Section 13 of the Constitution of Australia provides for three aspects of the terms of members of the Australian Senate: the timing of elections, the commencement date of their terms and for the Senate to allocate long (six-year) and short (three-year) terms following a double dissolution of the Parliament of Australia. Rotation of senators. While members of the House of Representatives and territory senators have a maximum three-year term, state senators have a fixed six-year term, subject only to the parliament being dissolved by a double dissolution.
Timing of elections and commencement of terms Senate elections must be held in the 12 months prior to the expiry of the fixed term of the senate. The constitution originally provided for senate terms on calendar years, beginning on 1 January and ending on 31 December 6 years later. The 1906 referendum changed the terms to begin on 1 July and end on 30 June, primarily to enable simultaneous elections to be held in March.Odgers, J.R. (1991) Australian Senate Practice (6th Ed.), Royal Australian Institute of Public Administration, Canberra. p. 22 The amendments were passed, being approved by 82.65% of voters with a majority in all six states.. Despite the intention to hold elections in March, the first such Federal election was March 1983. The changes made to section 13 in 1906 are:
As soon as may be after the Senate first meets and after each first meeting of the Senate following a dissolution thereof, the Senate shall divide the senators chosen for each State into two classes, as nearly equal in number as practicable and the places of the senators of the first class shall become vacant at the expiration of the third year three years, and the places of those of the second class at the expiration of the sixth year six years, from the beginning of their term of service and afterwards the places of senators shall be vacant at the expiration of six years from the beginning of their term of service.
The election to fill vacant places shall be made in the year at the expiration of which within one year before the places are to become vacant.
For the purpose of this section the term of service of a senator shall be taken to begin on the first day of January July following the day of his election, except in the cases of the first election and of the election next after any dissolution of the Senate, when it shall be taken to begin on the first day of January July preceding the day of his election.
In relation to the commencement of terms, there is a subtle difference between a half senate election and a double dissolution. For a half senate election, the election can be held up to one year before the commencement of the new senate term on 1 July, which means there can be a considerable delay between the election and Senators taking their seats. For example, those elected at the 21 August 2010 election were required to wait 314 days before they took their seats. For a double dissolution, the terms are deemed to have commenced from the previous 1 July. This made no difference at the 2 July 2016 election where the backdating was just one day. The timing of the March 1983 election and May 1974 election meant that the "3-year" short term was less than 2.5 years.
Allocation of terms
Most members of the Australian Senate ordinarily serve fixed six-year terms, with half-senate elections every three years. When the Senate was initially formed, and on seven occasions since then, the entire Senate has been elected at once. On those occasions, the Constitution of Australia provides for the Senate to choose which of its members will serve long (six-year) terms and which will serve short (three-year) terms. The Constitution does not provide a process for the allocation of terms and it is left to the Senate to decide itself. Thus if one party had a majority in the Senate, in theory the Senate could decide that members of that party receive long terms, with the result that following the next half Senate election, the party would retain a significant majority, grossly distorting the intentions of the voters. The Senate is constrained from acting in this way by concerns about the potential political controversy, rather than any provision in the Constitution to prevent such an outcome.
Number of Senators There were originally six senators elected from each state for a total of 36 members. In 1948, Senate representation was increased to 10 senators for each state for a total to 60. In 1975, four senators were added to represent the territories, however their terms are synchronised with the House of Representatives. In 1984 the number of senators from each state was increased to 12, resulting in a total of 76.
Whole-senate elections Apart from the first election, whole-senate elections have been a consequence of a double dissolution where both houses were dissolved to address a deadlock.
Following the first election, several methods of allocating short and long terms were considered (including drawing lots), but the method eventually adopted was that the first three senators (of six) to be elected in each state received six-year terms, and those with fewer votes received three-year terms. The senate has continued to allocate the longer terms to the first-elected senators from each state following every whole-senate election.
ElectionResultsMembership afterwards 1901 1901 results 1901–1903 membership 1914 1914 results 1914–1917 membership 1951 1951 results 1951–1953 membership 1974 1974 results 1974–1975 membership 1975 1975 results 1975–1978 membership 1983 1983 results 1983–1985 membership 1987 1987 results 1987–1990 membership 2016 2016 results 2016–2019 membership
Electoral system
The electoral system used in the senate can affect the allocation of long and short terms after a double dissolution.
