Visit to Parliament

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Hola!

I will keep this one short and sweet because I doubt anyone is really interested in learning about the Victorian State Parliament.....however, I found it fairly interesting. The Australian government is structured similar to the U.S. in many ways, but also very different in other respects.

I visited the Victorian State Parliament on Friday, January 12th. The building was immaculate. The rooms are filled with decorations that are lined with 23.5k gold (why not 24k gold…..good question?).

Australia’s Chief Executive is the Queen of England (otherwise known as the “Crown”). The Queen has only visited Australia 5 times since 1955. Thus, she has a representative who is called the Governor General. The Governor General is primarily a figurehead (much like the Crown), but is responsible for signing laws into effect on behalf of the Queen.

Australia’s legislative body is known as Parliament. Parliament consists of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives is the lower house and is primarily responsible for introducing bills. The HOR is considered the “commoners house.” At the Federal level, the leader of the House is deemed the Prime Minister, however at the State level (i.e. State of Victoria), the leader is the Premiere of the State. The HOR is “umpired” by the Speaker of the House—a member of the ruling political party that acts as an umpire during debates about bill proposals.

The Senate is the upper house who passes the bills onto the Crown/Governor General for signing into law. The Senate is considered the more regal legislative body and is where the Crown sits when she visits Australia. The Senate is “umpired” by the President of the Senate—a member of the ruling political party that acts as an umpire during debates about passing laws. The Victorian State Parliamentary building was, for a period of 26 years, the Federal (Commonwealth) Parliamentary building, thus it still has a chair/throne in the Senate chambers for the Crown to sit when visiting Australia.

There are two major political parties in Australia: The Liberal Party (equivalent to the U.S. Republican Party—Conservatives) and The Labor Party (equivalent to the U.S. Democratic Party—Liberals). However, as the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Judy Maddigan, stated, “It is more like Moderate Democrats (Liberal Party) and Liberal Democrats (Labor Party).”

Enough politics……take a look at the pictures if you want to see Parliament and learn a little more.

Andy

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Photos

Queen Victoria
Statute resides in the main atrium inside the Parliament building. She is the reason for the name of the State: Victoria.

Queen
The Queen's Throne/Chair resides in the Senate chambers. All the seats and the carpet in the Senate chambers are colored red. The reason for this is because royalty only walks on red carpets. As I wrote, the Senate is the Upper House/the more regal house and was based off of the tradition of having a legislative body consisting of "Lords". The Queen/Crown would refuse to discuss issues with the "commoners" and would only talk with the "Lords" on a red carpet. English law has a very strong influence in Australia (note the Crown, Lion and Unicorn) and thus Australia adopted many English traditions. Also, it is punishable by jail and by fine to sit in the Queen's chair.

House of Representatives
In the HOR chamber, all the seats and carpets are green. The HOR is the Lower House/the house of the commoners. Back in English days, the Queen/Crown would refuse to walk on grass because it was deemed "unsophisticated"; she would only walk upon red carpets. Thus, this is why the Queen/Crown only has a Throne/Chair in the Senate chambers--where the carpet is red. Interesting...

Comments

[Kellen]

School?
I thought you were studying abroad???