Australian Senate

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Australian Senate
Australian Senate
National coat of arms Senate meeting room
logo Senate meeting room
Basic data
Seat: Parliament House ,
Canberra
Legislative period : 6 years
MPs: 76
Current legislative period
Last choice: May 18, 2019
Chair: President
Scott Ryan ( Liberal )
Composition of the Australian Senate
Distribution of seats: Government (35)
  • Liberal 30
  • Liberal 26
  • LNP 4
  • Nationals 5
  • Nationals 2
  • LNP 2
  • CLP 1
    • Opposition (26)
  • ALP 26
    • Cross Banker (15)
  • Greens 9
  • CA 2
  • One Nation 2
  • JLN 1
  • Independent 1
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    Website
    Senates
    Entrance to the Senate

    The Senate is the upper house of the Australian Parliament in the country's bicameral system . The sessions will take place at Parliament House in Canberra .

    Origin and role of the Senate

    The Senate was created by the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act of 1900, the constitution of Australia , as part of the Dominion state system of the then newly founded Australian Confederation . Unlike in other Westminster systems , the House of Lords in Australia plays a very active role. The Senate was designed less on the model of the British House of Lords , but more like the Senate of the United States , since every state is equally represented here .

    The Prime Minister will always be a member of the Australian House of Representatives , but members of both chambers can be appointed as ministers. In addition, the balance of power between the two houses with regard to the legislature is almost balanced. As in many other two-chamber systems, the House of Lords cannot bring appropriation bills into parliament and is also not allowed to introduce new taxes. These rights are reserved to the House of Commons.

    This balance between the two chambers has various causes. On the one hand, it goes back to the time the constitution was drawn up, as the conflict between the two houses in 1909, which eventually restricted the powers of the House of Lords, was still in the future. On the other hand, the strong role of the Senate expressed the desire of the authors of the constitution that it could stabilize the system. In addition, the smaller states were interested in a strong Senate, as they feared that the interests of the larger states would otherwise dominate too much.

    In practice, laws are usually introduced into parliament by the government, which can rely on a majority in the lower house. The Senate then has the option of approving or rejecting the law. In most cases, the MPs vote according to the positions of their parties ( faction discipline ).

    Since smaller states are over-represented in the Senate, the Senate is by necessity a relatively unrepresentative body. Tasmania , with a population of half a million people, has as many senators as New South Wales , which is home to over seven million people.

    In contrast to the House of Representatives, which is essentially dominated by two parties, the Senate is relatively pluralistic. This is because the Senate is elected on a proportional basis in all states .

    size

    Over time, the size of the Senate has changed. The Australian federal constitution stipulates that the number of senators should be half as large as the number of representatives in the House of Representatives. Consequently, an enlargement of the House of Representatives, which has been carried out repeatedly in the past, usually also entails an enlargement of the Senate. The six states are currently represented with twelve senators and the two territories with two senators each. The senators of the Northern Territory also represent the voters of the Indian Ocean Territories ( Christmas Island and Cocos Islands ) and the senators of the Australian Capital Territory also the voters of the Jervis Bay Territory .

    Thanks to the transferable system of preferences, even small parties with very few initial votes can move into the Senate if they make enough arrangements to transfer preferences with other small parties. In 2013 the Australian Sports Party was given a seat in Western Australia, although it only managed to collect 0.2% of the first preferences.

    Parties in the Australian Senate

    The following parties are currently represented in the Senate:

    In addition, the Jacqui Lambie Network is represented by a member of the Senate. Cory Bernardi is an Independent Senator after the Australian Conservatives dissolved on June 25, 2019.

    The Liberal Democratic Party , Australian Conservatives , United Australia Party , Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party , Derryn Hinch's Justice Party , Australian Democrats , Family First Party , Liberal Movement , and the Nuclear Disarmament Party have also held Senate seats in the past . Usually, it is very difficult for an independent candidate to get elected to the Senate because they have to campaign for votes throughout their state. More recently, Brian Harradine (1975 to 2005) and Nick Xenophon (2008 to 2017) succeeded in doing this .

    See also

    literature

    • Jonathan Buhl: The Australian Senate: ´The Watchdog`. In: Sven Leunig (Ed.): Handbook of Federal Second Chambers. Opladen, Farmington Hills, MI 2009, ISBN 978-3-86649-238-7 , pp. 42-51.
    • Christoph M. Haas: Australia's Senate in the 'Washminster' system. In: Gisela Riescher, Sabine Russ, Christoph M. Haas (eds.): Second chambers . 1st edition. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich / Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-486-25089-2 . Pp. 60-75.
    • John PM: Generating Divided Government: The Australian Senate. In: Samuel C. Patterson, Anthony Mughan (Eds.) : Senates: Bicameralism in Contemporary World. Columbus 1999, pp. 93-119.

    Web links

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ http://www.abc.net.au/news/federal-election-2013/results/senate/wa/