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TOPIC EXPLAINER

Levels of government in the ACT

This topic explainer walks through what levels of government are, what’s unique about the levels in the Australian Capital Territory, and includes two classroom activities.

Learning goals

  • Australia's three levels of government are federal, state and territory, and local
  • The ACT Legislative Assembly combines the functions of territory and local government together

Curriculum links

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What are the levels of government?

Australia has three levels of government that work together to help provide services for all Australians. Look at the table below to learn more about each level of government and what it does.

 Federal State and territoryLocal
Where are they based? Australian Parliament House in Canberra Each capital city has a state or territory parliament. There are 8 in total across Australia Over 550 councils across Australia (except the ACT)
Who is their leader? Prime Minister Premiers (states) or Chief Ministers (territories) Mayors or Lord Mayors
What do they look after?

Look after issues that affect all Australians including:

  • immigration
  • money
  • defence, and
  • marriage

Look after issues that affect people in their state or territories including:

  • schools
  • hospitals
  • public transport, and
  • utilities (electricity, water)

Look after issues that affect people in their local communities including:

  • rubbish collection and recycling
  • pet registration
  • libraries, and
  • parking

What is unique about the ACT?

The ACT does not have local councils. Instead, the ACT Legislative Assembly (the territory parliament) looks after both territory and local issues.  That means the 25 Members of the Legislative Assembly—or MLAs—are responsible for making decisions on issues such as education and health, as well as rubbish, recycling, and pet registration.

One reason for the combination of these two levels of government is that the ACT is a geographically small territory. It takes less than two hours to drive from the top of the ACT to the bottom. Members can access all parts of the ACT relatively easily compared to all other states and territories.

The Northern Territory – which is also a territory – is much larger geographically. In fact, the NT is 571 times larger than the ACT! It would be difficult for representatives in Darwin to make local decisions for people down in Alice Springs which is almost 1500km away.

Classroom activities

There are two print-out worksheets associated with this topic available on our website:


Other resources

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