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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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Julian Assange, photo ("sunny country
background"http://web.archive.org/web/20060712184552/http://iq.org/index.html)
(Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Assange has repeatedly announced his candidacy for a seat in the
Senate, the upper chamber of Australia's national Parliament which
comprises 12 representatives from each of th
e nation's six States, plus a
pair from each of its Territories. Half of each State's Senate Seats
will be decided at Federal election scheduled for September 14th. 2013.
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.
Unlike most upper houses in parliamentary systems, the Senate is
vested with significant power, including the capacity to block
legislation initiated by the government in the House of Representatives,
making it a distinctive hybrid of British
Westminster bicameralism and US-style
bicameralism.
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
