[Music] the law governs our lives from the day we're born to the day we die everyday tasks like posting a letter driving a car renting a flat signing an employment contract or registering a child's name are all Guided by laws so where do our laws come from [Music] Australian law is essentially English law which arrived here with the First Fleet in 1788 the traditional laws of indigenous Australians were not recognized Australian law developed in much the same way as English law from two sources one Parliament and two the courts Parliament is by far the greatest source of our law we live under the laws of two parliaments all of us live under the laws of the federal Parliament and we also live under the laws of our own state or territory Parliament and that's because Australia is a federation a group of previously independent states that have agreed to cooperate as a single nation like America and Canada Australian states were governed separately until 1900 when they joined together to operate under one single legal system while still retaining their autonomy in some matters a key term to understand is jurisdiction which literally means the law speaks jurisdiction refers to the scope of an institution's authority or power and to the geographic coverage of that Authority the geographic area for which the federal law speaks is the federal jurisdiction of Australia inside it are a number of smaller jurisdictions the state and territory jurisdictions most Australian parliaments have two houses the federal Parliament has the House of Representatives also called the lower house and the senate or Upper House in New South Wales the lower house is called the legislative assembly and the Upper House the legislative Council parliaments use much the same process to produce their laws derived from the processes of the British Parliament right down to the same customs and rituals honorable members the deputy of Her Excellency the governor general requires your presence in the Senate chamber parliaments produce legislation which is why you sometimes hear them referred to as the legislature Australia's and austral there is a process that creates legislation it starts with a bill a bill is the name for an act before it is made law the bill is introduced to Parliament most often in the lower house by a member of parliament usually the responsible Minister the title of the bill is read out this is the first reading then in what is called a second reading the member gives a detailed speech about the bill this is important because it explains the intention of the legislation the bill is then debated by members of the house and is put to the vote if by majority it's passed the bill moves to the other house of parliament where it goes through the same process once it is passed by both houses it becomes an act at this stage the ACT is given a name for example the Crimes Act it is also given a date of the year that it was passed by the parliament for example in New South Wales we still have the Crimes Act 1900 because that was the year it was passed each Act is given a number the Crimes Act has the number 40 meaning it was the 40th Act passed in 1900 when the ACT has been passed by parliament before it becomes law it requires the ascent of the governor in New South Wales or the governor general in the Commonwealth both of whom represent the Queen the last stage of the process is when the ACT becomes actual law this commencement date varies it can be on Ascent but usually it's on a later date announced by proclamation by the governor general or the governor legislation changes over time the Crimes Act 1900 is still current but looks very different from how it was in 1900 crimes and penalties have changed over time as Society has changed and the Crimes Act has been amended many times to reflect these changes you can think of legislation like a house a house still has the same street address no matter how many Renovations it has had current versions of Acts that include all changes or amendments are sometimes called Consolidated Acts or acts in force the second meaning of the word jurisdiction is the power of parliaments to make laws Australian parliaments have the power to make certain laws determined by section 51 of our constitution section 51 lists the things the federal Parliament can make laws about this list was drawn up in the late 19th century and reflects the concerns of the time it covers immigration income tax tax pensions and allowances Postal Services marriage and divorce it also includes lighthouses beacons and boys and there's a lot on Railways but no mention of cars or airplanes which were not in common use then if something is not listed in section 51 then the power to make laws the jurisdiction is with the states and territories for example some areas of law covered by New South Wales rather than commonwealth law include pets renting traffic fines neighborhood issues such as fences and trees and most crimes against a person in fact anything not mentioned in section 51 so what happens when legislation is needed that will be uniform across the country but is not within the Commonwealth's powers under the Constitution a recent example of this is the new Australian consumer law the states and territories agreed to replace their laws with a single uniform law for businesses and consumers Across the Nation this process is referred to as harmonization another way of achieving National laws is for each state and territory to hand over or refer responsibility for an area of law to the federal Parliament this has been used for example to bring issues relating to children born outside of marriage into the family law system while the Commonwealth had the power to make laws about and relevant to marriage and divorce children who were born to unmarried parents were outside this power so in the late 1980s the states and territories referred this area to the Commonwealth except for Western Australia which retained a separate system now all children in Australia other than wa are dealt with under the One Federal family law system whether their parents are married or not sometimes legislation will overlap for example federal and state discrimination laws cover the same subject and because they're complimentary they can exist side by side but if they're in Conflict our constitution says the commonwealth law prevails as well as acts of parliament there's also delegated legislation for example regulations parliament in an act can give authority to somebody else to make law it's called delegated authority and it's usually given to a minister who then makes regulations generally on the advice of their Department a growing flow of migrants brings new Australians by ship and plane from many lands a good example is immigration law immigration law changes frequently and the only way these changes can be made so quickly is by creating the law in regulations rather than constantly changing the act the Parliamentary process would be too slow and not nearly detailed enough the downside is that this reduces parliamentary scrutiny regulations are viewed by Parliament but not debated in the same way regulations add to the meaning of an act and are often a major source of law regulations cannot be passed asked if they are beyond the scope of the ACT to recap Australia inherited the English system of law laws are made by parliaments section 51 of the Constitution lists the laws that can be made by the Commonwealth anything not listed in section 51 can be dealt with by the states uniform National laws can be achieved through harmonization or referral acts change over time delegated legislation such as regulations is also an important source of law [Music]