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halloranelderA federal election is imminent in Australia, with the latest the election can be being Saturday 17th May, 2025. As a result, I feel it's a good time to cover how the Australian Parliament and elections work so people can be fully informed.
Firstly, in Australia, if you are an Australian citizen over the age of 18 you are required to be registered to vote; and if you are registered to vote you are required to actually vote in all relevant elections.
To all the Americans yelling about being forced to vote, be aware that Australian voting laws are designed to make it as easy as possible to cast your vote, so for us it is not the onerous chore it can be in the US. In Australia, elections are required to be on a Saturday, polling places are plentiful (longest I've had to walk is 15 minutes), postal and early voting opens 2 weeks before hand, and employers are required to make sure their employees can vote on Saturday if they are working.
So, all in all, an easy thing.
The Australian Parliament has two houses. The House of Representatives currently has 151 members (which will drop to 150 after this election), and each represents an electorate. Each electorate has approximately the same number of enrolled voters in it, so the House of Representatives gives an approximately equal voice to each enrolled voter in the country. The count of electorates in Australia (and therefore the count of members of the House of Representatives) is based on population counts, and as a result periodically the Australian Electoral Commission must do a redistribution of the electorate boundaries when the population shifts have changed things enough. The last review of the numbers was in 2023 which resulted in a redistribution that will take place in this election. The redistribution removed one electorate each from New South Wales (now 46) and Victoria (now 38) and added one to Western Australia (now 16) reducing the total number of seats from 151 to 150.
The Senate has 76 members, with 12 members representing each of the 6 States (Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania) with 2 members each representing the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. The Senate gives each State a theoretically equal voice.
Those numbers are governed by the Constitution of Australia. In the Constitution it states that each of the original six States of Australia must have have at least six Senate seats, and must be an equal number. Each of the original six States much have at least five seats in the House of Representatives, and the total number must be "as nearly as practicable, twice the number of Senators".
As per usual in Australia, this federal election is actually two elections in one. We will be voting for a new House of Representatives (also known as the Lower House) which has all 150 seats up for election. We will also be voting for just over half the Senate (also known as the Upper House), with 40 of the 76 seats up for election (the reasons why I will explain later).
In Australia the two elections can happened separately but rarely do. The reason for this is that the Senate has (mostly) fixed terms while the House of Reps has variable terms. There can be instances where an election for one house is required but not the other, but mostly this is avoided because it's cheaper to run them together, and also historic records show that holding the two elections separately usually results in the party that's in government to do much worse than normal. Since it's the party in government that chooses when the elections are held, they prefer not to do worse. :)
Members of the House of Reps start the job the moment their election is confirmed. With the election on Saturday, the vast majority of them will be confirmed by Monday. The first sitting of the new parliament must be within 30 days of the election, and the parliament automatically dissolves (and triggers the next House of Reps election) three years after that first sitting if it hasn't been dissolved earlier.
Four of the Senators (two for the ACT and two for the Northern Territory) follow the same rules as the House of Reps.
The rest of the Senators have fixed 6 year terms, starting on July 1 and ending on June 30 six years later. There are 12 Senators for each of the States (Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia) and six of each states Senators are up for election every three years.
So, that means 150 members of the House of Reps and 4 Senators will start their job within 30 days of the election, most likely within seven days of the election, and 36 Senators will start their job on July 1.
As I said, mostly the elections happen together, but... Senate elections cannot occur more than 1 year before the end of the term. As a result, if the next election was held on the last Saturday of June 2024 it would only be a House of Reps election, but if it was held on the first Saturday of July 2024 it would be for both Houses, since the next Senate terms ends on June 30 2025.
In Australia the leader of the Government is the Prime Minister, and is not elected separately. The Prime Minister (or PM as they are usually referred to) is the leader of whichever party holds the House of Representatives. As a result, party politics means that the PM will tend to change over time, as the leader of the party changes. Quite often this happening will be beaten up in the media as "un-Australian" and "not the leader the people voted for" and all that sort of thing. However it is actually very Australian, as it's what has been happening for over 100 years now, and since they didn't vote for the previous PM, not having voted for the new PM doesn't really matter. Currently, the Australian Labour Party holds 77 of the 151 seats in the House of Representatives, and therefore the Leader of the Party is the Prime Minister of Australia.
Bills (the things that get turned into the Laws of this Country) can be introduced by members of either house, except if is an appropriation bill (the bill is to do with proposing an expenditure or levying a tax). Appropriation bills can only be introduced by members of the House of Representatives.
The procedure to turn a Bill into Law is theoretically simple. The Bill is introduced into one of the two houses by the appropriate member. It is discussed, possibly amended, and eventually voted on. If it passes the vote, it is then sent to the other house for the same treatment. If it is amended in the other house, it must return to the first house for another round. Once the bill has been passed by both houses in exactly the same form (so no new amendments) it becomes law. The only variation to this is that in addition to not being allowed to be introduced into the Senate, appropriation bills can not be amended in the Senate either, only passed or rejected.
