Who is head of the Senate in Australia?
President of the Senate (Australia)
The position is provided for by Section 17 of the Constitution of Australia. The Senate elects one of its members as president at the start of each new term, or whenever the position is vacant. This is usually—though not necessarily—a member of the party or coalition that holds the most seats in the Senate. The largest party in the Senate is not always the governing party, as government is determined by the House of Representatives. The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives may consequently be from different parties.
Leader of the Government in the Senate (Australia)
The longest-serving Leader of the Government in the Senate was George Pearce, who held the position for a cumulative total of 15 years in three separate terms between 1914 and 1937. Uniquely, from 10 January to 1 February 1968, the positions of Prime Minister and Leader of the Government in the Senate were held by the same person, John Gorton. After the disappearance of Harold Holt, Gorton – a senator – was elected leader of the Liberal Party and thus ascended to the prime ministership. In line with constitutional convention, he resigned from the Senate to contest a by-election to the House of Representatives.
Australian Greens Victoria
At the 2016 federal election Adam Bandt was re-elected to a third term in his seat of Melbourne with 43.75 % of the primary vote (68.48% on a two-party preferred basis). Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natale and Janet Rice were re-elected to the Senate.
Father of the Australian Senate
In Australian parliamentary practice, the Father of the Senate is the senator in the Australian Senate who has served longer, continuously, than any other currently serving senator. The title is seldom used today. It is an informal, honorific title which carries no parliamentary responsibilities. Where two or more senators have had equal lengths of continuous service, more than any other currently serving senators, they are known as the joint Fathers of the Senate. The current Father of the Senate is Ian Macdonald who acquired the status on 6 February 2015 after the resignation from Parliament of the then Father of the Senate, John Faulkner.
National Security Committee (Australia)
The Prime Minister from time to time determines the membership of NSC. Under the current Morrison Government, the NSC is chaired by the Prime Minister and the membership includes the Deputy Prime Minister, Attorney-General, Treasurer, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister for Defence, and the Minister for Home Affairs.
John Tierney (Australian politician)
Tierney was appointed to the Senate in February 1991 to succeed Peter Baume, who had resigned in January. Tierney was subsequently elected at the elections of 1993 and 1998. He resigned from the Senate in early 2005.
List of whips in the Australian Senate
Whips have managed business and maintained party discipline for Australia's federal political parties in the Senate since Federation. Though the Remuneration Tribunal and parliamentary website refer to the senior Labor and Liberal whips as "chief" whips and their junior whips as "deputy whips", the parties tend to refer to the senior whips as "whips" when announcing their officeholders to the Senate. A number of Senate whips have gone on to serve as ministers, and several as Leader of the Government or Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.
Ian Macdonald (Australian politician)
He became the Father of the Senate on 6 February 2015, upon the resignation of John Faulkner and with the retirement of Philip Ruddock at the 2016 federal election, he became the Father of the Parliament.
Father of the Australian Parliament
In Australian parliamentary practice, the Father of the Australian Parliament is the more senior of the Father of the Senate and the Father of the House of Representatives. It is an informal, honorific title which carries no parliamentary responsibilities. Where two or more parliamentarians have had equal lengths of continuous service, more than any other currently serving parliamentarian, they are known as the joint Fathers of the Parliament. The current Father of the Parliament is Senator Ian Macdonald who has held the title since 10 May 2016.
Andrew Barr
Andrew James Barr (born 29 April 1973) is an Australian politician and Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory. He has been a Labor Party member for the seat of Molonglo in the ACT Legislative Assembly since 5 April 2006, after being elected on a countback to replace former Treasurer Ted Quinlan, who resigned mid-term. Barr was immediately promoted to Cabinet upon his election. As one of only five Ministers in the Territory government, he held a number of portfolios: Treasurer, Economic Development, Community Services, Tourism, Sport and Recreation, and Tourism and Events. On 11 December 2014 he was elected as Chief Minister after his predecessor, Katy Gallagher, resigned and announced her intention to run for the Senate.
Arizona Senate
The current President of the Senate is Republican Steve Yarbrough of District 17, the Senate Majority Leader is Kimberly Yee of District 20.
The current Minority Leader is Katie Hobbs of District 24 with Steve Farley of District 9 as the Assistant Minority Leader.
Loan Council
The Loan Council consists of the Prime Minister of Australia, the Premier of each State and Chief Minister of each Territory. However, in practice each member is represented by a nominee, usually the Treasurer of that jurisdiction. The Treasurer of Australia acts as the chair and the Commonwealth Treasury provides secretarial services. Each jurisdiction nominates a Loan Council Allocation for the forthcoming year and the Loan Council normally meets once a year in person (usually in March) to consider the nominations having regard to each jurisdiction's fiscal position and the macroeconomic implications of the aggregate figure; otherwise business of the Council is conducted by correspondence. The Commonwealth has a dominant position over the Council, having two votes and also a casting vote. Under this arrangement the votes of six states/territories are required to outvote a Commonwealth proposition.
