granted by Parliament. In the specific case of the charter, the judiciary may indicate if legislation contravenes the charter but not invalidate the law, although this does not necessarily mean that a future parliament could not alter the charter to give the judiciary this power. Parliament may delegate powers to another branch, but as it may reverse such powers at any time it maintains sovereignty over the other branches of government. Sovereignty is further reinforced by the fact that no Parliament may pass a law that a later Parliament cannot overturn, including the delegation of powers to other branches. All controversial social issues are, in practice and in law, still determined and debated by Parliament. The 2003 changes to the Victorian Constitution entrenched several provisions, such as the requirement for a public referendum to alter how members of parliament are elected, and the independence of public offices. Such clauses are seen as infringing parliamentary sovereignty, and while they have not been tested in court, it is probable that these clauses are not legally valid. General legal rationale is that a given parliament can always overturn or amend the legislation of its predecessors. The exception to this is that an alteration to the state's constitution possibly could be entrenched if it was passed by a public referendum. The Australia Act 1986 (Commonwealth) and Westminster tradition place limits on the level to which state constitutions can be entrenched, with the accepted view being that the supposedly entrenched clauses within Victoria's constitution could be overturned by a majority of both houses of parliament in the normal fashion. The practice of allocating tied grants is used by the federal government to circumvent the power of state parliaments. The federal government cannot exercise powers on matters it has not been given responsibility for, unlike the state parliaments whose powers are hardly limited. Victoria's Parliament, like all of the states of Australia, has a vertical fiscal imbalance and is dependent on the federal government for about half of its funding. The states gave up their ability to raise income taxes during the Second World War, but they have maintained responsibility for the management of the majority of services. The Australian Parliament typically only funds measures that it finds politically advantageous, though, meaning that it will generally make funding for certain projects conditional on accepting particular terms and conditions. Although this allows the federal government to exercise