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Nexus Clause
Section 24 of the Constitution of Australia is titled "Constitution of House of Representatives". It provides that the House of Representatives be "directly chosen by the people of the Commonwealth" and have twice as many seats as the Senate. It also provides a formula for the number of seats in each state, subject to later amendment by the parliament, and guarantees at least five members for each original state. Text The House of Representatives shall be composed of members directly chosen by the people of the Commonwealth, and the number of such members shall be, as nearly as practicable, twice the number of the senators. The number of members chosen in the several States shall be in proportion to the respective numbers of their people, and shall, until the Parliament otherwise provides, be determined, whenever necessary, in the following manner: (i) a quota shall be ascertained by dividing the number of the people of the Commonwealth, as shown by the latest statistics of the Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constitution Of Australia
The Constitution of Australia (or Australian Constitution) is a written constitution, constitutional document that is Constitution, supreme law in Australia. It establishes Australia as a Federation of Australia, federation under a constitutional monarchy and outlines the structure and powers of the Australian government's three constituent parts, the Government of Australia, executive, Parliament of Australia, legislature, and Judiciary of Australia, judiciary. The constitution was drafted between 1891 and 1898, through a series of Constitutional Convention (Australia), conventions conducted by representatives of the six self-governing British colonies in Australia. The final draft was then approved in a 1898–1900 Australian constitutional referendums, set of referendums from 1898 to 1900. The British government objected to some elements of the final draft, but a slightly modified form was enacted as section 9 of the ''Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900'', an Ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Kirby (judge)
Michael Donald Kirby (born 18 March 1939) is an Australian jurist and academic who is a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, serving from 1996 to 2009. He has remained active in retirement; in May 2013 he was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to lead an inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea, which reported in February 2014. Early life and education Michael Donald Kirby was born on 18 March 1939 at Crown Street Women's Hospital to Donald and Jean Langmore (née Knowles) Kirby. He was the eldest of five siblings, followed by twins Donald William and David Charles (the latter died at 18 months from pneumonia), David, and Diana Margaret. In 1943 his grandmother, Norma Gray, remarried and her second husband was Jack Simpson, National Treasurer of the Australian Communist Party. Although Kirby came to admire Simpson, neither he nor his immediate family embraced the ideology. His father supported the Australian Labor Party, but never became a m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1967 Australian Referendum (Parliament)
The first part of the 1967 Australian referendum to change the Constitution was the Parliament question, which related to the relative number of members in each house of the Australian Parliament − the so-called "nexus". The 1967 Australian referendum called by the Holt Government on 27 May 1967 consisted of two parts, with the second question relating to Aboriginal Australians. Section 24 of the Australian Constitution requires that the number of members in the House of Representatives be, as nearly as possible, twice the number of members in the Senate. Constitution of House of Representatives. The most important effect of the "nexus" in the Australian Constitution is to prevent the dilution of the collective voting power of the Senate, which represents the Australian states equally, in any joint sitting of both houses following a double dissolution election. The nexus ensures that Senators will always have about one-third of the votes in a joint sitting, and Members of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Double Dissolution
A double dissolution is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks in the bicameral Parliament of Australia between the House of Representatives (lower house) and the Senate (upper house). A double dissolution is the only circumstance in which the entire Senate can be dissolved. Similar to the United States Congress, but unlike the British Parliament, Australia's two parliamentary houses generally have almost equal legislative power (the Senate may reject outright but cannot amend appropriation (money) bills, which must originate in the House of Representatives). Governments, which are formed in the House of Representatives, can be frustrated by a Senate determined to reject their legislation. If the conditions (called a trigger) are satisfied, the prime minister can advise the governor-general to dissolve both houses of Parliament and call a full election. If, after the election, the legislation that triggered the double dissolution is still n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joint Sitting