Members of the Australian Senate, 2014–2016
This is a list of members of the Australian Senate between July 2014 and May 2016. Half of the state senators had been elected at the August 2010 election and had terms due to finish on 30 June 2017; the other half of the state senators were elected at the September 2013 election and had terms due to finish on 30 June 2020. The territory senators were elected at the September 2013 election and their terms ended at the dissolution of the House of Representatives, which was May 2016. The new Senate first met in July 2014, with state senators elected in 2013 sworn in on 7 July 2014. Ascertaining the chamber's final composition was complicated by the loss of 1,375 ballot papers in Western Australia, leading to the Court of Disputed Returns voiding the result there, and necessitating a special Senate election in Western Australia (held on 5 April 2014).
Members of the Australian Senate, 2008–2011
This is a list of members of the Australian Senate between 1 July 2008 and 30 June 2011. Half of the state senators had been elected at the November 2007 election and had terms due to finish on 30 June 2014; the other half of the state senators were elected at the October 2004 election and had terms due to finish on 30 June 2011. The territory senators were elected at the November 2007 election and their terms ended at the dissolution of the House of Representatives, which was August 2010. The new Senate first met in August 2008, with state senators elected in 2007 sworn in on 26 August 2008.
Cabinet of Australia
The Parliamentary Business Committee (PBC) considers priorities for the Australian Government's legislation program and requests to the Prime Minister for the presentation of ministerial statements. Decisions of the PBC do not require the endorsement of the Cabinet. The PBC is chaired by the Leader of the House with the Leader of the Government in the Senate as deputy chair and includes Manager of Government Business in the Senate, the Deputy Leader of the House, and the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister.
Cabinet of South Australia
The Cabinet of South Australia is the chief policy-making organ of the Government of South Australia. In South Australia, the cabinet is interchangeably known as the ministry as there is no "outer ministry" – therefore all ministers are in cabinet. The current fourteen-member cabinet, the Marshall Ministry, is headed by Premier Steven Marshall of the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia.
Redistribution (Australia)
Section 24 of the Constitution of Australia requires that the total number of members of the Australian House of Representatives shall be "as nearly as practicable" twice as many as the number of members of the Australian Senate. There is presently a total of 76 senators: 12 senators from each of the six states and two from each of the two autonomous internal territories (the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory). There are 150 members of the Australian House of Representatives.
John Watson (Australian politician)
John Odin Wentworth Watson (born 25 January 1937), is an Australian politician. He was a Liberal member of the Australian Senate from 1978 to 2008, representing the state of Tasmania. From July 2005 until he left parliament in June 2008, he was the Father of the Senate.
Committee of the whole
In the Australian Senate, the Committee of the Whole is provided for by Chapter 21 of the standing orders. It is presided over by the Chairman of Committees.
Department of Health (Australia)
The head of the department is the Secretary of the Department of Health, currently Glenys Beauchamp, who reports to the Minister for Health and the Minister for Regional Services, Sport, Local Government and Decentralisation, currently the Hon. Greg Hunt MP and Senator Bridget McKenzie, and the Minister for Aged Care and the Minister for Indigenous Health, currently The Hon. Ken Wyatt . The ministers are assisted by the Assistant Minister for Health, currently The Hon. Dr David Gillespie MP .
Electoral system of Australia
The Australian Senate has 76 members: each of the six states elects 12 Senators, and the Northern Territory (NT) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) each elect two Senators. The several other Australian Territories have very small populations and are represented by Northern Territory and ACT Senators (for example, Christmas Island residents are represented by NT Senators, while Jervis Bay Territory residents are represented by ACT Senators).
Stephen Parry (Australian politician)
On 4 July 2011, Parry was elected by the Senate as the deputy president and chairman of committees, replacing Alan Ferguson. On 7 July 2014 the Senate elected him as its president.
Father of the Australian Senate
The first Senate was elected on 29 and 30 March 1901. Despite the different election dates, all the members elected to that first Parliament were considered to have had equal seniority. It follows that there could not be a "longest-serving Senator" until only one Senator from the first Parliament was still serving. That occurred on 14 September 1923 with the death of Hon Edward Millen, leaving Sir George Pearce as the sole longest-serving Senator, and thus the first sole Father of the Senate.
Cate Faehrmann
Cate Faehrmann (born 17 March 1970) is an Australian politician and environmental activist.
Faehrmann was a Greens member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 2011 to 2013. She resigned from the Legislative Council in June 2013 in order to stand for the Australian Senate at the 2013 federal election, but was unsuccessful. She worked in the office of the Leader of the Australian Greens Richard Di Natale as his chief of staff from May 2015 until March 2018. In August 2018, she was re-elected to the Legislative Council to fill the casual vacancy caused by the resignation of Mehreen Faruqi, who replaced Lee Rhiannon in the Australian Senate.
Australian Senate
Senators normally serve fixed six-year terms (from 1 July to 30 June). At most federal elections, the seats of 40 of the 76 Senators (half of the 72 Senators from the six states and all four of the Senators from the territories) are contested, along with the entire House of Representatives; such an election is sometimes known as a half-Senate election. The seats of Senators elected at a half-Senate election are not contested at the next election, provided it is a half-Senate election. However, under some circumstances, the entire Senate is dissolved early, in what is known as a double dissolution. Following a double dissolution, half the Senators representing states serve terms ending on the third 30 June following the election (slightly less than three years) and the rest serve a six year term. The term of Senators representing a territory expires at the same time as there is an election for the House of Representatives.
