The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. There are a total of 76 senators: 12 are elected from each of the six Australian states regardless of population and 2 from each of the two autonomous internal Australian territories. Senators are popularly elected under the single transferable vote system of proportional representation.
Kathryn Jean Martin Sullivan AM is an Australian former politician. A member of the Liberal Party, she was a Senator for Queensland from 1974 to 1984 and a member of the House of Representatives from 1984 to 2001, holding the seat of Moncrieff. She broke Dorothy Tangney's record for the longest period of service in federal parliament by a woman, which was later surpassed by Bronwyn Bishop. She was the first woman to have served in both houses of parliament.
The Greens NSW, also known as the NSW Greens, is a green political party in New South Wales and a member of the Australian Greens. First formed in 1991, the Greens NSW began as a state-level party before joining with other green parties in Australia to create the current federated structure.
Dame Dorothy Margaret Tangney DBE was an Australian politician. She was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served as a Senator for Western Australia from 1943 to 1968. She was the first woman elected to the Senate and one of the first two women elected to federal parliament, along with Enid Lyons.
An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent.
Dame Annabelle Jane Mary Rankin DBE was an Australian politician and diplomat. She was the first woman from Queensland elected to parliament, the first woman federal departmental minister, and the first Australian woman to be appointed head of a foreign mission.
Agnes Robertson Robertson was an Australian schoolteacher, community worker and politician who served as a Senator for Western Australia from 1950 to 1962. She was originally elected to parliament as a member of the Liberal Party at the 1949 federal election. In 1955, she was dropped from her party's ticket due to her age, but instead won the endorsement of the Country Party and was re-elected to a second term at the 1955 election; her final term ended a month before her 80th birthday. She was the first woman to represent the Country Party in federal parliament.
The Victorian Greens, officially known as the Australian Greens Victoria, is the Victorian state member party of the Australian Greens, a green political party in Australia.
Government in Australia is elected by universal suffrage and Australian women participate in all levels of the government of the nation. In 1902, the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia became the first nation on earth to enact equal suffrage, enabling women to both vote and stand for election alongside men Women have been represented in Australian state parliaments since 1921, and in the Federal Parliament since 1943. The first female leader of an Australian State or Territory was elected in 1989, and the first female Prime Minister took office in 2010. In 2019 for the first time, a majority of members of the Australian Senate were women. At the time of its foundation in 1901, and again from 1952 to 2022, Australia has had a female monarch as ceremonial Head of State, while the first female Governor of an Australian State was appointed in 1991, and the first female Governor-General of Australia took office in 2008.
The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 is an Act of the Australian Parliament which continues to be the core legislation governing the conduct of elections in Australia, having been amended on numerous occasions since 1918. The Act was introduced by the Nationalist Party of Billy Hughes, the main purpose of which was to replace first-past-the-post voting with instant-runoff voting for the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Labor Party opposed the introduction of preferential voting. The Act has been amended on several occasions since.
The 1903 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 16 December 1903. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Protectionist Party minority government led by Prime Minister Alfred Deakin retained the most House of Representatives seats of the three parties and retained government with the parliamentary support of the Labour Party led by Chris Watson. The Free Trade Party led by George Reid remained in opposition.
The Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist), which operated from 1940 to 1941, was a breakaway from the Australian Labor Party (ALP), and was associated with the Lang Labor faction and former New South Wales premier Jack Lang.
The 1943 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 21 August 1943. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Labor Party, led by Prime Minister John Curtin, defeated the opposition Country–UAP coalition led by Arthur Fadden in a landslide.
The 1919 Australian federal election was held on 13 December 1919 to elect members to the Parliament of Australia. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party government won re-election, with Prime Minister Billy Hughes continuing in office.
Selina Sarah Elizabeth Siggins was an Australian political activist who became the first woman to stand for the Australian House of Representatives. She ran as an independent at the 1903 federal election, the first at which women were eligible to be candidates. Although she spent most of her life in New South Wales, in 1918 she also became one of the first two women to stand for the Parliament of South Australia. Siggins was introduced to politics through her involvement in the labour movement, and initially supported the Labor Party. She eventually fell out with the party over its refusal to endorse her as a candidate. Her final run for parliament came at the 1922 federal election, where she became the first woman to stand for the Country Party.
This is a list of members of the Australian Senate from 1941 to 1944. Half of its members were elected at the 23 October 1937 election and had terms starting on 1 July 1938 and finishing on 30 June 1944; the other half were elected at the 21 September 1940 election and had terms starting on 1 July 1941 and finishing on 30 June 1947. The process for filling casual vacancies was complex. While senators were elected for a six-year term, people appointed to a casual vacancy only held office until the earlier of the next election for the House of Representatives or the Senate.
This article provides information on candidates who stood for the 1974 Australian federal election. The election was held on 18 May 1974.
Women's suffrage in Australia was one of the early achievements of Australian democracy. Following the progressive establishment of male suffrage in the Australian colonies from the 1840s to the 1890s, an organised push for women's enfranchisement gathered momentum from the 1880s, and began to be legislated from the 1890s, decades in advance of Europe and North America. South Australian women achieved the right to vote in 1894, and to stand for office in 1895 following the world first Constitutional Amendment Act 1894. This preceded even male suffrage in Tasmania. Western Australia granted women the right to vote from 1899, although with some racial restrictions. In 1902, the newly established Australian Parliament passed the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902, which set a uniform law enabling women to vote at federal elections and to stand for the federal parliament. By 1908, the remaining Australian states had legislated for women's suffrage for state elections. Grace Benny was elected as the first councillor in 1919, Edith Cowan the first state Parliamentarian in 1921, Dorothy Tangney the first Senator and Enid Lyons the first Member of the House of Representatives in 1943.
Western Australia politics takes place in context of a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral parliamentary system, and like other Australian states, Western Australia is part of the federation known as the Commonwealth of Australia.
The Statues of Dorothy Tangney and Enid Lyons are located near Old Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. The bronze statues honour the women's contributions to Australia: Dorothy Tangney was Australia's first woman senator, and Enid Lyons was the first woman elected to the House of Representatives. The statues are the first statues of women to be erected in the parliamentary zone in Canberra.
