Order of Power in the House of Representatives

Near the House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Australian Federal Parliament, the other being the Senate. Information technology is sometimes chosen the 'people's house' or the 'firm of government'.

Composition

The House currently has 151 Members. Each Member represents an electoral partition. The boundaries of these electorates are adapted from fourth dimension to fourth dimension so that they all contain approximately equal numbers of electors—because of the distribution of Australia's population they vary greatly in area (from a few foursquare kilometres to over two million square kilometres). Members are elected by a system known as preferential voting, nether which voters rank candidates in society of preference.

Each Firm of Representatives may continue for upwardly to three years, later which general elections for a new Business firm must exist held. Elections are often held before the end of this period.

The main political parties represented in the House are the Australian Labor Political party, the Liberal Party of Australia and the National Party of Australia. In recent years there has likewise been a number of contained parties and Members.

Run across also:

• Infosheet 8 – Elections for the House of Representatives

Functions

Makes laws—The Firm'due south primal function and the one which takes up almost of its fourth dimension is the consideration and passing of new laws and amendments or changes to existing laws. Whatever Member can introduce a proposed law (bill) but most are introduced past the Government. To get law, bills must be passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. They may start in either firm but the majority of bills are introduced in the House of Representatives.

Determines the Authorities—Later on an ballot the political party (or coalition of parties) which has the virtually Members in the House of Representatives becomes the governing party. Its leader becomes Prime Minister and other Ministers are appointed from among the political party'due south Members and Senators. To remain in office a Government must go along the support of a majority of Members of the Business firm.

Publicises and scrutinises government administration—Debate of legislation and ministerial policy statements, discussion of matters of public importance, committee investigations, asking questions of Ministers (during question fourth dimension—at 2 pm—Members may ask Ministers questions without notice on matters relating to their work and responsibilities; questions tin can also be asked on notice for written answer).

Represents the people—Members may nowadays petitions from citizens and raise citizens' concerns and grievances in debate. Members also raise problems of business organisation with Ministers and government departments.

Controls government expenditure—The Authorities cannot collect taxes or spend money unless allowed by law through the passage of taxation and appropriation bills. Expenditure is too examined by parliamentary committees.

Run across also:

• Infosheet nineteen – the House, Government and Opposition

Sittings

The normal sitting blueprint for the Business firm extends from February to March, May to June and August to December. During these periods the House usually meets in blocks of two sitting weeks followed past two non-sitting weeks. Normally the Firm sits from Monday to Thursday each sitting week.

The social club of business organization for each sitting is fix down past the rules of the House (the Firm of Representatives Standing and Sessional Orders). The largest proportion of time is taken up with debate on government business organisation—mainly the consideration of bills. On Monday, 'private Members' mean solar day', time is reserved for debating reports from parliamentary committees and business organization sponsored past both authorities and non-authorities backbenchers.

All proceedings are open up to the public.

See also:

• Infosheet2 – A typical sitting day
• Sitting calendar

Committees

The Firm has a comprehensive system of continuing committees. These include:

• investigative committees—These committees carry out inquiries on matters of public policy or regime assistants. They have show from the public and study to the House with recommendations for authorities action. The organisation of general purpose standing committees parallels the functions of government, for example, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Diplomacy; Economics, Finance and Public Administration; Education and Vocational Training; and

• domestic or internal committees—These committees are concerned with the operation of the House, for case, Procedure, Privileges, Members' Interests.

There are several articulation committees on which both Members and Senators serve together, for example, the Public Accounts and Audit Committee.

See also:

• Infosheet four – Committees

The Sleeping room

The photograph at left shows the Sleeping accommodation of the House in action.

At the centre is the Speaker'southward Chair and the Table of the House. The two Clerks at the Table advise the Chair and Members about procedure and record the formal minutes of proceedings. Hansard reporters sit down at the pocket-size primal tabular array to record the debates. Each Member has his or her own seat, with government Members to the right of the Speaker and opposition and other non-government Members to the left. Ministers and senior opposition Members (the shadow ministry) sit on the facing front benches and speak from the Tabular array, other Members speak from their places.

With the exception of question time, Members are rarely all nowadays in the Sleeping room at the aforementioned time, but are engaged in piece of work elsewhere, including participating in committee meetings and debates in the Main Commission. Members can watch what is happening in the Sleeping room at all times from their offices through the Parliament House internal television system.

Behind the Speaker'southward Chair at first floor level is the press gallery, reserved for media representatives. On the other 3 sides of the Bedroom are the public galleries, which are always open up to visitors.

See also:

The Federation Chamber

The Federation Bedchamber provides an additional forum for the second reading and consideration in detail stages of bills and debate of commission reports and papers presented to the House. One of the House of Representatives commission rooms is dedicated to this function and fitted out as a minor-scale Chamber. Its proceedings are also open to the public.

See also:

• Infosheet 16 – The Federation Chamber

The Speaker

The first action of the Business firm following an election is to elect one of its Members to be Speaker. The Speaker presides over the sittings of the House and is responsible for its administration. The Deputy Speaker and 2d Deputy Speaker are also elected. A panel of other Members, appointed by the Speaker, provides assistance in presiding over the House and the Principal Commission. When in the Chair these Members are referred to as 'Deputy Speaker'.

Run into also:

• Infosheet three – The Speaker

Inter-Parliamentary Relations

The International and Parliamentary Relations Office (IPRO) provides advice and support relevant to the conduct of the Parliaments international and regional affairs. It provides general support for inter-parliamentary conferences and incoming and outgoing parliamentary delegations; training support for other parliaments, peculiarly the smaller parliaments in our region; and advice to the Presiding Officers and members on international parliamentary matters.

The IPROs objective is to support external relations for the Parliament with a view to achieving productive and amicable international and regional relationships with other parliaments and parliamentary bodies and organisations.

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Source: https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/House_of_Representatives/About_the_House_of_Representatives

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