Explain the role of the Senate. To what extent do you think the Senate is able to fulfil its role? In a democracy, should the government be able to obstruct proposed laws? Discuss. (8 marks)
I don't know what to put into that brings in the 8 marks. -.- haha
In terms of mark allocation I think for 8 marks this is how it might/could be:
Role of Senate = 1 mark
"To what extent is senate...." = 4-6 marks
"In a democracy, should the Govt..." = 2-3 marks
I think for this question you'd have to mention the senate is a "House of review" - It scrutinises and reviews bills that are passed to it from the House of reps. It can also originate (except money bills), amend or reject any proposed law. "To what extent" means you could examine both sides of the argument - so for example:
The senate plays an important role in the Australian parliamentary system because it scrutinises and reviews bills passed up to it by the House of Reps. Such review and scrutiny of bills ensures that a bill's flaws are exposed and rectified and that only potentially strong bills go on to become law. HOWEVER, the Senate may also run the risk of becoming a "rubber stamp" if the Government also has a majority in the Upper house as well as the lower house. This means the senate may not bother to properly scrutinise and review bills and just simply pass them, thus causing weaker and flawed bills to go on to become Acts of Parliament, contradicting the Senate's role as the "House of Review". ^ so I think if you give out like 2-3 points like that you should be okay
I think the Govt. should be able to obstruct proposed laws, because being a Democratic nation, we elect MP's who will represent and protect our values in Parliament and through the law. Thus Bills should be able to be obstructed because some bills might be controversial or offending to the views/values of people/groups in the wider community. This would go against the principles of representative govt as well. Also some bills might have obvious flaws/weaknesses which might lessen their efficiency once they become law - so in this case the Govt. should be able to stop such bills from being passed - I think
At least this is a part of what I might've written haha