1.
Governor of New South Wales
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The Governor of New South Wales is the viceregal representative of the Australian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, in the state of New South Wales. In an analogous way to the Governor-General of Australia at the national level, the Governor is appointed by the queen on the advice of the Premier of New South Wales, for an unfixed period of time—known as serving At Her Majestys pleasure—though five years is the norm. The current Governor is retired General David Hurley, who succeeded Dame Marie Bashir on 2 October 2014, the office has its origin in the 18th-century colonial governors of New South Wales upon its settlement in 1788, and is the oldest continuous institution in Australia. The office of Governor is required by the New South Wales Constitution Act,1902, besides the administration of the oaths of office, there is no set formula for the swearing-in of a governor-designate. The sovereign will also hold an audience with the appointee and will at that time induct the governor-designate as a Companion of the Order of Australia. The incumbent will generally serve for at least five years, though this is only a convention. The premier may therefore recommend to the Queen that the remain in her service for a longer period of time. A governor may also resign and three have died in office, furthermore, if the Lieutenant Governor becomes incapacitated while serving in the office of Governor, the next most senior judge of the Supreme Court is sworn in as the Administrator. Between 1788 and 1957, all governors were born outside of New South Wales and were members of the Peerage. Taylor once noted that out and governing New South Wales became the British aristocracys abiding consolation. Coincidentally the first Australian-born Governor, Sir John Northcott on 1 August 1946, was also the first Australian-born Governor of any state, the first Governors were all military officers and the majority of governors since have come from a military background, numbering 19. Samuels was the first governor in New South Wales history without either a political, public service or military background, the first woman to hold this position is also the first Lebanese-Australian governor, Dame Marie Bashir. In this capacity, the governor will issue royal proclamations and sign orders in council, the Governor alone is constitutionally mandated to summon parliament. The governor grants Royal Assent in the Queens name, legally, if the governor withholds the Queens assent, the sovereign may within two years disallow the bill, thereby annulling the law in question. No modern viceroy has denied Royal Assent to a bill, with most constitutional functions delegated to Cabinet, the governor acts in a primarily ceremonial fashion. He or she will host members of Australias royal family, as well as foreign royalty, also as part of international relations, the governor receives letters of credence and of recall from foreign consul-generals appointed to Sydney. The governor is also tasked with fostering unity and pride, the governor also traditionally serves as Honorary and Regimental Colonel in the Royal New South Wales Regiment and as Honorary Air Commodore of No.22 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force. Since 1946, the governor has also always made the Chief Scout of New South Wales
2.
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
3.
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
4.
Government of New South Wales
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The Government of New South Wales, also referred to as the New South Wales Government or NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales, in Australia. The Government of New South Wales, a constitutional monarchy, was formed in 1856 as prescribed in its Constitution. Since the Federation of Australia in 1901, New South Wales has been a state of the Commonwealth of Australia, under the Australian Constitution, New South Wales ceded legislative and judicial supremacy to the Commonwealth, but retained powers in all matters not in conflict with the Commonwealth. Section 109 of the Australian Constitution provides that, where a State law is inconsistent with a federal law, initially the Australian states retained significant independence. Over time, however, that independence has been eroded by both the proliferation of Commonwealth Law, and the increasing financial domination of the Commonwealth. New South Wales is governed according to the principles of the Westminster system, Executive power rests formally with the Executive Council, which consists of the Governor and senior ministers. The Governor, as representative of the Crown, is the repository of power, which is exercised by him or her on the advice of the Premier of New South Wales. The Premier and Ministers are appointed by the Governor, and hold office by virtue of their ability to command the support of a majority of members of the Legislative Assembly. In 2006, the Sesquicentenary of Responsible Government in New South Wales, the Act was assented to by the Queen on 3 April 2006. The following individuals serve as government ministers, at the pleasure of the Queen, the government ministers are listed in order of seniority, while their opposition counterparts are listed to correspond with the government ministers. All Opposition counterparts are members of the Parliament of New South Wales
5.
