Australian Senate
| Australian Senate | ||||
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| Type | Upper house | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| President | Alan Ferguson, Liberal since 14 August, 2007 |
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| Members | 76 | |||
| Political groups | Coalition (39) ALP (28) Green (4) Democratic (4) FFP (1) |
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| Last elections | 9 October 2004 | |||
| Meeting place | Parliament House, Canberra, ACT | |||
| Web site | Senate | |||
| Australia | |
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The Senate is the upper of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia. The lower house is known as the House of Representatives.
Origins and role
The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act of 1900 established the Senate as part of the new system of dominion government in newly-federated Australia. From a comparative governmental perspective, the Australian Senate exhibits distinctive characteristics, in that unlike upper houses in other Westminster system governments, the Senate is not a vestigial body with limited legislative power, but rather it was intended to play, and does play, an active role in legislation. Rather than being modelled after the House of Lords, as the Canadian Senate was, the Australian Senate was in part modelled after the United States Senate, by giving equal representation to each state. The Constitution intended to give less populous states added voice in a Federal legislature, while also providing for the revising role of an upper house in the Westminster system.
Although the Prime Minister, by convention, serves as a member of the House of Representatives, other ministers may come from either house, and the two houses have almost equal legislative power. As with most upper chambers in bicameral parliaments, the Senate cannot introduce Appropriation Bills (bills that authorise government expenditure of public revenue) or impose taxation, that role being reserved for the lower chamber. That degree of equality between the Australian Senate and House of Representatives is in part due to the age of the Australian constitution - it was enacted before the confrontation in 1909 in Britain between the House of Commons and the House of Lords, which ultimately resulted in the restrictions placed on the powers of the House of Lords by the Parliament Act - but also reflected the desire of the Constitution's authors to have the upper house act as a 'stabilising' influence on the expression of popular democracy (much as the colonial Legislative Councils functioned as at the time). The smaller states also desired strong powers for the Senate as a way of ensuring that the interests of more populous states as represented in the House of Representatives did not totally dominate the government.
In practice, however, most legislation (except for "Private Member's Bills") in the Australian Parliament is initiated by the Government, which has control over the lower house. It is then passed to the Senate, which may amend the bill or refuse to pass it. In the majority of cases, voting takes place along party lines, although there are occasional conscience votes.
Where the houses disagree
There are detailed conventions and rules regarding situations in which the Senate and the House of Representatives disagree. If the Senate repeatedly refuses to pass legislation initiated in the lower house, the Government may either abandon the bill, continue to revise it, or call a double dissolution (election for both houses of Parliament) and attempt to pass the bill at a subsequent joint sitting of the two houses.
On 8 October 2003, the Prime Minister John Howard initiated public discussion of whether the mechanism for the resolution of deadlocks between the houses should be reformed. High levels of support for the existing mechanism, and a very low level of public interest in that discussion, resulted in the abandonment of these proposals.[1]
Blocking Supply
The constitutional text denies the Senate the power to originate or amend appropriation bills, in deference to the conventions of the classical Westminster system, under which the executive government is responsible for its use of public funds to the lower house, which has the power to bring down a government by blocking its access to Supply - i.e. revenue appropriated through taxation. The arrangement as expressed in the Australian Constitution, however, still leaves the Senate with the power to reject supply bills or defer their passage - undoubtedly one of the Senate's most contentious and most powerful abilities.
The ability to block Supply was the origin of Australia's most significant constitutional crisis, that of 1975. The Opposition used its numbers in the Senate to defer supply bills, refusing to deal with them until an election was called for both Houses of Parliament, an election which it hoped to win. The Prime Minister of the day, Gough Whitlam, contested the legitimacy of the blocking and refused to resign. The crisis brought to a head two Westminster conventions that, under the Australian constitutional system, were in conflict - firstly, that a government may continue to govern for as long as it has the support of the lower house, and secondly, that a government that no longer has access to Supply must either resign or be dismissed. The crisis was resolved in November 1975 when Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed Whitlam's government and appointed a caretaker government on condition that elections for both houses of parliament be held. This action in itself was a source of controversy and debate continues on the proper usage of the Senate's ability to block Supply and on whether such a power should even exist.
