President of the Australian Senate

The President of the Australian Senate is the presiding officer of the Australian Senate, the upper house of the Parliament of Australia. The presiding officer of the lower house 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 electedndash 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. ["Senate Debates", 9 August 2005; 14 August 2007.]

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.

Presidents of the Senate

The current Deputy President is Senator Alan Ferguson (Lib, SA)

ee also

* Clerk of the Australian Senate

References