Australian Senate

The Australian Senate is the upper of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia. The other one is the House of Representatives.

Origins and role

The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act of 1900 set up the Australian Senate as part of the new system of dominion government in newly-federated Australia. From a comparative governmental perspective, the Australian Senate exhibits almost unique characteristics, in that unlike upper houses in other Westminster system governments, the Senate is not a vestigial body with limited legislative power but rather plays and is intended to play an active role in legislation. Rather than being modelled after the House of Lords the Australian Senate was in part modelled after the United States Senate. The Constitution intended to give small rural states added voice in a Federal legislature, while also providing for the revising role of an upper house in the Westminster system.

Related Topics:
Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act - 1900 - Dominion - Australia - Westminster system - House of Lords - United States Senate

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Although the Prime Minister answers to, and must serve as a member of the House of Representatives (the "lower house"), other ministers may come from either house and the two houses have almost equal legislative power. As with most upper chambers in bicameral parliaments, it cannot introduce Appropriation Bills or impose taxation, that role being reserved for the universally elected 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 over estate taxes, which ultimately resulted in the restrictions placed on the powers of the House of Lords by the Parliament Act. The Senate thus reflected the pre-1911 Lords-Commons relationship, namely a house with theoretically wide powers that by convention it does not often use, but which it can deploy in a crisis.

Related Topics:
Prime Minister - House of Representatives - Bicameral parliament - Appropriation Bill - 1909 - Britain - House of Commons - House of Lords - Parliament Act

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