48th session of Australia’s federal parliament officially opened

Canberra, July 22 (IANS) Australia’s 48th federal parliament officially opened on Tuesday in the capital Canberra, following May’s general election.

The commencement of the parliament comes more than two months after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor Party won a second term in government in a landslide victory at the May 3 election.

As part of Tuesday’s proceedings, Milton Dick was re-elected as the speaker of the House of Representatives, which is the lower house of parliament, and Sue Lines was re-elected president of the Senate, the upper house.

The duo, both from the Labor Party, will be charged with overseeing debates in their respective houses and maintaining order and rules, Xinhua news agency reported.

Both speakers are entitled to continue attending party meetings, but Dick will only be able to vote on legislation in the event of a tie in the lower house, while Lines can vote on all matters before the Senate.

Addressing a ceremony in the Great Hall at Parliament House on Tuesday morning after a traditional Aboriginal acknowledgement, Albanese urged all 226 elected members of the federal parliament to write Australia’s “next chapter” with grace and courage.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Prime Minister said that every day in the new parliament would be an “opportunity” for his government to deliver for Australians.

The first day of a new parliament’s agenda is filled with formalities, with the Great Hall ceremony followed by swearing-in proceedings for the elected members of the lower and upper houses.

Among those newly elected members is Labor’s 21-year-old Charlotte Walker, who will represent the state of South Australia as the youngest senator in Australian history.

Following the election, Labor held 94 out of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives, the equal-most by any party in history, and 29 of the 76 seats in the Senate.

The conservative Liberal-National Coalition holds 43 lower house seats and 27 in the Senate.

Coalition leader Sussan Ley said on Tuesday morning that the opposition party is at a “low point” in the wake of the historic election defeat but promised to work hard to hold the government to account.

The 48th parliament will turn to legislative affairs on Wednesday. Albanese has previously said his re-elected government’s first priority will be legislation to deliver its election promise to cut higher education student loan debts by 20 per cent.

–IANS

int/bpd/sd