Where is the Parliament of Australia located?
Parliament House, Canberra
Parliament House is the meeting place of the Parliament of Australia, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. The building was designed by Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp Architects and opened on 1988 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. It cost more than A$1.1 billion to build.
Australian Capital Territory
In Australia's Federal Parliament, the ACT is represented by four federal members: two members of the House of Representatives represent the Division of Fenner and the Division of Canberra and it is one of only two territories to be represented in the Senate, with two Senators (the other being the Northern Territory). The Member for Fenner and the ACT Senators also represent the constituents of the Jervis Bay Territory.
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.
Parliaments of the Australian states and territories
All the parliaments are based on the Westminster system, and each is regulated by its own constitution. Queensland and the two territories have unicameral parliaments, with the single house being called Legislative Assembly. The other states have a bicameral parliament, with a lower house called the Legislative Assembly (New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia) or House of Assembly (South Australia and Tasmania), and an upper house called the Legislative Council.
Parliament House, Sydney
The Parliamentary precincts comprise the original old colonial Georgian building known as the Rum Hospital, which was finished in 1816 as well as later additions and extensions to the Parliament buildings. A new chamber was constructed at the northern end of the building in 1842 to accommodate the partly elected and partly nominee Council which was established with the new constitution of 1842. The Legislative Council is a pre-fabricated cast-iron building, initially shipped to Melbourne from Glasgow, Scotland, before being sent to Sydney as one of the two parliamentary chambers and is still a seat of government in NSW today. The centre wing, which was erected on poor foundations, was demolished in 1879 and the replacement building, the Sydney Hospital, was finished in 1894.
Federalism in Australia
In addition to the States, Australia has a number of Territories. Two of those are self-governing: the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Northern Territory (NT). The rest are administered by the Government of Australia. All are constitutionally under the authority of the Commonwealth parliament. The power to "make laws for the government" of the Territories, assigned to the Commonwealth Parliament by s 122 of the Constitution, is not confined by any words of limitation. It is generally assumed to be a plenary power, equivalent to the "peace, order and good government" powers of self-government assigned to the States by their own Constitution Acts.
Seat of Government Act 1904
The Seat of Government Act 1904 was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which provided that the "seat of government of the Commonwealth" (i.e., the national capital) should be within of Dalgety, New South Wales.
Austrian Parliament Building
The Austrian Parliament Building (, colloquially "das Parlament") in Vienna is where the two houses of the Austrian Parliament conduct their sessions. The building is located on the "Ringstraße" boulevard in the first district "Innere Stadt", near Hofburg Palace and the Palace of Justice. It was built to house the two chambers of the Imperial Council ("Reichsrat"), the bicameral legislature of the Cisleithanian (Austrian) part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Since its construction, the Parliament Building has been the seat of these two houses, and their successors—the National Council ("Nationalrat") and the Federal Council ("Bundesrat")—of the Austrian legislature.
Parliament of South Australia
The primary function of the Legislative Council is to review legislation which has been passed by the House of Assembly. This can cause tensions between the government and the Legislative Council, which may be viewed by the former as obstructionist if it rejects key legislation, as can happen at times when the electoral makeup of the two houses are different.
The seat of the Parliament of South Australia is Parliament House in the state capital of Adelaide. Parliament House sits on the North-Western corner of the intersection of King William Street and North Terrace.
Magna Carta Place
Magna Carta Place is located in Canberra, Australia to the north-west of Old Parliament House. Centrally located in the place is a Magna Carta Monument which was provided as a gift to the people of Australia from the British Government to commemorate the centenary of Federation of Australia. The site was dedicated in 1997 which was the 700th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta by King Edward I of England. A 1297 copy of Magna Carta, purchased by the Australian government in 1952, is on display in nearby Parliament House, Canberra. The monument was unveiled by the Prime Minister of Australia John Howard in 2000 prior to the centenary of federation in 2001. Magna Carta Place is located on a semicircular network of roads consisting of King George Terrace, Queen Victoria Terrace and Langton Crescent.
Melbourne
At the time of Australia's federation on 1 January 1901, Melbourne became the seat of government of the federation. The first federal parliament was convened on 9 May 1901 in the Royal Exhibition Building, subsequently moving to the Victorian Parliament House where it was located until 1927, when it was moved to Canberra. The Governor-General of Australia resided at Government House in Melbourne until 1930 and many major national institutions remained in Melbourne well into the twentieth century.
Parliament of Victoria
Parliament has sat at Parliament House, Melbourne since 1856, with the exception of the period 1901–1927, when Parliament House was used by the Federal Parliament and the Parliament of Victoria sat at the Royal Exhibition Building.
