President of the Australian Senate

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The President of the Australian Senate is the presiding officer of the Australian Senate, the upper house of the Parliament of Australia. The other Parliament of Australia presiding officer is the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The Australian Senate occupies a different position in the Australian Parliament to the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, on which the Australian Parliament is partly modelled, because the Senate has always been a popularly-elected body.

Section 17 of the Constitution of Australia says:

The Senate shall, before proceeding to the despatch of any other business, choose a senator to be the President of the Senate; and as often as the office of President becomes vacant the Senate shall again choose a senator to be the President. The President shall cease to hold his office if he ceases to be a senator. He may be removed from office by a vote of the Senate, or he may resign his office or his seat by writing addressed to the Governor-General.

The President is elected by the Senate in a secret ballot. The Clerk conducts the election. The Presidency has always been a partisan office and the nominee of the government party has nearly always been elected – although this cannot be guaranteed since the government of the day does not necessarily have a majority in the Senate. The President is assisted by an elected Deputy President. The traditional practice has been that the government nominates a Senator to be elected as President, and the Opposition nominates a Senator to be Deputy President. If there are no other nominations, no election is required, however the Australian Greens in 2005 and again in 2007 put forward Senator Kerry Nettle as a rival candidate when the position of President was vacant. Neither government nor opposition Senators supported that candidacy.^[1]

Since July 2005 the Liberal and National parties have had a majority in the Senate, but the practice of allowing an Opposition Senator to be Deputy President has so far been maintained.

The position of President has been disproportionately held by Senators representing the smaller states and territories. Of the 21 Senate presidents since 1901, 13 have come from the three smallest states (Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania) or the Australian Capital Territory, and only eight have come from the three largest states (New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland).

Unlike the Speaker, the President has a deliberative, but not a casting vote (in the event of an equality of votes, the motion fails). This is because the Senate is in theory a states' house, and depriving the President of a deliberative vote would have robbed one of the states or territories one of its Senators' votes (in practice the Senate has always been a party house).

Like the Speaker, the President continues to attend party meetings, and at general elections stands as a party candidate. On the other hand, the President does not usually take part in debates in the Senate and does not speak in public on party-political issues. He or she is expected to conduct the business of the Senate in an impartial manner.

The President’s principal duty is to preside over the Senate, although he or she is assisted in this by the Deputy President and a panel of Acting Deputy Presidents, who usually preside during routine debates. The occupant of the Chair must maintain order in the Senate, uphold the Standing Orders (rules of procedure) and protect the rights of backbench Senators. The President, in conjunction with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, also administers Parliament House, Canberra, with the assistance of administrative staff.

The Senate is not as rowdy as most Australian legislative chambers, and the President does not have the same degree of disciplinary power as the Speaker does. Thus, his or her disciplinary powers are seldom exercised.

[edit] Presidents of the Senate

Member	Party	Term in Office
Hon Sir Richard Baker	FT-AS, SA	9 May 1901 to 31 December 1906
Hon Sir Albert Gould	AS-Lib, NSW	20 February 1907 to 30 June 1910
Hon Henry Turley	ALP, Qld	1 July 1910 to 8 July 1913
Hon Thomas Givens	ALP-Nat, Qld	9 July 1913 to 30 June 1926
Hon Sir John Newlands	Nat, SA	1 July 1926 to 13 August 1929
Hon Sir Walter Kingsmill	Nat-UAP, WA	14 August 1929 to 30 August 1932
Hon Patrick Lynch	UAP, WA	31 August 1932 to 30 June 1938
Hon John Hayes	UAP, Tas	1 July 1938 to 30 June 1941
Hon James Cunningham	ALP, WA	1 July 1941 to 4 July 1943 (died in office)
Hon Gordon Brown	ALP, Qld	23 September 1943 to 19 March 1951
Hon Edward Mattner	Lib, SA	12 June 1951 to 7 September 1953
Hon Sir Alister McMullin	Lib, NSW	8 September 1953 to 30 June 1971
Hon Sir Magnus Cormack	Lib, Vic	17 August 1971 to 11 April 1974
Hon Justin O'Byrne	ALP, Tas	9 July 1974 to 11 November 1975
Hon Sir Condor Laucke	Lib, SA	17 February 1976 to 30 June 1981
Hon Sir Harold Young	Lib, SA	18 August 1981 to 4 February 1983
Hon Douglas McClelland	ALP, NSW	21 April 1983 to 23 January 1987
Hon Kerry Sibraa	ALP, NSW	17 February 1987 to 1 February 1994
Hon Michael Beahan	ALP, WA	1 February 1994 to 20 August 1996
Hon Margaret Reid	Lib, ACT	20 August 1996 to 19 August 2002
Hon Paul Calvert	Lib, Tas	19 August 2002 to 13 August 2007
Hon Alan Ferguson	Lib, SA	14 August 2007 to present

The current Deputy President is Senator John Hogg (Labor, Queensland)

[edit] See also

• Clerk of the Australian Senate

[edit] References

1. ^ Senate Debates, 9 August 2005; 14 August 2007.