Section
7. The Senate
8. Qualification of electors
9. Method of election of senators; Times and places
10. [Application of State laws]
11. Failure to choose senators
12. Issue of writs
13. Rotation of senators
14. Further provision for rotation
15. Casual vacancies
16. Qualifications of senator
17. Election of President
18. Absence of President
19. Resignation of senator
20. Vacancy by absence
21. Vacancy to be notified
22. Quorum
23. Voting in the Senate
The Senate
7. The Senate shall be composed of senators for each State,
directly chosen by the people of the State, voting in whatever number of
electorates per State is prescribed by the Parliament.
The Parliament may make laws increasing or diminishing the number of senators for each State, but so that equal representation of the several Original States shall be maintained and that no Original State shall have less than six senators.
The senators shall be chosen for a term of six years, and the names of
the senators chosen for each State shall be certified by the Governor to
the Governor-General.
[Edited; see Comments]
Qualification of electors
8. The qualification of electors of senators shall be [the same
as] the qualification for electors of members of the House of
Representatives. In the choosing of senators each elector shall vote only
once.
[Edited; see Comment]
Method of election of senators
9. The Parliament of the Commonwealth may make laws prescribing
the method of choosing senators, but so that the method shall be uniform
for all the States. Subject to any such law, the Parliament of each State
may make laws prescribing the method of choosing the senators for that
State.
Times and places
The Parliament of a State may make laws for determining the times and
places of elections of senators for the State.
[Unaltered]
[Section 10 deleted; see Comment]
Failure to choose senators
11. The Senate may proceed to the despatch of business,
notwithstanding the failure of any State to provide for its representation
in the Senate.
[Unaltered]
Issue of writs
12. The Governor of any State may cause writs to be issued for
elections of senators for the State. In case of the dissolution of the
Senate the writs shall be issued within ten days from the proclamation of
such dissolution.
[Unaltered]
Rotation of senators
13. As soon as may be... after each first meeting of the Senate
following a dissolution thereof, the Senate shall divide the senators
chosen for each State into two classes, as nearly equal in number as
practicable; and the places of the senators of the first class shall become
vacant at the expiration of three years, and the places of those of the
second class at the expiration of six years, from the beginning of their
term of service, and afterwards the places of senators shall become vacant
at the expiration of six years from the beginning of their term of service.
The election to fill vacant places shall be made within one year before the places are to become vacant.
For the purposes of this section the term of service of a senator shall
be taken to begin on the first day of July following the day of his
election, except in the case... of the election next after any dissolution
of the Senate, when it shall be taken to begin on the first day of July
preceding the day of his election.
[Edited; see Comment]
Further provision for rotation
14. Whenever the number of senators for a State is increased or
diminished, the Parliament of the Commonwealth may make such provision for
the vacating of the places of senators for the State as it deems necessary
to maintain regularity in the rotation.
[Unaltered]
Casual vacancies
15. If the place of a senator becomes vacant before the expiration
of his term of service, the Houses of Parliament of the State for which he
was chosen, sitting and voting together, or, if there is only one House of
that Parliament, that House, shall choose a person to hold the place until
the expiration of the term. But if the Parliament of the State is not in
session when the vacancy is notified, the Governor of the State, with the
advice of the Executive Council thereof, may appoint a person to hold the
place until the expiration of fourteen days from the beginning of the next
session of the Parliament of the State or the expiration of the term,
whichever first happens.
Where a vacancy has at any time occurred in the place of a senator chosen by the people of a State and, at the time when he was so chosen, he was publicly recognised by a particular political party as being an endorsed candidate of that party and publicly represented himself to be such a candidate, a person chosen or appointed under this section in consequence of that vacancy, or in consequence of that vacancy and a subsequent vacancy or vacancies, shall, unless there is no member of that party available to be chosen or appointed, be a member of that party.
Where--
(a) in accordance with the last preceding paragraph, a member of
a particular political party is chosen or appointed to hold the place of a
senator whose place had become vacant; and
(b) before taking his seat he ceases to be a member of that party
(otherwise than by reason of the party having ceased to exist),
he shall be deemed not to have been so chosen or appointed and the vacancy
shall be again notified in accordance with section twenty-one of this
Constitution.
The name of any senator chosen or appointed under this section shall be
certified by the Governor of the State to the Governor-General.
[Paragraphs shown above are unaltered, but four further paragraphs have
been deleted; see Comment]
Qualifications of senator
16. The qualifications of a senator shall be the same as those of
a member of the House of Representatives.
[Unaltered]
Election of President
17. The Senate shall, before proceeding to the despatch of any
other business, choose a senator to be the President of the Senate; and as
often as the office of President becomes vacant the Senate shall again
choose a senator to be the President.
The President shall cease to hold his office if he ceases to be a
senator. He may be removed from office by a vote of the Senate, or he may
resign his office or his seat by writing addressed to the
Governor-General.
[Unaltered]
Absence of President
18. Before or during any absence of the President, the Senate may
choose a senator to perform his duties in his absence.
[Unaltered]
Resignation of senator
19. A senator may, by writing addressed to the President, or to
the Governor-General if there is no President or if the President is absent
from the Commonwealth, resign his place, which thereupon shall become
vacant.
[Unaltered]
Vacancy by absence
20. The place of a senator shall become vacant if for two
consecutive months of any session of the Parliament he, without the
permission of the Senate, fails to attend the Senate.
[Unaltered]
Vacancy to be notified
21. Whenever a vacancy happens in the Senate, the President, or if
there is no President or if the President is absent from the Commonwealth
the Governor-General, shall notify the same to the Governor of the State in
the representation of which the vacancy has happened.
