Australian House of Representatives

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:House of Representatives, Parliament House, Canberra.JPG Image:House of Reps Doorway.jpg The House of Representatives is one of the two houses (chambers) of the Parliament of Australia. It is the lower house, the other chamber, the Senate being the upper house.

The 150 members of the House are elected from single-member electorates (geographic districts, sometimes known as "seats" but officially known as "Australian House of Representatives electoral Divisions"). These are intended to represent reasonably contiguous regions, with relatively equal voter enrollment in each of about 85,000 people. Voting is by the 'preferential system' (usually referred to elsewhere as the Alternative Vote).

According to the Australian Constitution, the powers of both houses are nearly equal, with the consent of both houses needed to pass 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 (government departments). Bills appropriating money (supply bills) can only be introduced or modified in the lower house and thus only the party with a majority in the lower house can govern. In the rigid 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 only real role in the House is to present arguments against the Government's policies and legislation, and attempt to embarrass the government as much as possible by asking difficult questions at Question Time. In recent times, the Senate, by contrast, had not had a majority from the Government of the day (both Liberal/National Coalition and Labor), so votes in the Senate had become more meaningful. However, the Coalition Government gained a Senate majority from the 1st 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.

1 Latest result
2 Seats won by party at Australian elections, 1946 - 2004
3 See also
4 External links

[edit]

Latest result

Template:Australian legislative election, 2004

[edit]

Seats won by party at Australian elections, 1946 - 2004

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