Chapter 7 - Meetings
of the Senate
Summoning of the
Senate when not sitting
Apart from the power of the President to alter the specified time of
the next meeting, the standing orders require the President to summon the
Senate to meet during an adjournment at the request of an absolute majority of
senators, represented, in the case of senators who are members of a party, by
their party leaders or deputy leaders (SO 55(2)-(5)).
This provision began its life as a special order first agreed to in
1967, was regularly incorporated in resolutions specifying the time of the next
meeting, was incorporated into sessional orders in 1985, and finally included
in the new standing orders adopted in 1989.
Meetings of the Senate under this provision were held on 20 June 1967 to consider the
disallowance of postal and telephone charges regulations, and 9 July 1975 to consider the
government’s overseas loans activities. A meeting on 21 January 1991 was called to
consider the Gulf war at the request of the government when it was apprehended
that party leaders representing an absolute majority of senators would ask the
President to summon the Senate. A
meeting of the Senate was called on 7 November 2003, within a period of sittings, under this
provision, to deal with urgent legislation (7/11/2003, J.2672). A similar meeting was called on 3 November 2005 (a day on which estimates hearings were also held) to
consider legislation relating to terrorism (3/11/2005, J. 1300).
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