Australian Senate
The size of the Senate has changed over the years. The Constitution originally provided for 6 senators for each state, resulting in a total of 36 senators. The Constitution permits the Parliament to increase the number of senators, provided that equal numbers of senators from each original state are maintained. Accordingly, in 1948, Senate representation was increased to 10 senators for each state, increasing the total to 60.
Margaret Reid (politician)
On 5 May 1981, Reid was elected by a joint sitting of the Australian Parliament to fill a casual vacancy in the representation of the Australian Capital Territory in the Senate, following the sudden death of her close friend, Senator John Knight. This was the first of only two occasions on which a Senate casual vacancy was filled in this manner, as the law was later changed to provide for a replacement senator to be appointed by the relevant territory (ACT or NT) legislative assembly.
Australia
The federal government is separated into three branches:
In the Senate (the upper house), there are 76 senators: twelve each from the states and two each from the mainland territories (the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory). The House of Representatives (the lower house) has 150 members elected from single-member electoral divisions, commonly known as "electorates" or "seats", allocated to states on the basis of population, with each original state guaranteed a minimum of five seats. Elections for both chambers are normally held every three years simultaneously; senators have overlapping six-year terms except for those from the territories, whose terms are not fixed but are tied to the electoral cycle for the lower house; thus only 40 of the 76 places in the Senate are put to each election unless the cycle is interrupted by a double dissolution.
President of the Senate
The President of the Senate is Dr. Bukola Saraki, who represents Kwara State for the APC.
List of female heads of government in Australia
There are currently two serving female heads of government in Australia, Annastacia Palaszczuk (39th Premier of Queensland) who was elected on 14 February 2015, and Gladys Berejiklian (45th Premier of New South Wales) who was appointed on 23 January 2017. Three women currently serve as deputy heads of government in Australia; Jackie Trad (Deputy Premier of Queensland) since 14 February 2015, Nicole Manison (Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory) since 12 September 2016, Yvette Berry (Deputy Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory) since 31 October 2016, and Vickie Chapman (Deputy Premier of South Australia) since 19 March 2018. The tenures of these incumbents are accurate as of .
Father of the Australian Senate
The only Father of the Senate with broken service but whose latter period of continuous service was sufficiently long to qualify was Sir Walter Cooper. Annabelle Rankin was a joint Father of the Senate, from 1 July 1968 to 24 May 1971, the only female to achieve that status. The possibility of a woman becoming a longest-serving senator was not provided for in "Australian Senate Practice", and there has still been no move to amend the text or title to this day.
President of the Senate
The President of the Senate of Trinidad and Tobago, who is generally elected from the government benches, chairs debates in the chamber and stands in for the country's president during periods of absence or illness (Constitution, section 27). A Vice-President of the Senate is also elected from among the senators. The current President of the Senate is Christine Kangaloo.
President of the Senate (Australia)
As well as a president, the Senate also elects a Deputy President, whose formal title is Deputy President and Chairman of Committees. Until 1981, the title was just Chairman of Committees; it was changed "to reflect more accurately the nature of the office in practice". The position is not provided for by the constitution, but instead by the Senate's standing orders – it was borrowed more or less directly from the colonial legislative councils. The deputy president's main tasks are to preside over committees of the whole and to serve as presiding officer when the President of the Senate is absent.
Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives
The office of Speaker is currently held by Tony Smith (Liberal) since 10 August 2015. The Deputy Speaker is Kevin Hogan (National), who was elected Deputy Speaker on 26 March 2018. If the Speaker is absent the Deputy Speaker becomes the Acting Speaker. The Second Deputy Speaker is Rob Mitchell (Labor).
Richard Di Natale
Richard Luigi Di Natale (born 6 June 1970) is an Australian Senator and leader of the Australian Greens. Di Natale was elected to the Australian Senate in the 2010 federal election. A former general practitioner, he was the lead Greens Senate candidate in Victoria in the 2007 federal election but failed to win a seat. Di Natale became federal parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens on 6 May 2015 following the resignation of Christine Milne. Di Natale led the Greens at the 2 July 2016 federal election.
Treasurer of Australia
The Treasurer is the minister in charge of government revenue and expenditure. The Treasurer oversees economic policy: fiscal policy is within the Treasurer's direct responsibility, while monetary policy is implemented by the politically independent Reserve Bank of Australia, the head of which is appointed by the Treasurer. The Treasurer also oversees financial regulation. Each year in May, the Treasurer presents the Federal Budget to the Parliament.
Margaret Reid (politician)
Reid became Liberal Whip in the Senate in 1987 and held the office until 1995. In 1996, she was elected President of the Senate, retiring from the position in 2002 after six years. Reid resigned from the Senate on 14 February 2003, and was replaced by the former ACT Chief Minister, Gary Humphries.
Robert Hill (Australian politician)
In July 2005 the Coalition parties took control of the Senate and Hill became the first Government Leader in the Senate since 1981 to command a majority in the chamber.
Bicameralism
The upper house, the Senate, is also popularly elected under the single transferable vote system of proportional representation. There are a total of 76 senators: 12 senators are elected from each of the six Australian states (regardless of population) and two from each of the two autonomous internal territories (the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory).
