Members of the Australian Senate, 2014–2016
Senate composition at 1 July 2014
Government (33) - (6 seat minority)
Liberal (23)
Liberal National (6)
National Party (3)
Country Liberal (1)
Opposition (25)
Labor (25)
Crossbench (18)
Greens (10)
Palmer United (3) [i]
Democratic Labour (1) [ii]
Family First (1)
Liberal Democrats (1)
Motoring Enthusiast (1)
Xenophon (1)
Changes in composition
- ^ Jacqui Lambie resigned from the Palmer United Party to sit as an independent from 24 November 2014. Glenn Lazarus resigned from the Palmer United Party to sit as an independent from 13 March 2015.
- ^ John Madigan resigned from the DLP on 4 September 2014 and sat thereafter as an independent.
This is a list of members of the Australian Senate between July 2014 and May 2016.[1] Half of the state senators had been elected at the August 2010 election and had terms due to finish on 30 June 2017; the other half of the state senators were elected at the September 2013 election and had terms due to finish on 30 June 2020. The territory senators were elected at the September 2013 election and their terms ended at the dissolution of the House of Representatives, which was May 2016. The new Senate first met in July 2014, with state senators elected in 2013 sworn in on 7 July 2014. Ascertaining the chamber's final composition was complicated by the loss of 1,375 ballot papers in Western Australia, leading to the Court of Disputed Returns voiding the result there, and necessitating a special Senate election in Western Australia (held on 5 April 2014).
All senators' terms were truncated when the double dissolution deadlock provisions were triggered in 2016, leading to the dissolution of all of both houses of parliament on 9 May 2016[2] which led to a full-senate election, rather than a more common half-senate election, at the 2 July 2016 general election.
Notes[edit]
- ^ a b c d e There is no separate LNP party room. Senators Brandis, Lindgren, McGrath and Macdonald sat in the Liberal party room.
- ^ a b Western Australian Senator Joe Bullock resigned from the Senate on 13 April 2016. Pat Dodson was appointed as his replacement on 28 April 2016.
- ^ a b There is no separate LNP party room. Senators Canavan and O'Sullivan sat in the National party room.
- ^ On 5 April 2017 the High Court held that South Australian Family First Senator Bob Day had been incapable of sitting as a senator from 26 February 2016 as he had an indirect interest in an agreement with the Commonwealth.[3] The High Court had previously held that the presence of a person who was not validly a senator did not invalidate the proceedings of the Senate.[4]
- ^ a b New South Wales Labor Senator John Faulkner resigned from the Senate on 6 February 2015. Jenny McAllister was appointed as his replacement on 6 May 2015.
- ^ a b Australian Capital Territory Labor Senator Kate Lundy resigned from the Senate on 24 March 2015. Former ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher was appointed as her replacement on 25 March 2015.
- ^ a b c d e The term of a territory senator ends at the dissolution of the House of Representatives, which was July 2016.
- ^ Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie resigned from the Palmer United Party on 24 November 2014 and sat thereafter as an independent.
- ^ Queensland Senator Glenn Lazarus resigned from the Palmer United Party on 13 March 2015 and sat thereafter as an independent.
- ^ a b Queensland LNP Senator Brett Mason resigned from the Senate on 26 March 2015. Joanna Lindgren was appointed as his replacement on 21 May 2015.
- ^ Victorian Senator John Madigan resigned from the DLP on 4 September 2014 and sat thereafter as an independent.
- ^ a b Tasmanian Greens Senator Christine Milne resigned from the Senate on 10 August 2015. Nick McKim was appointed as her replacement on 19 August 2015.
- ^ New South Wales Labor Senator Bob Carr resigned on 24 October 2013, after the election in September 2013, creating two vacancies, the balance of his term & the new term to end on 30 June 2020. On 13 November 2013 Deborah O'Neill, who had lost her House of Representatives seat at the 2013 federal election, was appointed to the vacancy from 24 October 2013 to 30 June 2014. On 2 July 2013 O'Neill was appointed to the vacancy in the new term to 30 June 2020.
- ^ a b Victorian Liberal Senator Michael Ronaldson resigned from the Senate on 28 February 2016. James Paterson was appointed as his replacement on 9 March 2016.
- ^ Northern Territory Senator Nigel Scullion sat as the sole representative of the Country Liberal Party, the local equivalent of both the National and Liberal parties. He sat in the National party room, and served as the National Party deputy leader in the Senate.
- ^ a b South Australian Greens Senator Penny Wright resigned from the Senate on 10 September 2015. Robert Simms was appointed as her replacement on 22 September 2015.
References[edit]
- ^ "Members of the Senate" (PDF). Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Commonwealth of Australia: Senate. 7 July 2014. pp. ii–iii.
- ^ "Correspondence between the Prime Minister and the Governor-General concerning the double dissolution of Parliament" (PDF). Governor General of Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 May 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
- ^ Re Day [No 2] [2017] HCA 14; "Judgment summary" (PDF). High Court of Australia.
- ^ Vardon v O'Loghlin [1907] HCA 69, (1907) 5 CLR 201.
