Matt wrote:
I’m in NSW and sometimes I get confused as the role of strata and where there interests and representation lie etc..
It would probably help your thinking if you stopped using the generic term “strata”. In NSW and Victoria the owners as a group are members of the Owners Corporation (Body Corporate in Queensland), by dint of ownership of their lot. This is a club to which you belong whether you want to or not.
At the risk of repeating Sir Humphrey’s explanation above, the Owners Corporation can make decisions about the strata scheme – apartment block or townhouses – at a general meeting. They are required to hold at least one general meeting every year (the AGM) at which they elect the Strata Committee and decide on levies.
The committee acts on behalf of the owners corp but can make many decisions on their own (except those that require special resolutions). The owners at a general meeting can rescind or over-ride decisions of the committee.
The strata manager can also be delegated to make decisions on behalf of the committee and Owners Corp (like issuing breach notices) but they are ultimately acting under the instructions of the committee and the OC.
To put this in parliamentary terms, the owners are parliament, the strata committee is the Cabinet, the chair is the Prime Minister and the strata manager is the Civil Service (not the monarch, although some may disagree).