Stephen Parry (Australian politician)
Stephen Shane Parry (born 31 October 1960) is an Australian politician who was a Liberal Party senator for Tasmania from 2005 to 2017. He was elected President of the Senate in 2014. On 31 October 2017, Parry informed the government that he may be a British citizen, and issued his intention to resign from his position if dual nationality was confirmed. The next day he reported that he had received confirmation of his dual citizenship and, on 2 November, he resigned as president and from the Senate. He was replaced in the Senate by next Liberal Party Tasmanian Senate candidate and former senator Richard Colbeck after a recount.
Penny Wong
In February 2013, Wong was appointed Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate, following the resignation of Chris Evans, the then Government Leader in the Senate. In June 2013, following Stephen Conroy's resignation, she became the first female to be appointed Leader of the Government in the Senate. Following Labor's defeat at the 2013 Australian federal election, Wong was appointed the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, becoming the first woman to do so.
Kerryann Ifill
On 14 March 2012, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart announced that, the following week, he would appoint Ifill President of the Senate. She became the first woman to hold that position, and the first person with a disability, as well as the youngest ever holder of the position, at the age of 38. She succeeded Branford Taitt (in office 2008-2012).
1975 Australian constitutional crisis
As in most Westminster system parliaments, Australia's government is ordinarily formed by the party enjoying the confidence of the lower House of Parliament, the House of Representatives. However, Australia's Parliament also has a powerful upper house, the Senate, which must pass any legislation initiated by the House of Representatives if it is to become law. The composition of the Senate, in which each state has an equal number of senators regardless of that state's population, was originally designed to attract the Australian colonies into one Federation. The Constitution forbids the Senate to originate or amend a money bill, but places no limitation on the Senate's ability to defeat one. In 1970, Gough Whitlam, as Leader of the Opposition, had stated of a budget bill, "Let me make it clear at the outset that our opposition to this Budget is no mere formality. We intend to press our opposition by all available means on all related measures in both Houses. If the motion is defeated, we will vote against the Bills here and in the Senate. Our purpose is to destroy this Budget and destroy the Government which has sponsored it."
Treasurer of Australia
The Treasurer administers his functions through the Department of the Treasury and a range of other government agencies. According to constitutional convention, the Treasurer is always a member of the Parliament of Australia with a seat in the House of Representatives.
2018 National Party of Australia leadership election
Under the Coalition agreement between the Liberal and National Parties, the Nationals' leader serves as deputy prime minister in a Coalition government. Therefore, the decision of National Party members would determine who succeeded Joyce as deputy PM. Following the 2016 election, sixteen National Party MPs sat in the Australian House of Representatives (including six from the Queensland Liberal National Party, and Joyce himself as a backbencher since his announcement). Some of the highest-profile National Party parliamentarians, namely deputy leader Bridget McKenzie and Resources Minister Matt Canavan, sit in the Senate; no senator has served as deputy prime minister in the history of the position.
Australian head of state dispute
A comprehensive guide (by David Hamer) to Australian government published by the Australian Senate, declares that Australia has two heads of state in the monarch, who performs a symbolic role, and the Governor-General, who is "the constitutional head of state."
Joint meetings of the Australian Parliament
Australia has a bicameral federal parliament, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Subject to the Constitution of Australia, each House has its own rules, standing orders and procedures; its own presiding officer; and meets separately, at dates and times it alone decides.
Katy Gallagher
On 5 December 2014 Gallagher announced she would resign from the territory parliament, and run to replace Kate Lundy in the Australian Senate. On 11 December 2014 she resigned as Chief Minister and Andrew Barr was elected as her replacement. She was appointed to the Senate by the ACT Legislative Assembly on 25 March 2015, a day after Lundy's formal resignation, and was formally sworn in on the 26th.
Australia
Each state and major mainland territory has its own parliament—unicameral in the Northern Territory, the ACT and Queensland, and bicameral in the other states. The states are sovereign entities, although subject to certain powers of the Commonwealth as defined by the Constitution. The lower houses are known as the Legislative Assembly (the House of Assembly in South Australia and Tasmania); the upper houses are known as the Legislative Council. The head of the government in each state is the Premier and in each territory the Chief Minister. The Queen is represented in each state by a governor; and in the Northern Territory, the Administrator. In the Commonwealth, the Queen's representative is the Governor-General.
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia (also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or just Parliament) is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the Crown (represented by the Governor-General), the Senate and the House of Representatives. The combination of two elected chambers, in which the members of the Senate represent the states and territories while the members of the House represent electoral divisions according to population, is modelled on the United States Congress. Through both chambers, however, there is a fused executive, drawn from the Westminster System.
Australian Senate
While there is no constitutional requirement for the election of Senators to take place at the same time as those for members of the House of Representatives, the government usually synchronises the dates of elections for the Senate and House of Representatives. However, because their terms do not coincide, the incoming Parliament will for some time comprise the new House of Representatives and the old Senate, except for the senators representing the territories, until the new senators start their term on the next 1 July.