Politics of Australia
The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, and has been influenced both by the Westminster system and United States federalism. Under Section 1 of the Constitution of Australia, Parliament consists of three components: the Monarch, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. The Australian Parliament is the world's sixth oldest continuous democracy.
Parliament of Australia
The competition winner was the Philadelphia-based architectural firm of Mitchell/Giurgola, with the on-site work directed by the Italian-born architect Romaldo Giurgola, with a design which involved burying most of the building under Capital Hill, and capping the edifice with an enormous spire topped by a large Australian flag. The façades, however, included deliberate imitation of some of the patterns of the Old Parliament House, so that there is a slight resemblance despite the massive difference of scale. The building was also designed to "sit above" Old Parliament House when seen from a distance.
Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988
The territory presently called the Australian Capital Territory was transferred to the Commonwealth by the state of New South Wales as the "Federal Capital Territory" on 1911, to be the seat of the federal government. The planning and construction of Canberra followed, with the Parliament of Australia moving there in 1927.
Griffith, Australian Capital Territory
Griffith is located within the federal electorate of Canberra, which is currently (2016) represented by Gai Brodtmann in the House of Representatives. In the ACT Legislative Assembly, Griffith is part of the electorate of Kurrajong, which elects five members on the basis of proportional representation, currently two Labor, two Liberal and one Greens. Polling place statistics are shown to the right for the "Griffith" polling place at St Edmund's College in the 2016 federal and 2016 ACT elections.
History of the Australian Capital Territory
The completion of the central basin placed a waterway between Parliament House and the War Memorial and a landscaped boulevard was built along the land axis. A new National Library was constructed within the Parliamentary Triangle, followed by the High Court of Australia, the National Gallery and finally a new Parliament House in 1988. In 2001, the National Museum was built on the former lakeside site of the Royal Canberra Hospital.
Parliaments of the Australian states and territories
In the external territory of Norfolk Island located in the South Pacific Ocean, the local legislative body is the Norfolk Island Regional Council, established in 2016. The island was previously governed by a Norfolk Legislative Assembly. Formed after the Norfolk Island Act 1979 was passed in the Australian parliament, its first members were elected on the tenth of August 1979. The assembly consisted of 9 members elected every three years by popular vote. It was abolished in June 2015 as part of a reorganisation of the territory's government by the Parliament of Australia.
Western Australian Legislative Assembly
The Western Australian Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Western Australia, an Australian state. The Parliament sits in Parliament House in the Western Australian capital, Perth.
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia.
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.
The Big Picture (painting)
On 1 January 1901, after years of debate, the various colonies in Australia joined in a federation. While the new Constitution of Australia called for a new capital to be constructed, away from the major cities, until that time Melbourne would act as the seat of government of the new nation. Elections were held for the first Parliament of Australia and on 9 May 1901, the new parliament was sworn in at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.
Parliament House, Sydney
The Parliament House in Sydney is a complex of buildings housing the Parliament of the state of New South Wales, Australia. The building is located on the east side of Macquarie Street in Sydney, the state capital. The façade consists of a two-storey Georgian building, the oldest public building in the City of Sydney, flanked by two Neo-gothic additions containing the parliamentary chambers. These buildings are linked to a 1970s 12-storey block at the rear, facing onto the Domain. It is also known as Parliament House, Parliament of New South Wales, Parliamentary Precincts and Rum Hospital.
Parliament of Australia
The New Parliament House was finally opened by Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia on 1988, the anniversary of the opening of both the first Federal Parliament in Melbourne on 1901, and of the Provisional Parliament House in Canberra on 1927.
Yarralumla, Australian Capital Territory
Although Yarralumla is one of the largest suburbs in Canberra by area, its population remains quite small because more than half of its area consists of open space or non-residential development, including Weston and Stirling Parks, the Royal Canberra Golf Club, and the grounds of Government House. A relatively high proportion of houses are occupied by diplomatic missions.
The embassy area of Yarralumla is located towards the eastern end of the suburb next to Stirling Park. It is the hilliest area of Yarralumla; Parliament House and the Parliamentary Triangle are located nearby.
Tasmanian House of Assembly
The House of Assembly, or Lower House, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council or Upper House. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Hobart.
Parliament of Queensland
The Parliament of Queensland is the legislature of Queensland, Australia. According to the state's constitution, the Parliament consists of the Queen and the Legislative Assembly. It is the only unicameral state parliament in the country. The upper chamber, the Legislative Council, was abolished in 1922. The Legislative Assembly sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Brisbane.
