Australian House of Representatives

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The House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house, with the upper house being the Senate. The powers, role and composition of the House are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia as well as federal legislation and constitutional convention. The term of members of the House of Representatives is a maximum of three years from the date of the first sitting of the House, but on only one occasion since Federation has the maximum term been reached. The House is almost always dissolved earlier, usually alone but sometimes in a double dissolution alongside the whole Senate. Elections for members of the House of Representatives have always been held in conjunction with those for the Senate since the 1970s. A member of the House may be referred to as a "Member of Parliament" ("MP" or "Member"), while a member of the Senate is usually referred to as a "senator". Under the conventions of the Westminster system, the government of...

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