Number of Millennials in the House of Representatives

About the House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is ane of the ii houses of the Australian Federal Parliament, the other being the Senate. Information technology is sometimes called the 'people'due south house' or the 'business firm of regime'.

Composition

The House currently has 151 Members. Each Fellow member represents an balloter segmentation. The boundaries of these electorates are adjusted from time to time so that they all contain approximately equal numbers of electors—considering of the distribution of Australia's population they vary profoundly in surface area (from a few square kilometres to over ii million square kilometres). Members are elected by a arrangement known every bit preferential voting, under which voters rank candidates in guild of preference.

Each House of Representatives may continue for up to 3 years, later which general elections for a new House must be held. Elections are often held before the end of this menstruation.

The master political parties represented in the House are the Australian Labor Party, the Liberal Party of Australia and the National Party of Commonwealth of australia. In recent years there has also been a number of contained parties and Members.

See as well:

• Infosheet viii – Elections for the House of Representatives

Functions

Makes laws—The House's cardinal function and the one which takes up well-nigh of its time is the consideration and passing of new laws and amendments or changes to existing laws. Whatsoever Member tin introduce a proposed law (nib) but near are introduced by the Government. To become law, bills must be passed past both the House of Representatives and the Senate. They may start in either house but the majority of bills are introduced in the Firm of Representatives.

Determines the Authorities—After 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 Government minister and other Ministers are appointed from among the party'south Members and Senators. To remain in office a Authorities must keep the back up of a majority of Members of the Business firm.

Publicises and scrutinises authorities assistants—Debate of legislation and ministerial policy statements, give-and-take of matters of public importance, committee investigations, asking questions of Ministers (during question time—at ii pm—Members may enquire Ministers questions without find on matters relating to their piece of work and responsibilities; questions tin also exist asked on notice for written reply).

Represents the people—Members may nowadays petitions from citizens and heighten citizens' concerns and grievances in contend. Members also heighten issues of concern with Ministers and regime departments.

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

Run across also:

• Infosheet 19 – the Firm, Regime and Opposition

Sittings

The normal sitting design for the House extends from February to March, May to June and August to December. During these periods the House commonly meets in blocks of 2 sitting weeks followed by two non-sitting weeks. Ordinarily the House sits from Monday to Thursday each sitting week.

The order of concern for each sitting is set downward by the rules of the House (the House of Representatives Standing and Sessional Orders). The largest proportion of time is taken upwards with debate on authorities business—mainly the consideration of bills. On Mon, 'private Members' mean solar day', time is reserved for debating reports from parliamentary committees and business sponsored by both government and non-authorities backbenchers.

All proceedings are open to the public.

Meet also:

• Infosheet2 – A typical sitting day
• Sitting agenda

Committees

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

• investigative committees—These committees carry out inquiries on matters of public policy or regime administration. They take evidence from the public and report to the House with recommendations for authorities action. The system of full general purpose standing committees parallels the functions of authorities, for example, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs; Economic science, Finance and Public Administration; Education and Vocational Preparation; and

• domestic or internal committees—These committees are concerned with the operation of the Firm, for example, Process, Privileges, Members' Interests.

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

See also:

• Infosheet 4 – Committees

The Chamber

The photograph at left shows the Chamber of the Business firm in action.

At the middle is the Speaker's Chair and the Tabular array of the House. The two Clerks at the Table advise the Chair and Members almost procedure and record the formal minutes of proceedings. Hansard reporters sit at the small-scale cardinal table to tape the debates. Each Member has his or her own seat, with government Members to the correct 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 Table, other Members speak from their places.

With the exception of question time, Members are rarely all present in the Chamber at the aforementioned fourth dimension, simply are engaged in work elsewhere, including participating in committee meetings and debates in the Main Committee. Members can sentinel what is happening in the Bedroom at all times from their offices through the Parliament Business firm internal tv set system.

Behind the Speaker'due south Chair at kickoff floor level is the printing gallery, reserved for media representatives. On the other three sides of the Chamber are the public galleries, which are always open to visitors.

See also:

The Federation Bedroom

The Federation Bedroom provides an additional forum for the 2d reading and consideration in detail stages of bills and argue of commission reports and papers presented to the House. I of the House of Representatives committee rooms is defended to this role and fitted out as a small-scale Bedchamber. Its proceedings are too open up to the public.

See as well:

• Infosheet 16 – The Federation Sleeping room

The Speaker

The offset activeness of the Firm following an election is to elect i 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 Second Deputy Speaker are also elected. A console of other Members, appointed by the Speaker, provides help in presiding over the Firm and the Main Committee. When in the Chair these Members are referred to as 'Deputy Speaker'.

See also:

• Infosheet 3 – The Speaker

Inter-Parliamentary Relations

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

The IPROs objective is to back up 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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