanco area since 1913. On 1 January 1928 the Willimbong Shire was formed with the name Willimbong being retained until 19 July 1946 when it was renamed as Leeton Shire. In 1929 the Roxy Theatre was built on a vacant block of land on the corner of Wade. In 1930 Willimbong Shire become the trustee of the Leeton Racecourse, established in 1912, in August 1931 Southern Cross became the first aircraft to officially landing at the aerodrome. During 1935 work was done at the aerodrome for it to be licensed to take aircraft including commercial aircraft
10.
Judge
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A judge presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, the judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and, typically, in an open court. In some jurisdictions, the judges powers may be shared with a jury, in inquisitorial systems of criminal investigation, a judge might also be an examining magistrate. A variety of traditions have become associated with the rank or occupation, in many parts of the world, judges wear long robes and sit on an elevated platform during trials. In some countries, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations, judges wear wigs, the long wig often associated with judges is now reserved for ceremonial occasions, although it was part of the standard attire in previous centuries. A short wig resembling but not identical to a wig would be worn in court. This tradition, however, is being phased out in Britain in non-criminal courts, American judges frequently wear black robes. American judges have ceremonial gavels, although American judges have court deputies or bailiffs, however, in some of the Western United States, like California, judges did not always wear robes and instead wore everyday clothing. Today, some members of state courts, such as the Maryland Court of Appeals wear distinct dress. In Italy and Portugal both judges and lawyers wear black robes. In Oman, the judge wears a stripe, while the attorneys wear the black gown. In Hong Kong, court proceedings are conducted in either English or Cantonese Chinese, Judges of Hong Kong retain many of the English traditions such as wearing wigs and robes in trials. In the lower courts, magistrates are addressed as Your worship, in writing, the post-nominal letters PJ is used to refer to a permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal and NPJ to a non-permanent judge. In the High Court, the abbreviation JA is used to denote a justice of appeal, Masters of the High Court are addressed as Master. When trials are conducted in Chinese, judges were addressed, in Cantonese, as Fat Goon Dai Yan before the transfer of sovereignty from the United Kingdom to China, and as Fat Goon Gok Ha since 1997. In India, judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts were addressed as Your Lordship or My Lord and Your Ladyship or My Lady, the Bar Council of India had adopted a resolution in April 2006 and added a new Rule 49 in the Advocates Act. As per the rule, lawyers can address the court as Your Honour, if it is a subordinate court, lawyers can use terms such as sir or any equivalent phrase in the regional language concerned. Explaining the rationale behind the move, the Bar Council had held that the such as My Lord
11.
Henry Parkes
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He died in 1896, five years before this process was completed. He was described during his lifetime by The Times as the most commanding figure in Australian politics, Alfred Deakin described Parkes as having flaws but nonetheless being a large-brained self-educated Titan whose natural field was found in Parliament. Parkes was born in Canley in Warwickshire, England, and christened in the village of Stoneleigh. His father, Thomas Parkes, was a tenant farmer. Little is known about his mother, who died in 1842 and he received little schooling, and at an early age was working on a ropewalk for 4 pence a day. His next work was in a brickyard, describing it as breaking stones on the Queens highway with hardly enough clothing to him from the cold. He was then apprenticed to John Holding, a bone and ivory turner at Birmingham, between then and 1838 he was associated with the political movements that were then endeavouring to better the conditions endured by the working classes. He was steadily educating himself, too, by reading assiduously, in 1835, he addressed some verses, afterwards included in his first volume of poems, to Clarinda Varney, the daughter of a local butler. On 11 July 1836 he married Clarinda Varney and went to live in a single room, Parkes commenced business on his own account in Birmingham and had a bitter struggle to make ends meet. Following the death of their two children at an age and a few unsuccessful weeks living in London, Parkes. They travelled aboard the Strathfieldsaye, which arrived at Sydney on 25 July 1839, another child had been born two days before. On arrival they had only a few shillings