AUSTRALIAN

GOVERNMENT SYSTEMS

FEDERAL/NATIONAL/
COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT
STATE GOVERNMENTS
LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT

RESPONSIBLE FOR :
Collecting most taxes
Social security payments
Solely responsible for
Defence/Immigration/Foreign Affairs
Other departments may replicate
state government titles
Distributing money to states to run
services

Services divide examples:

Health: Federal Govt runs Medicare
to pay doctors and patients and
cover a patient hospital costs
State Governments get money to
pay for hospitals, including medical
salaries and operating costs
Infrastructure like hospitals is often a
joint amount of money

Other examples
Education
Justice System
Social and community services. Families,
Housing, Community Services and Indigenous
Affairs (FACSia) is the federal government
department who fund many programs and
develop policy papers
Policy papers include White Paper on
homelessness, Australian framework on Child
Protection and white Paper on Domestic
Violence

POLICY /IMPLEMENTATION
In policy terms, the Federal Government
works with State Governments (COAG)
and Non-Government Organisations
(NGOS) to implement and fund many of
the recommendations
Federal govt has bigger research budget
and many policy, research publications
are available on government websites
Good federal govt site is aus.gov.au

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT

History: State governments formed a
Federation in 1901 creating the
Australian national government
State govts can raise taxes but majority
of money comes from the federal govt
to run hospitals, schools, police, the
courts, community welfare, etc. Each
state then decides on their priorities
and the shape of their services.

SA GOVT Departments
sa.gov.au has a good directory of
govt services
Dept of Communites and Social
Inclusion has Housing SA, Disability
SA
Dept of Children and Education has
Families SA and education services
such as schools
Families SA responsible for the CARL
report line (Child Abuse Report Line)

Other areas to cover: Private Sector

Peak or third party bodies such as
ACOSS or SACOSS role and purpose
NGOs-:
Role, purpose, history, range, funding
Small and large NGOs
Interaction with government
Interaction with each other

Any further points

Silos within departments-meaning
Silos across departments
Silos across federal, state and local
govt
Silos within NGOs
Sources of information: clearing
houses/govt dept websites
Local government projects,
community development sections
and social work