Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Who is head of the Senate in Australia?
The position is provided for by Section 17 of the Constitution of Australia. The Senate elects one of its members as president at the start of each new term, or whenever the position is vacant. This is usually—though not necessarily—a member of the party or coalition that holds the most seats in the Senate. The largest party in the Senate is not always the governing party, as government is determined by the House of Representatives. The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives may consequently be from different parties.
This is a list of members of the Australian Senate from 1983 to 1985. It consisted of ten senators for each of the six states of Australia and two senators representing each of the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. All members were elected at the 1983 election following a double dissolution of both houses of parliament, rather than the normal case of only half of the state senators facing election.
The question of whether the Queen or the governor-general is Australia's head of state became a political one in the years prior to the Australian republic referendum in 1999. Among arguments advanced in that campaign some were for retaining the office of governor-general as the monarch's (nominal) representative, and others were for a popularly elected head of state. Republicans included in their campaign the idea that the Queen is head of state and not Australian and, as such, should be replaced with an Australian citizen; this was summed up in their slogan "a mate for head of state". Opponents of the move to make Australia a republic claim in response that Australia already has an Australian as head of state in the governor-general, who, since 1965, has invariably been an Australian citizen. The governor-general in 2004, Major General Michael Jeffery, said at the time: "Her Majesty is Australia's head of state but I am her representative and to all intents and purposes I carry out the full role." However, the following year, he declined to name the Queen as head of state, instead saying in response to a direct question, "the Queen is the monarch and I represent her and I carry out all the functions of head of state." The governor-general normally represents Australia internationally, making and receiving state visits, but the Queen also carries out some official duties representing Australia outside Australia, such as in the United Kingdom.
The President of the Senate is created under Article 56 of the Constitution of Malaysia. The office is similar to the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat: the president is elected by the members of the Senate and is expected to be politically impartial. If a member of the Dewan Negara is elected as the president and is a member of a state legislative assembly, he must resign from the assembly before exercising the functions of the office. As the president may hold different titles while in office, it also changes the style. The current president is Datuk SA. Vigneswaran. Therefore, while in session, the senators will call him as 'Datuk Yang di-Pertua' (Datuk President) or 'Tuan Yang di-Pertua' (Mr. President).
The Government of the Commonwealth of Australia is divided into three branches: the executive branch, composed of the Federal Executive Council, presided by the Governor-General, which delegates powers to the Cabinet of Australia, led by the Prime Minister; the legislative branch, composed of the Parliament of Australia's House of Representatives and Senate; and the judicial branch, composed of the High Court of Australia and the federal courts. Separation of powers is implied by the structure of the Constitution, the three branches of government being set out in separate chapters (chapters I to III). The Australian system of government combines elements of the Westminster and Washington systems with unique Australian characteristics, and has been characterised as a "Washminster mutation".
The current Leader of the Government in the Senate is Mathias Cormann. The current Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate is Simon Birmingham, who was appointed on the same date following the resignation of Mitch Fifield.
Parliament House is the meeting place of the Parliament of Australia, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. The building was designed by Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp Architects and opened on 1988 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. It cost more than A$1.1 billion to build.
Parliament House in Darwin is Australia's newest Parliament Building, it has been the seat of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 1994. Parliament House is located on State Square in the centre of Darwin, which is also the administrative centre of the Northern Territory law and government. It features Post modern features. The Northern Territory Library is housed in Parliament House.Construction of Parliament House began in 1990, and the building was completed in 1994, and officially opened by the Governor-General of Australia, Bill Hayden on 18 August 1994. Before Parliament House the former Northern Territory Legislative Council established in 1948 was housed in various temporary buildings around Darwin. After 1974 the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly continued to operate on the same basis, and settled in buildings on the current location until 1990 when they were demolished to allow commencement of the construction of Parliament House. From 1990 to the end of 1994, the Assembly temporarily met in the Chan Building.
Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib is constitutionally the President of the Senate. The current President Pro Tempore is Karen Keiser. The Majority leader is Democrat Sharon Nelson, who assumed office following a special election that gave Democrats a majority. The Minority Leader is Republican Mark Schoesler.
Parliament House, Perth is located on Harvest Terrace in West Perth, Western Australia. It is the home of the Parliament of Western Australia, including the Legislative Council (upper house) and Legislative Assembly (lower house).
The Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the World Trade Organization is an officer of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the head of the Permanent Mission of the Commonwealth of Australia to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland. The position has the rank and status of an Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and continues Australia's representation to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT; 1948–1995), as a charter member joining the WTO to replace the GATT on 1 January 1995. The Permanent Mission to the WTO is based with the Australian Permanent Mission and Consulate-General in Geneva. Prior to 1983, the role of Australia's representative on the GATT was filled by the Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations Office in Geneva.
Tan Sri Vigneswaran s/o Sanasee (; born 1965) is a Malaysian politician. He is currently the tenth President of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), a major component party of Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. He is also the incumbent President of the Dewan Negara, or Senate, of Malaysia. He was appointed as a Senator on 23 June 2014 for a three-year term. He took the office of the President of the Senate on 26 April 2016.
The longest-serving Leader of the Government in the Senate was George Pearce, who held the position for a cumulative total of 15 years in three separate terms between 1914 and 1937. Uniquely, from 10 January to 1 February 1968, the positions of Prime Minister and Leader of the Government in the Senate were held by the same person, John Gorton. After the disappearance of Harold Holt, Gorton – a senator – was elected leader of the Liberal Party and thus ascended to the prime ministership. In line with constitutional convention, he resigned from the Senate to contest a by-election to the House of Representatives.
