| New South Wales Legislative Council | |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Type | Upper House |
| Leadership | |
| President of the Council | The Hon. Don Harwin MLC, Liberal Party of Australia since 3 May 2011 |
| Elections | |
| Last election | 26 March 2011 |
| Meeting place | |
| Legislative Council Chamber Parliament House, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
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| Website | |
| NSW Legislative Council | |
The New South Wales Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of New South Wales in Australia. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. The Assembly is referred to as the lower house and the Council as the upper house. It is normal for legislation to be first deliberated on and enacted in the lower house, and then considered again in the upper house, which acts in the main as a house of review. The Council has 42 members, elected by proportional representation in which the whole state is treated as a single electorate. Each member serves an eight-year term; half of the members are elected every four years in a staggered arrangement.
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The Parliament of New South Wales is Australia's oldest legislature. It had its beginnings when New South Wales was a British colony under the control of the Governor. A small, 5-member appointed Legislative Council began meeting on 24 August 1824 to advise the Governor on legislative matters.It grew to seven members in 1825, and between ten and fifteen in 1829. In 1842, under the Constitution Act 1842, the Legislative Council was expanded to 36 members, of which 12 were appointed by the Governor in the name of the Crown, and the remainder elected from amongst eligible landholders. By 1843, this had been enlarged with two-thirds of its members elected by adult males who met certain property requirements. In 1856, under a new Constitution, the Parliament became bicameral with a fully elected Legislative Assembly and a fully appointed Legislative Council with a Government taking over most of the legislative powers of the Governor. The right to vote was extended to all adult males in 1858.[1]
On 22 May 1856, the newly constituted New South Wales Parliament opened and sat for the first time. With the new 54-member Legislative Assembly taking over the council chamber, a second meeting chamber for the 21 member upper house had to be added to the Parliament building in Macquarie Street.[2] In 1901, New South Wales became a sovereign state of the Commonwealth of Australia and many government functions were transferred to the new Commonwealth government. In 1902, women gained the right to vote and the current Constitution of New South Wales was adopted,[1] and in 1918, reforms permitted women to be Members of Parliament.[1]
In 1925, 1926 and 1929, Premier Jack Lang made attempts at abolishing the Legislative Council, following the example of the Queensland Legislative Council in 1922, but all were unsuccessful. The debate did, however, result in another round of reforms, and in 1933, the law was changed so that a quarter of the Legislative Council was elected every three years by members of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council, rather than being appointed by the Governor. In 1962 Indigenous Australians gained the right to vote in all state elections. In 1978, the Council became a directly elected body in a program of electoral reform introduced by the Wran Labor government. The number of members was reduced to 45, although transitional arrangements meant that there were 43 members from 1978 to 1981, and 44 from 1981 to 1984. Further reform in 1991 by the Greiner Liberal-National government saw the size of the Legislative Council cut to 42 members, with half being elected every 4 years. In 1991, the Legislative Assembly reduced from 109 to 99 Members and then to 93 members in 1999.[3]
As with the federal parliament and other Australian states and territories, voting in the election to select members for the Council is compulsory for all New South Wales citizens over the age of 18. As the result of a 1995 referendum, every four years half the seats in the house come up for election on the fourth Saturday in March, barring exceptional circumstances.
The Queen of Australia has a Throne in the Legislative Council, and Queen Elizabeth II has opened the New South Wales Parliament on two occasions, on 4 February 1954, as part of her first visit to Australia, which was also the first occasion in which the monarch of Australia had opened a session of any Australian Parliament. The other occasion was on 20 February 1992, during her visit to Sydney to celebrate the sesquicentenary of the incorporation of the City of Sydney, on which occasion she stated:
| “ | This is my second opportunity to address this Parliament – a Parliament which I described on the previous occasion, in 1954, as the Mother Parliament of Australia. It is interesting to reflect that that was the first time on which the Sovereign had opened a Session of an Australian Parliament. I was also on my first visit to Australia as your Queen. I have returned to New South Wales eight times since then and am always delighted by the warm and generous hospitality accorded to Prince Philip and me by the people of this State. On this occasion I have come to join in commemorating Sydney's first one hundred and fifty years as a city.[4] | ” |
From 1846 to 1856 the title was Speaker of the Legislative Council.
The Legislative Council Chamber is a prefabricated cast-iron building which was manufactured in Scotland and shipped to Victoria. It was constracted at Parliament House in 1856. The colour of the Legislative Council Chamber is red, which follows the British tradition for the upper house.[5]
Proportional representation in which the whole state is a single electorate means that the minimum quota for election is small; this guarantees a representation of minor parties in the Legislative Council. In the 1999 elections, a record number of parties contested seats in the house, resulting in an unwieldy ballot paper. Party registration requirements have since been made more restrictive (i.e., requiring more voters as members), reducing the number of parties contesting elections so that only 3 minor parties are now represented in the Legislative Council.
| Party | Seats held | Current Council | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Labor Party | 14 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Liberal Party of Australia | 12 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National Party of Australia | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Greens New South Wales | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shooters and Fishers Party | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Christian Democratic Party | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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