Bob Day
On 1 November 2016, Day announced he had tendered his immediate resignation to the President of the Australian Senate. In a statement, Day said "while a number of offers for various parts of the Home Australia business have been received, the major investor who has been examining the group's portfolio of assets over the past fortnight, has decided not to proceed. Accordingly, I have today tendered my resignation to the president of the Senate effective immediately. It has been an honour and a privilege to serve as a senator for South Australia and I am sorry it has ended this way."
Parliament of Australia
The Constitution allows Parliament to determine the number of Senators by legislation, provided that the six original states are equally represented. Furthermore, the Constitution provides that each original state is entitled to at least six Senators. However, neither of these provisions applies to any newly admitted states, or to territories. Pursuant to an Act of Parliament passed in 1973, Senators are elected to represent the territories. Currently, the two Northern Territory Senators represent the residents of the Northern Territory as well as the Australian external territories of Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The two Australian Capital Territory Senators represent the Australian Capital Territory, the Jervis Bay Territory and since 1 July 2016, Norfolk Island. While only half of the State Senate seats go up for re-election each three years (except in the case of a double dissolution) as they serve six year terms, all of the Territory Senators must face the voters every three years.
National Party of Australia
In September 2008, Joyce replaced CLP Senator and Nationals deputy leader Nigel Scullion as leader of the Nationals in the Senate, and stated that his party in the upper house would no longer necessarily vote with their Liberal counterparts in the upper house, which opened up another possible avenue for the Rudd Labor Government to get legislation through. Joyce was elected leader in a party-room ballot on 11 February 2016, following the retirement of former leader and Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss. Joyce was one of five politicians disqualified from parliament in October 2017 for holding dual citizenship, along with former deputy leader, Fiona Nash.
2016 Australian federal election
Labor Senator Joe Bullock announced on 1 March 2016 that he would be resigning from the Senate after the autumn sittings of parliament, citing—among other reasons—his opposition to same-sex marriage being at odds with the Labor Party's platform to bind its members in a supporting vote after 2019. Bullock tendered his resignation to Senate President Stephen Parry on 13 April 2016. The casual vacancy was filled by Pat Dodson on 28 April 2016.
Feminism in Australia
From June 2010 to June 2013, Australia was led by its first female prime minister, Julia Gillard. Gillard is perhaps best known, internationally, for the Misogyny Speech delivered in the Australian Federal Parliament on 9 October 2012 to then Federal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott.
Australian Senate
In July 2017, a co-deputy leader of the Greens, Senator Scott Ludlam, resigned from the Senate on discovering that he was a dual citizen (born in New Zealand) and therefore, under Section 44 of the Constitution, had been ineligible to sit in the Parliament. The revelation prompted Ludlam's fellow co-deputy leader of the Greens, Senator Larissa Waters, to examine her citizenship status and, on discovering that she too was a dual citizen (born in Canada), she also resigned. Recounts of the 2016 election results respectively in Western Australia and Queensland saw Jordon Steele-John replace Ludlam and Andrew Bartlett replace Waters.
Members of the Australian Senate, 2016–2019
This is a list of members of the Australian Senate following the 2016 double dissolution election on 2 July 2016. All 76 senators were elected due to the election being the result of a double dissolution, and not an ordinary half-senate election. The terms of half of the senators representing each of the six states of Australia were allocated six-year terms ending on 30 June 2022 with the remainder allocated three-year terms ending on 30 June 2019. The terms of senators from the states can only be truncated if another double dissolution election is called. The terms of senators from the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory end on the next dissolution of the House of Representatives.
Government of Australia
The Legislature makes the laws, and supervises the activities of the other two arms with a view to changing the laws when appropriate. The Australian Parliament is bicameral, consisting of the Queen of Australia, a 76-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives.
Politics of Australia
The role of head of state in Australia is divided between two people: the Monarch of Australia and the Governor-General of Australia. The functions and roles of the Governor-General include appointing ambassadors, ministers, and judges, giving Royal Assent to legislation (also a role of the monarch), issuing writs for elections and bestowing honours. The Governor-General is the President of the Federal Executive Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Defence Force. These posts are held under the authority of the Australian Constitution. In practice, barring exceptional circumstances, the Governor-General exercises these powers only on the advice of the Prime Minister. As such, the role of Governor-General is often described as a largely ceremonial position.
Members of the Australian Senate, 1951–1953
This is a list of members of the Australian Senate from 1951 to 1953. The 28 April 1951 election was a double dissolution called by Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies in an attempt to gain control of the Senate and to pass a bill to ban the Communist Party of Australia, if necessary at a joint sitting of both houses. All 121 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 60 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Menzies with coalition partner the Country Party led by Arthur Fadden defeated the Australian Labor Party led by Ben Chifley and gained control of the Senate with 32 seats to Labor's 28.
Parliament of Australia
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.
President of the Senate (Australia)
The senate president is the chief executive of the Department of the Senate, which is one of the four parliamentary departments. He or she chairs the department's budget committee and oversees its organisational structure. The president also co-administers the Department of Parliament Services (DPS) with the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Clerk of the Australian Senate
The Department of the Senate provides the Senate, its committees, the President of the Senate and senators with a broad range of advisory and support services related to the exercise of the legislative power of the Commonwealth.