The membership of the Senate
Under the Constitution, the Senate must:
- be comprised of an equal number of Senators from each original state;
- have at least six Senators per state;
- contain a total number of Senators that is as close as possible to half the number of members of the House of Representatives; and
- ensure any laws governing the election of Senators is non-discriminatory among states.
These conditions have periodically been the source of debate, and within these conditions, the composition and rules of the Senate have varied significantly since federation.
Voting system
The voting system for the Senate has changed twice since it was created. The original arrangement involved a first past the post block voting mechanism. In 1919 preferential block voting came in. Block voting tended to grant landslide majorities and even "wipe-outs" very easily. In 1946, the Australian Labor Party government won 33 out of the 36 Senate seats. In 1948, partially in response to this extreme situation, proportional representation became the method for electing the Senate.
Senate Ballot Paper
The Australian Senate voting paper under the single transferable vote system resembles this example, which shows the candidates for Tasmanian senate representation in the 2004 federal election.
| Senate election - Tasmania | |||||||||
| A [_] Liberal |
B [_] CEC |
C [_] Democrats |
D [_] Family First |
E [_] CDP |
F [_] Ind. |
G [_] |
H [_] Greens |
I [_] ALP |
Ungrouped |
| [_] Abetz E [_] Barnett G [_] Parry S |
[_] Larner R [_] Watts A |
[_] Onsman Y [_] Cass S |
[_] Petrusma J [_] Bergman L [_] Smith L |
[_] Mitchell D [_] Fracalossi M |
[_] Murphy S |
[_] Martin S [_] Newman J |
[_] Milne C [_] Cassidy K [_] Millen T |
[_] O'Brien K [_] Polley H [_] Price D [_] Wells N |
[_] Newitt R [_] Gargan E [_] Ottavi D [_] McDonald J |
Electors must either:
- Vote for an individual party by writing the number "1" in a single box above the line - this means the elector wants their preferences distributed according to a party's or group's officially registered ticket.
- Vote for all candidates by writing the numbers 1, 2, 3, through to the last number (in this example, 26) in all the individual boxes below the line.
Because each state elects 6 senators at each half-senate election, the quota for election is only 14.3% (33.3% for territories). As a result, some states have upwards of 70 candidates on their ballot papers, and the voter must individually number every single candidate for a "below the line" vote to count. As a result the "above the line" system was implemented. Over 95% of electors vote "above the line".
Note that the ungrouped candidates in the far right column do not have a box above the line. Therefore they can only get a primary (number 1) vote from electors who vote below the line. For this reason, some independents register as a group, either with other independents or by themselves, such as groups F and G in the above example.
Size
The size of the Senate has changed over the years. The Australian Constitution requires that the number of Senators approximate as nearly as possible to half of the number of members of the House of Representatives, and it has therefore grown periodically. The Constitution originally provided for six Senators for each state, and thus a total of 36 senators. This was increased to ten Senators per state (and a total of 60) in 1948. In 1975, the two territories, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, elected 2 Senators each for the first time, bringing the number to 64. The last expansion took place in 1984, under which the number of senators from each state increased from 10 to 12, and the entire Senate to 76.[2] The Senators from the Northern Territory also represent constituents from Australia's Indian Ocean Territories (Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands), while the Senators from the Australian Capital Territory also represent voters from the Jervis Bay Territory.
Normally, half of the Senate is contested at each election, for terms of up to six years, but during a double dissolution, every seat faces re-election. Senators from the territories only serve half-terms, and must stand for re-election every three years. Unlike the House of Representatives, Senators serve fixed terms which expire on the 30th of June every three years. Thus, while the voters elect Senators at the same time as lower house members, such Senators' term of office does not begin until the 1st of July following their election. As a result, the new Parliament will often sit for some time with the old, lame-duck Senate.
The "Unrepresentative" House
As a body intended to provide greater representation to smaller states, the Senate (like many upper houses) is necessarily relatively unrepresentative; Tasmania, with a population of 450,000, elects the same number of Senators as New South Wales, which has a population of 6 million. On November 4, 1992, Prime Minister Paul Keating called it an "unrepresentative swill".[3] But the proportional election system within each state ensures that Senate incorporates much more political diversity than the lower house, which is basically a two party body. Consequently, the Senate frequently functions as a house of review, intended not to match party political strength in the lower chamber but to bring in different people, in terms of geography, age and interests, who can contribute in a less politicised manner to the process of legislative enactment.
