Section 5 of the Constitution of Australia empowers the
Governor-General of Australia to
prorogue
Prorogation in the Westminster system of government is the action of proroguing, or interrupting, a parliament, or the discontinuance of meetings for a given period of time, without a dissolution of parliament. The term is also used for the period ...
the
Australian Parliament
The Parliament of Australia (officially the Parliament of the Commonwealth and also known as the Federal Parliament) is the federal legislature of Australia. It consists of three elements: the Monarchy of Australia, monarch of Australia (repr ...
, thereby bringing the current legislative session to an end.
Prorogation clears all business pending before Parliament and allows the houses to be called back on a particular date without triggering an election.
The date for the new session of Parliament may be specified either in the proroguing proclamation or when the governor-general summons the Parliament to meet again.
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20th century prorogations in Australia
Prior to 1977, it was common for the
Commonwealth Parliament
The Parliament of Australia (officially the Parliament of the Commonwealth and also known as the Federal Parliament) is the federal legislature of Australia. It consists of three elements: the Monarchy of Australia, monarch of Australia (repr ...
to have up to three sessions, with Parliament being prorogued at the end of each session and recalled at the beginning of the next. This was not always the case, for instance the 10th Parliament (1926-1928) went full term without prorogation. The practice of having multiple sessions in the same Parliament gradually fell into disuse, and all Parliaments from 1978 to 2013 had a single session. Between 1961 and the turn of the century, prorogations only occurred three times – in 1968 to allow a new ministry to be formed following the death of
Harold Holt
Harold Edward Holt (5 August 190817 December 1967) was an Australian politician and lawyer who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia from 1966 until Disappearance of Harold Holt, his disappearance and presumed death in 1967. He held o ...
, and in 1974 and 1977 to allow Queen
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
to officially open a new session of Parliament.
Since 1990, it has been the practice for the Parliament to be prorogued on the same day that the
House is dissolved so that the Senate will not be able to sit during the election period.
2016 prorogation and recall of Parliament
The
Turnbull government
The Turnbull government was the federal executive government of Australia led by the 29th prime minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, from 2015 to 2018. It succeeded the Abbott government, which brought the Coalition to power at the 2013 Au ...
relied on section 5 to reconvene the Australian Senate a week early on 3 May 2016, despite a majority of Senators having voted not to reconvene before 10 May 2016.
This forced the Senate (in which the government lacked a majority) to reconvene and consider legislation that could serve as triggers for a
double dissolution
A double dissolution is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks in the bicameral Parliament of Australia between the House of Representatives (lower house) and the Senate (upper house). A double dissolutio ...
before the
2016 Australian federal election
The 2016 Australian federal election was a double dissolution election held on Saturday, 2 July 2016, to elect all 226 members of the 45th Parliament of Australia, 45th Parliament of Australia, after an extended eight-week official campaign p ...
, which otherwise may not have been considered before that election.
See also
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Chronology of Australian federal parliaments
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Legislative session
A legislative session is the period of time in which a legislature, in both parliamentary and presidential systems, is convened for purpose of lawmaking, usually being one of two or more smaller divisions of the entire time between two electi ...
*
Prorogation in Canada
References
{{Constitution of Australia
Australian constitutional law