Brainstorm for primary students

These questions and answers are of a general nature and cover key concepts of elections in the ACT.

Teachers can use these questions for units of work relating to democracy and elections to help gauge the level of knowledge amongst students.

These questions and answers are written for a year 5 reading level.

For more advanced brainstorm questions, view brainstorm for secondary students.

What is an election?

Elections are for choosing people to:

• speak for the community about things that matter to them
• make laws for the country, state or territory
• form governments to run the country.

We have elections so we can elect our representatives in parliament. An election is the way the people of an area have a say in the way the area is run.

We could hold an election in our class to:

• choose representatives to speak for the whole group
• to find out what most people in our class want.

What is voting?

In parliamentary elections voting normally happens in a polling place.

An official asks for your name and checks it off the electoral roll. An electoral roll is a list of all people who are enrolled to vote.

They then give you a ballot paper which has a list of candidate names. Candidates are people who want to have a seat in parliament.

In Australia, voters place numbers in squares against the names of the candidates they want to vote for. Number ‘1’ is for the person you think should win the election, then rank them from number ‘2’ and so on.

Other countries vote differently to Australia.

In some countries you vote by ticking a box next to the name of the candidate you like best. In some elections voting means raising your hand and then someone counts all the raised hands.

What is a secret ballot or vote?

A secret ballot is when a voter writes on a ballot paper with no one else watching. You don’t write your name on the ballot paper, so no one knows who voted for who.

The ballot papers are then counted without anyone knowing who marked which ballot paper. A secret ballot means that no one can scare someone or pay them to vote a certain way.

In Australia we choose to vote in secret. This means that you don’t have to tell anyone who you voted for, and no one can make you vote for anyone. This is an important part of our democracy.

What are some different types of parliaments in Australia?

These are examples of different types of parliaments:

• The Australian Commonwealth Parliament
• the NSW Legislative Council
• the ACT Legislative Assembly
• the Queanbeyan City Council

What is a political party?

A political party is a group of people who:

• share a policy platform – ideas and things they want to do if they win an election
• have candidates they want to represent the party in parliament.

What is a government?

The party that holds the most seats in parliament forms the government. The government picks Ministers who are responsible for different departments. The departments follow the wishes of the government and the law.

Who is the leader of the Australian Government?

The Prime Minister is the leader of the party or coalition of parties who holds the most seats in parliament. The Prime Minister is the leader of Australia.

Who is the leader of the ACT Government?

The Chief Minister of the ACT Legislative Assembly is the leader of the party or coalition of parties with the most seats in the Legislative Assembly.