The Senate in Australia

About the Senate

The Senate is one of the two houses of the Australian Federal Parliament. It consists of 76 senators, twelve from each of the six states and two from each of the mainland territories. It shares the power to make laws with the other House of Parliament, the House of Representatives. The Senate is elected by proportional representation, so that its composition closely reflects the voting pattern of the electors.

Powers

The powers of the two houses of the Commonwealth Parliament, the Senate and the House of Representatives, are defined by the Australian Constitution. All proposed laws (bills) must be passed by both houses. The Senate's law-making powers are equal to those of the House of Representatives except that it cannot introduce or amend proposed laws that authorise expenditure for the ordinary annual services of the government or that impose taxation. The Senate can, however, request that the House of Representatives make amendments to financial legislation and it can refuse to pass any bill.

Composition

Under the Constitution, each state of the Australian federation, regardless of its population, has an equal number of senators. The Senate currently consists of 76 senators. Twelve senators represent each of the six states, elected for a period of six years. A system of rotation, however, ensures that half the Senate retires every three years. The four senators who represent the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory are elected concurrently with members of the House of Representatives and the duration of their terms of office coincide with those for that House (a maximum of three years). 

The Senate is elected by a system of proportional representation which ensures that the composition of the Senate more accurately reflects the votes of the electors than the method used to elect members of the House of Representatives.

Role

The Senate is a house of review and a powerful check on the government of the day. The proportional representation system of voting used to elect senators makes it easier for independents and the candidates of the smaller parties to be elected. In recent decades this has meant that the government party usually does not have a majority of votes in the Senate and the non–government senators are able to use their combined voting power to reject or amend government legislation. The Senate's large and active committee system also enables senators to inquire into policy issues in depth and to scrutinise the way laws and policies are administered by ministers and public servants.

Senate committees

The Senate’s role as a house of review and as a watchdog of the executive branch of government has led to the development of a comprehensive range of committees which may investigate matters of public policy and scrutinise proposed legislation and the details of government expenditure and administration. Most senators are actively involved in the work of three or four of these committees. 

Senate committees fall into two categories—Select and Standing. 

A select committee is one appointed by the Senate to inquire into some specific matter and to report back to the Senate within a set time. Once a select committee has submitted its final report to the Senate its work is done and it ceases to exist. 

A standing committee is a permanent committee of the Senate. It stands—or remains—for the life of the whole of any one Parliament, its members being appointed at the commencement of each Parliament. There are three groups of standing committees:

Domestic committees 

These committees deal with matters relating to the internal operations of the Senate, including publications, appropriations and staffing, procedure, privileges, library services, the provision of facilities in Parliament House and senators’ pecuniary and other interests.

Legislative scrutiny committees 

All bills and subordinate legislative instruments that come before Parliament are scrutinised by either the Scrutiny of Bills Committee or the Regulations and Ordinances Committee to ensure that they conform to certain principles mainly concerned with personal rights and civil liberties. 

Legislative and general purpose standing committees 

These committees examine legislation, government administration and public policy. The committees are divided along subject lines and cover between them all areas of government responsibility.

In the Australian system of government, ministers and public servants are accountable to the Parliament for the use of the public resources with which they have been entrusted. Legislative and general purpose standing committees carry out the work of inquiring into and reporting on the twice-yearly estimates of proposed government expenditure. In addition, they have a specific mandate to monitor the performance of departments and agencies.  At the estimates hearings senators may directly question ministers and public officials not only about the details of proposed expenditure but also about the objectives, operations and efficiency of the programs for which they are responsible.

Political Dynasty: Anthony

The Anthony family is Australia’s oldest continuous political dynasty. Over nearly seventy years three generations of Anthony's have held the federal seat of Richmond in northern New South Wales, each serving as government ministers. But the patriarch and Gallipoli veteran Larry senior would not recognize the electorate he once represented. This is the story of how one family has weathered dramatic changes in Australian rural life … changes which have ultimately cost them their political birthright.

In this episode of Dynasties we chart the three generations of Anthonys: the patriarch Larry Anthony who served as a minister under Menzies, his son Doug the former deputy prime minister, and his son Larry, a minister in the Howard government.

Larry Senior was a Gallipoli veteran and impoverished banana farmer. He rose from telegraph boy to Post Master General. His son Doug ran a dairy farm and rose to the highest positions in the land. As acting prime minister he ran the country from the family’s beachside summer caravan. Larry Junior is now also a government minister. But in a sign of the times he’s not in charge of a rural portfolio, he’s minister for Children and Youth Affairs. Richmond is a marginal seat, transformed by the seachange movement and the decline of traditional rural industries. We follow Larry Anthony as he fights for the dynasty’s political future in the federal election. 

Dynasties reveals how this distinguished family has coped with life in the public spotlight. Doug’s wife Margot is the family matriarch. She has brought a softer and cultured dimension to the family. As Doug’s confidante she has lived through many of the dramas of Australian politics, from the dismissal of Whitlam to facing the wrath of disgruntled farmers. When she married Doug she had little idea of what lay ahead. Her husband was an accidental politician. Never intending to run for public office, he was talked into it after his father died prematurely.

In the public world of politics it is perhaps harder than anywhere else to be walking in the shadows of your father. In this episode we see how the Anthony’s have dealt with this test. It’s the challenge of creating your own identity, holding to old principles, but also adapting to a changing world.

