with their own Shadow Cabinet made up of Shadow Ministers. Bicameral and unicameral parliaments In a Westminster system, some members of parliament are elected by popular vote, while others are appointed. Nearly all Westminster-based parliaments have a lower house with powers based on those of the House of Commons (under various names), comprising local, elected representatives of the people (with the only exception being elected entirely by nationwide Proportional Representation). Most also have a smaller upper house, which is made up of members chosen by various methods: Termless appointees, either lifetime or retiring, from successive prime ministers (such as the Senate of Canada) Appointees of the premier and the opposition leader (such as the Jamaican Senate) Direct election (such as the Australian Senate) Election by electoral colleges or sub-national legislatures (such as the Indian Rajya Sabha) Hereditary nobility (such as the British House of Lords until the House of Lords Act 1999) Any combination of the above (such as the Malaysian Senate) In the UK, the lower house is the legislative body, while the upper house practices restraint in exercising its constitutional powers and serves as a consultative body. In other Westminster countries, however, the upper house can sometimes exercise considerable power, as is the case for the Australian Senate. Some Westminster-derived parliaments are unicameral for two reasons: The New Zealand Parliament, Parliament of Queensland, and the parliament of the Canadian province of Quebec have abolished their upper houses. The parliaments of all other Canadian provinces, the Parliament of Malta, the Papua New Guinea Parliament, the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and the Israeli Parliament never had upper houses. Hong Kong, a former British crown colony and currently a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, has a unicameral Legislative Council. While the Legislative Councils in British Australasian and North American colonies were unelected upper houses and some of them had since abolished themselves, the Legislative Council of Hong Kong has remained the sole chamber and had in 1995 evolved into a fully elected house, yet only part of the seats are returned by universal suffrage. Responsible government was never granted during British colonial rule, and the Governor remained the head of government until the transfer of sovereignty in 1997, when the role was replaced by the Chief Executive. Secretaries had remained to be chosen by the Chief Executive not from the Legislative Council, and their appointments need