Why Is the House of Representatives Called the Lower House

About the Firm of Representatives

The Firm of Representatives is ane of the ii houses of the Australian Federal Parliament, the other existence the Senate. It is sometimes called the 'people's house' or the 'house of regime'.

Composition

The House currently has 151 Members. Each Member represents an balloter partition. 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 greatly in area (from a few square kilometres to over two 1000000 square kilometres). Members are elected by a organisation known as preferential voting, under which voters rank candidates in social club of preference.

Each House of Representatives may continue for up to three years, afterward which general elections for a new Business firm must exist held. Elections are oft held before the finish of this catamenia.

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

See also:

• Infosheet eight – Elections for the House of Representatives

Functions

Makes laws—The House's central function and the one which takes up most of its time is the consideration and passing of new laws and amendments or changes to existing laws. Whatever Fellow member can introduce a proposed law (bill) but most are introduced by the Government. To become constabulary, bills must be passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. They may kickoff in either business firm merely the majority of bills are introduced in the House of Representatives.

Determines the Regime—Subsequently an election the party (or coalition of parties) which has the most 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'southward Members and Senators. To remain in office a Government must keep the support of a bulk of Members of the House.

Publicises and scrutinises government administration—Fence of legislation and ministerial policy statements, discussion of matters of public importance, committee investigations, asking questions of Ministers (during question time—at 2 pm—Members may ask Ministers questions without find on matters relating to their piece of work and responsibilities; questions can likewise be asked on detect for written reply).

Represents the people—Members may present petitions from citizens and raise citizens' concerns and grievances in contend. Members also raise issues of business with Ministers and regime departments.

Controls regime expenditure—The Government cannot collect taxes or spend money unless allowed by police through the passage of taxation and appropriation bills. Expenditure is also examined by parliamentary committees.

See likewise:

• Infosheet 19 – the House, Government and Opposition

Sittings

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

The gild of concern for each sitting is gear up down by the rules of the Business firm (the Business firm of Representatives Standing and Sessional Orders). The largest proportion of time is taken up with debate on government business—mainly the consideration of bills. On Monday, 'private Members' twenty-four hour period', time is reserved for debating reports from parliamentary committees and concern sponsored past both government and non-government backbenchers.

All proceedings are open up to the public.

Meet also:

• Infosheet2 – A typical sitting twenty-four hour period
• Sitting calendar

Committees

The Firm has a comprehensive system of standing committees. These include:

• investigative committees—These committees carry out inquiries on matters of public policy or government administration. They take evidence from the public and study to the House with recommendations for government action. The system of general purpose standing committees parallels the functions of government, for example, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs; Economics, Finance and Public Administration; Instruction and Vocational Grooming; and

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

There are several articulation committees on which both Members and Senators serve together, for case, the Public Accounts and Inspect Committee.

See as well:

• Infosheet 4 – Committees

The Chamber

The photo at left shows the Bedroom of the House in action.

At the centre is the Speaker's Chair and the Tabular array of the House. The two Clerks at the Tabular array suggest the Chair and Members about procedure and record the formal minutes of proceedings. Hansard reporters sit at the small central table to tape the debates. Each Member has his or her own seat, with government Members to the right 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 end benches and speak from the Table, other Members speak from their places.

With the exception of question fourth dimension, Members are rarely all present in the Chamber at the same time, just are engaged in work elsewhere, including participating in committee meetings and debates in the Primary Committee. Members can spotter what is happening in the Bedroom at all times from their offices through the Parliament Business firm internal television system.

Backside the Speaker's Chair at get-go flooring level is the press gallery, reserved for media representatives. On the other three sides of the Bedchamber are the public galleries, which are always open to visitors.

See likewise:

The Federation Chamber

The Federation Chamber provides an additional forum for the second reading and consideration in detail stages of bills and fence of committee reports and papers presented to the Business firm. Ane of the House of Representatives committee rooms is dedicated to this function and fitted out as a small-scale Chamber. Its proceedings are also open up to the public.

See also:

• Infosheet 16 – The Federation Chamber

The Speaker

The start activity of the House post-obit an ballot is to elect one of its Members to be Speaker. The Speaker presides over the sittings of the House and is responsible for its assistants. The Deputy Speaker and Second Deputy Speaker are also elected. A panel of other Members, appointed past the Speaker, provides assistance in presiding over the Business firm and the Principal 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 back up relevant to the conduct of the Parliaments international and regional affairs. It provides general support for inter-parliamentary conferences and incoming and outgoing parliamentary delegations; training support for other parliaments, especially 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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