Parliament railway station
The station services Melbourne's government district, and is underneath the Parliament House of Victoria and the intersection of Bourke and Spring Streets, at the eastern end of the CBD.
Commonwealth Parliament Offices, Sydney
The former Commonwealth Parliament Offices in Sydney were located at Charterbridge House, 56-70 Phillip Street, Sydney, only one block from Circular Quay and across the road from the Museum of Sydney which is the site of the first Government House in Sydney. They were host to various international leaders During APEC Australia 2007 in September 2007, with visiting heads of state including President of the United States George W. Bush, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, President of the People's Republic of China Hu Jintao and the Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe. The Sydney Office of the Prime Minister of Australia John Howard was situated on the 9th floor of the building.
Austrian Parliament
Both houses of Parliament, as well as the Federal Assembly, convene in the Parliament building located on Vienna's Ringstraße.
Father of the Australian Parliament
The first parliament was elected in March 1901. The election was held on Friday 29 March in South Australia and Tasmania, and on Saturday 30 March in the other states. Despite that slight variation in the election date, all of those elected to the first Parliament were considered to have had equal seniority. It follows that there could not be a "longest-serving parliamentarian" until only one member or Senator from the first Parliament was still serving. That occurred on 30 June 1938 with the retirement of Senator Sir George Pearce, leaving Billy Hughes as the first Father of the Parliament.
Parliament House, Canberra
In 1901, when the six British colonies in Australia federated to form the Commonwealth of Australia, Melbourne and Sydney were the two largest cities in the country, but the long history of rivalry between them meant that neither could become the national capital. Section 125 of the Constitution of Australia therefore provided that:
The seat of Government of the Commonwealth shall be determined by the Parliament, and shall be within territory which shall have been granted to or acquired by the Commonwealth, and shall be vested in and belong to the Commonwealth, and shall be in the State of New South Wales, and be distant not less than one hundred miles from Sydney.
Adelaide Avenue
The road connects Yarralumla with the Parliament House area. Adelaide Avenue is a popular tourist route, since Parliament house, the residence of the Australian Prime Minister, and the Royal Australian Mint, can be seen from it.
History of the Australian Capital Territory
Parliament moved to Canberra in 1927, although government offices were slow to follow. The growth of Canberra and the ACT was slow, with potential residents discouraged by the cold climate and lack of facilities. Development accelerated after World War II, championed by Prime Minister Robert Menzies who regarded the state of the capital as an embarrassment. The National Capital Development Commission was created in 1957 with more power than its predecessors. It ended four decades of disputes over the shape and design of Lake Burley Griffin, the centrepiece of Canberra, with construction completed in 1964. This prompted the development of the Parliamentary Triangle, a core part of Griffin's design, and followed various buildings of national importance were constructed on the lakefront. On average, the population of Canberra increased by more than 50% every five years between 1955 and 1975. More residential land was released through the creation of new town centres in the 1960s and 1970s.
Victorian Legislative Council
The Victorian Legislative Council (VLC) is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia; the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative Council serves as a house of review, in a similar fashion to its federal counterpart, the Australian Senate. Although it is possible for legislation to be first introduced in the Council, most bills receive their first hearing in the Legislative Assembly.
High Court of Australia
Construction began in April 1975 on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin, in the Parliamentary Triangle. The site is just to the east of the axis running between Capital Hill and the Australian War Memorial. The High Court building houses three courtrooms, Justices' chambers, and the Court's main registry, library, and corporate services facilities. It is an unusual and distinctive structure, built in the brutalist style, and features an immense public atrium with a 24-metre-high roof. The neighbouring National Gallery was also designed by the firm of Edwards Madigan Torzillo and Briggs. There are similarities between the two buildings in material and style but significant differences in architectural form and spatial concept. The building was completed in 1980 and the majority of the court's sittings have been held in Canberra since then.
Parliament House, Canberra
Such territory shall contain an area of not less than one hundred square miles, and such portion thereof as shall consist of Crown lands shall be granted to the Commonwealth without any payment therefor. The Parliament shall sit at Melbourne until it meet at the seat of Government.
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.
Duck Ponds, South Australia
Duck Ponds is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located on the Eyre Peninsula in the state’s west about west of the state capital of Adelaide, about south of the municipal seat of Cummins and about west of the city of Port Lincoln.
