Editing Westminster system (section)

== "Washminster system" ==
[[File:Australian Senate - Parliament of Australia.jpg|thumb|The [[Australian Senate]]|alt=]]
{{blockquote|text=The waters of the [[River Thames|Thames]] and of the [[Potomac River|Potomac]] both flow into [[Lake Burley Griffin]].|author=[[James Killen]]|source=[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flzQwp8_y7g&t=637s Farewell Parliament House - Sunday May 8, 1988]}}
[[Australian constitutional law]] is, in many respects, a unique hybrid with influences from the [[United States Constitution]] as well as from the traditions and conventions of the Westminster system and some indigenous features. Australia is exceptional because the government faces a fully elected upper house, the [[Australian Senate|Senate]], which must be willing to pass all its legislation. Although government is formed in the lower house, the House of Representatives, the support of the Senate is necessary in order to govern.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aroney |first=Nicholas |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/constitution-of-a-federal-commonwealth/E685089E543B0D14B22136FD7FEA922D#fndtn-information |title=The constitution of a federal commonwealth : the making and meaning of the Australian constitution |date=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-12968-8 |location=Cambridge, UK |oclc=774393122}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=George |title=Blackshield and Williams Australian Constitutional Law and Theory |last2=Brennan |first2=Sean |last3=Lynch |first3=Andrew |publisher=Federation Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-86287-918-8 |edition=6 |location=Leichhardt, NSW |pages=77–88}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Aroney |first1=Nicholas |last2=Kincaid |first2=John |title=Analysis {{!}} Comparing Australian and American federal jurisprudence |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/05/12/comparing-australian-and-american-federal-jurisprudence/ |access-date=2020-11-04 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>James A. Thomson, [https://repository.jmls.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1673&context=lawreview American and Australian Constitutions: Continuing Adventures in Comparative Constitutional Law], 30 J. Marshall L. Rev. 627 (1997)</ref><ref>Zelman Cowan, [https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/buffalolawreview/vol4/iss2/2 A Comparison of the Constitutions of Australia and the United States], 4 Buff. L. Rev. 155 (1955).</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Evans |first=Harry |date=December 2009 |title=The Other Metropolis: The Australian Founders' Knowledge of America |url=https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/pops/~/link.aspx?_id=62157B3AE2F04D79A23615AA882A326B&_z=z |access-date=2020-11-04 |website=Papers on Parliament No. 52 |language=en-AU}}</ref>

The Australian Senate is unusual in that it maintains an ability to [[loss of supply|withhold supply]] from the government of the day – a power similar to that held in the UK [[Parliament Act 1911|until 1911 by the House of Lords]], which has since then been impossible, in the Westminster system. A government that has lost supply is severely restricted in its abilities to act; unless a solution can be negotiated and supply can be restored, such an occurrence would normally trigger a federal election. Since the [[Governor-General of Australia|governor-general]], technically speaking, can dismiss a federal government at any time, loss of supply is sometimes, controversially, considered a suitable trigger for a dismissal (such as with the [[1975 Australian constitutional crisis]]). This is controversial because it conflicts with the Westminster tradition of government by a party with the confidence of the lower house (not an upper house like the Senate). Some political scientists have held that the [[Politics of Australia|Australian system of government]] was consciously devised as a blend or hybrid of the Westminster and the [[Federal Government of the United States|United States systems of government]], especially since the Australian Senate is a powerful upper house like the US Senate; this notion is expressed in the nickname "the Washminster mutation".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thompson |first1=Elaine | journal = Politics|title=The 'Washminster' mutation |date=1980 |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=32–40 |doi=10.1080/00323268008401755}}</ref> The ability of upper houses to block supply also features in the [[Parliaments of the Australian states and territories|parliaments of most Australian states]].

The Australian system has also been referred to as a [[semi-parliamentary system]].<ref name=Ganghof>{{cite journal |last1=Ganghof |first1=S|title=A new political system model: Semi-parliamentary government |journal=European Journal of Political Research |date=May 2018 |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=261–281 |doi=10.1111/1475-6765.12224 |doi-access=free }}</ref>