between them and had to sell their belongings as Parkes looked for work and he was eventually employed as a labourer with John Jamison, one of the colonys wealthiest settlers, on the Regentville estate near Penrith. He was paid with £25 a year and food rations, after spending six months at Regentville, he returned to Sydney and worked in various low-paying jobs, first with an ironmongery store and then with a firm of engineers and brass-founders. About a year after his arrival in Sydney, Parkes was hired by the New South Wales Customs Department as a Tide Waiter, Parkes financial position improved due to his stable new government job, even though he was still burdened with a backlog of undischarged debts. A volume entitled Stolen Moments was published in Sydney in 1842, in early 1846, he left the Customs Department after a disagreement with Colonel Gibbes over a press leak that concerned the alleged behaviour of one of Parkes co-workers. Despite this, Parkes would continue to remain on friendly terms with Gibbes, Gibbes grandson, Frederick Jamison Gibbes, was also a member of the Parliament of New South Wales in the 1880s and like Parkes became a supporter of federation. After his departure from the Customs Service, Parkes worked in the private sector and he worked as an ivory and bone turner and later ran a shop of his own in Hunter Street. At one stage, he owned several newspapers, including The Peoples Advocate and New South Wales Vindicator and he was not successful as a businessman and eventually went bankrupt after running up debts totaling £48,500
12.
Parliament of New South Wales
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The Parliament of New South Wales, located in Parliament House on Macquarie Street, Sydney, is the main legislative body in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is a parliament elected by the people of the state in general elections. The parliament shares law making powers with the Australian Federal Parliament, the New South Wales Parliament follows the Westminster parliamentary traditions of dress, Green–Red chamber colours and protocol. The Parliament derives its authority from the Queen of Australia, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, represented by the Governor of New South Wales and it consists of a lower house, the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, and an upper house, the New South Wales Legislative Council. Each house is elected by the people of New South Wales at elections held approximately every four years. The Parliament of New South Wales is Australias oldest legislature and it had its beginnings when New South Wales was a British colony under the control of the Governor. A small, appointed Legislative Council began meeting in 1824 to advise the Governor on legislative matters, by 1843, this had been enlarged with two-thirds of its members elected by adult males who met certain property requirements. The right to vote was extended to all males in 1858. In 1850 the Australian Colonies Government Act was passed by the Imperial Parliament and this expanded the New South Wales Legislative Council so that by 1851 there were 54 members – again, with two-thirds elected. In 1853, a committee chaired by William Wentworth began drawing up a Constitution for responsible self-government. The Committee’s proposed Constitution was placed before the Legislative Council in August that year and, for the most part, the Constitution, with an upper house whose members were appointed for life, was sent to the Imperial Parliament and was passed into law on 16 July 1855. The new Parliament of New South Wales was to be a bicameral legislature, on 22 May 1856, the newly constituted New South Wales Parliament opened and sat for the first time. With the new 54-member Legislative Assembly taking over the council chamber, in 1859 Queensland was made a colony separate from New South Wales. The Legislative Assembly was reduced from 80 to 72 members by the loss of the Queensland seats, in 1901, New South Wales became a state of the Commonwealth of Australia and many government functions were transferred to the new Commonwealth government. The current Constitution of New South Wales was adopted in 1902, women gained the right to vote in Commonwealth elections in April 1902 and in New South Wales state elections in August 1902. In 1918, reforms permitted women to be Members of Parliament and that same year, a proportional representation system was introduced for the Legislative Assembly with multiple representatives from each electorate, this system lasted until it was abolished in 1926. In 1925,1926 and 1929, Premier Jack Lang made attempts at abolishing the Legislative Council, following the example of the Queensland Legislative Council in 1922, in 1962 Indigenous Australians gained the right to vote in all state elections. In 1978, the Council became an elected body in a program of electoral reform introduced by the Wran Labor government