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. There are a total of 76 Senators: 12 are elected from each of the six states regardless of population and 2 from each of the two autonomous internal territories (the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory). Senators are popularly elected under the single transferable vote system of proportional representation.
Clerk of the Australian Senate
The Clerk of the Australian Senate is the head of the Department of the Senate, which is the parliamentary department supporting the work of the Australian Senate. The parliamentary head of the department is the President of the Senate.
Australian Senate
Bob Day, of the Family First Party, resigned from the Senate on 1 November 2016 following the collapse of his business. His eligibility to have stood in the 2016 election was referred by the Senate to the High Court, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns. In April 2017 the court found that Day was not validly elected at the 2016 election and ordered that a special recount of South Australian ballot papers be held in order to determine his replacement. The court announced that Lucy Gichuhi was elected in his place on 19 April 2017. On 26 April 2017, Family First merged with the Australian Conservatives; however, Gichuhi declined to join the new party, announcing she would sit as an independent.
Members of the Australian Senate, 2005–2008
This is a list of members of the Australian Senate from 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2008. Half of the state senators had been elected at the November 2001 election and had terms due to finish on 30 June 2008; the other half of the state senators were elected at the October 2004 election and had terms due to finish on 30 June 2011. The territory senators were elected at the October 2004 election and their terms ended at the dissolution of the House of Representatives, which was November 2007. The new Senate first met in August 2005, with state senators elected in 2004 sworn in on 9 August 2005.
Doug McClelland
McClelland was the manager of Government Business in the Senate from 9 July 1974, Minister for the Media in the Whitlam Government until 6 June 1975, and then Special Minister of State, he also served as President of the Senate from 21 April 1983 until his resignation on 23 January 1987. (He was no relation to fellow ALP cabinet minister Jim McClelland.) From 1981 until his resignation he was the Father of the Senate. He went on to serve as Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
Victoria (Australia)
The Premier of Victoria is the leader of the political party or coalition with the most seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Premier is the public face of government and, with cabinet, sets the legislative and political agenda. Cabinet consists of representatives elected to either house of parliament. It is responsible for managing areas of government that are not exclusively the Commonwealth's, by the Australian Constitution, such as education, health and law enforcement. The current Premier of Victoria is Daniel Andrews.
Michael Beahan
Michael Eamon Beahan, AM (born 21 January 1937) was the 19th President of the Australian Senate, holding that position from 1 February 1994 to 30 June 1996. He was a Senator representing Western Australia in the Australian Senate from 1987 to 1996.
2017–18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis
The seats of the disqualified Senators were filled by countbacks of the 2016 Senate election results in their states of Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. The countback results were announced on 10 November: in Western Australia, the Greens' Scott Ludlam was to be replaced by the Greens' Jordon Steele-John; in Queensland, the Greens' Larissa Waters was to be replaced by former Australian Democrats leader and current Greens member Andrew Bartlett, One Nation's Malcolm Roberts was to be replaced by One Nation's Fraser Anning, and the Nationals' Fiona Nash was to be replaced by Liberal Hollie Hughes. However, the court delayed the appointment of Nationals' Fiona Nash's replacement Liberal Hollie Hughes due to concerns that Hughes may be ineligible under s 44(iv) of the Constitution as a holder of an office of profit under the Crown; Hughes was reappointed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal – a role that would ordinarily disqualify her under that section – in the period following her apparent election defeat but resigned from the position prior to the recount. The question was whether her tenure of that office had overlapped with the process of the election.
Ged Kearney
Gerardine "Ged" Kearney (born 29 October 1963) is an Australian politician and trade unionist. She has been a member of the House of Representatives since March 2018, representing the Division of Batman for the Labor Party. She was previously president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) from 2010 to 2018.
Dean Smith (Australian politician)
Smith was appointed to the Senate on 2 May 2012 by a joint sitting of the Parliament of Western Australia, to fill a casual vacancy caused by the death of Senator Judith Adams.
Michael Beahan
He was elected President of the Senate in March 1994, succeeding Kerry Sibraa. At the March 1996 general election he was defeated in his bid for another six-year term as Senator for Western Australia to commence on 1 July. His term as a Senator ended on 30 June, but he nevertheless had the authority to act as President of the Senate until his successor Margaret Reid was elected in August.
Members of the Australian Senate, 1987–1990
This is a list of members of the Australian Senate from 1987 to 1990. It consisted of twelve senators for each of the six states of Australia and two senators representing each of the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. All members were elected at the 1987 election following a double dissolution of both houses of parliament, rather than the normal case of only half of the state senators facing election.
Australian Senate
Due to the need to obtain votes statewide, independent candidates have difficulty getting elected. The exceptions in recent times have been elected in less populous States—the former Tasmanian Senator Brian Harradine and the former South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon. It is less uncommon for a senator initially elected representing a party to become an independent, most recently in the cases of Senator Lucy Gichuhi resigning from Family First, Senators Rod Culleton and Fraser Anning resigning from One Nation, and Senator Steve Martin being expelled from the Jacqui Lambie Network.
Parliament of Australia
The upper house of the Australian Parliament is the Senate, which consists of 76 members. Like the United States Senate, on which it was partly modelled, the Australian Senate includes an equal number of Senators from each state, regardless of population. Unlike it, however, the Australian Senate has always been directly elected. (The US Senate has been directly elected only from 1913.)