Westminster system
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The Westminster system is a parliamentary system of government modelled after that which developed in the United Kingdom. This term comes from the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the British parliament, the system is a series of procedures for operating a legislature. However, some colonies have since adopted either the presidential system or a hybrid system as their form of government. Examples include Queen Elizabeth II, the governors-general in Commonwealth realms, or the presidents of many countries, exceptions to this are Ireland and Israel, whose presidents are de jure and de facto ceremonial, and the latter possesses no reserve powers whatsoever. A head of government, known as the minister, premier. While the head of state appoints the head of government, constitutional convention suggests that a majority of elected Members of Parliament must support the person appointed. If more than half of elected parliamentarians belong to the political party. An exception to this was Israel, in which direct prime-ministerial elections were made in 1996,1999 and 2001, an independent, non-partisan civil service which advises on, and implements, decisions of those ministers. Civil servants hold permanent appointments and can expect merit-based selection processes, a parliamentary opposition with an official Leader of the Opposition. A legislature, often bicameral, with at least one elected house – although unicameral systems also exist, a lower house of parliament with an ability to dismiss a government by withholding Supply, passing a motion of no confidence, or defeating a confidence motion. The Westminster system enables a government to be defeated or forced into a general election independently, a parliament which can be dissolved and snap elections called at any time. Another parallel system of principles also exists known as equity. Exceptions to this include India, Quebec in Canada, and Scotland in the UK amongst others which mix common law with legal systems. Unlike the uncodified British constitution, most countries use the Westminster system have codified the system, at least in part. The pattern of executive functions within a Westminster System is quite complex, in essence, the head of state, usually a monarch or president, is a ceremonial figurehead who is the theoretical, nominal or de jure source of executive power within the system. In practice, such a figure does not actively exercise executive powers, in the United Kingdom, the sovereign theoretically holds executive authority, even though the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Cabinet effectively implement executive powers. In a parliamentary republic like India, the President is the de jure executive, even though executive powers are essentially instituted by the Prime Minister of India and the Council of Ministers. In Israel, however, executive power is vested de jure and de facto in the cabinet, as an example, the Prime Minister and Cabinet generally must seek the permission of the head of state when carrying out executive functions
6.
Federation of Australia
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Fiji and New Zealand were originally part of this process, but they decided not to join the federation. When the Constitution of Australia came into force, on 1 January 1901, the efforts to bring about federation in the mid-19th century were dogged by the lack of popular support for the movement. A number of conventions were held during the 1890s to develop a constitution for the Commonwealth, Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of New South Wales, was instrumental in this process. The election returned Barton as prime minister, though without a majority and this period has lent its name to an architectural style prevalent in Australia at that time, known as Federation architecture, or Federation style. A serious movement for Federation of the colonies arose in the late 1880s, a time there was increasing nationalism amongst Australians. The idea of being Australian began to be celebrated in songs and this was fostered by improvements in transport and communications, such as the establishment of a telegraph system between the colonies in 1872. The Australian colonies were influenced by other federations which had emerged around the world, notably in Argentina, Canada, Switzerland. Sir Henry Parkes, then Colonial Secretary of New South Wales, the Federation had the potential to ensure that throughout the continent, trade, and interstate commerce would be unaffected by protectionism and measurement and transport would be standardised. The final push for the Federal Council came at a conference in 1883, called to debate the strategies needed to counter the activities of the German and French in New Guinea, Sir Samuel Griffith, the Premier of Queensland, drafted a bill to constitute the Federal Council. The conference successfully petitioned the Imperial Parliament to enact the bill as the Federal Council of Australasia Act 1885, as a result, a Federal Council of Australasia was formed, to represent the affairs of the colonies in their relations with the South Pacific islands. New South Wales and New Zealand did not join, the self-governing colonies of Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria, as well as the Crown Colonies of Western Australia and Fiji, became involved. South Australia was briefly a member between 1888 and 1890, furthermore, the absence of the powerful colony of New South Wales weakened its representative value. Nevertheless, it was the first major form of inter-colonial co-operation and it provided an opportunity for Federalists from around the country to meet and exchange ideas. The means by which the Council was established endorsed the continuing role that the Imperial Parliament would have in the development of Australias constitutional structure, the individual colonies, Victoria excepted, were somewhat wary of Federation. Queensland, for its part, worried that the advent of national legislation would restrict the importing of kanaka labourers and these were not the only concerns of those resistant to federation. Smaller colonies also worried about the abolition of tariffs, which would deprive them of a proportion of their revenue. New South Wales, traditionally free-trade in its outlook, wanted to be satisfied that the federations tariff policy would not be protectionist, Victorian Premier James Service described fiscal union as the lion in the way of federation. A further fundamental issue was how to distribute the excess customs duties from the government to the states
7.
