Direct Election To Both Houses of Parliament
The Constitution required direct election of members to both Houses of Parliament from the beginning (sections 7 and 24). This was a novelty at the time, since the national upper houses with which the framers were best acquainted were chosen by other means: indirect election by the State legislatures (United States Senate before the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913), executive appointment for life (Canadian Senate), or hereditary succession (United Kingdom House of Lords).
Read more about this topic: Australian Constitutional Law
Famous quotes containing the words direct, election, houses and/or parliament:
“Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty would be an ignorant unkindness.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“What a glorious time they must have in that wilderness, far from mankind and election day!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“What is the historical function of Parliament in this country? It is to prevent the Government from governing.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)