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Party
System
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The Mace inside
the
Legislative Assembly.
The parliamentary government in New South Wales is at present made up
of three major parties in the New South Wales Parliament - the
Australian Labour Party, The Liberal Party of Australia and the
National Party of Australia.
Sometimes independent members are elected to the Assembly. There are
also minor parties such as The Greens and Australian Democrats are
represented in the Legislative Council where the voting system offers
them more chances of success. There are also members of the Legislative
Assembly known as Independents because they are not members of the
other political parties.
The party meetings have no formal status. Members tend to vote or act
in Parliament the way the parties decide the meetings. When the
government party meets, Ministers may influence the results of
discussion. Decisions that are reached at party meetings are often made
as recommendations to Cabinet.
On almost all occasions it is expected that a party member must abide
by the decision of the Party Meeting and Cabinet. Sometimes members of
a party have disagreed with these decisions so strongly they have
resigned their membership of the political party and stayed on in
Parliament as an independent until the next election.