Government of the Northern Territory
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Other countries • Politics Portal |
The Government of the Northern Territory is a unicameral parliament (i.e. only a Legislative Assembly, rather than also including a Legislative Council), which was granted in 1987. Whilst the Assembly exercises roughly the same powers as the state governments Australia, it does so by delegation of powers from the Federal Government, rather than by any constitutional right. This means that the Federal Government is entitled to overturn any legislation passed by the Assembly, a power it exercised in cancelling the Territory's voluntary euthanasia laws.
For several years there has been agitation for full statehood. A referendum was held on the issue in 1998, which failed. This was a shock to both the Northern Territory and Commonwealth governments, for opinion polls showed most Territorians supported statehood. However, under the Australian Constitution, the Federal government may set the terms of entry to full statehood. The Northern Territory was only offered 2 Senators, rather than the full complement of 12 enjoyed by other states. (With 12 Senate seats, a Territorian vote would have been worth more than 30 votes in New South Wales or Victoria.) Alongside what was cited as an arrogant approach adopted by then Chief Minister Shane Stone, it is believed that most Territorians were reluctant to adopt the offer which was made.
The current head of government is 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 Denis Burke, who headed the Country Liberal Party, until the Territory elections of June 2005, where Burke lost his seat. The party then chose Jodeen Carney as the new Opposition 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 federally from Australia's Indian Ocean Territories (Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands), while the Northern Territory Senators represent these voters in the Senate.
At the local government level, there are 6 incorporated municipalities (3 town councils, 1 shire and 2 cities), 30 'community government councils' and 26 other bodies.
