Victoria

About Parliament | History | State symbols | Chartist checkbox | Did you know?

About Parliament

• Victoria's Parliament has two Houses. The Upper House is the Legislative Council. The Lower House is the Legislative Assembly. There are important differences between the two Houses. The government of the day is formed in the Lower House. The Upper House is often called 'the House of Review'.
• There are currently 40 Members of the Legislative Council (MLCs), five from each of eight electoral regions. MLCs stay in office for one term of the Legislative Assembly (four years), and elections for both Houses are held on the same day.
• Members of Victoria's Legislative Assembly are known as MLAs. One MLA is elected from each of the State's 88 electoral districts. The term of the Legislative Assembly is four years.
• Members are elected to the Legislative Council using a proportional representation voting system with a single transferable vote (similar to elections for the Australian Senate), while a majority preferential voting system is used to elect the members of the Legislative Assembly.
• Vacancies in the Legislative Assembly are filled by holding a by-election in the former Member's electoral district or electoral province, while casual vacancies in the Legislative Council are filled by a joint sitting of the two Houses to elect a nominated candidate.
• Elections for the Victorian Parliament are held on the last Saturday in November, four years after the previous election.
• Voting in Victorian State elections is compulsory for all citizens aged 18 years and over. Compulsory voting for the Legislative Assembly was passed in 1923 and was adopted for elections in 1927. It was adopted for Legislative Council elections in 1935.

History

• Europeans first came to Victoria in the early 1800s. A small convict settlement named the Sorrento settlement was founded in 1802 but moved to Hobart soon after. The bulk of permanent European occupants arrived in the 1830s.
• In 1836, the colonial government in Sydney named the settlement the Port Phillip District of New South Wales. The area was governed from Sydney until 1851.
• The Port Phillip District had some limited representation from 1843 onwards when the New South Wales Legislative Council, the body that advised the Governor, was increased from 30 to 36 Members to include six men from Port Phillip. One of these men was from Melbourne, and five from the rest of what is now Victoria.
• However, because the council met in Sydney, it took a lot of time and money for the Port Phillip District Members to attend Legislative Council meetings. Also, the Legislative Council usually looked after Sydney first. People in the Port Phillip District began to call for self-government.
• Victoria became a separate colony in 1851. The first legislature was a 30 Member Legislative Council which advised the Lieutenant-Governor of the colony, CJ LaTrobe. All Members were men and twenty of them were elected. The remaining ten were chosen by LaTrobe.
• The first Legislative Council wrote Victoria's Constitution. This gave the colony responsible government and a fully elected bicameral parliament. This parliament consisted of a Legislative Council of 30 Members elected by property owners, and a Legislative Assembly of 60 Members elected by a wider section of the male population, including minor landowners, rent payers and gold diggers. All men acquired the vote in 1857.
• The federation movement received strong support in Victoria. Melbourne was the most important business, financial and industrial city in Australia. With federation and the end of border duties, Victorians expected they would be able to do more business with the rest of the country. The colony was also home to the Australian Natives Association (an organisation of young men born in Australia) which was the strongest supporter of federation.
• The first Commonwealth Parliament met in Melbourne's Exhibition Building on 9 May 1901 and then moved to Victoria's Parliament House where it continued to meet until its relocation to Canberra in 1927.

State symbols

	The Victorian Coat of Arms was granted in 1910 by King George V of England. It comprises a shield bearing a representation of the Southern Cross supported by two female figures, one holding an olive branch and the other the mythological cornucopia or 'horn of plenty'. These objects are symbols of 'peace and prosperity', which is the state motto.
	The Victorian flag was first proclaimed in February 1870. It was gazetted in 1877 and amended in 1901. It consists of the blue ensign with the Union Flag and the State Badge.
	The State Badge shows the Southern Cross and the St Edward's Crown. The design of the badge is changed with the style of crown chosen by the King or Queen of Australia. The last change was made in 1953, after Queen Elizabeth II chose the St Edward's Crown for her Coronation in 1953.
	Victoria's Parliament House is located in central Melbourne and is one of the city's best known landmarks. The site was chosen in 1851, and the large sandstone building was constructed between 1856 and 1893.
	The official colours of Victoria are blue and silver.
	The Common (Pink) heath was made the State Flower Emblem of Victoria in 1958.
	The Helmeted Honeyeater was made the State Bird Emblem of Victoria in 1971.
	The Leadbeater's Possum was made the State Animal Emblem of Victoria in 1971.

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Victorian (Self-government from 1856)

Did you know?

• When 20 Members were elected to the first Victorian Legislative Council in 1851, only men who owned a certain amount of land in the colony or who paid substantial rent were allowed to vote.
• Victoria's Parliament was the first in the world to approve the use of the secret ballot for elections. It was used to elect the first Victorian Parliament in 1856.
• Women were granted the right to vote in elections for the Victorian Parliament in 1908, 14 years after their counterparts in South Australia and six years after they were allowed to vote in elections for the Commonwealth Parliament.