Barton Government
The first Parliament was opened on 9 May 1901. Shortly before her death in January 1901, Queen Victoria had designated her grandson, the Duke of Cornwall and York (later King George V) to preside over the opening of the first Parliament of Australia. The ceremony took place with much British pomp and circumstance in Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building on 9 May 1901 and Parliament was to sit at Victoria's Parliament House, Melbourne for some 26 years, while a suitable site for a federal capital was established.
Parliament House, Canberra
Federal Parliament meetings were held in Melbourne until 1927. Between 1927 and 1988, the Parliament of Australia met in the Provisional Parliament House, which is now known as "Old Parliament House". Construction of Australia's permanent Parliament House was delayed while its location was debated. Construction of the new building began in 1981. The principal design of the structure is based on the shape of two boomerangs and is topped by an flagpole. 
Parliament House contains 4,700 rooms, and many areas are open to the public. The main foyer contains a marble staircase and leads to the Great Hall, which has a large tapestry on display. The House of Representatives chamber is decorated green, while the Senate chamber has a red colour scheme. Between the two chambers is the Members' Hall, which has a water feature and is not open to the public. The Ministerial Wing houses the office of the prime minister and other ministers.
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.
Parliaments of the Australian states and territories
The Parliaments of the Australian states and territories are legislative bodies within the federal framework of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Sky News Extra
Sky News Extra content features live broadcasts from Australia's Parliament House in Canberra (including sittings of the House of Representatives, the Senate, parliamentary Committee meetings and political press conferences), the parliaments of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland as well as sittings of the United States Congress, live broadcasts of speeches from the Australian National Press Club and a program which provides coverage of the New Zealand and British parliaments. Material from the United Nations and the European Parliament is also aired.
Constitution of Australia
Chapter I sets up the legislative branch of government, the Parliament of Australia, which consists of three constituent parts: The Sovereign (King or Queen), who is represented by the Governor-General of Australia; the Senate; and the House of Representatives. Section 1 provides that legislative power is vested in this Parliament, which has paramount power of governance.
Ballarat
In state politics, Ballarat is located in the Legislative Assembly districts of Buninyong and Wendouree, with both of these seats currently held by the Australian Labor Party. In federal politics, Ballarat is located in a single House of Representatives division—the Division of Ballarat. The Division of Ballarat has been a safe Australian Labor Party seat since 2001, and was the seat of the second Prime Minister of Australia, Alfred Deakin.
Capital Hill, Australian Capital Territory
In fact, in the 1958 and 1964 Holford plans for the Parliamentary Triangle, the site for the New Parliament House was moved to the lake shore, partly for this reason. Holford also reportedly said that a lakeside site would discourage politicians from seeing themselves as superior to ordinary people.
New South Wales Legislative Council
The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. It is normal for legislation to be first deliberated on and passed by the Legislative Assembly before being considered by the Legislative Council, which acts in the main as a house of review.
Acton, Australian Capital Territory
Acton (postcode: 2601) is a suburb of Canberra, ACT, Australia. Acton covers an area west of the CBD, bordered by Black Mountain to the west and Lake Burley Griffin in the south. The Australian National University campus covers most of the suburb, though also located in Acton is the National Film and Sound Archive, a branch of the CSIRO and the National Museum of Australia.
Old Parliament House, Canberra
Old Parliament House is at the base of Capital Hill at the centre of the Parliamentary Triangle, which itself forms the heart of Walter Burley Griffin's design for Canberra—an open vista of Lake Burley Griffin, Anzac Parade, the Australian War Memorial and Mount Ainslie beyond.
Yarralumla, Australian Capital Territory
Yarralumla is located within the federal electorate of Canberra, which is currently (2016) represented by Gai Brodtmann in the House of Representatives. In the ACT Legislative Assembly, Yarralumla is part of the electorate of Kurrajong, which elects five members on the basis of proportional representation, currently two Labor, two Liberal and one Greens. Polling place statistics are shown to the right for the "Yarralumla" polling place at Yarralumla Primary School in the 2016 federal and 2016 ACT elections.
History of Melbourne
Melbourne's status as Australia's largest city lasted long enough, however, for it to become the seat of government of the new Commonwealth of Australia when the six colonies federated in 1901. Parliament House in Spring St was lent to the Parliament of Australia, while Victoria's Parliament found temporary accommodation in the Royal Exhibition Building.
History of the Australian Capital Territory
The new Parliament met in 1904 and reached a compromise, choosing Dalgety, which, like Bombala, was located in the Monaro region. Thus, with the passage of the "Seat of Government Act 1904", it appeared that the matter had been settled. However, while the Federal Parliament supported Dalgety, the New South Wales government did not, and they proved unwilling to cede the amount of territory the Federal Government demanded.