With the Anthonys we go behind the scenes of a family immersed in public life. Doug remembers staying with his father in Canberra and having bedtime stories read to him by John Curtin. Larry and his siblings speak frankly of his ambitions and his struggle to create a new identity.

But through all the turmoil and intensity of public life, the Anthony family have survived intact and still manage to live as ordinary Australians.

Hubert Lawrence Anthony (1897-1957)

In 1940 he was appointed minister for commerce in the government of Robert Menzies, and in 1941 was appointed minister for transport, the same year that Jessie died suddenly. When the Curtin government came to power Larry Anthony earned a reputation as a pugnacious parliamentary debater. In 1946 he married a 25 year old widow, Lyndall Marion. In 1949 the former telegraph messenger boy was appointed Postmaster General in the Menzies government.

In 1951 he added the portfolio of civil aviation to his ministerial duties and presided over the rapid expansion of Australia's air services, actively encouraging the two-airline policy whereby the major domestic routes were shared between a private airline and the government owned TAA. It was a policy he also followed in the introduction of television to Australia, insisting on a dual system of private and public networks.

In the early '50's Larry Anthony suffered poor health and resigned from the civil aviation portfolio in 1954. He resigned from the ministry in 1956 and died the following year.

John Douglas Anthony

Doug Anthony served in six governments and, as leader of his party (the youngest ever elected), served with seven different leaders of the Liberal Party (as he said once, every time he got up on the floor to dance he found he had a new partner).

He was an MP for more than 26 years, served 16 years as a minister, four years as Deputy Leader of his party and almost 13 years as Leader - six weeks longer than Sir John McEwen, whom he succeeded. His ministerial portfolios included Interior (1964-67), Primary Industry (1967-71), Trade and Industry (1971-72), Overseas Trade (1975-77), National Resources (1975-77), Trade and Resources (1977-83). He was Deputy Prime Minister from 1971-72, and from 1975-83.

Doug Anthony acted formally as Prime Minister for approximately 25 periods ranging from days to months, and informally on many more.

Lawrence James Anthony

After unsuccessfully contesting the seat of Richmond in 1993, Larry won it from the Labor Party in 1996, and won it in the two following elections. He was appointed The Nationals' Whip in 1997 and Parliamentary Secretary for Trade the following year. He became Minister for Community Services in 1999 and Australia's first Minister for Children and Youth Affairs following the 2001 election.

Although Larry achieved his strongest primary vote in the 2004 election, he was defeated on preferences and said he would not contest the seat of Richmond again.

Sytem of Election

In Australia, the election period is three years. That time can be extended by up to 6 months. Having said that, an election can be called for at any time in that three year period. This is a distinct advantage for the party who is actually in Government, because they can call the election at a time that best suits them, when opinion is in their favour. The Prime Minister is the one who actually calls the election, and it is usually something worked out in the Party room by those members who make up the Government side of politics. In the main, there is usually a short period for the campaign, in the main averaging out to around 4 to 7 weeks. In this case the campaign will be of five weeks duration.

Today, two variants of preferential voting and two variants of proportional representation are used for all Australian parliamentary elections. Preferential voting is a majority system which attempts to ensure that a candidate secures an absolute majority of votes. Proportional representation systems are designed to allocate parliamentary seats to parties in proportion to their overall vote.

The supreme law-making institution in Australia—the federal Parliament—has two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Members of the House of Representatives seek re-election each time there is a federal election. The House of Representatives currently has 150 members elected by preferential voting. Proportional representation is used in the Senate.

Compulsory

Voting is compulsory both at federal elections and at elections for the state and territory legislatures. In some states, voting at municipal elections is also compulsory. On average about 5 per cent of enrolled voters fail to vote but prosecutions are rare and the fine, $20, is modest. In recent federal elections, with a voter turnout of approximately 95 per cent, informal voting—blank or not properly completed ballots—has accounted for about 5 per cent of all the votes cast.

Preferential voting

Preferential voting has become the accepted system in the federal and state parliaments of Australia and is used in municipal elections, political party elections, trade union elections, church elections, elections to company boards, voluntary bodies and sports clubs. Under this system, voters number the candidates on the ballot paper in the order of their preference.

In Australia there are two variants of this system: ‘full’ preferential voting, used for the House of Representatives at the federal level and the lower houses in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory; and ‘optional’ preferential voting, used for the lower houses in New South Wales and Queensland. A partial ‘optional’ preferential voting system is used for Tasmania’s Legislative Council. 

Proportional representation (single transferable vote)

Proportional representation systems were devised to produce ‘proportional’ election results—parties should win parliamentary seats roughly in proportion to the size of their vote. Ideally, 50 per cent of the vote should win about 50 per cent of the seats. Proportional representation is not a single method of election, for there are a number of variations in use, including the single transferable vote, which is a preferential voting system designed to ensure that votes are for individual candidates rather than for party lists. The two variants of this used in Australia: the ‘Senate’ model and the Hare-Clark system.

The ‘Senate’ model elections increases the chances of minor parties and independents winning seats compared to the single member constituency system used for the House of Representatives. It produces closer results in the struggle between the major parties and makes it difficult for a major party to gain control of the Senate and in the upper houses of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia where it is used.

The Hare-Clark version of proportional representation is used for elections for the Tasmanian House of Assembly and the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly. This system ensures that no seat is safe, creates an electoral system where party members fight each other as much as their external opponents and operates in such a way that minority governments are more common than when preferential voting is used.