Year 7 HASS – Term 3 (WA Curriculum): Australia's Democratic System and Constitutional Framework

What this unit covers

In Term 3, Year 7 HASS in the WA Curriculum centres on the unit “Australia's Democratic System and Constitutional Framework”.

Students explore Australia's bicameral parliament, constitutional processes, and democratic principles while developing critical thinking and inquiry skills.

Lesson sequence (30 lessons)

The unit breaks down into the following lesson-by-lesson sequence — each title below is a teachable lesson, in order:

1. Introducing Australia's Federal Parliament Structure
2. Understanding the House of Representatives: Roles and Responsibilities
3. Exploring the Senate: Australia's Upper House
4. Comparing the Powers of Both Houses of Parliament
5. How Laws Are Made: The Legislative Process
6. Representing the People: Electoral Systems and Constituencies
7. Scrutinising Government: Parliamentary Oversight Functions
8. What is the Australian Constitution?
9. The Purpose and Framework of Constitutional Government
10. Understanding Constitutional Change Through Referendums
11. The Double Majority Requirement Explained
12. Case Study: The 1967 Aboriginal Rights Referendum
13. Case Study: The 1999 Republic Referendum
14. Why Constitutional Changes Often Fail
15. Planning Our Parliamentary Inquiry Project
16. Identifying Primary and Secondary Sources About Parliament
17. Using Ethical Protocols in Research
18. Recording Information Using Graphic Organisers
19. Interpreting Parliamentary Data and Statistics
20. Analysing Political Cartoons and Media Perspectives
21. Creating Timelines of Constitutional Changes
22. Translating Data into Visual Formats
23. Identifying Bias in Political Information
24. Evaluating Different Viewpoints on Democracy
25. Preparing Visual Displays of Parliamentary Processes
26. Presenting Our Constitutional Research Findings
27. Reflecting on Democratic Participation
28. Connecting Parliament to Everyday Life
29. Designing Solutions for Democratic Engagement
30. Evaluating Australia's Democratic System

Curriculum codes in this unit

Content codes:

Skills codes:

Reading the codes: WA codes (the ones starting with WA) pack the year level, learning area, strand and content number into one string, while the national Australian Curriculum v9 uses a different anatomy that starts with AC9 — same content family, different labels. Our complete WA Curriculum guide decodes both, character by character.

Planning notes for Term 3

WA terms run roughly 9–11 weeks, and in 2026 Term 3 runs from Monday 20 July to Friday 25 September — 10 weeks for WA public schools. With 30 lessons in this unit, that leaves breathing room for assessment, moderation and the weeks that disappear to carnivals, camps and public holidays — plan the assessable work to land two to three weeks before the end of term rather than in the final week.