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The White Hat Guide to Government in Australia

Currently, Australia is generally regarded as having three levels of government:

• Federal Government representing the interests of Australia as a nation. It is responsible for foreign affairs, defence, income tax, immigration, telecommunication etc.
• State and Territory Governments representing the interests of the individual states and territories and responsible for school education, health, public transport, public housing etc.
• Local Government as represented by City and Shire Councils. They are traditionally responsible for 'rates, rubbish and roads' as well as a number of local services.

Thinking of Australia as having these three levels of government is useful first approximation but maybe needs a couple of cautionary notes which we will discuss more fully later on. These cautionary notes are:

• Local Governments generally exist under the auspice of their appropriate State Government. If the elected council is deemed to be unfit or corrupt they can dismissed and the executive arm (ie the local government employees) continue to execute their duties under a management appointed by the state government. Thus some would not consider Local Government not to be a 'third level of government but rather an extension of the 'second level'.
• Some would say there has always been an external fourth level of government, not directly elected by the Australian people but which makes decisions effecting Australian people. Initially this was the British Government and Australia has only slowly (and not completely) removed itself from the rule of the 'mother country'. At the same time that the legal power of Britain over Australia was waning, Australia, like many other countries, has gradually signed up to a number of international treaties and agreements where Australians' rights and obligations are effected by people not directly elected by Australians. More of this later on.