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Information about the Mayor, Councillors and wards.

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Now to some comments the Prime Minister made recently about it being time to think about changing the constitution. You might think - no big deal, right? I mean politicians are always talking about changing laws. But the constitution is a bit more important than that. Let's have a look at what it is and why some people reckon it needs a bit of a tweak. And a warning to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers this story contains images of people who have died.

SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: So you want to form a club? Well, first you'll need members. You might want a leader to help things run smoothly. You'll want a place to meet. What else do you need? How about something that says what your club stands for? A set of rules that can never be broken, no matter who the leader is. Something that defines you as a club. For that, you'll want a constitution.

If you think about it, Australia is a little bit like a club with 22 million members. It's got a leader, I guess you could call this a clubhouse of sorts, and like many clubs, Australia has a constitution.

REPORTER: This might not look like much but it's the most important legal document in the whole country. The constitution sets out just Australia works. How the government's put together, how the courts work, how the states work and what the government can and can't do.

No other law can over-rule the constitution and everyone has to obey it, including these guys and these guys.

Australia's constitution was drawn up in the 1890s, as leaders of the colonies were preparing to make Australia a nation. It was the first in the world be voted in by ordinary people.

But it didn't treat all Australians the same. Even though Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had lived on the continent for more than 40,000 years before the constitution was drawn up, it said they weren't to be counted with the rest of Australian citizens and they couldn't be included in new Australian laws.

It stayed that way until 1967 when Australia had a referendum. A referendum where everyone over 18 votes; bit like an election, except instead of voting for people you vote on a change to the constitution. And you can only vote yes or no.

For a change to happen, you need a yes vote from more than half of the voters. But that alone isn't enough. You also need yes votes from more than half of the people in more than half of the states. It's not easy for a yes vote to win but in 1967 it did. Australians voted to get rid of two lines of the constitution which discriminated against Aboriginal people. It was seen as a big victory for equality in Australia. But some say it wasn't enough.

REPORTER: This isn't just a book of rules for Australia. It's seen by many as the country's birth certificate: A statement of its values agreed upon by all of its citizens.

But Australia's constitution doesn't recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the nation's first people and the Constitution still lets governments make laws which discriminate based on race. And for many years there's been push to change that.

It wouldn't be easy. We'd need another referendum. That would be expensive and it might not work. Not everyone agrees that changing the constitution is the best way to bring Australians together. But many say it's time to have a proper debate on the issue. They say it's important to have a constitution that everyone is happy with, so Australia can be a club that people are proud to belong to.

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Now to some comments the Prime Minister made recently about it being time to think about changing the constitution. You might think - no big deal, right? I mean politicians are always talking about changing laws. But the constitution is a bit more important than that.

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Imagine you're on a train travelling for hours across the vast Australian continent. And part way through your journey this happens:

KID: Immigration. Papers please.

Back in the late 1800s, making a trip between Australian colonies was like travelling to a different country. You could be stopped at the border by immigration and searched.

REPORTER: In fact if you were travelling between, say, New South Wales and Queensland you would have had to change trains because the rails were different sizes.

Australia wasn't a country; it was just the name of a continent divided into six very separate British colonies. They had different leaders and different laws. They even had their own armies! But there were some people pushing to change that.

One was Henry Parkes; five times Premier of New South Wales.

KID: The great question you have to consider is, whether the time has not now arisen for the creation on this Australian continent of an Australian Government.

In 1889 he made this famous speech in the town of Tenterfield about Federation - the push to unite the colonies as a single country.

REPORTER: It wasn't the best speech ever, by all accounts.

KID: Hey!

REPORTER: But it had an impact. Parkes convinced the leaders of the colonies to meet and discuss Federation. Some came from New Zealand. It was a British colony too and it could have joined the new country!

After much negotiating, in 1891, the delegates drew up a draft constitution for the Commonwealth of Australia. But the idea didn't take off.

REPORTER: It wasn't a good time for the colonies. The economy was in a bad way. Plus, there was a feeling that the draft constitution wasn't democratic enough; that ordinary people should have had more of a say.

Time went on and the colonies kept changing. Many kept fighting for the cause of Federation - like Alfred Deakin. He was part of a new generation - born and bred in Australia - who thought the continent should be a united country.

