Platypus and Parliament: the Australian Senate in theory and practice

Abstract

When Europeans first encountered the platypus they considered it to be an implausible bundle of contradictions. They acknowledged, however, that it was superbly adapted to its environment. In this book Stanley Bach argues that the Australian Parliament, with its borrowings from both the British and American experience, is a bundle of ‘seemingly inconsistent and even incompatible elements’ which, nevertheless, join together ‘to make a political system that works’.

Topics covered in this book include: the design and operation of Australia’s system of government, an analysis of the confrontation between the Senate and the House of Representatives in 1975, proposals for parliamentary reform, the republic debate, minority parties and the balance of power, mandate theory, accountability and responsible government. Show more