Northern Territory Parliament | |
---|---|
Type | |
Type | |
Houses | Legislative Assembly |
History | |
Founded | 1974 |
Leadership | |
Leader of
Government Business |
|
Structure | |
Seats | 25 |
Political groups
|
Government
Opposition
Crossbench
|
Meeting place | |
Parliament House, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia |
|
Website | |
www.nt.gov.au/lant |
Government
Opposition
Crossbench
The Parliament of the Northern Territory is a unicameral legislature in the Northern Territory, Australia, consisting of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly and the Administrator of the Northern Territory, who represents the Monarch. It is one of the three unicameral parliaments in Australia, the Legislative Council being replaced by the Legislative Assembly in 1974. The Legislative Assembly sits in Parliament House in the Territory's capital, Darwin.
The leader of the party with the most seats in the Legislative Assembly is invited by the Administrator to form the Government of the Northern Territory. The head of the government is the Chief Minister.
The Parliament of the Northern Territory, which comprises the Legislative Assembly and the Administrator, exercises the legislative power in the Territory which are similar to those of the Australian state parliaments. However, unlike the state parliaments which derive their legislative powers from constitutional sources, in the case of the Northern Territory, this power is derived from the delegation of powers from the Commonwealth, and the Australian Parliament retains the right to legislate for the Territory, if it chooses to exercise it.
The Northern Territory (Administration) Act 1974 (Cth) granted self-government to the Territory. The federal government retains control of certain legislative areas, including Aboriginal land, industrial relations, national parks and uranium mining, and the Australian government can advise the Governor-General of Australia to overturn any legislation passed by the Northern Territory Parliament. In 1997, the Australian government did not annul the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995, the Territory's voluntary euthanasia law, instead passing an Act to amend the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978 to remove that area from the Territory's Parliament's legislative competence.