Why do parties need someone called the 'whip'?

Thanks for your question, Nathan.

Political parties need a ‘whip’ to help organise their members and make sure they follow the party’s position during debates and votes in Parliament.

The party whip is a member of parliament who is selected by their parliamentary party to act as a team manager, keeping everyone organised and working together. The role is so diverse and busy that the major parties have a chief whip and 2 deputy whips. The whips have several responsibilities, including:

• meeting with whips of other parties to plan the parliamentary day, set the agenda and sort out procedural details
• organising a list of party members who wish to speak during debates or other business and giving this to the President of the Senate or Speaker of the House of Representatives
• making sure all party members attend and vote as a team in a division
• counting and recording the votes in a division
• negotiating 'pairs' from other parties, so that numbers between the government and opposition are kept in balance if members of parliament are absent.