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 a... more

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 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... less