The head of the department is the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, presently Frances Adamson, who reports to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, presently Senator Marise Payne. Subordinate ministers include the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, presently Senator Simon Birmingham; the Assistant Minister for International Development and the Pacific, presently Ann Ruston; and the Assistant Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, presently Mark Coulton MP, who support the administration of the department.
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal nation with six states (and two mainland territories). Section 51 of the Australian Constitution sets out the division of legislative power between the states and the Commonwealth (federal) government. The Commonwealth government is given a variety of legislative powers, including control of foreign policy, taxation (although this cannot discriminate between states or parts of states), and regulation of interstate commerce and corporations. Since the original ratification of the constitution, the High Court of Australia has settled a number of disputes concerning the extent of the Commonwealth's legislative powers, some of which have been controversial and extensively criticised; these included a dispute in 1982 over whether the Commonwealth was entitled to designate land for national heritage purposes under United Nations agreements, as well as numerous disputes over the extent of the Commonwealth's power over trade union and industrial relations legislation.
The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states. The terms of this contract are embodied in the Australian Constitution, which was drawn up at a Constitutional Convention and ratified by the people of the colonies at referendums. The Australian head of state is the Queen of Australia who is represented by the Governor-General of Australia, with executive powers delegated by constitutional convention to the Australian head of government, the Prime Minister of Australia.
The Lieutenant Governor serves as President of the Oklahoma Senate, but only casts a vote in the case of a tie and presides less frequently since the 1960s. The President Pro Tempore is the one who serves as leader of the Senate and is the head of the majority party. The President Pro Tempore appoints the majority floor leader and the chair of the appropriations committee. Along with the elected officers of the majority caucus (caucus chair, caucus vice chair, three assistant majority leaders and four majority whips), they comprise the leadership of the Senate majority caucus. The leader of the minority caucus is called either the Republican Leader or Democratic Leader, depending on which party is in the minority. Along with the elected officers of the minority party (assistant leaders, assistant whips and the caucus chair and vice chair), they comprise the Senate minority leadership team.
Sir John Robert Kerr, (24 September 1914 – 24 March 1991) was the 18th Governor-General of Australia. He dismissed the Labor government of Gough Whitlam on 11 November 1975, marking the climax of the most significant constitutional crisis in Australian history. He had previously been the 13th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
The Constitution Act of 1855 gave New South Wales a bicameral government. The existing Legislative Council became the upper house and a new body called the Legislative Assembly was formed to be the lower house. An Executive Council was introduced and constituted five members of the Legislative Assembly and the Governor. It became responsible for advising the ruling Governor on matters related to the administration of the state. The colonial settlements elsewhere on the continent eventually seceded from New South Wales and formed their own governments. Tasmania separated in 1825, Victoria did so in 1850, and Queensland followed in 1859. With the proclamation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 the status of local governments across Sydney was formalised and they became separate institutions from the state of New South Wales.
Phillips' retirement speech generated debate in Victoria on judicial independence. In the Australian experience, government is separated into three branches, the executive, legislative and judicial branches. Each branch is independent of the others, and is recognised in the Australian Constitution at the federal level. Phillips on his retirement was critical of the intrusion of the executive into the work of the courts, being the judicial branch. For example, the Supreme Court was referred to as "Business Unit 19" by the Victorian Government. Phillips did not suggest that the Victorian Government would attempt to influence directly a decision of the court. However, there appeared to be "What is evolving ...a perception of the court as some sort of unit of functionary within the Department of Justice”.
There have been sixteen senators elected from Utah, of whom five have been Democrats and eleven have been Republicans. Utah's current senators are Republicans Orrin Hatch, in office since 1977, and Mike Lee, in office since 2011. Hatch was re-elected in 2006 with 61% of the vote, and Lee was elected in 2010 with 62% of the vote.
Australia is a constitutional monarchy. Although the term "Head of State" is not used in the Constitution, it was intended that the Commonwealth (like the colonies) would continue to recognise the British Sovereign."The Queen" (meaning Queen Victoria, defined to include "Her Majesty's heirs and successors in the sovereignty of the United Kingdom"), was one of the three elements of Parliament, along with the Senate and the House of Representatives (section 1). Today, the Queen of Australia has replaced the Queen of the United Kingdom within Australia's parliament, but they happen to be the same person. The Monarch is represented in Australia by an appointed Governor-General. The executive power is vested in the Governor-General "as the Queen's representative" (section 61), as is the command-in-chief of the armed forces (section 68).
There are currently two serving female heads of government in Australia, Annastacia Palaszczuk (39th Premier of Queensland) who was elected on 14 February 2015, and Gladys Berejiklian (45th Premier of New South Wales) who was appointed on 23 January 2017. Three women currently serve as deputy heads of government in Australia; Jackie Trad (Deputy Premier of Queensland) since 14 February 2015, Nicole Manison (Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory) since 12 September 2016, Yvette Berry (Deputy Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory) since 31 October 2016, and Vickie Chapman (Deputy Premier of South Australia) since 19 March 2018. The tenures of these incumbents are accurate as of .
The position of President of the Senate has been disproportionately held by Senators representing the least populous states and territories. There have been 25 presidents of the Senate since 1901. Of these 15 have come from the least populous states (Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania) or the Australian Capital Territory, and 10 have come from the three most populous states (New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland). All senate presidents have been members of major parties, though not necessarily the governing party.
The head of the department was the Secretary of the Department of Employment, Kerri Hartland, who reported to the Minister for Employment, Senator the Hon. Michaelia Cash.