Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia (officially the Parliament of the Commonwealth[3] and also known as Federal Parliament) is the legislative body of the federal level of government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch (represented by the governor-general), the Senate and the House of Representatives.[3] It combines elements from the UK Parliament (the Westminster system in which the party with a majority in the lower house is entitled to form a government) and the US Congress (equal representation of each state in a powerful upper house).[4]
The Parliament of the Commonwealth
- Established: 1 January 1901
- First session: 9 May 1901[1]
since 8 September 2022
since 1 July 2019
227 (151 MPs, 76 Senators)
Government (78)
- Labor (78)
Opposition (55)
Coalition
Crossbench (18)
- Greens (4)
- Katter's Australian (1)
- Centre Alliance (1)
- Independent (12)[d]
Government (26)
Labor (26)
Opposition (31)
Coalition
Liberal (25)[e]
National (6)[f]
Crossbench (19)
Greens (11)
One Nation (2)
Lambie Network (1)
United Australia (1)
21 May 2022 (half)
2026 (half)
Redistributions are carried out on a state-by-state basis by the Australian Electoral Commission.
The upper house, the Senate, consists of 76 members: twelve for each state, and two for each of the self-governing territories. Senators are elected using the proportional system and as a result, the chamber features a multitude of parties vying for power.[5] The governing party or coalition has not held a majority in the Senate since 1981 (except between 2005 and 2007) and usually needs to negotiate with other parties and independents to get legislation passed.[6]
The lower house, the House of Representatives, currently consists of 151 members, each elected using full preferential voting from single-member electorates (also known as electoral divisions or seats).[7][8] This tends to lead to the chamber being dominated by two major political groups, the centre‑right Coalition (consisting of the Liberal and National parties) and the centre‑left Labor Party. The government of the day must achieve the confidence of this House in order to gain and remain in power.
The House of Representatives has a maximum term of three years, although it can be dissolved early. The Senate has fixed terms, with half of the state senators' terms expiring every three years (the terms of the four territory senators are linked to House elections). As a result, House and Senate elections almost always coincide. A deadlock-breaking mechanism known as a double dissolution can be used to dissolve the full Senate as well as the House if the Senate refuses to pass a piece of legislation passed by the House.[9]
The two houses of Parliament meet in separate chambers of Parliament House (except in rare joint sittings) on Capital Hill in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.
History[edit]
Temporary home in Melbourne (1901–1927)[edit]
The Commonwealth of Australia came into being on 1 January 1901 with the federation of the six Australian colonies. The inaugural election took place on 29 and 30 March and the first Australian Parliament was opened on 9 May 1901 in Melbourne by Prince George, Duke of Cornwall and York, later King George V.[10] The only building in Melbourne that was large enough to accommodate the 14,000 guests was the western annexe of the Royal Exhibition Building.[11] After the official opening, from 1901 to 1927 the Parliament met in Parliament House, Melbourne, which it borrowed from the Parliament of Victoria (which sat, instead, in the Royal Exhibition Building until 1927).
Procedure[edit]
Each of the two Houses elects a presiding officer. The presiding officer of the Senate is called the President; that of the House of Representatives is the Speaker. Elections for these positions are by secret ballot. Both offices are conventionally filled by members of the governing party, but the presiding officers are expected to oversee debate and enforce the rules in an impartial manner.[44]
The Constitution authorises Parliament to set the quorum for each chamber. The quorum of the Senate is one-quarter of the total membership (nineteen); that of the House of Representatives is one-fifth of the total membership (thirty-one). In theory, if a quorum is not present, then a House may not continue to meet. In practice, members usually agree not to notice that a quorum is not present, so that debates on routine bills can continue while other members attend to other business outside the chamber.[45] Sometimes the Opposition will "call a quorum" as a tactic to annoy the Government or delay proceedings, particularly when the Opposition feels it has been unfairly treated in the House. Proceedings are interrupted until a quorum is present. It is the responsibility of the government whip to ensure that, when a quorum is called, enough government members are present to form a quorum.
