Australian Senate
Sign in to saveAlso known as Senate, Senate of Australia
Upper house of the Parliament of Australia
Key facts
- Type
- Upper house of the Parliament of Australia
- President
- Sue Lines , Labor , since 26 July 2022
- Leader of the government
- Penny Wong , Labor , since 1 June 2022
- Manager of government business
- Katy Gallagher , Labor , since 1 June 2022
- Leader of the opposition
- Michaelia Cash , Liberal , since 25 January 2025
- Manager of opposition business
- Jonathon Duniam , Liberal , since 25 January 2025
- Political groups
- Government (30) , Labor (30), Opposition (27) , Coalition , Liberal (23) , National (4) , Crossbench (19) , Greens (10), One Nation (4), Lambie Network ( 1 ), United Australia ( 1 ), Australia's Voice ( 1 ) Independent (2)
- Length of term
- 6 years (state senators), 3 years (territory senators)
- Voting system
- Proportional representation ( single transferable vote )
- Last election
- 3 May 2025 , ( Half Senate election )
- Next election
- On or before 20 May 2028
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Part of
- Parliament of Australia
- Official name
- Senate
- Country
- Australia
- Official website
- www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate
- Image
- Australian Senate - Parliament of Australia.jpg
Show 8 more facts
- applies to jurisdiction
- Australia
- different from
- Senat
- Commons category
- Australian Senate
- number of seats
- 76
- inception
- 1901-01-01
- topic's main category
- Category:Australian Senate
- opposite of
- Australian House of Representatives
- native label
- Senate
via Wikidata · CC0
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives.
The powers, role and composition of the Senate are set out in Chapter I of the federal constitution as well as federal legislation and constitutional convention. There are a total of 76 senators: 12 are elected from each of the six Australian states, regardless of population, and 2 each representing the Australian Capital Territory (including the Jervis Bay Territory and Norfolk Island) and the Northern Territory (including the Australian Indian Ocean Territories). Senators are popularly elected under the single transferable vote system of proportional representation in state-wide and territory-wide districts.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Australian Senate” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.