Australian House of Representatives

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Australian House of Representatives

Type Lower house
Speaker of the House Harry Jenkins, Labor
since February 12, 2008
Members 150
Political groups ALP (83)
Liberal Party (55)
National Party (10)
Last elections 24 November 2007
Meeting place Parliament House, Canberra, ACT
Web site House of Representatives
Entrance to the House of Representatives
Entrance to the House of Representatives
High-resolution image of the House of Representatives
High-resolution image of the House of Representatives
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The House of Representatives is one of the two houses (chambers) of the Parliament of Australia. It is the lower house, the upper house being the Senate.

Contents

[edit] Origins and role

The House is presided over by the Speaker.

The 150 members of the House are elected from single-member electorates (geographic districts, sometimes known as "seats" but officially known as "Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives"). Each electorate has between 59,000 and 120,000 voters. They are designed to be relatively equal across the state or territory within which the electorate exists. Voting is by the 'preferential system' (usually referred to elsewhere as the instant-runoff voting).

The number of electorates in each state and territory is determined by population. The parliamentary entitlement of a state or territory is established by the Electoral Commissioner dividing the number of the people of the Commonwealth by twice the number of Senators. The population of each state and territory is then divided by this quota to determine the number of members to which each state and territory is entitled. Under the Australian Constitution all original states are guaranteed at least five members. The Federal Parliament itself has decided that the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory should have at least one member each.

According to the Australian Constitution, the powers of both houses are nearly equal, with the consent of both houses needed to pass legislation. The difference mostly relates to taxation legislation. In practice, by convention, the leader of the party (or coalition of parties) with a majority of members in the lower house is invited by the Governor-General to form the Government. Thus the leader becomes the Prime Minister and some of the other elected members of the government party in both the House and the Senate become ministers responsible for various portfolios and administer government departments. Bills appropriating money (supply bills) can only be introduced in the lower house and thus only the party with a majority in the lower house can govern. In the current Australian party system, this ensures that virtually all contentious votes are along party lines, and the Government always has a majority in those votes.

The Opposition party's main role in the House is to present arguments against the Government's policies and legislation, and attempt to hold the Government accountable as much as possible by asking questions of importance during Question Time and during debates on legislation. In recent times, the Senate, by contrast, has not had a majority from the Government of the day (both Liberal/National Coalition and Labor), so votes in the Senate have become more meaningful. However, the Coalition Government gained a Senate majority from 1 July 2005, following the 2004 election. The House's well-established committee system is not always as prominent as the Senate committee system because of the frequent lack of Senate majority.

In a reflection of the United Kingdom House of Commons, the predominant colour of the furnishings in the House of Representatives is green. However, the colour was tinted slightly to suggest the colour of eucalyptus trees

[edit] The composition of the House

See also: State-by-state lower house results and maps
See also: Post-election pendulum

The election results of the most recent federal election, were as follows:[1]

House of Reps (IRV) — Turnout 94.76% (CV) — Informal 3.95%[2][3]
  Party Votes % Swing Seats Change
  Australian Labor Party 5,388,147 43.38 +5.74 83 +23
  Liberal Party of Australia 4,546,534 36.61 –4.21 55* –20
  Australian Greens 967,781 7.79 +0.60 0 0
  National Party of Australia 682,424 5.49 –0.40 10 –2
  Family First Party 246,792 1.99 –0.02 0 0
  Australian Democrats 89,810 0.72 –0.51 0 0
  Independents 276,369 2.23 –0.27 2 –1
  Other 222,004 1.79 +0.25 0 0
  Total 12,419,863     150
  Australian Labor Party WIN 52.70 +5.44 83 +23
  Liberal/National coalition   47.30 –5.44 65 –22

*McEwen is being challenged in the Court of Disputed Returns and may result in a by-election.

Independents: Tony Windsor, Bob Katter

[edit] Seats won by party at Australian elections, 1946 – 2007

Seats Won
Election ALP LIB NAT Other Total
1946 43 15 11 5 74
1949 47 55 19   121
1951 52 52 17   121
1954 57 47 17   121
1955 47 57 18   122
1958 45 58 19   122
1961 60 45 17   122
1963 50 52 20   122
1966 41 61 21   124
1969 59 46 20   125
1972 67 38 20   125
1974 66 40 21   127
1975 36 68 23   127
1977 38 67 19   124
1980 51 54 20   125
1983 75 33 17   125
1984 82 45 21   148
1987 86 43 19   148
1990 78 55 14 1 148
1993 80 49 16 2 147
1996 49 75 19 5 148
1998 67 64 16 1 148
2001 65 69 13 3 150
2004 60 75 12 3 150
2007 83 55 10 2 150

[edit] Main Committee

An interesting feature of the Australian House is its Main Committee, designed to be an alternative debating chamber; it is modeled after the Committee of the Whole that exists in several different legislatures, particularly the United States House of Representatives and British House of Commons. Matters considered to be relatively uncontroversial can be referred by the entire House to the Main Committee, where substantive debate can take place. The Main Committee cannot, however, initiate nor make a final decision on any parliamentary business, although it can perform all tasks in between.[4]

The Main Committee was created in 1994, to relieve some of the burden of the entire House: different matters can be processed in the House at large and in the Main Committee, as they sit simultaneously. It is designed to be less formal, with a quorum of only three members: the Deputy Speaker of the House, one government member, and one non-government member. Decisions must be unanimous: any divided decision sends the question back to the House at large.

The Main Committee was created through the House's Standing Orders:[5] it is thus a subordinate body of the House, and can only be in session while the House itself is in session. When a division vote in the House occurs, members in the Main Committee must return to the House to vote.

The Main Committee is housed in one of the House's committee rooms: the room is customized for this purpose and is laid out to resemble the House chamber.[6]

Due to the unique role of the Main Committee, proposals have been made to rename the body to avoid confusion with other parliamentary committees. Proposals include "Second Chamber"[7] and "Federation Chamber".[8]

The concept of a parallel body to expedite Parliamentary business, based on the Australian Main Committee, was mentioned in a 1998 British House of Commons report.[9]

[edit] See also

The disproportionality of the 2007 election was 10.28 according to the Gallagher Index, mainly between the Labor and Green Parties.
The disproportionality of the 2007 election was 10.28 according to the Gallagher Index, mainly between the Labor and Green Parties.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Australian Electoral Commission, Virtual Tally Room 2007, Senate results, First preferences by Group, retrieved January 2008
  2. ^ Lower house results summary: UOW. The CLP replaces the Liberals in the Northern Territory, thus their figure is included in the Liberal tally. The CLP received 40,298 votes.
  3. ^ Lower house results: AEC
  4. ^ "The Structure Of The Australian House Of Representatives Over Its First One Hundred Years: The Impact Of Globalisation," Ian Harris
  5. ^ Standing and Sessional Orders, House of Representatives
  6. ^ Main Committee Fact Sheet, Parliamentary Education Office
  7. ^ The Second Chamber: Enhancing the Main Committee, House of Representatives
  8. ^ Renaming the Main Committee, House of Representatives
  9. ^ Select Committee on Modernisation of the House of Commons First Report. British House of Commons (7 December 1998). Retrieved on 2007-06-20.

[edit] External links

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