Both Houses may determine motions by voice vote: the presiding officer puts the question, and, after listening to shouts of "Aye" and "No" from the members, announces the result. The announcement of the presiding officer settles the question, unless at least two members demand a "division", or a recorded vote. In that case the bells are rung throughout Parliament House summoning Senators or Members to the chamber. During a division, members who favour the motion move to the right side of the chamber (the side to the Speaker's or President's right), and those opposed move to the left. They are then counted by "tellers" (government and opposition whips), and the motion is passed or defeated accordingly. In the Senate, in order not to deprive a state of a vote in what is supposed to be a states' house, the president is permitted a vote along with other senators (however, that right is rarely exercised); in the case of a tie, the president does not have a casting vote and the motion fails.[46] In the House of Representatives, the Speaker does not vote, but has a casting vote if there is a tie.[44]
Most legislation is introduced into the House of Representatives and goes through a number of stages before it becomes law. The legislative process occurs in English, although other Australian parliaments have permitted use of Indigenous languages with English translation.[47] Government bills are drafted by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel.
The first stage is a first reading, where the legislation is introduced to the chamber, then there is a second reading, where a vote is taken on the general outlines of the bill. Although rare, the legislation can then be considered by a House committee, which reports back to the House on any recommendations. This is followed by a consideration in detail stage, where the House can consider the clauses of the bill in detail and make any amendments. This is finally followed by a third reading, where the bill is either passed or rejected by the House. If passed, the legislation is then sent to the Senate, which has a similar structure of debate and passage except that consideration of bills by Senate committees is more common than in the House and the consideration in detail stage is replaced by a committee of the whole. Once a bill has been passed by both Houses in the same form, it is then presented to the governor-general for royal assent.[48]
There are four parliamentary departments supporting the Australian Parliament:[77]
Privileges[edit]
Members of the Australian Parliament do not have legal immunity: they can be arrested and tried for any offence. They do, however, have parliamentary privilege: they cannot be sued for anything they say in Parliament about each other or about persons outside the Parliament.[79] This privilege extends to reporting in the media of anything a senator or member says in Parliament. The proceedings of parliamentary committees, wherever they meet, are also covered by privilege, and this extends to witnesses before such committees.
From the beginning of Federation until 1987, parliamentary privilege operated under section 49 of the Constitution, which established the privileges of both houses and their members to be the same as the House of Commons of the United Kingdom at the time of the Constitution's enactment. The Parliament was also given the power to amend its privileges.[61] In 1987, the Parliament passed the Parliamentary Privileges Act, which clarified the meaning and extent of privilege as well as how the Parliament deals with breaches.[80]
There is a legal offence called contempt of Parliament. A person who speaks or acts in a manner contemptuous of the Parliament or its members can be tried and, if convicted, imprisoned. The Parliament previously had the power to hear such cases itself, and did so in the Browne–Fitzpatrick privilege case, 1955. This power has now been delegated to the courts. There have been few convictions. In May 2007, Harriet Swift, an anti-logging activist from New South Wales was convicted and reprimanded for contempt of Parliament, after she wrote fictitious press releases and letters purporting to be from Federal MP Gary Nairn as an April Fools' Day prank.[81]
Broadcasting[edit]
Radio broadcasts of parliamentary proceedings began on 10 July 1946.[82] They were originally broadcast on Radio National. Since August 1994 they have been broadcast on ABC News, a government-owned channel set up specifically for this function. It operates 24 hours a day and broadcasts other news items when parliament is not sitting.
The first televised parliamentary event was the historic 1974 Joint Sitting.[83] Regular free-to-air television broadcasts of question time began in August 1990 from the Senate and February 1991 from the House of Representatives. Question time from the House of Representatives is televised live, and the Senate question time is recorded and broadcast later that day. Other free-to-air televised broadcasts include: the Treasurer's Budget speech and the Leader of the Opposition's reply to the Budget two days later; the opening of Parliament by the governor-general; the swearing-in of governors-general; and addresses to the Parliament by visiting heads of state.
In 2009, the pay TV company Foxtel launched A-SPAN, now called Sky News Extra, which broadcasts live sittings of the House of Representatives and the Senate, parliamentary committee meetings and political press conferences.[84]
The Parliament House official website provides free extensive daily proceedings of both chambers as well as committee hearings live on the Internet.[85]
Historical compositions[edit]
Senate[edit]
The Senate has included representatives from a range of political parties, including several parties that have seldom or never had representation in the House of Representatives, but which have consistently secured a small but significant level of electoral support, as the table shows.
Results represent the composition of the Senate after the elections. The full Senate has been contested on eight occasions; the inaugural election and seven double dissolutions. These are underlined and highlighted in puce.[86]