President of The Australian Senate - Election

Election

The Senate shall, before proceeding to the despatch of any other business, choose a senator to be the President of the Senate; and as often as the office of President becomes vacant the Senate shall again choose a senator to be the President. The President shall cease to hold his office if he ceases to be a senator. He may be removed from office by a vote of the Senate, or he may resign his office or his seat by writing addressed to the Governor-General. —Commonwealth Of Australia Constitution Act, s 17

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 Senator to be elected as President, and the Opposition nominates a Senator to be Deputy President. If there are no other nominations, no election is required, however the Australian Greens in 2005 and again in 2007 put forward Senator Kerry Nettle as a rival candidate when the position of President was vacant. Neither Government nor Opposition Senators supported that candidacy.

The position of President has been disproportionately held by Senators representing the least populous states and territories. Of the 21 Senate presidents since 1901, 13 have come from the least populous states (Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania) or the Australian Capital Territory, and only eight have come from the three most populous states (New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland).

Following the election of the Howard government at the 1996 election, Labor's Mal Colston became an independent MP and Deputy President of the Senate. House examples of party-turned-independent speakers include Frederick Holder and Peter Slipper.

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