[Unaltered]
Quorum
22. The Parliament [may determine] the... number of... senators...
necessary to constitute a meeting of the Senate for the exercise of its
powers.
[Edited; see Comment]
Voting in the Senate
23. Questions arising in the Senate shall be determined by a
majority of votes, and each senator shall have one vote. The President
shall in all cases be entitled to a vote; and when the votes are equal the
question shall pass in the negative.
[Unaltered]
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The first paragraph ends "voting, until the Parliament otherwise provides, as one electorate." I have combined this with para 51(xxxvi) as shown in the Example. The Parliament has never provided otherwise, but it has restated the provision that each State is one electorate for Senate elections, in the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, s ##.
I have deleted the second paragraph, which states:
But until the Parliament of the Commonwealth otherwise provides, the Parliament of the State of Queensland, if that State be an Original State, may make laws dividing the State into divisions and determining the number of senators to be chosen for each division, and in the absence of such provision the State shall be one electorate.
The Commonwealth Parliament expressly terminated this power of the Queensland Parliament in the #### Act.
The third paragraph (second paragraph as edited) has a first sentence which provides "Until the Parliament otherwise provides there shall be six senators for each original State." Parliament has changed the number to ten in 1949 and to 14 in 198#. The power to "otherwise provide" is expressly stated in the following sentence (the first sentence of this paragraph as edited).
The final paragraph is unaltered.
The full text is:
8. The qualification of electors of senators shall be in each State that which is prescribed by this Constitution, or by the Parliament, as the qualification for electors of members of the House of Representatives; but in the choosing of senators each elector shall vote only once.
You might think that the qualification of electors ought to be prescribed by the Constitution, but the reference to prescription by the Constitution is simply because section 30 provided for State laws about the qualification of electors to apply until the new Parliament passed an Electoral Act; see the Comment to section 30. Once the first Electoral Act was passed, the prescription "by the Constitution" terminated. The Comment also explains the reason for the statement that each elector shall vote only once, and my doubt as to whether it really belongs among the permanent provisions.
This section reads:
Application of State laws
10.Until the Parliament otherwise provides, but subject to this Constitution, the laws in force in each State, for the time being, relating to elections for the more numerous House of the Parliament of the State shall, as nearly as practicable, apply to elections of senators for the State.
It is unnecessary to translate this into a permanent grant of power to the Parliament to make laws for senate elections, because that is stated expressly in section 9.
[Return to space left by Section 10]
References to the first Commonwealth election have been deleted at the places shown by ellipsis (three dots). In the first paragraph the words deleted are "after the Senate first meets, and". In the third paragraph "the first election and" has been deleted.
After the text shown, section 15 has four paragraphs which were inserted by the Constitution Alteration of 1977, to cover various eventualities in the period of the few months or years after the commencement of the Alteration. They are:
If the place of a senator chosen by the people of a State at the election of senators last held before the commencement of the Constitution Alteration (Senate Casual Vacancies) 1977 became vacant before that commencement and, at that commencement, no person chosen by the House or Houses of Parliament of the State, or appointed by the Governor of the State, in consequence of that vacancy, or in consequence of that vacancy and a subsequent vacancy or vacancies, held office, this section applies as if the place of the senator chosen by the people of the State had become vacant after that commencement.
A senator holding office at the commencement of the Constitution Alteration (Senate Casual Vacancies) 1977, being a senator appointed by the Governor of a State in consequence of a vacancy that had at any time occurred in the place of a senator chosen by the people of the State, shall be deemed to have been appointed to hold the place until the expiration of fourteen days after the beginning of the next session of the Parliament of the State that commenced or commences after he was appointed and further action under this section shall be taken as if the vacancy in the place of the senator chosen by the people of the State had occurred after that commencement.
Subject to the next succeeding paragraph, a senator holding office at the commencement of the Constitution Alteration (Senate Casual Vacancies) 1977 who was chosen by the House or Houses of Parliament of a State in consequence of a vacancy that had at any time occurred in the place of a senator chosen by the people of this State shall be deemed to have been chosen to hold office until the expiration of the term of service of the senator elected by the people of the State.
If, at or before the commencement of the Constitution Alteration (Senate Casual Vacancies) 1977, a law to alter the Constitution entitled "Constitution Alteration (Simultaneous Elections) 1977" came into operation [actually, it failed to pass at the referendum and therefore did not commence], a senator holding office at the commencement of that law who was chosen by the House or Houses of Parliament of a State in consequence of a vacancy that had at any time occurred in the place of a Senator chosen by the people of the State shall be deemed to have been chosen to hold office--
(a) if the senator elected by the people of the State had a term of service expiring on the thirtieth day of June, One thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight--until the expiration or dissolution of the first House of Representatives to expire or be dissolved after that law came into operation; or
(b) if the senator elected by the people of the State had a term of service expiring on the thirtieth day of June, One thousand nine hundred and eighty-one--until the expiration or dissolution of the second House of Representatives to expire or be dissolved after that law came into operation or, if there is an earlier dissolution of the Senate, until that dissolution.
I totally fail to understand why the Parliamentary drafters did not include a provision for the repeal of these paragraphs by ordinary Act once they had expired. The Constitution is cluttered enough with expired provisions without having this sort of rubbish added to it.
The full section provides:
22. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the presence of at least one-third of the whole number of the senators shall be necessary to constitute a meeting of the Senate for the exercise of its powers.
This has been combined with para 51(xxxvi) as shown in the Example.