Source #2
Julian Assange's bid for a seat in Australia's Senate may not be just a stunt, with a new poll revealing 26 per cent of Australians consider themselves “likely” to vote for the Leaker-In-Chief.
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| English: Julian Assange, photo ("sunny country background"http://web.archive.org/web/20060712184552/http://iq.org/index.html) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
What is the Senate in Australia:
The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (Imp.) of 1900 established the Senate as part of the new system of dominion government in newly federated Australia. From a comparative governmental perspective, the Australian Senate exhibits distinctive characteristics. Unlike upper houses in other Westminster system governments, the Senate is not a vestigial body with limited legislative power.
Rather it was intended to play, and does play, an active role in legislation. Rather than being modelled after the House of Lords, as the Canadian Senate was, the Australian Senate was in part modelled after the United States Senate, by giving equal representation to each state. The Constitution intended to give less populous states added voice in a Federal legislature, while also providing for the revising role of an upper house in the Westminster system.
Although the Prime Minister, by convention, serves as a member of the House of Representatives, other ministers may come from either house, and the two houses have almost equal legislative power. As with most upper chambers in bicameral parliaments, the Senate cannot introduce appropriation bills (bills that authorise government expenditure of public revenue) or bills that impose taxation, that role being reserved for the lower house.
That degree of equality between the Senate and House of Representatives reflects the desire of the Constitution's authors to address smaller states' desire for strong powers for the Senate as a way of ensuring that the interests of more populous states as represented in the House of Representatives did not totally dominate the government.
This situation was also partly 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, which ultimately resulted in the restrictions placed on the powers of the House of Lords by the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949.
In practice, however, most legislation (except for private member's bills) in the Australian Parliament is initiated by the Government, which has control over the lower house. It is then passed to the Senate, which may amend the bill or refuse to pass it. In the majority of cases, voting takes place along party lines, although there are occasional conscience votes.
Who is our Senate now? :
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I, Part II of the Australian Constitution.
There is a total of 76 senators; 12 senators are elected from each state, regardless of population, and the two internal territories have two senators each. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation.
There is no constitutional requirement for the election of senators to take place at the same time as those for members of the House of Representative, though the government usually tries to synchronise the election date.
Senators normally serve fixed six-year terms, unless the Senate is dissolved earlier in a double dissolution. Following a double dissolution half the state senators serve only three-year terms. The term of the territory senators expires at the same time as there is an election for the House of Representatives.
The present Parliament was elected at the 2010 election, and is the 43rd Federal Parliament since Federation. The six-year term of the 36 state senators who were elected commenced on 1 July 2011. In the 76-seat Senate, the Coalition holds 34 seats, and the Australian Labor Party holds 31 seats.
The Greens hold the sole balance of power with a total of nine seats, previously holding a shared balance of power with the Family First Party and independent Nick Xenophon, while the two remaining seats are occupied by Xenophon and Democratic Labor Party Senator John Madigan.
Information on the Senate from Wiki
Images @ Eminpee Fotography
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