I am used by the Governor-General or the Monarch (King or Queen) on special occasions, such as the opening of a new Parliament. When I am being used, I am moved forward, and the President's chair is placed to the right. When I don't have a job to do, I am located directly behind the President's chair.
DPS AUSPIC/Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)
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The Australian Government is formed by the party or coalition of parties with the support of the majority – more than half – of members elected to the House of Representatives.
There are members of the government in the Senate. The government does not need to have the majority of seats in the Senate.
The government has many jobs including:
Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)
This diagram illustrates the role of the Australian Senate. The Senate: decides matters of national interest; represents the interests of people in their states or territories; proposes, debates and votes on bills and amendments; examines issues in committees; and scrutinises—closely examines—executive government.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
You are free to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work.
Attribution – you must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
Non-commercial – you may not use this work for commercial purposes.
No derivative works – you may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.
Waiver – any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
The opposition is formed by the largest party or coalition of parties that are not in government. The opposition is sometimes called the alternative government.
There are members of the opposition in the Senate. The opposition can have less than half or a majority of seats in the Senate.
The opposition has many jobs including:
Discover the role and work of the Australian Senate with this introductory video.
If you cannot access YouTube, please watch this version.
Minor parties only have a small number of members elected to Parliament.
Independents are members of Parliament who don’t belong to a political party.
Sometimes, minor parties and independents are called the crossbench because they sit on the seats that curve around at the end of the Senate and House of Representatives.
I am a member of the Senate who has been chosen to run the meetings of the Senate.
My job is to:
I am a senator who has been chosen to be the leader of the government team in the Senate.
My job is to:
We are members of the Australian Government who have been given an area of responsibility – a portfolio – for how Australia is run. Some areas of responsibility are health, foreign affairs and the environment.
Our job is to:
We are members of government who are not ministers.
Our job is to:
I am a senator who has been chosen to be the leader of the opposition team in the Senate.
My job is to:
We are members of the opposition who have been given the responsibility of scrutinising – closely examining – the work of ministers. We also develop our own ideas for how Australia should be run.
If the opposition becomes the government, we may become ministers, so it is important we know about the government departments we are responsible for examining.
We are members of the opposition who are not shadow ministers.
Our job is to:
I help the President of the Senate run meetings of the Senate. I am an expert on the rules of the Senate. I work here but I am not an elected member of parliament.
My job is to:
I help the Clerk and the President of the Senate run meetings of the Senate. I am an expert on the rules of the Senate. I work here but I am not an elected member of parliament.
My job is to:
I am responsible for taking care of the Black Rod. I work here but I am not an elected member of parliament.
My job is to:
I am a ceremonial object carried by the Usher of the Black Rod when leading the President of the Senate into the Senate at the start of each day. In fact, the Usher carries me whenever they are doing Senate work. If I don’t have a job to do, I stand next to the Usher’s chair on the government side of the Senate.
We record what is said in Parliament. We work here but we are not elected members of parliament.
Our job is to:
We are journalists, photographers, camera people and researchers who report on Parliament. We work for different media organisations and have offices here in Parliament House.
Our job is to: