Members of the House of Representatives

Members in the House of Representatives.

DPS Auspic

Members in the House of Representatives.

DPS Auspic

Description

Members working in the House of Representatives.

Copyright information

Permission should be sought from DPS AUSPIC for third-party or commercial uses of this image. To contact DPS AUSPIC email: auspic@aph.gov.au or phone: 02 6277 3342.

Who are members of the House of Representatives

Members of the House of Representatives are elected to represent the people of one of Australia’s 151 electorates. Members come from a wide range of backgrounds and reflect the diversity of Australia’s population. Members do their job within the Parliament and their electorates.

Members are elected to the House of Representatives at least every 3 years. They can stand for re-election as many times as they like.

When in the House, members are referred to as:

• the name of the electorate they represent, for example, the Member for Newcastle
• minister or shadow minister, for example, the Minister for Health
• ‘the Honourable’ if they have been ministers or Presiding Officers

Work of members in Parliament

What do members of parliament do in Parliament.

Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)

What do members of parliament do in Parliament.

Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)

Description

This diagram illustrates what members of the House of Representatives do in the Australian Parliament. Members: debate and vote on bills—proposed laws; represent the views of people in their electorate; work on parliamentary committees to examine important issues; attend parliamentary party meetings to decide on party policy; scrutinise—closely examine—the work of the government; and discuss issues of national and international importance.

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Members of the House of Representatives work long hours when the Australian Parliament is meeting. During sitting weeks, members may begin their day in Parliament House at 7am and end their day at 10pm or later. There are about 18 to 20 sitting weeks a year. In Parliament their duties include:

• representing the views of the people in their electorate
• debating and voting on bills – proposed laws
• working on committees that examine important issues
• meeting with team members to decide on party policy
• scrutinising – closely examining – the work of the government
• discussing issues of national and international importance

Work of members in their electorates

On average, each electorate has about 150 000 people. To represent the people in their electorate, members:

• help people who may be having difficulties with issues such as taxes, immigration or pensions
• speak with community groups such as support groups and sporting clubs
• visit schools and talk to students and teachers
• work on committees to collect information from community organisations and lobby groups that want to present their views to Parliament.

House of Representatives current numbers.

DPS AUSPIC/Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)

House of Representatives current numbers.

DPS AUSPIC/Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)

Copyright information

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

You are free to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work.

Attribution – you must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

Non-commercial – you may not use this work for commercial purposes.

No derivative works – you may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Waiver – any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.