What is the Upper House?

There are 42 Members of the Legislative Council elected by the people of New South Wales with the whole State as one electorate. The current House has a very diverse membership. There are 19 Government members, 15 Opposition members and 8 Cross-bench members, giving neither the Government nor the Opposition an outright majority of members in the Upper House.

NSW Parliament House The Legislative Council is the Upper House of the Parliament of New South Wales. New South Wales has its own Constitution and its own system of Government and is part of the Commonwealth of Australia. The New South Wales Parliament creates legislation relating to issues such as health, education, transport, the built and natural environments, leisure activities, state development, police and emergency services, energy, and so o­n. National issues such as immigration and foreign affairs are the responsibility of the Federal Parliament in Canberra. Parliament consists of the Governor, the upper house – Legislative Council – and the lower house – Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Council is often also called the House of Review. The Council is equivalent to the Senate in the Federal Parliament. From the meetings of the first Legislative Council in 1824 – a group of five appointed legislative advisers to the Governor – to the diverse and democratically elected House of today, the Council has always been an integral part of the legislative and democratic processes in New South Wales. Since the introduction of a bicameral (two house) Parliamentary system in 1856, the Legislative Council has had the role of a House of Review. The original intention of the framers of the 1855 Constitution was to create a House of Review which was more deliberative and could consider matters with more objectivity. Legislative Council Members consequently developed a tradition of independence, resisting the introduction of the party system in the House well into the twentieth century. Even the reforms of the Legislative Council in 1933 – which introduced an indirect electoral process and limited membership numbers and terms – were still conservative and intended to maintain the notion of a cautious and careful o­ngoing House of Review. Different forces were at work when the House became popularly elected from 1978, but even then, the system adopted ensured that the Legislative Council is reasonably cushioned from the larger swings of public opinion that can affect the Lower House so dramatically. The outcome is still that the Upper House is more deliberative in style than the Lower House. There are generally no time limits o­n Members' speeches, and there is a slower, more careful and less adversarial style evident in the debates. How the last election changed the role of the Council When the first New South Wales Legislative Council met in 1824, o­nly five legislative advisors to the Governor were appointed. Today the 42 Member House is democratically elected by the people. Whereas, in the Lower House each Member represents an electorate, in the Legislative Council Members represent the entire State. At each state election in New South Wales, o­ne half (21) of the Upper House Members (MLCs) must either retire or stand for re-election, so each MLC has an eight year term in office (that is two terms of the Lower House).Parties or individuals are elected according to the proportion of the total vote that they receive. The proportional representation system has created a diverse Membership which tends to represent a rather different cross-section of the New South Wales community from that of the Lower House. The current Legislative Council has a very diverse membership. The Current Membership: The Greens 4 Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group) 2 Australian Labor Party 19 Liberal Party of Australia (NSW) 10 The Nationals (NSW) 5 Shooters Party 2 Governments have not had a majority in the Council since 1988. It has been argued that this contributes to the tradition and constitutional intention of an independent House of Review. It is certainly true that the second opinion offered in the Legislative Council sometimes reflects a different range of community opinion from that of the Lower House.