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The Northern Territory of Australia is governed according to the principles of the Westminster system, a form of parliamentary government based on the model of the United Kingdom. The Northern Territory has had internal self-government since 1978, but it does not have the full legislative independence of the Australian states. Legislative power rests with the Legislative Assembly, which consists of the Crown (represented by the Administrator of the Northern Territory) and the members of the Assembly. While the Assembly exercises roughly the same powers as the state governments of Australia, it does so by a delegation of powers from the Federal Government, rather than by any constitutional right. This means that the Federal Government can advise the Governor-General of Australia to overturn any legislation passed by the Assembly; the Federal Government exercised this power, for instance, when it repealed the Territory's voluntary euthanasia laws. (See also Electoral systems of the Australian states and territories).
For many years there has been agitation for statehood. A referendum was held on the issue in 1998, but the measure failed. This was a shock to both the Northern Territory and Commonwealth governments, for opinion polls showed most Territorians supported statehood. However, under s. 121 of the Australian Constitution, the terms of admission of new states are decided by the Commonwealth Parliament, and the Northern Territory was offered no increase in the existing two seats in the Senate. The other states all have 12 senators. Alongside what was cited as an arrogant approach adopted by then Chief Minister Shane Stone, it is thought that many Territorians were reluctant to accept statehood on the offered terms.citations needed
The government consists of a Ministry appointed by the Administrator, from the elected members of the Assembly. The Administrator would normally appoint the leader of the majority party in the Assembly as the Chief Minister, who then chooses the remainder of the ministry. The Northern Territory Government is a member of the Council of Australian Governments.
The current head of government is Chief Minister Paul Henderson who replaced former Chief Minister Clare Martin, who led the Australian Labor Party to their first Northern Territory electoral victory in August 2001, and to a second victory in June 2005. The Leader of the Opposition was Jodeen Carney from the 2005 election until January 2008, when the party chose Terry Mills as its new leader.
The territory is represented in the Commonwealth parliament by two members in the House of Representatives (the Division of Solomon and Division of Lingiari) and two members in the Senate. The Member for Lingiari also represents voters from Australia's Indian Ocean Territories (Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands), while the Northern Territory Senators represent those voters in the Senate.
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The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the copyrighted Wikipedia "Government of the Northern Territory" article.