45th Parliament of Australia
The 45th Parliament of Australia is a meeting of the legislative branch of the Australian federal government, composed of the Australian Senate and the Australian House of Representatives. It has been meeting in Canberra from 30 August 2016 to the present. The 2016 general election held on 2 July gave the Coalition of the Liberal and National Parties control of the House, albeit with a slimmer majority than the 44th Parliament, allowing their leader Malcolm Turnbull to stay in office as the 29th Prime Minister of Australia.
President of the Senate (Australia)
The President of the Senate's primary task is to maintain parliamentary procedure in the chamber during legislative sessions. Unlike the Speaker of the House, he or she votes as an ordinary member during general debate, and has no casting vote in the case of a tie. The President of Senate has also various administrative and ceremonial duties, sharing responsibility for the management of Parliament House and other parliamentary facilities and services with the Speaker of the House.
Crossbencher
The Australian Senate, which uses the Single Transferable Vote form of proportional representation to elect its 76-seat chamber, frequently has a number of Senators on the crossbench that the governing party has to negotiate with to get legislation passed. The 2 July 2016 double dissolution election, for example resulted in a chamber with the Liberal/National Coalition having 30 seats, the Australian Labor Party with 26 seats, the Greens with 9 seats, One Nation with 4 seats and the Nick Xenophon Team with 3 seats. The other 4 seats were each won by Derryn Hinch, the Liberal Democratic Party, Family First, and Jacqui Lambie. The number of crossbenchers increased by two to a record 20. The Liberal/National Coalition government required at least nine additional votes to reach a Senate majority.
Monarchy of Australia
The sovereign, along with the Senate and the House of Representatives, being one of the three components of parliament, is called the "Queen-in-Parliament". The authority of the Crown therein is embodied in the mace (House of Representatives) and Black Rod (Senate), which both bear a crown at their apex. The monarch and viceroy do not, however, participate in the legislative process save for the granting of Royal Assent by the Governor-General. Further, the constitution outlines that the Governor-General alone is responsible for summoning, proroguing, and dissolving parliament, after which the writs for a general election are usually dropped by the Prime Minister at Government House. The new parliamentary session is marked by the State Opening of Parliament, during which either the monarch or the Governor-General reads the Speech from the Throne. As the monarch and viceroy, by convention, cannot enter the House of Representatives, this, as well as the bestowing of Royal Assent, takes place in the Senate chamber; Members of Parliament are summoned to these ceremonies from the House of Representatives by the Crown's messenger, the Usher of the Black Rod, after he knocks on the doors of the lower house that have been slammed closed on him to symbolise the barring of the monarch from the House of Representatives.
Clerk of the Australian Senate
The Department of the Senate is not part of the Executive Government of Australia, being instead responsible to the President of the Australian Senate, who has accountability obligations for the department to the Senate.
Politics of Australia
The Prime Minister of Australia is Scott Morrison, leader of the Cabinet and head of government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful political office in Australia. Despite being at the apex of executive government in the country, the office is not mentioned in the Constitution of Australia specifically and exists through an unwritten political convention. Barring exceptional circumstances, the prime minister is always the leader of the political party or coalition with majority support in the House of Representatives. The only case where a senator was appointed prime minister was that of John Gorton, who subsequently resigned his Senate position and was elected as a member of the House of Representatives (Senator George Pearce was acting prime minister for seven months in 1916 while Billy Hughes was overseas).
Women in the Australian Senate
The second woman elected to the Senate, Annabelle Rankin, also achieved a number of firsts for women: she was the first female Whip, and she was the first woman with a federal portfolio when she became Minister for Housing in 1966. In 1975, Margaret Guilfoyle became the first female cabinet minister with a portfolio. In 1996 Margaret Reid was the first woman elected as President of the Senate.
Treasurer of Australia
The Treasurer of Australia is the minister in the Government of Australia responsible for government expenditure and revenue raising. The Treasurer plays a key role in the economic policy of the government. The current holder of the position is Josh Frydenberg, whose term began on 24 August 2018.
Leader of the Government in the Senate (Australia)
The Leader of the Government in the Senate (historically also known as the Leader of the Senate) is the most senior cabinet minister in the Australian Senate. The title is given to the leader of the governing party (or the largest party in a governing coalition), irrespective of whether the government has a majority or plurality in the Senate. His or her Opposition counterpart is the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.
Leader of the House (Australia)
As the Australian Parliament is bicameral, the Leader of the House must also be aware of developments in the Senate, for example, in order to anticipate whether a bill may be returned to the House with amendments.
Parliament of Australia
The upper house, the Senate, consists of 76 members: twelve for each state, and two each for the Northern Territory (including Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands) and the Australian Capital Territory (including Norfolk Island and the Jervis Bay Territory). Senators are elected using the single transferable vote proportional representation system and as a result, the chamber features a multitude of parties vying for power. The governing party or coalition has not held a majority in the Senate since 1981 (except between 2005–2008) and usually needs to negotiate with other parties and Independents to get legislation passed.
President of the Senate (Australia)
The President of the Senate is the presiding officer of the Australian Senate, the upper house of the Parliament of Australia.