From 1901 the method of voting for the Senate was block voting, where each elector voted for as many candidates as there were vacancies. This system tended to result in all senators from a state belonging to the same party, the extreme of which was in the 1943 election where all 18 senators were members of the Labor party, with the following election in 1946 returning 15 of 18 senators for Labor, save for 2 Liberal and 1 Country senators from Queensland, meaning that from 1947 to 1950 Labor held 33 of the 36 Senate seats. The system did, however, make the allocation of terms simple. Thus in 1901 and 1914, the Senate resolved that the first three candidates elected would receive the long term.
Proportional representation The voting system used for the Senate changed in 1949 to a single transferable vote, which is designed to achieve proportional representation. In 1950 the Menzies Government saw difficulties with Senate voting after a double dissolution and passed a bill for a referendum that would enable the voters to determine which Senators would have a long (six-year) term and which have a short (three-year) term.Constitutional Alteration (Avoidance of Double Dissolution Deadlocks) Bill 1950 (Cth). The bill was not passed by the Senate. While the Government could have requested the Governor-General submit the proposal to a referendum under section 128 of the Constitution, Mode of altering the Constitution. it did not do so and the bill lapsed at the 1951 double dissolution. Despite Prime Minister Menzies' claim that a deadlock was "next door to being inevitable" following a double dissolution, the Coalition government won a Senate majority, winning six of the ten senate seats in Queensland, and Western Australia.
In 1951 the Senate again resolved that the first five candidates elected would receive the long term, The result of this division was that 18 Coalition & 12 Labor Senators received long terms, while 14 Coalition & 16 Labor Senators received short terms.
The Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in 1959 considered that constitutional effect should be given to past practice of the allocation of terms according to their relative success at the election. While a bill was introduced to the Senate in 1964 by the opposition, it was not passed and no such referendum was held.
The Senate again resolved that the first five candidates elected would receive the long term following the double dissolution elections in 1974, 1975, and 1983.
Proposed changes to the allocation of terms
Since 1984, each Australian state is represented in the Senate by twelve senators, and they serve for six years each, roughly double the term of a member of the House of Representatives. Half of these face re-election at each normal election. Following a double dissolution election, Australia's constitution re-establishes the rotation of senators by allowing the senate to allocate half of the elected state senators a short term. The same method has been used to allocate long (six-year) and short (three-year) terms on every occasion, though the voting system has changed during that time. That method is to allocate the longer terms to the senators who were elected first in each state.
Section 282 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 was introduced as an amendment in 1984 with the effect of providing access to another method of allocating short and long terms. In both of the double dissolution elections that have taken place since that section was added, two parties have collaborated to allocate themselves two extra long term seats by choosing the more favourable method. In both cases, this was the traditional method. Despite two senate resolutions to use the new method, it has never been employed.
+ Senators affected Year of election State represented Party represented Senator name Term allocated Collaborating parties Reference 1987 NSW Democrats Paul McLean Long Labor/Democrats 1987 NSW Nationals David Brownhill Short Labor/Democrats 1987 VIC Democrats Janet Powell Long Labor/Democrats 1987 VIC Nationals Julian McGauran Short Labor/Democrats 1987 SA Labor Graham Maguire Long Labor/Democrats 1987 SA Liberal Robert Hill Short Labor/Democrats 1987 QLD Liberal Warwick Parer Long Labor/Democrats 1987 QLD Labor Gerry Jones Short Labor/Democrats 2016 NSW Labor Deborah O'Neill Long Liberal/Labor 2016 NSW Australian Greens Lee Rhiannon Short Liberal/Labor 2016 VIC Liberal Scott Ryan Long Liberal/Labor 2016 VIC Justice Party Derryn Hinch Short Liberal/Labor
Joint Select Committee
In 1983 the Joint Select Committee on Electoral Reform unanimously recommended an alternative "recount" method to reflect proportional representation. Their recommendations included: Following a double dissolution election, the Australian Electoral Commission conduct a second count, of Senate votes, using the half Senate quota, to establish the order of election to the Senate, and therefore the terms of election; and the practice of ranking Senators in accordance with their relative success at the election be submitted to electors at a referendum for incorporation, in: the Constitution, by way of amendment, so that the issue is placed beyond doubt and removed from the political arena.
1984 legislation