Prime Minister of Australia
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The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the head of government of Australia. The individual who holds the office is the most senior Minister of the Crown, the leader of the Cabinet, the office is not mentioned in the Constitution of Australia and exists only through longstanding political convention and tradition. Despite this, in practice it is the most powerful position in Australia. The individual who holds the office is commissioned by the Governor-General of Australia, almost always and according to convention, the Prime Minister is the leader of the majority party or largest party in a coalition of parties in the House of Representatives. However, there is no requirement that the prime minister sit in the House of Representatives. The only case where a member of the Senate was appointed minister was John Gorton. Malcolm Turnbull has held the office of Prime Minister since 15 September 2015, the Prime Minister and Treasurer are traditionally members of the House, but the Constitution does not have such a requirement. Before being sworn in as a Minister of the Crown, a person must first be sworn in as a member of the Federal Executive Council if they are not already a member. Membership of the Federal Executive Council entitles the member to the style of The Honourable for life, the senior members of the Executive Council constitute the Cabinet of Australia. The Prime Minister is, like ministers, normally sworn in by the Governor-General. When defeated in an election, or on resigning, the Prime Minister is said to hand in the commission, in the event of a Prime Minister dying in office, or becoming incapacitated, the Governor-General can terminate the commission. Despite the importance of the office of minister, the Constitution does not mention the office by name. The conventions of the Westminster system were thought to be entrenched in Australia by the authors of the Constitution that it was deemed unnecessary to detail them. The formal title of the portfolio has always been simply Prime Minister, except for the period of the Fourth Deakin Ministry, Page was the leader of the smaller party in the governing coalition, the Country Party. He held the office for three weeks until the UAP elected a new leader, Robert Menzies, in August 1941 Menzies resigned as prime minister. In July 1945 John Curtin died suddenly and his deputy, Frank Forde, was sworn in the next day as prime minister, although the Labor Party had not had an opportunity to meet and elect a new leader. Forde served for eight days until Ben Chifley was elected leader, Chifley was then sworn in, replacing Forde, who became Australias shortest-serving prime minister. Harold Holt disappeared while swimming on 17 December 1967 and was declared presumed dead on 19 December, the governor-general, Lord Casey, commissioned the Leader of the Country Party, John McEwen, to form a government until the Liberal Party elected a new leader
8.
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
9.
New South Wales colonial election, 1859
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The 1859 New South Wales colonial election was held between 9 June and 7 July 1859. Suffrage was limited to white males. The previous parliament of New South Wales was dissolved on 11 April 1859 by the Governor, Sir William Denison, on the advice of the Premier, there was no recognisable party structure at this election, instead the government was determined by a loose, shifting factional system. Former members of the New South Wales Parliament, 1856-2006, members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, 1859–1860 Candidates of the New South Wales colonial election,1859
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Parkes, Hon. Sir Henry". The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co. Wikisource
