The pollies want more 1 FIRST Edition

There is not such broad agreement, however, about how to overcome the annoying fact that our 101-year-old Constitution, one of the longest observed in the history of democracies, states that the number of members in the House of Representatives must be twice the number of senators and that there mus...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHerald-Sun news-pictorial
Main Author Costigan, Peter
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Melbourne, Vic Nationwide News Pty Ltd 29.04.2002
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Summary:There is not such broad agreement, however, about how to overcome the annoying fact that our 101-year-old Constitution, one of the longest observed in the history of democracies, states that the number of members in the House of Representatives must be twice the number of senators and that there must be a minimum of six senators from each state. Parliament can change the number upwards and has done so twice, first to 10 per state and then to the current 12, plus four from the two territories who get in because the Constitution ignored them. The Constitution also states that senators are elected for six-year terms. Apart from the House of Commons, the longest continuous elected body and arguably the most successful in democratic history is the United States Congress, on which the Australian Parliament is more modelled than the Commons.
ISSN:1038-3433