Talk:Australian Senate

Featured picture scheduled for POTD

Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Australian Senate - Parliament of Australia.jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for October 10, 2025. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2025-10-10. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. (this FP also ran on 26 May 2013 but giving it a second listing as that was a while back, it's a nice photo, and need an entry at shortish notice) If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you!  — Amakuru (talk) 10:43, 8 October 2025 (UTC)

The Australian Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. It meets at Parliament House in the national capital, Canberra. There are 76 senators, elected through single transferable vote in state-wide and territory-wide elections. Each of the six Australian states elects 12 senators, while the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory elect 2 each. The role of the Senate is defined in the constitution of Australia and it has almost equal powers to the lower house. In contrast to other countries with a Westminster system of government, the Australian Senate plays an active role in legislation, although in practice most legislation is initiated by the government, which controls the lower house. This photograph shows the chamber where the Senate meets.

Photograph credit: JJ Harrison

Recently featured:

• Aluterus scriptus
• Veronica filiformis
• Nobel Prize in Physics

Number of crossbenchers under political grouping

It currently shows 24 independent and others senators instead of 20, currently it adds up to 80 senators in total. Is this a mistake or am i missing something? BlabberBlabber (talk) 13:58, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

Tammy Tyrrell

Tammy Tyrrell (independent) has joined Labor. Infoboxes need updating. Josh Parris 01:37, 14 May 2026 (UTC)