Theoretically, as the Queen's Representative, the Governor General can refuse to allow a bill to pass into law, but that power is nowadays nothing more than a formality.
Firstly, in Australia, if you are an Australian citizen over the age of 18 you are required to be registered to vote; and if you are registered to vote you are required to actually vote in all relevant elections.
To all the Americans yelling about being forced to vote, be aware that Australian voting laws are designed to make it as easy as possible to cast your vote, so for us it is not the onerous chore it can be in the US. In Australia, elections are required to be on a Saturday, polling places are plentiful (longest I've had to walk is 15 minutes), postal and early voting opens 2 weeks before hand, and employers are required to make sure their employees can vote on Saturday if they are working.
So, all in all, an easy thing.
The Australian Parliament has two houses. The House of Representatives currently has 151 members (which will drop to 150 after this election), and each represents an electorate. Each electorate has approximately the same number of enrolled voters in it, so the House of Representatives gives an approximately equal voice to each enrolled voter in the country. The count of electorates in Australia (and therefore the count of members of the House of Representatives) is based on population counts, and as a result periodically the Australian Electoral Commission must do a redistribution of the electorate boundaries when the population shifts have changed things enough. The last review of the numbers was in 2023 which resulted in a redistribution that will take place in this election. The redistribution removed one electorate each from New South Wales (now 46) and Victoria (now 38) and added one to Western Australia (now 16) reducing the total number of seats from 151 to 150.
The Senate has 76 members, with 12 members representing each of the 6 States (Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania) with 2 members each representing the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. The Senate gives each State a theoretically equal voice.
Those numbers are governed by the Constitution of Australia. In the Constitution it states that each of the original six States of Australia must have have at least six Senate seats, and must be an equal number. Each of the original six States much have at least five seats in the House of Representatives, and the total number must be "as nearly as practicable, twice the number of Senators".
As per usual in Australia, this federal election is actually two elections in one. We will be voting for a new House of Representatives (also known as the Lower House) which has all 150 seats up for election. We will also be voting for just over half the Senate (also known as the Upper House), with 40 of the 76 seats up for election (the reasons why I will explain later).
In Australia the two elections can happened separately but rarely do. The reason for this is that the Senate has (mostly) fixed terms while the House of Reps has variable terms. There can be instances where an election for one house is required but not the other, but mostly this is avoided because it's cheaper to run them together, and also historic records show that holding the two elections separately usually results in the party that's in government to do much worse than normal. Since it's the party in government that chooses when the elections are held, they prefer not to do worse. :)
Members of the House of Reps start the job the moment their election is confirmed. With the election on Saturday, the vast majority of them will be confirmed by Monday. The first sitting of the new parliament must be within 30 days of the election, and the parliament automatically dissolves (and triggers the next House of Reps election) three years after that first sitting if it hasn't been dissolved earlier.
Four of the Senators (two for the ACT and two for the Northern Territory) follow the same rules as the House of Reps.
The rest of the Senators have fixed 6 year terms, starting on July 1 and ending on June 30 six years later. There are 12 Senators for each of the States (Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia) and six of each states Senators are up for election every three years.
So, that means 150 members of the House of Reps and 4 Senators will start their job within 30 days of the election, most likely within seven days of the election, and 36 Senators will start their job on July 1.
As I said, mostly the elections happen together, but... Senate elections cannot occur more than 1 year before the end of the term. As a result, if the next election was held on the last Saturday of June 2024 it would only be a House of Reps election, but if it was held on the first Saturday of July 2024 it would be for both Houses, since the next Senate terms ends on June 30 2025.
In Australia the leader of the Government is the Prime Minister, and is not elected separately. The Prime Minister (or PM as they are usually referred to) is the leader of whichever party holds the House of Representatives. As a result, party politics means that the PM will tend to change over time, as the leader of the party changes. Quite often this happening will be beaten up in the media as "un-Australian" and "not the leader the people voted for" and all that sort of thing. However it is actually very Australian, as it's what has been happening for over 100 years now, and since they didn't vote for the previous PM, not having voted for the new PM doesn't really matter. Currently, the Australian Labour Party holds 77 of the 151 seats in the House of Representatives, and therefore the Leader of the Party is the Prime Minister of Australia.
Bills (the things that get turned into the Laws of this Country) can be introduced by members of either house, except if is an appropriation bill (the bill is to do with proposing an expenditure or levying a tax). Appropriation bills can only be introduced by members of the House of Representatives.
The procedure to turn a Bill into Law is theoretically simple. The Bill is introduced into one of the two houses by the appropriate member. It is discussed, possibly amended, and eventually voted on. If it passes the vote, it is then sent to the other house for the same treatment. If it is amended in the other house, it must return to the first house for another round. Once the bill has been passed by both houses in exactly the same form (so no new amendments) it becomes law. The only variation to this is that in addition to not being allowed to be introduced into the Senate, appropriation bills can not be amended in the Senate either, only passed or rejected.
Theoretically, as the Queen's Representative, the Governor General can refuse to allow a bill to pass into law, but that power is nowadays nothing more than a formality.