Parties in the Australian Senate
Parties which currently have representation in the Senate:
- Australian Democrats
- Australian Greens
- Australian Labor Party
- Family First Party
- Liberal Party of Australia
- National Party of Australia
- Country Liberal Party
Parties which have held Senate seats in the past include the Democratic Labor Party, Liberal Movement, One Nation and the Nuclear Disarmament Party.
Due to the need to obtain votes state-wide, independent candidates have difficulty getting elected. The one exception in recent times was the Tasmanian Brian Harradine.
The Australian Senate serves as a model for some politicians in Canada, particularly in the Western provinces, who wish to reform the Canadian Senate to take a more active legislative role.
See also: Australian House of Representatives, List of longest-serving members of the Australian Senate
Latest result
Summary of the 9 October 2004 Parliament of Australia election results |- !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left| !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left valign=top|Parties !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Primary Votes House !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|% House !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Seats House !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Votes Senate !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|% Senate !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Seats Won Senate !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Total Seats Senate |- |bgcolor="#080C6B"| |align=left| Liberal Party of Australia |align="right" |4,741,458 |align="right" |40.5 |align="right" |74 |align="right" |2,109,978 |align="right" |17.7 |align="right" |13 |align="right" |33 |- |bgcolor="green"| |align=left|National Party of Australia |align="right" |690,275 |align="right" |5.9 |align="right" |12 |align="right" |163,261 |align="right" |1.4 |align="right" |1 |align="right" |5 |- | |align=left|Liberal/National Party senate ticket (NSW and Vic) |align="right" |- |align="right" |- |align="right" |- |align="right" |3,074,952 |align="right" |25.7 |align="right" |6 |align="right" |* |- |bgcolor="#080C6B"| |align=left|Country Liberal Party |align="right" |39,855 |align="right" |0.3 |align="right" |1 |align="right" |41,923 |align="right" |0.4 |align="right" |1 |align="right" |1 |- |bgcolor="#E70021"| |align=left|Australian Labor Party |align="right" |4,409,117 |align="right" |37.6 |align="right" |60 |align="right" |4,186,715 |align="right" |35.0 |align="right" |16 |align="right" |28 |- |bgcolor="#10a26b"| |align=left|Australian Greens |align="right" |841,734 |align="right" |7.2 |align="right" |- |align="right" |916,431 |align="right" |7.7 |align="right" |2 |align="right" |4 |- |bgcolor="#598dbc"| |align=left| Family First Party |align="right" |235,315 |align="right" |2.0 |align="right" |- |align="right" |210,567 |align="right" |1.8 |align="right" |1 |align="right" |1 |- |bgcolor="F4940D"| |align=left| Australian Democrats |align="right" |144,832 |align="right" |1.2 |align="right" |- |align="right" |250,373 |align="right" |2.1 |align="right" |- |align="right" |4 |- |bgcolor="#F8F16F"| |align=left| One Nation Party |align="right" |139,956 |align="right" |1.2 |align="right" |- |align="right" |206,455 |align="right" |1.7 |align="right" |- |align="right" |- |- |bgcolor="#800080"| |align=left|Christian Democratic Party |align="right" |72,241 |align="right" |0.6 |align="right" |- |align="right" |140,674 |align="right" |1.2 |align="right" |- |align="right" |- |- || |align=left|Other parties |align="right" |108,313 |align="right" |0.9 |align="right" |- |align="right" |652,320 |align="right" |5.5 |align="right" |- |align="right" |- |- |bgcolor="#808080"| |align=left|Independents |align="right" |288,206 |align="right" |2.4 |align="right" |3 |align="right" |- |align="right" |- |align="right" |- |align="right" |- |- | |align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total (turnout 94.85%) |width="75" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|11,715,132 |width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.0 |width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|150 |width="75" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|11,953,649 |width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.0 |width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|40 |width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|76 |- | |align=left|Informal votes |align="right" |639,851 |rowspan=3 colspan=6| |- | |align=left|Total votes |align="right" |12,354,983 |- | |align=left|Registered voters |align="right" |13,021,230 |- | |align=left colspan=8|* Liberal/National senators shown under their respective parties |- | |align=left colspan=8|Sources: Australian Electoral Commission, Parliament of Australia Parliamentary Handbook |}
