Overview of government
Australia is a democracy with three levels of government, each with its own responsibilities:
- federal;
- state and territory (six state governments and two self-governing territories); and
- local.
Each federal, state, and territory level of government has three arms — a legislature responsible for passing new laws, an executive responsible for carrying out the laws, and a judiciary responsible for interpreting and enforcing laws.
The division of power between federal and state governments is laid out in the Australian Constitution.