Australian Senate
Each state elects the same number of senators, meaning there is equal representation for each of the Australian states, regardless of population, so the Senate, like many upper Houses, does not adhere to the principle of "one vote one value". Tasmania, with a population of around 500,000, elects the same number of senators as New South Wales, which has a population of over 7 million. Because of this imbalance, governments favoured by the more populous states are occasionally frustrated by the extra power the smaller states have in the Senate, to the degree that former Prime Minister Paul Keating famously referred to the Senate's members as "unrepresentative swill". The proportional election system within each state ensures that the Senate incorporates more political diversity than the lower house, which is basically a two party body. The elected membership of the Senate more closely reflects the first voting preference of the electorate as a whole than does the composition of the House of Representatives, despite the large discrepancies from state to state in the ratio of voters to senators. This often means that the composition of the Senate is different from that of the House of Representatives, contributing to the Senate's function as a house of review.
List of Australian Senate appointments
Replacement senators for the Australian Capital Territory or the Northern Territory are chosen by the relevant territory legislature, under s.44 of the "Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918". Where the legislature is not in session, the choice is made by the Chief Minister of the ACT or the Administrator of the NT. Prior to the passage of this legislation, replacement territory senators were chosen by a joint sitting of both houses of the Federal Parliament, under s.9 of the "Senate (Representation of Territories) Act 1973".
Women in the Australian Senate
There have been 100 women in the Australian Senate since the establishment of the Parliament of Australia. Women have had the right to stand for federal parliament since 1902, and there were three female candidates for the Senate at the 1903 federal election (Vida Goldstein, Nellie Martel, and Mary Moore-Bentley). However, it was not until Dorothy Tangney's victory at the 1943 federal election that a woman was actually elected. Since then, all states and territories have had multiple female senators – in chronological order: Western Australia (1943), Queensland (1947), Victoria (1950), South Australia (1955), Tasmania (1975), the Australian Capital Territory (1975), New South Wales (1987), and the Northern Territory (1998).
Greens South Australia
Penny Wright resigned from the Senate due to family reasons in September 2015. Later that month, Robert Simms was appointed to the casual vacancy by a joint sitting of the Parliament of South Australia.
Senate of Nigeria
The President of the Senate is the presiding officer of the Senate, whose chief function is to guide and regulate the proceedings in the Senate. The Senate President is third in the Nigerian presidential line of succession. He is assisted by the Deputy President of the Senate. The current Senate President is Sen. Bukola Saraki and the current Deputy Senate President is Ike Ekweremadu both of the People's Democratic Party. The Senate President and his Deputy are also assisted by principal officers including the Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader, Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader, Chief Whip, Deputy Chief Whip, Minority Whip, and Deputy Minority Whip. In addition, there are 63 Standing Committees in the Senate chaired by Committee Chairmen.
Australian Senate committees
Senate committees can be affected by the party composition of the Senate. The Clerk of the Senate, Harry Evans, argued that a government majority of seats in the Senate resulted in limitations on what the committees inquired into, and how readily governments responded to their queries and requests for information. Statistics published by centrist political party the Australian Democrats have been used to support the contention that committee operations have been inhibited by government control of the Senate, particularly in respect of selection of topics for committee inquiry. However Senator Minchin, the leader of the government in the Senate in the mid-2000s, pointed out that their political rivals had previously cut off debate on more bills in the Senate than had his government.
President of the Senate (Australia)
The position of President of the Senate has been disproportionately held by Senators representing the least populous states and territories. There have been 25 presidents of the Senate since 1901. Of these 15 have come from the least populous states (Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania) or the Australian Capital Territory, and 10 have come from the three most populous states (New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland). All senate presidents have been members of major parties, though not necessarily the governing party.
Department of Defence (Australia)
The head of the Department, who leads it on a daily basis, is the Secretary of the Department of Defence (SECDEF), currently Greg Moriarty. The Secretary reports to the Minister of Defence, currently The Hon. Christopher Pyne MP, following appointment by Prime Minister Scott Morrison in August 2018.
List of Australian Leaders of the Opposition
To date there have been 33 Opposition Leaders, 18 of whom have served terms as Prime Minister. The current Leader of the Opposition is Bill Shorten of the Australian Labor Party, following an election of the new Parliamentary Labor Leader by caucus and ALP members on 13 October 2013. The current Deputy Leader of the Opposition is Tanya Plibersek of the Australian Labor Party, following her election on 14 October 2013 by the Labor Caucus. Tanya Plibersek is the fourth woman to hold the position of Deputy Opposition Leader.
List of whips in the Australian Senate
The Australian Greens appointed their first whip in the Senate when the party increased from two to four members in 2005. She became entitled to a salary when the party increased to five members in 2008.
One Nation first entered the Senate in 1999, but had only one seat and consequently did not elect a whip. The party's senator was defeated in 2004 and left the Senate in 2005. In 2016, four One Nation senators were elected, and the party elected a whip for the first time.
Penny Wright
On 17 July 2015, Wright announced that she would be resigning from the Senate due to illness in her family. She gave her final speech on 19 August, and resigned on 9 September. Robert Simms was appointed to the casual vacancy by a joint sitting of the Parliament of South Australia on 22 September 2015.