The 47th Parliament of Australia is the current meeting of the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Australia, composed of the Australian Senate and the Australian House of Representatives. The May 2022 federal election gave the Australian Labor Party control of the House, with 77 seats, enough for a two-seat majority government. Labor gained an additional seat at the Aston by-election in April 2023, thereby increasing its majority to three seats for the remainder of the term. [1] Following the election, Labor leader Anthony Albanese became the 31st Prime Minister of Australia, and was sworn in by the Governor-General David Hurley on 23 May 2022. [2] The 47th Parliament opened in Canberra on 26 July 2022. [3]
Since July 2022, there have been 118 instances of MPs being ejected from the House of Representatives during Question Time, with 93% of these ejections involving male MPs. Notable frequent offenders include Coalition spokesperson Michael Sukkar and Liberal backbencher Tony Pasin. The Albanese government, despite its commitment to improving parliamentary conduct, has delayed the establishment of an Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission (IPSC) to address such issues until at least October 2024, as stated by Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher. [48] [49]
Candidate | State | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sue Lines | Western Australia | 54 | 81.82 | |
Dorinda Cox | Western Australia | 12 | 18.18 | |
66 | 100 |
Candidate | Seat | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Milton Dick | Oxley (Qld) | 92 | 62.16 | |
Andrew Wallace | Fisher (Qld) | 56 | 37.84 | |
148 | 100 |
Affiliation | Party (shading shows control) | Total | Vacant | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GRN | ALP | IND | CA | LPA | NPA | KAP | UAP | |||
End of previous Parliament | 1 | 68 | 4 | 1 | 60 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 151 | 0 |
Begin (26 July 2022) | 4 | 77 | 10 | 1 | 42 | 16 | 1 | — | 151 | 0 |
23 December 2022 [g] | 11 | 15 | ||||||||
17 February 2023 [h] | 41 | 150 | 1 | |||||||
1 April 2023 [h] | 78 | 151 | 0 | |||||||
18 May 2023 [i] | 40 | 150 | 1 | |||||||
15 July 2023 [i] | 41 | 151 | 0 | |||||||
14 November 2023 [j] | 12 | 40 | 151 | 0 | ||||||
4 December 2023 [k] | 77 | 150 | 1 | |||||||
28 February 2024 [l] | 39 | 149 | 2 | |||||||
2 March 2024 [k] | 78 | 150 | 1 | |||||||
13 April 2024 [l] | 40 | 151 | 0 | |||||||
Latest voting share % | 2.65 | 51.66 | 7.95 | 0.66 | 36.42 | 0.66 | — |
Affiliation | Party (shading shows control) | Total | Vacant | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GRN | ALP | IND | CA | REX | JLN | LPA | NPA | LDP | ON | UAP | |||
End of previous Parliament | 9 | 26 | — | 1 | 1 | 1 | 31 | 4 | 1 | 2 | — | 76 | 0 |
Begin (26 July 2022) | 12 | 26 | 1 | — | 2 | 26 | 6 | — | 2 | 1 | 76 | 0 | |
16 January 2023 [m] | 25 | 75 | 1 | ||||||||||
6 February 2023 [n] | 11 | 2 | |||||||||||
31 May 2023 [m] | 26 | 76 | 0 | ||||||||||
17 June 2023 [o] | 3 | 25 | |||||||||||
30 September 2023 [p] | 24 | 75 | 1 | ||||||||||
30 November 2023 [p] | 25 | 76 | 0 | ||||||||||
26 January 2024 [q] | 25 | 75 | 1 | ||||||||||
1 February 2024 [q] | 26 | 76 | 0 | ||||||||||
29 February 2024 [r] | 25 | 75 | 1 | ||||||||||
28 March 2024 [s] | 4 | 1 | |||||||||||
19 April 2024 [t] | 10 | 74 | 2 | ||||||||||
1 May 2024 [t] | 11 | 75 | 1 | ||||||||||
29 May 2024 [r] | 26 | 76 | 0 | ||||||||||
4 July 2024 [u] | 25 | 5 | |||||||||||
25 August 2024 [v] | 6 | 24 | |||||||||||
Latest voting share % | 14.47 | 32.89 | 7.89 | — | 1.32 | 39.47 | — | 2.63 | 1.32 |
The 47th Parliament of Australia has a historically high representation of women; women make up 38% of the House of Representatives and 57% of the Senate, the highest on record for both chambers. [52] In terms of representation, Indigenous members will account for 9.6 per cent of the 76 Senate seats, and 1.9 per cent of 151 House of Representatives seats. [53]
