Australian Senate

The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. There are a total of 76 senators: 12 are elected from each of the six Australian states regardless of population and 2 from each of the two self-governing internal Australian territories (the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory). Senators are popularly elected under the single transferable vote system of proportional representation.

The Australian Senate is equal in power to the House of Representatives, except that it cannot originate or amend money bills (taxes or laws appropriating money) – only reject or defer them. This feature, closer to the strong bicameralism of the US senate, is not present in other comparable Westminster systems (such as the UK House of Lords) making the Australian system a unique hybrid, sometimes called a "Washminster mutation".

Since 1948, the Senate has been elected using a proportional representation system with a much broader array of parties and independents represented in the chamber, with no individual party usually dominating. Following 1981, the government has only had a majority in the Senate from 2005–2007; otherwise, negotiations with other parties and independents have generally been necessary to pass legislation.