The Whitlam Government and Casual Senate Vacancies
Following the elections of 1974, the composition of the Senate
was:
- Liberal/Country Party 30
- Australian Labor Party 29
- Independent 1 (usually voted with the ALP)
On these figures, the Senate could not block the Budget, or other money bills, because the vote would be tied, and therefore defeated.
In January 1975, the Government appointed the Attorney-General, Senator Lionel Murphy, to the High Court, creating a Senate vacancy in New South Wales.
In June 1975, an ALP senator from Queensland, Bert Milliner, died, creating a Senate vacancy in that State.
Because the Constitution (Section 15) requires State Parliaments to appoint replacements for Senate vacancies, without having a full statewide election, it had always been a convention that a member of the same party as the dead or resigned senator was appointed to fill the vacancy.
In the cases of Murphy and Milliner, however, the Liberal/Country Party government in NSW, led by Tom Lewis, and the Country/Liberal Party government in Queensland, led by Joh Bjelke-Petersen, chose to appoint non-Labor replacements. The numbers in the Senate thus became:
- Liberal/Country Party 30
- Australian Labor Party 27
- Independents 3 (only one voting with the ALP)
This effectively gave control to the opposition parties. They did not have sufficient votes to pass their own motions, but they did have the requisite numbers to block the budget bills in October 1975.
In 1977, a constitutional amendment proposed by the Fraser government was carried at a referendum which now requires that Senate vacancies be filled by members from the same party or political group as the departed senator.
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