Legislative Council | |
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Type | |
Type | |
History | |
Founded | 1825 |
Leadership | |
Jim Wilkinson, Independent
Since 21 May 2013 |
|
Chair of Committees
|
Greg Hall, Independent
Since 10 May 2008 |
Structure | |
Seats | 15 |
Political groups
|
Government Liberal (1) Opposition Labor (4) Crossbench Independent (10) |
Meeting place | |
Legislative Council Chamber, Parliament House, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia |
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Website | |
Legislative Council |
The Tasmanian Legislative Council is the upper house of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. It is one of the two chambers of the Parliament, the other being the House of Assembly. Both houses sit in Parliament House in the state capital, Hobart. Members of the Legislative Council are often referred to as MLCs.
The Legislative Council has 15 members elected using preferential voting in 15 single-member electorates. Each electorate has approximately the same number of electors. A review of Legislative Council division boundaries is required every 9 years, the most recent was completed in 2017. Election of members in the Legislative Council are staggered. Elections alternate between three divisions in one year and in two divisions the next year. Elections take place on the first Saturday in May. The term of each MLC is six years.
The Tasmanian Legislative Council is a unique parliamentary chamber in Australian politics in that it is the only chamber in any state parliament that is majority non-partisan, with only 5 of 15 current MLCs being endorsed representatives of a political party. In the current ministry only one of the nine ministers sits in the Legislative Council.
Unlike other Australian state legislatures, the House of Assembly is elected from multimember districts while the Legislative Council is elected from single-member districts. The reverse is the case in most of the rest of Australia; i. e., the lower house is elected from single-member districts while the upper house is elected from multi-member districts.
The Council has the power to block supply and force a government to election but cannot itself be dissolved early, because there is nothing in the Tasmanian constitution to allow that. The constitution can only be altered by a vote in each house of parliament, so the Council's rights cannot be reduced, and it cannot be abolished, without its agreement.
The Tasmanian Legislative Council has never been controlled by a single political party, with voters in Tasmania tending to elect independents over candidates endorsed by political parties. The Labor Party endorses candidates in some Legislative Council elections, and is the most successful political party in the Council's history, having had a total of 20 members elected. The Liberal Party has maintained the view that the Legislative Council should not be a "party house", and has rarely endorsed candidates who have gone on to win a seat. However, the party has often tacitly backed independent conservatives, many of whom had previously been Liberal candidates or members at state or federal level.