Despite these advancements, Parliament does not fully mirror the Australian population. Women, who hold a slight majority in the general population, are still underrepresented in Parliament. The average age of MPs is higher than the national median of 38. Representation of culturally diverse backgrounds is also limited, with only 6.6% of MPs having non-European ancestry compared to 23% of the general population, and 4.4% of MPs having Asian heritage versus 18% of Australians. Indigenous representation has increased, with eight Indigenous senators and three Indigenous MPs, totaling 4.8% of the Parliament, which is higher than the Indigenous population percentage of 3.3%. Despite these advances, Australia's parliamentary representation continues to lag behind countries such as Canada and New Zealand in terms of gender and cultural diversity. [54] [55] [56]
The Liberal Party's representation of women has declined, with only 9 seats compared to 13 in the previous parliament. In contrast, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's cabinet is the most diverse in Australian history, featuring 10 women out of 23 cabinet ministers, with several holding prominent positions such as Penny Wong in foreign affairs and Linda Burney as the first female Indigenous cabinet minister. [57] [58] [59]
The Senate included 32 men and 44 women, the most women to date. [60]
There are 58 women in the House, the largest number in history, [61] with 19 of these being first-term Members of Parliament (MPs). [62] Three current members are LGBTQ+ — Stephen Bates, [63] Angie Bell [64] and Julian Hill. [65] Four members; Mark Dreyfus, Josh Burns, [66] Mike Freelander and Julian Leeser identified as Jewish. Labor members — Ed Husic and Anne Aly — became the first two Muslim federal ministers. [67]
40 of the 76 seats in the upper house were contested in the election in May 2022. The class of senators elected in 2022 are denoted with an asterisk (*).
All 151 seats in the lower house were contested in the election in May 2022.
This table lists senators who have resigned, died, been elected or appointed, or otherwise changed their party affiliation during the 47th Parliament.
Seat | Before | Change | After | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Member | Party | Type | Date | Date | Member | Party | |||
New South Wales | Jim Molan | Liberal | Death | 16 January 2023 | 31 May 2023 | Maria Kovacic | Liberal | ||
Victoria | Lidia Thorpe | Greens | Resignation from party | 6 February 2023 | Lidia Thorpe | Independent | |||
Victoria | David Van | Liberal | Expulsion from party room | 15 June 2023 | David Van | Independent | |||
New South Wales | Marise Payne | Liberal | Resignation | 30 September 2023 | 30 November 2023 | Dave Sharma | Liberal | ||
Western Australia | Pat Dodson | Labor | Resignation | 26 January 2024 | 1 February 2024 | Varun Ghosh | Labor | ||
Victoria | Linda White | Labor | Death | 29 February 2024 | 29 May 2024 | Lisa Darmanin | Labor | ||
Tasmania | Tammy Tyrrell | Lambie | Resignation from party | 28 March 2024 | Tammy Tyrrell | Independent | |||
Victoria | Janet Rice | Greens | Resignation | 19 April 2024 | 1 May 2024 | Steph Hodgins-May | Greens | ||
Western Australia | Fatima Payman | Labor | Resignation from party | 4 July 2024 | Fatima Payman | Independent | |||
Queensland | Gerard Rennick | LNP | Resignation from party | 25 August 2024 | Gerard Rennick | Independent |
This table lists members of the House who have resigned, died, been elected or appointed, or otherwise changed their party affiliation during the 47th Parliament.
Seat | Before | Change | After | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Member | Party | Type | Date | Date | Member | Party | |||
Calare | Andrew Gee | National | Resignation from party | 23 December 2022 | Andrew Gee | Independent | |||
Aston | Alan Tudge | Liberal | Resignation | 17 February 2023 | 1 April 2023 | Mary Doyle | Labor | ||
Fadden | Stuart Robert | Liberal National | Resignation | 18 May 2023 | 15 July 2023 | Cameron Caldwell | Liberal National | ||
Monash | Russell Broadbent | Liberal | Resignation from party | 14 November 2023 | Russell Broadbent | Independent | |||
Dunkley | Peta Murphy | Labor | Death | 4 December 2023 | 2 March 2024 | Jodie Belyea | Labor | ||
Cook | Scott Morrison | Liberal | Resignation | 28 February 2024 | 13 April 2024 | Simon Kennedy | Liberal |
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