The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria. It follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system and consists of The Queen, represented by the Governor of Victoria; the Legislative Council (upper house); and the Legislative Assembly (lower house). The Parliament meets at Parliament House in the state capital Melbourne.
The two Houses of Parliament have 128 Members in total, 88 in the lower house and 40 in the upper house. Victoria has compulsory voting and uses preferential ballot in single-member seats for the lower house, and single transferable vote in multi-member seats for the proportionally represented upper house. Government is formed in the lower house while the upper is a house of review. All members serve four-year terms.
The incumbent Baillieu Liberal/National Coalition government, elected at the 2010 election, holds a one-seat parliamentary majority in both houses.
Read more about Parliament Of Victoria: History, Structure and Operation, Membership and Elections, Leadership, Relationship With Government, Salary and Allowances
Famous quotes containing the words parliament and/or victoria:
“At the ramparts on the cliff near the old Parliament House I counted twenty-four thirty-two-pounders in a row, pointed over the harbor, with their balls piled pyramid-wise between them,—there are said to be in all about one hundred and eighty guns mounted at Quebec,—all which were faithfully kept dusted by officials, in accordance with the motto, “In time of peace prepare for war”; but I saw no preparations for peace: she was plainly an uninvited guest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The men who are grandfathers should be the fathers. Grandpas get to do it right with their grandchildren.”
—Anonymous Grandparent. As quoted in Women and Their Fathers, by Victoria Secunda, ch. 2 (1992)