President of the Australian Senate

President of the Senate
Incumbent The Hon Stephen Parry since 7 July 2014
Appointer	Elected by the Australian Senate
Inaugural holder	Sir Richard Baker
Formation	9 May 1901
Deputy	Senator Sue Lines

The President of the Australian Senate is the presiding officer of the Australian Senate, the upper house of the Parliament of Australia. The presiding officer of the lower house, the House of Representatives, is the Speaker.

The Australian Senate is modelled on the Senate of the United States and occupies a different position in the Australian Parliament from that of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Senate has always been a popularly elected body.

Since 7 July 2014, the President has been Stephen Parry (Lib, Tas). The Deputy President is Sue Lines (ALP, Vic).

Section 17 of the Constitution provides:

The Senate shall, before proceeding to the despatch of any other business, choose a senator to be the President of the Senate; and as often as the office of President becomes vacant the Senate shall again choose a senator to be the President. The President shall cease to hold his office if he ceases to be a senator. He may be removed from office by a vote of the Senate, or he may resign his office or his seat by writing addressed to the Governor-General.

The President is elected by the Senate in a secret ballot. The Clerk conducts the election. The Presidency has always been a partisan office and the nominee of the government party has nearly always been elected—although this cannot be guaranteed since the government of the day does not necessarily have a majority in the Senate. The President is assisted by an elected Deputy President. The traditional practice has been that the government nominates a Senator to be elected as President, and the Opposition nominates a Senator to be Deputy President. If there are no other nominations, no election is required, however the Australian Greens in 2005 and again in 2007 put forward Senator Kerry Nettle as a rival candidate when the position of President was vacant. Neither Government nor Opposition Senators supported that candidacy.