Finally, in 1906, New South Wales agreed to cede sufficient land, but on the condition that it was in the Yass-Canberra region, this site being closer to Sydney. Following a tour of the region by several Senators and Members of the Commonwealth Parliament, in 1908 a new ballot was called in the Federal Parliament with eleven sites nominated. Initially, Dalgety remained at the forefront, but by the eighth round Yass-Canberra had emerged as a new leader, and the site was confirmed in the ninth round of voting. Thus was passed the new "Seat of Government Act 1908", which repealed the 1904 Act and specified a capital in the Yass-Canberra region.
Parliament of Tasmania
The Parliament of Tasmania is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Tasmania. It follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system and consists of the Governor of Tasmania, the Tasmanian House of Assembly (the lower house), and Tasmanian Legislative Council (the upper house). Since 1841, both Houses have met in Parliament House, Hobart. The Parliament of Tasmania first met in 1856.
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Commonly known as the Houses of Parliament after its occupants, the Palace lies on the north bank of the River Thames in the City of Westminster, in central London, England.
Parliament House, Canberra
In the meantime the Australian Parliament met in the 19th-century edifice of Parliament House, Melbourne, while the Victorian State Parliament met in the nearby Royal Exhibition Building for 26 years.
West Perth, Western Australia
Parliament House is located overlooking St Georges Terrace and Mitchell Freeway, and is at the centre of the Parliament precinct. Also in the precinct is Dumas House, the original Perth Observatory, the second location of Hale School, Solidarity Park, Edith Dircksey Cowan Memorial, and the Constitutional Centre of Western Australia.
Hung parliament
Hung parliaments are rather more common at a state level. The Tasmanian House of Assembly and the unicameral Parliament of the Australian Capital Territory are both elected by Hare-Clark proportional representation, thus, elections commonly return hung parliaments. In other states and territories, candidates contest single-member seats. With far fewer seats than federal parliament, hung parliaments are more likely to be elected. Recent examples include New South Wales in 1991, Queensland in 1998 and 2015, Victoria in 1999, South Australia in 1997 and 2002, Western Australia in 2008, the Australian Capital Territory in 2008, and Tasmania in 2010.
High Court of Australia
The High Court has had a permanent home in Canberra since 1979. The majority of its sittings are held in the High Court building, which is situated in the Parliamentary Triangle overlooking Lake Burley Griffin. With an increasing utilisation of video links, sittings are also often held in the state capitals.
Parliament House, Sydney
Many events of historical significance have occurred within the parliamentary precincts of New South Wales. The Parliament of New South Wales was the first legislature to be established in Australia and it was integral in the push for responsible self-government in 1856. The Parliament of New South Wales also played a significant role in the move to Federation by holding two conventions on the issue of federation and the drafting of the Australian Constitution in the 1890s.
1996 Parliament House riot
The 1996 Parliament House riot (also called the Canberra riot) involved a physical attack on Parliament House, Canberra, Australia, on 19 August 1996, when protesters broke away from the "Cavalcade to Canberra" rally organised by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and sought to force their way into the national Parliament of Australia, causing property damage and attacking police.
Parliament House, Melbourne
The building is located on Spring Street in East Melbourne, Victoria. Construction began in 1855, and the building was officially opened the following year; however, it was not totally completed until 1929. Beginning in 1901, it served as the meeting place of the Parliament of Australia, during the period when Melbourne was the temporary national capital. The federal parliament moved to Parliament House, Canberra, in 1927, allowing the Victorian state parliament to return to the building.
Legislative assembly
The lower houses of the parliaments of the Australian states of New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia are called the "legislative assembly". In contrast, the state of Queensland has abolished the former upper house of its parliament, leaving the legislative assembly as the sole chamber. The sole house of parliament in the Australian Capital Territory is the legislative assembly.
Waramanga, Australian Capital Territory
Waramanga is located in the federal House of Representatives electorate of Canberra. Covering the southside of Canberra and southern ACT, the electorate of Canberra is currently represented by Gai Brodtmann of the Australian Labor Party. The two federal electorates in the ACT are safe or fairly safe ALP seats.
Parliaments of the Australian states and territories
The Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, by contrast, are territories of the Commonwealth, and their parliaments were created by way of legislation of the Commonwealth Parliament. Although the Commonwealth treats the territories as though they were states for many purposes, they are not states, and the legislative powers of their parliaments can be altered or even abolished by the Commonwealth Parliament. The Commonwealth can also overturn legislation passed by the territory parliaments.