Party composition
Historical
| Year | Total | ALP | Coalition | Democrats | Greens | Other |
| 1974-1975 | 60 | 29 | 29 | 2 (Townley, 1 LM) | ||
| 1975-1978 | 64 | 27 | 35 | 2 (Harradine, 1 LM) | ||
| 1978-1981 | 64 | 26 | 35 | 2 | 1 (Harradine) | |
| 1981-1983 | 64 | 27 | 31 | 5 | 1 (Harradine) | |
| 1983 | 64 | 30 | 28 | 5 | 1 (Harradine) | |
| 1984 | 76 | 34 | 33 | 7 | 2 (Harradine, 1 NDP) | |
| 1987-1990 | 76 | 32 | 34 | 7 | 3 (Harradine, Vallentine, 1 NDP) | |
| 1990-1993 | 76 | 32 | 34 | 8 | 1 | 1 (Harradine) |
| 1993-1996 | 76 | 30 | 36 | 7 | 2 | 1 (Harradine) |
| 1996-1999 | 76 | 28 | 37 | 7 | 2 | 2 (Harradine, Colston ) |
| 1999-2002 | 76 | 29 | 35 | 9 | 1 | 2 (Harradine, 1 One Nation) |
| 2002-2005 | 76 | 29 | 35 | 8 | 2 | 2 (Harradine, 1 One Nation) |
| 2005-2008 | 76 | 28 | 39 | 4 | 4 | 1 (Family First) |
This table has been simplified in the following ways:
- Liberal, National and Country Liberal members are grouped as Coalition.
- Greens Western Australia members are grouped together with Australian Greens.
Current
The 2004 election saw a significant change in the composition of the Senate, which began on 1 July 2005. This was the first time since 1981 that the government in the House of Representatives also had a majority of the seats in the Senate.
| Party | 02-08 | 05-11 | ACT & NT | Incoming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal Party of Australia | 16 | 17 | 1 | 34 |
| The Nationals | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Country Liberal Party | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Australian Labor Party | 12 | 14 | 2 | 28 |
| Australian Democrats | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Australian Greens | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Family First | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 36 | 36 | 4 | 76 |
This government majority meant that, for the first time in a generation, a government did not generally have to negotiate with other political parties if it wanted to secure passage of legislation through parliament.
The Senate in practice
The work of the Senate
The Australian Senate typically sits for 50 to 60 days a year.[4] Most of those days are grouped into 'sitting fortnights' of two four-day weeks. These are in turn arranged in three periods: the autumn sittings, from February to April; the winter sittings, which commence with the delivery of the budget in the House of Representatives on the first sitting day of May and run through to June or July; and the spring sittings, which commence around August and continue until December, and which typically contain the largest number of the year's sitting days.
In addition to the work of the main chamber, the Senate also has a large number of committees which deal with matters referred to them by the Senate. These committees also conduct hearings three times a year in which the government's budget and operations are examined. These are known as estimates hearings. Traditionally dominated by scrutiny of government activities by non-government senators, they provide the opportunity for all senators to ask questions of ministers and public officials.
The senate has a regular schedule that structures its typical working week.[5]
Holding governments to account
One of the functions of the Senate, both directly and through its committees, is to scrutinise government activity. The vigour of this scrutiny has been fuelled for many years by the different party composition of the two houses. When the Howard government won control of the Senate in 2005, it sparked a debate about the effectiveness of the Senate in holding the government of the day accountable for its actions. Government members have argued that the Senate continues to be a forum of vigorous debate, and its committees continue to be active.[6] The Opposition leader in the Senate has suggested that the government has attenuated the scrutinising activities of the Senate.[7] The Australian Democrats, a minor party which has frequently played mediating and negotiating roles in the Senate, have expressed concern about a diminished role for the Senate's committees.[8]
Votes in the Senate
Senators are called upon to vote on matters before the Senate. These votes are called divisions in the case of Senate business, or ballots where the vote is to choose a Senator to fill an office of the Senate (such as President of the Australian Senate).[9]
Party discipline in Australian politics is extremely tight, so divisions almost always are decided on party lines. Nevertheless, the existence of minor parties holding the balance of power in the Senate has made divisions in that chamber more important and occasionally dramatic than in the House of Representatives.
