The Australian Achievement: by
Doctor Mark Cooray — 17. The Role Of A Constitution
17.2 What Does A Constitution Contain?
The Constitution is the birth certificate of a nation state.
It is the basis of legal authority. All law is derived from
the Constitution. The Constitution establishes a framework
under which law is made and administered.
The Australian Constitution in the tradition of all liberal
democratic Constitutions establishes the three organs of
government -
an organ to make laws,
an organ to administer and execute the laws, and
an organ to adjudicate on legal disputes between citizens and citizens,
between citizens and state and between state and authorities
inter se.
The legislative organ in Australia is Parliament, consisting
of the Queen, the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The executive arm (commonly called the government) consists
of the Queen in whom executive power is formally vested by
section 61 of the Constitution. In practice, executive
power at the apex is exercised by the Prime Minister and
Cabinet who delegate many powers and functions to the public
service. The High Court of Australia stands at the apex of
the judicial system, with a descending order of courts at
various levels. The powers of the Queen under the
Constitution are generally exercised by her representative,
the Governor General. The powers which the Constitution
vests in the Queen and the Governor General are exercised in
accordance with conventions. This means that in practice
these powers are generally exercised by the Prime Minister,
the Cabinet and the public service. But there are
exceptional situations when reserve powers of the Crown are
intended to be invoked. See LJM Cooray, Conventions, The
Australian Constitution and the Future, Sydney (1979)
chapter 2. The judicial arm consists of a hierarchy of
courts.