The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral

Parliament of Victoria The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria that follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Victoria, the Legislative Assembly ...

in Australia; the upper house being the

Victorian Legislative Council The Victorian Legislative Council (VLC) is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative C ...

. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metr ...

. The presiding officer of the Legislative Assembly is the Speaker. There are presently 88 members of the Legislative Assembly elected from single-member divisions.

History

Victoria was proclaimed a Colony on 1 July 1851 separating from the

Colony of New South Wales The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of New ...

by an act of the British Parliament. The Legislative Assembly was created on 13 March 1856 with the passing of the ''Victorian Electoral Bill'', five years after the creation of the original

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

Legislative Council. The Assembly first met on 21 November 1856, and consisted of sixty members representing thirty-seven multi and single-member electorates. On the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, the Parliament of Victoria continued except that the colony was now called a state. In 1917, the Nationalist government in Victoria introduced compulsory preferential voting before the 1917 state election. This enabled the factions in the party to field competing candidates without splitting the vote by keeping preferences within the party.

Membership and elections

The Legislative Assembly presently consists of 88 members, each elected in single-member electoral districts, more commonly known as electorates or seats, using preferential voting, which is the same voting system used for the federal lower house, the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of th ...

. Members represent approximately the same population in each electorate. Since 2006, members of the Legislative Assembly are elected for a fixed term of 4 years, with elections occurring on the last Saturday of November every 4 years. There are no limits to the number of terms for which a member may seek election. Casual vacancies are filled at a by-election.

Current membership

Distribution of seats

Officials

Speaker

At the beginning of each new parliamentary term, the Legislative Assembly elects one of its members as a presiding officer, known as the Speaker. If the incumbent Speaker seeks a new term, then the House may re-elect him or her merely by passing a motion; otherwise, a secret ballot is held. In practice, the Speaker is usually a member of the governing party or parties, who have the majority in the House. The Speaker continues to be a member of his or her political party, but it is left to their individual discretion as to whether or not they attend party meetings. The Speaker also continues to carry out his or her ordinary electorate duties as a member of Parliament and must take part in an election campaign to be re-elected as a member of Parliament. A Deputy Speaker is also elected by the Assembly, who supports and assists the Speaker in the execution of their duties.

Non-member officials

The Legislative Assembly is also supported by a department of civil servants who provide procedural and administrative advice on the running of the Assembly, and performs other functions. The head of the department is the Clerk of the Assembly, who is assisted by a deputy clerk, an assistant clerk committees and an assistant clerk procedure.Staff of the Legislative Assembly
/ref> The Assembly is also assisted by a

serjeant-at-arms A serjeant-at-arms, or sergeant-at-arms, is an officer appointed by a deliberative body, usually a legislature, to keep order during its meetings. The word "serjeant" is derived from the Latin ''serviens'', which means "servant". Historically, ...

, who at present also holds the position of assistant clerk procedure.

2022 Victorian election

Results

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align:right; margin-bottom:0" , +Legislative Assembly ( IRV) – ( CV) ! style="width:10px" colspan=3 , Party ! style="width:70px;", Votes ! style="width:40px;", % ! style="width:40px;", Swing ! style="width:40px;", Seats ! style="width:40px;", Change , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

, style="width:70px;", 1,339,496 , style="width:40px;", 37.03 , style="width:45px;", −5.83 , style="width:40px;", 56 , style="width:55px;", 1 , - , rowspan="3" , , , , align=left ,

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and ...

, 1,070,672 , 29.60 , −0.83 , 18 , 3 , - , , , align=left ,

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

, 172,687 , 4.77 , +0.00 , 9 , 3 , - ! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;", Coalition total !style="text-align:right;", 1,243,359 !style="text-align:right;", 34.37 !style="text-align:right;", −0.82 !style="text-align:right;", 27 !style=text-align:right;, , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Greens , 416,069 , 11.50 , +0.79 , 4 , 1 , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Family First , 110,389 , 3.05 , +3.05 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Animal Justice , 90,797 , 2.51 , +0.69 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

Freedom Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...

, 61,812 , 1.71 , +1.71 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

Victorian Socialists The Victorian Socialists (VS) is a democratic socialist political party based in the Australian state of Victoria. Founded in February 2018, it is an electoral alliance of various socialist parties, organisations, community groups and trade ...

, 48,865 , 1.35 , +0.91 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Democratic Labour , 42,385 , 1.17 , +0.48 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

Liberal Democratic Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into diff ...

, 12,791 , 0.35 , +0.23 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Shooters, Fishers and Farmers , 11,588 , 0.32 , −0.37 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, lang ...

, 10,907 , 0.30 , −0.06 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

Pauline Hanson's One Nation Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON or ONP), also known as One Nation or One Nation Party, is a right-wing populist political party in Australia. It is led by Pauline Hanson. One Nation had electoral success in the late 1990s, before sufferi ...

, 8,077 , 0.22 , +0.22 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

, 7,927 , 0.22 , −0.04 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Legalise Cannabis , 5,838 , 0.16 , +0.16 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", New Democrats , 4,874 , 0.13 , +0.13 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Angry Victorians , 3,037 , 0.08 , +0.08 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Health Australia , 862 , 0.02 , +0.02 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Transport Matters , 605 , 0.02 , −0.27 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Companions and Pets , 526 , 0.01 , +0.01 , 0 , , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Independents , 196,796 , 5.44 , −0.63 , 0 , 3 , - ! colspan="8" , , - , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" , Total valid votes , 3,617,000 , 94.59 , – , – , – , - , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" , Invalid/blank votes , 211,791 , 5.53 , – , – , – , - , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" , Total , 3,828,791 , 100 , – , 87 , , - , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" , Registered voters / Turnout , 4,394,465 , 87.13 , – , – , – , - ! colspan="8" ,

Two-party-preferred vote In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP, ...

* , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

, 1,989,350 , 55.00 , −2.30 , 56 , 1 , - , , , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Coalition , 1,627,650 , 45.00 , +2.30 , 27 , * TPP votes are calculated based on the estimate provided by the ABC election computer overseen by

Antony Green Antony John Green (born 2 March 1960) is an Australian psephologist and commentator. He is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's chief election analyst. Early years and background Born in Warrington, Lancashire, in northern England, Gree ...

Procedure

Most legislation is initiated in the Legislative Assembly. The party or coalition with a majority of seats in the lower house is invited by the Governor to form government. The leader of that party subsequently becomes

Premier of Victoria The premier of Victoria is the head of government in the Australian state of Victoria. The premier is appointed by the governor of Victoria, and is the leader of the political party able to secure a majority in the Victorian Legislative Assem ...

, and their senior colleagues become ministers responsible for various portfolios. As Australian political parties traditionally vote along party lines, almost all legislation introduced by the governing party will pass through the legislative assembly.

Committees

* Privileges Committee * Standing Orders Committee

Notes

References

External links

VLA Hansard Assembly Members ListElections since 1856Roles
{{Political parties in Victoria (Australia) Parliament of Victoria Victoria 1856 establishments in Australia