When a division is to be held, bells ring throughout the parliament building for four minutes, during which time Senators must go to the chamber. At the end of that period the doors are locked and a vote is taken, by identifying and counting senators according to the side of the chamber on which they sit (ayes to the right of the chair, noes to the left). The whole procedure takes around eight minutes. Senators with commitments that keep from the chamber may make arrangements in advance to be 'paired' with a senator of the opposite political party, so that their absence does not affect the outcome of the vote.
The senate contains an even number of Senators, so a tied vote is a real prospect (which regularly occurs when the party numbers in the chamber are finely balanced). Section 23 of the Constitution requires that in the event of a tied division, the question is resolved in the negative. The system is however different for ballots for offices such as the President. If such a ballot is tied, the Clerk of the Senate decides the outcome by the drawing of lots. In reality, conventions govern most ballots, so this situation does not arise.
Crossing the floor
One feature of the government having a majority in both chambers since 1 July 2005 has been an increased emphasis on internal differences between members of the government parties. This period has seen the first instances of crossing the floor by Senators since the conservative government took office in 1996. Recent cases of government members crossing the floor to vote with the Opposition have included Senator Gary Humphries on civil unions in the Australian Capital Territory, and Barnaby Joyce on voluntary student unionism. Neither of these instances resulted in the defeat of a government proposal, as in both cases Senator Steve Fielding voted with the government. A more significant potential instance of floor crossing was averted when the government withdrew its Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill, of which several government Senators had been critical, and which would have been defeated had it proceeded to the vote.[10]
See also
- President of the Australian Senate
- Women in the Australian Senate
- Members of the Australian Senate, 2005-2008
- List of longest-serving members of the Australian Senate
- Clerk of the Australian Senate
- Canberra Press Gallery
- Candidates of the Australian legislative election, 2007
References
- ^ Consultative Group on Constitutional Change, Resolving Deadlocks: The Public Response, March 2004 http://www.dpmc.gov.au/conschange/report/docs/report.pdf
- ^ Department of the Senate, Senate Brief No. 1, 'Electing Australia’s Senators', retrieved August 2007
- ^ Question without Notice: Loan Council Arrangements House Hansard,
- ^ Figures are available for each year on the Senate StatsNet http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/work/statistics/index.htm
- ^ Department of the Senate website, Senate weekly routine of business http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/work/routineofbus.htm
- ^ Senator the Hon Nick Minchin media release, 30 June 2006 http://www.financeminister.gov.au/media/2006/mr_432006.html
- ^ Senator Chris Evans, The tyranny of the majority (speech), 10 November 2005 http://www.chrisevans.alp.org.au/news/1105/senatespeeches10-01.php
- ^ Australian Democrats media release, 4 July 2006 http://www.democrats.org.au/docs/2006/PR_Senate_Attack_Accountability.pdf
- ^ Senate Standing Orders, numbers 7, 10, 98-105, 163
- ^ Prime Minister's press conference, 14 August 2006 http://www.pm.gov.au/news/interviews/Interview2073.html
Further reading
- Stanley Bach, Platypus and Parliament: The Australian Senate in Theory and Practice, Department of the Senate, 2003.
- Harry Evans, Odgers' Australian Senate Practice, A detailed reference work on all aspects of the Senate's powers, procedures and practices.
- John Halligan, Robin Miller and John Power, Parliament in the Twenty-first Century: Institutional Reform and Emerging Roles, Melbourne University Pulishing, 2007.
- John Uhr, The Senate and Proportional Representation: Public policy justifications of minority representation, Working Paper no. 69, Graduate Program in Public Policy, Australian National University, 1999.
External links
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