Clerk of the Australian Senate

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The Clerk of the Australian Senate is the head of the Parliamentary Department of the Senate, which is the parliamentary department supporting the work of the Australian Senate. The Clerk is responsible to the President of the Senate who in turn is responsible for the department to the Senate. The Department of the Senate is not part of the Executive Government of Australia. The current Clerk is Richard Pye. The Deputy Clerk of the Senate is Jackie Morris. Since 1999, the terms of the Clerk of the Senate, as that of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, have been limited to 10 years. The change did not apply to the incumbents.

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The Department of the Senate provides advice and support to the Senate, its committees, the President of the Senate and senators. The Clerk is directly responsible for:

In addition, the office exercises overall responsibility for, and quality control of, all procedural and administrative activities of the department.

Clerks of the Senate

No.NameTerm in Office
1 Edwin Gordon Blackmore CMG 1 April 1901 – 30 June 1908
2Charles Broughton Boydell1 July 1908 – 31 December 1916
3 Charles Cashel Gavan Duffy CMG1 February 1917 – 27 August 1920
4George Henry Monahan CMG28 August 1920 – 31 December 1938
5Robert Arthur Broinowski1 January 1939 – 30 November 1942
6John Ernest Edwards1 December 1942 – 20 July 1955
7Rupert Harry Colin Loof CBE 21 July 1955 – 14 August 1965
8 James Rowland Odgers CBE16 August 1965 – 8 August 1979
9Roy Edwards Bullock OBE 9 August 1979 – 15 July 1981
10Keith Oscar Bradshaw29 October 1980 – 15 July 1982
11Alan Ritchie Cumming Thom16 July 1982 – 15 February 1988
12 Harry Evans 17 February 1988 – 4 December 2009
13Dr Rosemary Laing5 December 2009 – 8 March 2017
14Richard Pye9 March 2017 –

The longest-serving Clerk was Harry Evans, who served 21 years, from 1988 to 2009.

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