Eventually, he helped convince the colonies to give it another shot. This time people got to vote for representatives who'd help to draw up a new constitution. There was a lot of arguing!

The bigger, richer states were worried that they'd have to share money with the poorer ones and the small states worried they wouldn't have a say in decisions. South Australia had recently given women the right to vote and it wanted the whole country to have that right. Then there was the issue of where the nation's capital should be...

KID 1: Sydney is the obvious choice for the capital of this nation.

KID 2: Rubbish! Melbourne is far superior!

New Zealand had decided to stay out of it and Western Australia wasn't too keen on Federation either. But eventually, a new constitution was drawn up and most colonies let their people vote on whether or not they wanted in. In 1899 all of the colonies except Western Australia said yes. Australia was about to become a nation.

REPORTER: Western Australia joined in a year later, but the constitution had already been written and approved by the Queen. That's why there's still a line here, saying WA gets to be a part of the Commonwealth if "Her majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have agreed thereto".

In 1901, in Sydney's Centennial Park the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed a Federation with six states (the Northern Territory and the ACT would come along a few years later).

The states would keep a lot of their law making and tax collecting powers while the federal government would run things like defence and immigration. The first Prime Minister was Edmund Barton - who'd helped to write the new constitution.

Not everyone benefited from Federation. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people weren't included and the new government made it harder for people who weren't European to immigrate to Australia.

But it was a major point in Australia's history and the first step towards the country we know today.

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A couple of states had elections on the weekend. You probably know that Aussie states have their own laws and their own leaders but have you ever wondered why that is? It all goes back to a time when the states were separate colonies.

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In a land called Australia, three super heroes fight for the people. Federal woman, State man and Local boy.

KID CITIZEN: Help help! No one's collected my rubbish for weeks!

LOCAL BOY: Never fear, Local boy will keep your bins clear!

KID CITIZEN: My school's closing down - can you help!?

STATE MAN: Don't worry citizen. State man has just finished building a school even closer to your home!

KID CITIZEN: I don't have enough money - taxes are too high!

FEDERAL WOMAN: Federal woman can fix that.

KID CITIZEN: Wow!

These three super heroes each have their own unique powers. Just like the three levels of Australian government they're named after. The biggest is Australia's federal government and it takes care of the country as a whole. It has the responsibility of defending the nation, and deals with trade and other countries. It also keeps a close eye on managing Australian money, taxes, communications and the environment.

State and Territory governments control each of Australia's six states and two territories. And they have different responsibilities like health, education, mining and agriculture. They also watch over most of the police force and the courts, roads, trains and public transport.

At the bottom of the list is local government. And while its powers may not sound as impressive, there are more than 500 local governments around the country. They maintain local roads, deal with garbage and pets. And they're in charge of local buildings and permits.

But the country hasn't always had three levels of government, or three super heroes looking over it, either. Back in the old days of Australia, the states were their own separate colonies and just governed themselves! But then in 1901 the Federation of Australia united the colonies into the Commonwealth of Australia. And with that the states passed many of their powers to the new federal government.

STATE MAN: Federal woman! On this day I give to you some of my powers to help me govern the nation.

But as the population grew, state governments found it hard to manage all of the responsibilities they still had. So in the 1970s local governments became popular, they were given more money and some powers of their own.

LOCAL BOY: I humbly accept these powers.

That's how things still are today, and the system usually works pretty well. But every now and then there is an overlap in responsibilities, or they disagree.

STATE MAN: I think that we should this small road into a highway!

FEDERAL WOMAN: I don't think that's a good idea.

That's why they have rules about who runs what, and if they disagree then federal overrules state and state overrules local.

STATE MAN: Fine. We'll do it your way.

And that's how these three super heroes work together to keep our country running smoothly.

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In a land called Australia, three super heroes fight for the people. Federal woman, State man and Local boy. KID CITIZEN: Help help! No one's collected my rubbish for weeks! LOCAL BOY: Never fear, Local boy will keep your bins clear! KID CITIZEN: My school's closing down - can you help!?

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Australian Parliamentary Office

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Learning | Parliamentary Education Office

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The learning section of the website contains resources to help you learn about federal Parliament including Parliament Now, Fact Sheets, Closer Look, Kidsview, the Federal Parliament History Timeline and Assignment Assistant.