Joint meetings of the Australian Parliament
On 9 May 2001, the Parliament met in a special joint sitting at the site of the 1st Parliament, the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne, to commemorate the Centenary of that event specifically, and the Centenary of Federation more generally. The joint sitting was addressed by the Governor-General, Sir William Deane.
Capital Circle
Capital Circle is a circular road surrounding Capital Hill in the centre of Canberra, Australia's capital city. It is one of three concentric roads on the hill, with State Circle the outermost and Parliament Drive the innermost. There are no buildings on Capital Circle. Parliament Drive surrounds New Parliament House.
Acton Peninsula
The Acton Peninsula is located on the northern shore of Lake Burley Griffin, in the centre of Canberra, the capital of Australia.
Parliament House, Sydney
The north wing was requisitioned and converted to accommodate the first NSW Parliament House in 1829 because it was the largest public building in New South Wales at that time. Housing the Colonial Representative Government it was the first Parliament in Australia. Aside from its significance as the legislative arm of government in New South Wales, Parliament House has played a key role in the history of Australia as two important conventions were held to look at the issues of Federation of the colonies and the drafting of the Australian Constitution. Parliament House is significant for its association with important social and political figures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Parliamentary Triangle, Canberra
The National Triangle, which is referred to as the Parliamentary Triangle, is the ceremonial precinct of Canberra, containing some of Australia's most significant buildings. The National Triangle is formed by Commonwealth, Kings and Constitution Avenues. Buildings within the National Triangle have been located and designed intentionally for visual effect, and those of national significance are popular tourist attractions.
Government of Australia
The cabinet meets not only in Canberra but also in state capitals, most frequently Sydney and Melbourne. Kevin Rudd was in favour of the Cabinet meeting in other places, such as major regional cities. There are Commonwealth Parliament Offices in each State Capital, with those in Sydney located in Phillip Street.
National Tally Room
The tally room was set up in the Budawang Building at Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC) in the northern suburbs of Canberra, the national capital city of Australia. A former venue, in the late 1970s, was the then newly built hall at Belconnen High School, a high school in the Canberra district of Belconnen. At the 1996 federal election the Australian Institute of Sport was used as a venue for the tally room.
Bicameralism
The bicameral Parliament of Australia consists of two Houses, the lower house is called the House of Representatives and the upper house is named the Senate. The lower house currently consists of 150 members, each elected from single member constituencies, known as electoral divisions (commonly referred to as "electorates" or "seats") using full-preference Instant-runoff voting. This tends to lead to the chamber being dominated by two major parties, the Liberal/National Coalition and the Labor Party. The government of the day must achieve the confidence of this House to gain and hold power.
Elections in Australia
The Parliament of Australia consists of two chambers, the House of Representatives (commonly also referred as the lower house) and the Senate (also referred as the upper house). The House of Representatives has 150 members, elected for a maximum term of three years in single-member constituencies (each approximately equal in voters). Elections are conducted by a system of preferential voting (specifically, the alternative vote).
Palace of Westminster
The Chamber of the House of Commons is at the northern end of the Palace of Westminster; it was opened in 1950 after the Victorian chamber had been destroyed in 1941 and re-built under the architect Giles Gilbert Scott. The Chamber measures and is plainer in style than the Lords Chamber; the benches, as well as other furnishings in the Commons side of the Palace, are coloured green. Members of the public are forbidden to sit on the benches. Other parliaments in Commonwealth nations, including those of India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have copied the colour scheme under which the Lower House is associated with green, and the Upper House with red.
At the north end of the Chamber is the Speaker's Chair, a present to Parliament from the Commonwealth of Australia. The current British Speaker's Chair is an exact copy of the Speaker's Chair given to Australia, by the House of Commons, to celebrate the opening of Old Parliament House, Canberra. In front of the Speaker's Chair is the Table of the House, at which the clerks sit, and on which is placed the Commons' ceremonial mace. The Table was a gift from Canada. The dispatch boxes, which front-bench Members of Parliament (MPs) often lean on or rest notes on during Questions and speeches, are a gift from New Zealand. There are green benches on either side of the House; members of the Government party occupy benches on the Speaker's right, while those of the Opposition occupy benches on the Speaker's left. There are no cross-benches as in the House of Lords. The Chamber is relatively small, and can accommodate only 427 of the 650 Members of Parliament—during Prime Minister's Questions and in major debates MPs stand at either end of the House.
