The
Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, commonly referred to as the
Australian Parliament, the
Commonwealth Parliament or the
Federal Parliament, is the
legislative branch of the government of
Australia. It consists of three elements: the
Queen, the
Senate and the
House of Representatives. The Queen is represented by the
Governor-General. The combination of two elected houses, in which the members of the Senate represent the six States and the two major self-governing Territories while the members of the House represent electoral divisions according to population, is modelled on the
United States Congress. Through both houses, however, there is a
fused executive, drawn from the
Westminster System.