Joint Sitting of The Australian Parliament of 1974

Joint Sitting Of The Australian Parliament Of 1974

A joint sitting of the Australian parliament was convened in 1974, in which members of the Senate and House of Representatives sat together as a single legislative body. The joint sitting was held on 6 and 7 August 1974, following the double dissolution 1974 federal election, and remains the only time that members of both houses of the federal parliament have sat together as a single legislative body pursuant to section 57 of the Constitution.

This sitting deliberated and voted upon the following bills:

• Commonwealth Electoral Bill (No. 2) 1973, which sought to make Commonwealth electorates more even in size by reducing the allowable quota variation from 20 per cent to 10 per cent
• Senate (Representation of Territories) Bill 1973, which gave the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory two senators each
• Representation Bill 1973, which stated that neither the people of the territories nor the territory senators could be included in the formula for determining the number of House seats for each state
• Health Insurance Bill 1973, which was the main bill that established Medibank (now known as Medicare)
• Health Insurance Commission Bill 1973, which established the Medibank administrative agency the Health Insurance Commission (now known as Medicare Australia)
• Petroleum and Minerals Authority Bill 1973, which was included despite some uncertainty as to whether the provisions of s.57 had been met. This established a statutory body to control the exploration for, and development of, petroleum and mining resources

All six bills were affirmed by an absolute majority of the total number of members and senators, a requirement under the Constitution for the bills to pass. All proceedings of the joint sitting were broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Commission and a complete sound record was made for archival purposes. This would be the first Australian television coverage of parliamentary debates. It was also the first Australian television broadcast in colour, even though colour television was not generally introduced until March 1975.