Chapter 6 - Senators
Distinguished visitors
The President may,
by leave of the Senate, admit distinguished visitors to a seat on the floor of
the chamber (SO 174).
The practice is for the President to inform the Senate that the
distinguished visitor is present and to propose, with the concurrence of
senators, to invite the visitor to take a seat on the floor of the chamber.
When senators concur, the visitor is admitted and conducted to a chair on the
left of the dais near the President’s seat.
This honour is normally granted to heads of state and presiding
officers of other houses.
It is not in
order for senators to approach distinguished visitors in the chamber (rulings
of President Calvert, SD, 6/2/2003, p. 8743; 18/6/2003, p. 11855).
On three occasions in the past the Senate
agreed to meet with the House of Representatives in the House chamber to hear
addresses by presidents of the United States. This procedure was first adopted
in 1992 on the occasion of an address by the then US
president. It was stated at that time that the procedure was adopted on the
basis that a similar honour had been granted to the Australian prime minister
in Washington in accordance with the custom of the US
Congress, and that granting the equivalent honour to the US
president would not set a precedent. The procedure was repeated in 1996; it was
felt that the same honour should be extended to the then president. In 2003 it
was extended to the then US President and the Chinese President, who
happened to be visiting at the same time. The practice had developed into
government-controlled occasions, with the prime minister issuing the invitations
and the Senate acquiescing. In its third report of 2003 (PP 436/2003) the Procedure Committee recommended that the practice be
abandoned after incidents at the last two addresses, when the Speaker of the
House of Representatives purported to eject two senators from one meeting and
exclude them from the other. The Privileges Committee supported this
recommendation (PP 80/2004; 1/4/2004, J.3321). The committees’ recommendations that for future
addresses the government hold meetings of the House to which senators would be
invited were subsequently adopted (2/3/2006, J. 1954).
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