The Senate’s main roles are to initiate and make legislation, be a house of review and act as a states’ house. The Senate is able to initiate bills and pass legislation that has been passed by the House of Representatives. However, they cannot propose money bills, unlike the lower house. The Constitution positions the Senate to provide equal representation for each state, regardless of the size or population of the state. This is to maintain confidence and assurance that parliament is impartial and not biased in representation or power. The Senate scrutinises the House of Representatives’ decisions and bills, making sure the lower house demonstrates the standard of responsible government (Beazer, Humphreys and Filippin, 2012, pp.16-17).
Originally, …show more content…
When the Government is facing complications in passing legislation due to with the Senate, the Prime minister can request for a double dissolution (Healey, 2016, pp.72-73). The Government is able to influence and advise the Governor General. The Senate in some cases can be overpowered and ineffective in pursuing its role. Due to this, the Senate is unable to ensure that every radical legislation can be prevented. Therefore, if a compromise is not met the first time, the Government has the power to alter the Senate in their favour and pass the law in the end (Galligan, 2016). If unsuitable law is passed, society will disregard it and question the legitimacy of the Government and parliament. More time and expenses will then have to be applied to fix the problems in which the legislation …show more content…
On the 22nd of February, the government introduced the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment Bill 2016 (Aph.gov.au, 2016b). The reforms the parties have passed seek to give power back to voters of Australia. Australia originally has a preferential voting system and this allows for your votes to be transferred to other parties if your first chosen party did not receive enough support. However, there was a disadvantage in that aspect because voters had no control over where their votes would go to. Ideally, voters need to know whether their votes will go to a party whose policies they agree with or not. Without the knowledge, voters’ preferences are not represented genuinely and accurately. Group voting tickets have now been abolished so individuals are able to number their choices whether they vote above or below the line. Confusion of similar party names has also been averted due to the inclusion of party logos on the ballot paper. Due to these new reforms, Senators would be more precisely elected. This increases the chance of extensive political representation of the people within parliament and results in suitable legislation for everyone (Australian Greens,
Originally, …show more content…
When the Government is facing complications in passing legislation due to with the Senate, the Prime minister can request for a double dissolution (Healey, 2016, pp.72-73). The Government is able to influence and advise the Governor General. The Senate in some cases can be overpowered and ineffective in pursuing its role. Due to this, the Senate is unable to ensure that every radical legislation can be prevented. Therefore, if a compromise is not met the first time, the Government has the power to alter the Senate in their favour and pass the law in the end (Galligan, 2016). If unsuitable law is passed, society will disregard it and question the legitimacy of the Government and parliament. More time and expenses will then have to be applied to fix the problems in which the legislation …show more content…
On the 22nd of February, the government introduced the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment Bill 2016 (Aph.gov.au, 2016b). The reforms the parties have passed seek to give power back to voters of Australia. Australia originally has a preferential voting system and this allows for your votes to be transferred to other parties if your first chosen party did not receive enough support. However, there was a disadvantage in that aspect because voters had no control over where their votes would go to. Ideally, voters need to know whether their votes will go to a party whose policies they agree with or not. Without the knowledge, voters’ preferences are not represented genuinely and accurately. Group voting tickets have now been abolished so individuals are able to number their choices whether they vote above or below the line. Confusion of similar party names has also been averted due to the inclusion of party logos on the ballot paper. Due to these new reforms, Senators would be more precisely elected. This increases the chance of extensive political representation of the people within parliament and results in suitable legislation for everyone (Australian Greens,