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.

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. Paul Keating called it an "unrepresentative swill". 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 revising chamber, 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.

Related Topics:
Tasmania - New South Wales - Paul Keating - Two party - Revising chamber

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