A joint session or joint convention is, most broadly, when two normally separate decision-making groups meet, often in a special session or other extraordinary meeting, for a specific purpose. Most often it refers to when both houses of a bicameral legislature sit together. A joint session typically occurs to receive foreign or domestic diplomats or leaders, or to allow both houses to consider bills together. Some constitutions give special power to a joint session, voting by majority of all members of the legislature regardless of which house or chamber they belong to. For example, in Switzerland a joint session of the two houses elects the members of the Federal Council (cabinet). In India, disputes between houses are resolved by a joint sitting but without an intervening election. Australia In the Australian federal parliament, a joint sitting can be held, under certain conditions, to overcome a deadlock between the two houses. For a deadlock to be declared, a bill has to b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples of the Australian mainland and Tasmania, and the Torres Strait Islander peoples from the seas between Queensland and Papua New Guinea. The term Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples or the person's specific cultural group, is often preferred, though the terms First Nations of Australia, First Peoples of Australia and First Australians are also increasingly common; 812,728 people self-identified as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin in the 2021 Australian Census, representing 3.2% of the total population of Australia. Of these indigenous Australians, 91.4% identified as Aboriginal; 4.2% identified as Torres Strait Islander; while 4.4% identified with both groups. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reserved Seats
Several politico-constitutional arrangements use reserved political positions, especially when endeavoring to ensure the rights of women, minorities or other segments of society, or preserving a political balance of power. These arrangements can distort the democratic principle of '' one person - one vote'' in order to address special circumstances. Countries with reserved seats Europe Armenia Since the 2015 Armenian constitutional referendum, electoral law requires that four seats for ethnic minorities (one Russians, Yezidis, Assyrians and Kurds each) are allocated in the National Assembly. Belgium The Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region in Belgium includes 17 reserved seats for the Flemish minority, on a total of 89, but there are no separate electorates. Croatia Croatia reserves eight seats from the minorities and three for citizens living abroad in its parliament. There are three seats for Serbs, one for Italians, and a few more for other ethnic groups, where a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Susan Crennan
Susan Maree Crennan (née Walsh; born 1 July 1945), is a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy. Early life and education Crennan was born in Melbourne, one of six children born to World War 2 veteran, John Maurice Walsh, and Marie Therese (née Henley), Catholics of Irish descent. She attended Our Lady of Mercy College, Heidelberg and the University of Melbourne, where she received a Bachelor of Arts. She later received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Sydney. Crennan also completed a Postgraduate Diploma (History) at the University of Melbourne on the constitutional history of the state of Victoria. Career Crennan was a teacher of English literature and was employed by various patent attorneys in New South Wales and Victoria between 1967–1978. She was admitted as a barrister in New South Wales in 1979 and Victoria in 1980. She was made Queen's Counsel in Victoria in 1989 and in New South Wales in 1990. F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Gummow
William Montague Charles Gummow (born 9 October 1942) is a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy. He was appointed to the Court of Final Appeal (Hong Kong), Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong on 8 April 2013 as a non-permanent judge from other common law jurisdictions. Early life and education Justice Gummow completed his secondary education at Sydney Grammar School. He went on to study at the University of Sydney, where he graduated as Bachelor of Arts, and later Master of Laws, both with first-class honours. One of his lecturers was Sir Anthony Mason (judge), Anthony Mason. Career Early legal career Gummow first practiced as a solicitor with law firm Allens Arthur Robinson, Allen Allen and Hemsley. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1966 and became a partner of the firm in 1969. He had a diverse practice, including banking law, trusts and revenue law, intellectual property litigation, commercial transactions and some ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian House Of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the House of Representatives is a maximum of three years from the date of the first sitting of the House, but on only one occasion since Federation has the maximum term been reached. The House is almost always dissolved earlier, usually alone but sometimes in a double dissolution of both Houses. Elections for members of the House of Representatives are often held in conjunction with those for the Senate. A member of the House may be referred to as a "Member of Parliament" ("MP" or "Member"), while a member of the Senate is usually referred to as a "Senator". The government of the day and by extension the Prime Minister must achieve and maintain the confidence of this House in order to gain and remain in power. The House of Representatives c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murray Gleeson
Anthony Murray Gleeson (born 30 August 1938) is an Australian former judge who served as the 11th Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1998 to 2008. Gleeson was born in Wingham, New South Wales, and studied law at the University of Sydney. He was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in 1963 and appointed Queen's Counsel in 1974, becoming one of the state's leading barristers. Gleeson was appointed Chief Justice of New South Wales in 1988, serving until his elevation to the High Court in 1998. He and Samuel Griffith (appointed 1903) are the only people to have been elevated directly from the chief justiceship of a state to the chief justiceship of the High Court. As required by the constitution, he retired from the court when he reached his 70th birthday. In October 2020, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that Gleeson's daughter, Jacqueline Gleeson, will be elevated to the High Court following the retirement of Justice Virginia Bell. Early life Gleeson was born in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
