highest tier of the judicial hierarchy in Queensland. The court has two divisions; the Trial Division and the Court of Appeal. The Trial Division's jurisdiction covers serious criminal offences (including murder and manslaughter), and civil matters involving claims of more than $750,000. The Court of Appeal's jurisdiction allows it to hear cases on appeal from the Trial Division, the District Court, and a number of other judicial tribunals in Queensland. Appeals against decisions by the Court of Appeal are heard by the High Court of Australia. Local government Local government is the mechanism by which local government areas can manage their own affairs to the extent permitted by the Local Government Act 2009. Queensland is divided into 77 local government areas, which are created by the state government under legislation. Each local government area has a council responsible for providing a range of local services and utilities. Local councils derive their income from both rates and charges on resident ratepayers, and grants and subsidies from the state and federal governments. Federal representation In the federal Parliament of Australia, Queensland accounts for 30 of the 151 electoral divisions in the House of Representatives (on the basis of population size) and 12 of the 76 seats in the Senate (on the basis of equality between the states). The current partisan makeup of Queensland's House of Representatives delegation is 21 Liberal National, 5 Labor, 3 Greens and 1 Katter's Australian Party. The current partisan makeup of Queensland's Senate delegation is 5 Liberal National, 3 Labor, 2 One Nation and 2 Green. Idiosyncrasies The state's politics are traditionally regarded as being conservative relative to other states. Historically, a gerrymander favouring rural electoral districts and the lack of an upper house has meant that Queensland had a long tradition of domination by strong-willed, populist premiers, often accused of authoritarian tendencies, holding office for long periods. This tendency was exemplified by the government of the state's longest-serving Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen. While most Australian states have over 60% of their populations concentrated in the capital cities, Brisbane accounts for about half of Queensland's population. This relative decentralisation of the population made the state a stronghold for the National Party. Before the merger of the Queensland branches of the Liberals and Nationals as the Liberal National Party, the National Party had been the senior partner in the non-Labor Coalition since 1924. In other states and federally, the long-standing