Chapter 7 - Meetings
of the Senate
Parliaments
and sessions
A new Parliament
begins with the opening by the Governor-General on
the first day the two Houses meet after a general election for the House of
Representatives or for both Houses. The parliamentary term continues for three
years after the date of the first sitting of the Houses, unless it is ended
earlier by the dissolution of the House of Representatives or by the
simultaneous dissolution of both Houses.
Within the term of each Parliament, there may be sessions.
A new session is also opened by the Governor-General and begins on the first
day of sitting following a prorogation of Parliament. To prorogue
Parliament means to bring to an end a session of Parliament without dissolving
the House of Representatives or both Houses, and, therefore, without a
subsequent election. Prorogation has the
effect of terminating all business pending before the Houses and Parliament
does not meet again until the date specified in the proroguing proclamation or
until the Houses are summoned to meet again by the Governor-General.
Section 6 of the Constitution provides:
There shall be a session of the
Parliament once at least in every year, so that twelve months shall not
intervene between the last sitting of the Parliament in one session and its
first sitting in the next session.
The Parliament
complies with the intent of this section in that each year it has
two or three sitting periods of several months
duration. However, it has not been the practice in recent decades to divide a
parliamentary term into annual sessions by the annual use of prorogation, and
consequently a session will normally last for the duration of the term of the
House of Representatives.
Although Parliament
was regularly prorogued in the past, it has been prorogued without an
accompanying dissolution on only four occasions since 1961. Two of these, in
1974 and 1977, were for the purpose of allowing openings of Parliament by the monarch during
visits to Australia. On another occasion, in February 1968, Parliament was
prorogued following the disappearance in the sea of Prime Minister Harold Holt in December 1967.
On the fourth occasion, Parliament met for one day in November 1969 following
an election for the House of Representatives on 25 October and was prorogued
until the following March.
In March 1993 the
government restored the practice, not followed since the 1920s, of proroguing
the Parliament before dissolving the House of Representatives for the purpose
of a general election.
For further details, see below, under Meetings after prorogation or
dissolution of House, and Chapter 19, Relations with the Executive Government
under Effect of prorogation and of the dissolution of the House of
Representatives on the Senate.
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