Odgers' Australian
Senate Practice
Eleventh Edition
Edited
by Harry Evans,
Clerk
of the Senate
Contents
The concurrence of a plurality of authorities in legislation is a necessary condition of truly constitutional government in any community, whether it is federal or unitary. If the whole legislative power is vested in a single authority it is a form of absolutism, whether the authority be a single man, or the majority of a single assembly. But if provision is made in the composition of the legislative authority for securing the concurrence of distinct majorities representing distinct social forces and interests, the government is constitutional.
Andrew Inglis Clark
Studies in Australian Constitutional Law, 1901
Historical experience, however, is not an unrelieved record of failure to deal with the problem of power. A number of societies have succeeded in constructing political systems in which the power of the state is constrained. The key to their success lies in recognizing the fact that power can only be controlled by power. This proposition leads directly to the theory of constitutional design founded upon the principle most commonly known as checks and balances.
Scott Gordon
Controlling the State, 1999
TO
THE ELECTORS OF AUSTRALIA
who by their votes established and have sustained
constitutional government in the Commonwealth of Australia
and one group of their chosen agents and trustees
THE SENATORS
who hold a large portion of that trust
ISBN 0 642 71457 6
© Commonwealth of Australia 2004
First published 1953
Second edition 1959
Third edition 1967 (Also published as Parliamentary Paper 1967, No.1)
Fourth edition 1972 (Also published as Parliamentary Paper 1972, No.28)
Fifth edition 1976 (Also published as Parliamentary Paper 1976, No.1)
Sixth edition 1991
Seventh edition 1995
Eighth edition 1997
Ninth edition 1999
Tenth edition 2001
Eleventh edition 2004
This book is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction rights should be directed to the Clerk of the Senate, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Odgers, J. R. (James Rowland), 1914-1985.
Odgers' Australian Senate practice.
11th ed.
Includes index.
ISBN 0 642 71457 6
1. Australia. Parliament. Senate, Rules and practice.
I. Evans, Harry, 1946- . II. Australia. Parliament. Dept.
of the Senate. III. Title. IV. Title : Australian Senate
practice.
328.9405
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