This is a list of members of the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives. The powers, role and composition of the Senate are set out in Chap ...

following the

2016 Australian federal election The 2016 Australian federal election was a double dissolution election held on Saturday, 2 July 2016, to elect all 226 members of the 45th Parliament of Australia, 45th Parliament of Australia, after an extended eight-week official campaign p ...

held on 2 July 2016. The election was held as a consequence of a

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 dissolutio ...

in which both houses of parliament were dissolved. Ordinarily, only half of the senators terms end at each election. In this case, all 76 senators were elected. At the first sitting following the election, half of the senators representing each of the six

states of Australia The states and territories are the national subdivisions and second level of government of Australia. The states are partially sovereign, administrative divisions that are self-governing polities, having ceded some sovereign rights to the f ...

were allocated six-year terms to end on 30 June 2022, with the remainder allocated three-year terms to end on 30 June 2019. The terms of senators from the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

and the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

end on the day of the next federal election. In accordance with section 13 of the Constitution, Rotation of senators. it was left to the Senate to decide which senators were allocated six- and three-year terms. The senate resolved that the first elected six of twelve senators in each state would serve six-year terms, while the other six elected in each state would serve three-year terms. This had been the Senate practice on all seven previous occasions that required allocation of long and short terms. In 1983 the Joint Select Committee on Electoral Reform had unanimously recommended an alternative "recount" method to reflect proportional representation, and section 282 of the ''Commonwealth Electoral Act'' was added in 1984 to provide for a recount on that basis. This alternative method had been supported by both major parties in senate resolutions passed in 1998 and 2010. Despite the previous resolutions, an agreement between 's Mathias Cormann and 's Penny Wong led the Senate to choose the order-elected method again. As a result, in New South Wales, Labor's Deborah O'Neill got a six-year term at the expense of The Greens'

Lee Rhiannon Lee Rhiannon (formerly O'Gorman, ''née'' Brown; born 30 May 1951) is a former Australian politician who was a Australian Senate, Senator for New South Wales between July 2011 and August 2018. She was elected at the 2010 Australian federal ele ...

getting a three-year term, while in Victoria Liberal's Scott Ryan got a six-year term at the expense of the Justice Party's Derryn Hinch getting a three-year term. Both methods of allocation had the same outcome for all other senators.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Members of the Australian Senate, 2016-2019 Members of Australian parliaments by term 21st-century Australian politicians Australian Senate lists 2010s politics-related lists