The ACT in Australia's three levels of government

The responsibilities of government for certain areas are split between three different levels in Australia: federal, local, and state.

The division of powers

Australia is a federation, a country made up of several self-governing states and territories with a national government sitting overtop of them. This is the result of modern Australia being created in 1901 out of six self-governing colonies who wanted to join together as one country but keep control over certain things. Each level of government sits one on top of the other and controls different things to the others:

• At the top is federal government, which looks after issues like defence, border security, customs, trade and foreign affairs, money, and airports and seaports.
• Below federal government are the state and territory governments. They control things like schools, hospitals, emergency services, public housing, and the environment.
• At the bottom are the local governments, which look after issues like rubbish and recycling, libraries, pet registration, and local parks.

For some areas like the environment, public health, and education, the federal and state and territory governments share control. If two laws on one of these issues conflict, section 109 of the Australian Constitution says the federal law overrides the state or territory law.

The ACT's place in the three levels

The ACT is the only place in Australia that blends the territory and local levels of government together. There is no council or mayor for Canberra – the Assembly and ACT Government perform local level responsibilities instead. This is because the ACT is a city-state and is small enough to only require one government to look after it.

Like the Northern Territory, the ACT’s constitution (the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988) is a federal law. This means the federal parliament can change what the territories can make decisions about at any time. The most famous example was the ban on making laws about euthanasia (voluntary assisted dying), which was in force for 25 years between 1997 and 2002. Section 122 of the Australian Constitution gives federal parliament the power to do this.

Return to resources page