Perth
Perth houses the Parliament of Western Australia and the Governor of Western Australia. , 42 of the Legislative Assembly's 59 seats and 18 of the Legislative Council's 36 seats are based in Perth's metropolitan area. Perth is represented by 9 full seats and significant parts of three others in the Federal House of Representatives, with the seats of Canning, Pearce and Brand including some areas outside the metropolitan area.
Old Parliament House, Canberra
Old Parliament House, known formerly as the Provisional Parliament House, was the seat of the Parliament of Australia from 1927 to 1988. The building began operation on 9 May 1927 after Parliament's relocation from Melbourne to the new capital, Canberra. In 1988, the Commonwealth Parliament transferred to the new Parliament House on Capital Hill. It also serves as a venue for temporary exhibitions, lectures and concerts.
Parliament of New South Wales
The Parliament of New South Wales, located in Parliament House on Macquarie Street, Sydney, is the main legislative body in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). It is a bicameral parliament elected by the people of the state in general elections. The parliament shares law making powers with the Australian Federal (or Commonwealth) Parliament. It is Australia's oldest legislature. The New South Wales Parliament follows the Westminster parliamentary traditions of dress, Green–Red chamber colours and protocol.
Australian Capital Territory
The area known as the Parliamentary Triangle is formed by three of Burley Griffin's axes, stretching from Capital Hill along Commonwealth Avenue to the Civic Centre around City Hill, along Constitution Avenue to the Defence precinct on Russell Hill, and along Kings Avenue back to Capital Hill.
History of monarchy in Australia
In 1927, Prince Albert (later George VI) visited Australia to open the first Parliament to sit in Parliament House, Canberra, the Australian capital.
Parliament House, Brisbane
Parliament House in Brisbane is the meeting place of the Parliament of Queensland, housing its only chamber, the Legislative Assembly. It is located on the corner of George Street and Alice Street at Gardens Point in the CBD, and is next to the Queensland University of Technology and City Botanic Gardens.
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT; known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938) is Australia's federal district, located in the south-east of the country and enclaved within the state of New South Wales. It contains Canberra, the capital city of Australia.
List of former national capitals
Note: Melbourne is sometimes said to have been the inaugural capital of Australia, from 1901 until 1927, when Parliament House, Canberra was opened. This is not so. Section 125 of the Constitution of Australia states that the seat of government is to be within the state of New South Wales but not less than 100 miles from Sydney, and that until that place (Canberra) was built, the Parliament of Australia would meet at Melbourne. That made Melbourne the "de facto" (but not "de jure") seat of government 1901-1927, but it did not amount to Melbourne being declared the capital, and it was never so described in contemporary documents.
Australian regional rivalries
There has been a long-standing rivalry between the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, the two largest cities in Australia. The rivalry between the cities was the reason that neither Sydney (the oldest and now largest city) nor Melbourne (the largest city at the time) was chosen as the capital of Australia when the nation was federated in 1901. Because of this disagreement, section 125 of the Australian Constitution specified that Melbourne would initially serve as the seat of government on a temporary basis, while the permanent capital of the new Commonwealth must be located within the area of New South Wales but at least 100 miles from Sydney. This city became Canberra. Melbourne operated as the "de facto" capital city from 1901 until 1927, when Canberra's historic Parliament House was opened, remaining in use until it was replaced with the current Parliament House in 1988. Various Commonwealth governmental bodies continued to operate principally from Sydney or Melbourne after 1927. Most civil service departments were moved to Canberra in the 1950s, and the High Court of Australia was finally moved from Melbourne to Canberra in 1980.
Gilmore, Australian Capital Territory
Gilmore is located within the federal electorate of Canberra, which is currently (2016) represented by Gai Brodtmann in the House of Representatives. In the ACT Legislative Assembly, Gilmore is part of the electorate of Brindabella, which elects five members on the basis of proportional representation, currently three Liberal and two Labor. Polling place statistics are shown to the right for the "Gilmore" polling place at Gilmore Primary School in the 2016 federal and 2016 ACT elections.
Australian Federal Police
Uniform protection officers providing an armed uniform capability are located at federal establishments including Parliament House in Canberra; the residences of the prime minister and governor-general; foreign embassies and consulates in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth; the Australian Nuclear Scientific Technology Organisation installation, Joint defence facilities such as the Australian Defence Force Headquarters in Canberra, Holsworthy Barracks, Garden Island Naval Base, Victoria Barracks, the Pine Gap US defence installation, and sensitive covert locations in Australia and internationally.
South Australian House of Assembly
The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.
