Tasmanian House of Assembly
| House of Assembly | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | |
| Type | |
| History | |
| Founded | 1856 |
| Leadership | |
|
Chair of Committees
|
|
| Structure | |
| Seats | 25 |
 |
|
|
Political groups
|
Government Liberal (15) Opposition Labor (7) Crossbench Greens (3) |
| Elections | |
|
Last general election
|
15 March 2014 |
|
Next general election
|
by 2018 |
| Meeting place | |
 |
|
| House of Assembly Chamber, Parliament House, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia |
|
| Website | |
| House of Assembly | |
The House of Assembly, or Lower House, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council or Upper House. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Hobart.
The Assembly has 25 members, with five members coming from each of five electorates with identical names and boundaries as the single-member districts that return Tasmanian members to the Parliament of Australia. Each electorate is intended to represent approximately the same population. Voting for the state parliament is by a form of proportional representation using the single-transferable vote (STV), known as the Hare-Clark system. By having multiple members for each electorate, the voting intentions of the electors are correspondingly represented in the parliament. The system also provides opportunities for individual members to be selected more on their personal attributes, rather than merely as the sole nominee of their political party.
Most legislation is initiated in the House of Assembly. The party or coalition with a majority of the seats in the lower house is invited by the Governor to form a government. The leader of that party subsequently becomes the Premier of Tasmania, and his/her senior colleagues become ministers responsible for various portfolios. As Australian politicians traditionally vote along party lines, most legislation introduced by the governing party will be passed by the House of Assembly.
The House of Assembly was first established in 1856, under legislation passed by the British Parliament creating the independent self-governing Colony of Tasmania. The Legislative Council had already existed since 1852. The first elections for the House of Assembly were held in October 1856. The House first met on 2 December 1856 in the area that is now the parliamentary members lounge. The first House had members elected to represent 24 electorates. Hobart had five members, Launceston had three members, and the 22 other electorates each had one member.
In 1906 the old electoral system was abolished. Instead, the state was divided into five equally represented multi-member electorates corresponding to the state's five federal electorates. Each electorate would return six members using the Hare-Clark proportional representation system.
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Wikipedia