Media Release

43/2006
30 June 2006

Senate remains robust under Government majority

The first year anniversary of the Government holding a one-seat majority in the Senate has confirmed that the Federal upper house remains a robust forum of parliamentary inquiry and review, the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Finance Minister Nick Minchin, said today.

Over the course of the last two Federal elections, the Australian people have elected 39 Coalition Senators, giving the Government a slender majority of one in the 76-seat Senate – and marking the first time in over 20 years that a Federal Government had held a majority in both houses of Parliament.

The Government’s majority took effect on 1 July 2005, when the current Senate term officially began.

“The Liberal and National Parties, true to their conservative instincts, have always believed fundamentally in the importance of our parliamentary structure – a lower house in which the Government is formed and legislation initiated; and a Senate, representing all States equally, as a house of review,” Senator Minchin said.

“Any objective analysis of the Senate over the last year, shows the Government’s majority has in no way diminished the Senate’s relevance or rigour.

“The Government has continued to voluntarily refer legitimate issues to Senate committees – 71 bills and 15 other issues have gone to committees in the past 12 months, including vexing issues such as migration and petrol prices.

“We have retained Question Time in full – in the past 12 months, Senators have asked over 1000 questions to Ministers, over 800 of them from non-government Senators.

“We have retained four weeks of Estimates hearings every year, and under our recent proposal to streamline and strengthen the Senate committee system, the number of Estimates Committees will increase from eight to 10.

“Labor has accused the Government of ‘ramming’ bills through the Senate – but Labor “guillotined” Parliamentary debate more than twice the number of times in their 13 years in Government than the Coalition has over the last decade. In the last six months, the Government has not sought to guillotine any bill through the Senate.

“The Government remains accountable to the Parliament. Claims from our political opponents that it is not are simply hyperbole and scaremongering.”

Back to top

This page was last updated 10 July, 2006