The Senate, Australian Parliament
The Chamber is furnished in shades of red as is traditional in upper houses of parliaments. The wood used in the seating and desks is Australian jarrah. Behind the President's chair, a gift from the Canadian Parliament, is a tall chair used by the Governor-General at formal openings of Parliament. This chair is a gift from the British House of Commons. The smaller chair is for the use of distinguished visitors and is a gift from the New Zealand Parliament.
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however, some senators serve six years while others serve terms of only three.
Significant power is conferred upon the Senate by the Australian Constitution, including the capacity to block legislation initiated by the government in the House of Representatives, making it a distinctive hybrid of British Westminster bicameralism and American-style bicameralism.
Each state elects the same number of senators. This means 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 seven 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.
The chamber seen above is in the New Parliament House, opened in 1988.
The Senate, Australian Parliament
The Chamber is furnished in shades of red as is traditional in upper houses of parliaments. The wood used in the seating and desks is Australian jarrah. Behind the President's chair, a gift from the Canadian Parliament, is a tall chair used by the Governor-General at formal openings of Parliament. This chair is a gift from the British House of Commons. The smaller chair is for the use of distinguished visitors and is a gift from the New Zealand Parliament.
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however, some senators serve six years while others serve terms of only three.
Significant power is conferred upon the Senate by the Australian Constitution, including the capacity to block legislation initiated by the government in the House of Representatives, making it a distinctive hybrid of British Westminster bicameralism and American-style bicameralism.
Each state elects the same number of senators. This means 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 seven 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.
The chamber seen above is in the New Parliament House, opened in 1988.