William Holford, Baron Holford
One unfortunate legacy is the NCDC's acceptance of his recommendation that the proposed new Parliament House be built on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin, rather than on Capital Hill. In 1978 the Parliament of Australia decided that Parliament House would be built on Capital Hill as proposed by its original planner Walter Burley Griffin. The use of the area that the Parliament House was to occupy under the Holford plan has never been fully resolved.
Barton, Australian Capital Territory
Barton is located within the federal electorate of Canberra, which is currently (2016) represented by Gai Brodtmann in the House of Representatives. In the ACT Legislative Assembly, Barton is part of the electorate of Kurrajong, which elects five members on the basis of proportional representation, currently two Labor, two Liberal and one Greens. Polling place statistics are shown to the right for the "Barton" polling place at Telopea Park School in the 2016 federal and 2016 ACT elections.
Reid, Australian Capital Territory
Reid is located within the federal electorate of Canberra, which is currently (2016) represented by Gai Brodtmann in the House of Representatives. In the ACT Legislative Assembly, Reid is part of the electorate of Kurrajong, which elects five members on the basis of proportional representation, currently two Labor, two Liberal and one Greens. Polling place statistics are shown to the right for the "Braddon" polling place at the Ainslie School, Donaldson St in the 2016 federal and 2016 ACT elections.
Australian Capital Territory House of Assembly
Three years after the seat of government was established at Canberra and after the opening of the first Parliament House in 1927, an appointed Advisory Council was established to administer the capital. In 1974 this was replaced by a fully elected Legislative Assembly, advising the Department of the Capital Territory. In 1979 this became a House of Assembly of 18 elected members, which was dissolved in 1986. In 1978 a referendum on self-government was defeated, with 68 per cent of voters recording a No vote. The federal Labor government of Prime Minister Bob Hawke set up a Self-Government Task Force in 1986 to report on the government of the ACT.
Parliament House, Darwin
Parliament House in Darwin is Australia's newest Parliament Building, it has been the seat of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 1994. Parliament House is located on State Square in the centre of Darwin, which is also the administrative centre of the Northern Territory law and government. It features Post modern features. The Northern Territory Library is housed in Parliament House.Construction of Parliament House began in 1990, and the building was completed in 1994, and officially opened by the Governor-General of Australia, Bill Hayden on 18 August 1994. Before Parliament House the former Northern Territory Legislative Council established in 1948 was housed in various temporary buildings around Darwin. After 1974 the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly continued to operate on the same basis, and settled in buildings on the current location until 1990 when they were demolished to allow commencement of the construction of Parliament House. From 1990 to the end of 1994, the Assembly temporarily met in the Chan Building.
Parliament House, Adelaide
Parliament House, on the corner of North Terrace and King William Road in the Adelaide city centre, is the seat of the Parliament of South Australia. It was built to replace the adjacent and overcrowded Parliament House, now referred to as "Old Parliament House". Due to financial constraints, the current Parliament House was constructed in stages over 65 years from 1874 to 1939.
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.
District of Columbia voting rights
In the Parliament of Australia, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has seats in both the House of Representatives and Senate, although it was not until 1974 that residents of the ACT were able to vote for the latter. Unlike a state, which elects twelve Senators, the ACT only elects two.
Division of Canberra (Australian Capital Territory House of Assembly)
The division of Canberra was one of the two electorates of the unicameral Australian Capital Territory House of Assembly. It elected 9 members in 1975 and 1979, and 10 members in 1982.
It was named for the city of Canberra, Australia's national capital, and included the districts of Tuggeranong, Weston Creek and Woden Valley, along with the rest of the ACT south of the Molonglo River and Lake Burley Griffin.
National Rose Garden
The National Rose Gardens are located in Parkes Canberra, Australia, at the sides of Old Parliament House at the side of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
New Zealand Parliament
The House of Representatives has met in the Parliament Buildings located in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, since 1865. It normally consists of 120 members of Parliament (MPs), though sometimes more due to overhang seats. There are 71 MPs elected directly in electorate seats and the remainder are filled by list MPs based on each party's share of the total party vote. Māori were represented in Parliament from 1867, and in 1893 women gained the vote. New Zealand does not allow sentenced prisoners to vote. Although elections can be called early, each three years the House is dissolved and goes up for reelection.
Parliament of Australia
Construction began in 1981, and the House was intended to be ready by Australia Day, 1988, the 200th anniversary of European settlement in Australia. It was expected to cost . Neither the deadline nor the budget was met. In the end it cost more than A$1.1 billion to build.
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.)
Legislative Assembly Building, Canberra
The ACT Legislative Assembly Building, also known as the South Building, is located on the southern side of Civic Square, London Circuit, Civic in the Australian Capital Territory.