Editing Australian Senate (section)

===Proportional representation of the states vs one vote one value===
Each state elects the same number of senators, meaning there is equal representation for each of the Australian states, regardless of population, so the Senate, like many upper Houses, does not adhere to the principle of [[one vote one value]]. [[Tasmania]], with a population of around 500,000, elects the same number of senators as [[New South Wales]], which has a population of more than 8 million. 

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! State/Territory/Commonwealth !! 2021 Census population<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 June 2022 |title=Population: Census |url=https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/population-census/2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240219235324/https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/population-census/latest-release |archive-date=19 February 2024 |access-date=7 March 2024 |website=Australian Bureau of Statistics – Population: Census 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Census 2021 AUS |id=SAL90004 |quick=on |name=Norfolk Island |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Census 2021 AUS |id=LGA51710 |name=Christmas Island |quick=on |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Census 2021 AUS |id=SAL90003 |name=Jervis Bay |quick=on |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Census 2021 AUS |quick=on |id=901021002 |name=Cocos (Keeling) Islands |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref>!! Population per senator 
|-
| [[New South Wales]] || 8,339,347 || 694,945
|-
| [[Victoria (state)|Victoria]] || 6,503,491 || 541,957
|-
| [[Queensland]] || 5,156,138 || 429,678
|-
| [[Western Australia]] || 2,660,026 || 221,668
|-
| [[South Australia]] || 1,781,516 || 148,459
|-
| [[Tasmania]] || 557,571 || 46,464
|-
| [[Northern Territory]] (including [[Christmas Island]] and [[Cocos (Keeling) Islands]]) || 234,890 || 117,445
|-
| [[Australian Capital Territory]] (including [[Jervis Bay Territory]] and [[Norfolk Island]]) || 456,687 || 228,343
|-
| [[Australia]] || 25,422,788 || 334,510
|}

The proportional election system within each state ensures that the Senate incorporates more political diversity than the lower house ([[Australian House of Representatives|House of Representatives]]), which has historically been a [[Two-party system|two party]] body. The elected membership of the Senate more closely reflects the first voting preference of the electorate as a whole than does the composition of the House of Representatives, despite the large discrepancies from state to state in the ratio of voters to senators.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lijphart|first=Arend|date=1 November 1999|title=Australian Democracy: Modifying Majoritarianism?|journal=Australian Journal of Political Science|volume=34|issue=3|pages=313–326|doi=10.1080/10361149950254|issn=1036-1146}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference|url=http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/pubs/pops/pop34/a01.pdf|title=Overview: Institutional Design and the Role of the Senate|last1=Sawer|first1=Marian|conference=Representation and Institutional Change: 50 Years of Proportional Representation in the Senate|volume=34|editor=Marian Sawer |editor2=Sarah Miskin|date=1999|pages=1–12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110117111841/http://aph.gov.au/Senate/pubs/pops/pop34/a01.pdf|archive-date=17 January 2011|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://theconversation.com/just-how-representative-are-the-houses-of-parliament-of-how-australians-vote-62160|title=Just how representative are the houses of parliament of how Australians vote?|last=Trudgian|first=Tim|work=The Conversation|access-date=2018-05-30|language=en|archive-date=21 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921125212/https://theconversation.com/just-how-representative-are-the-houses-of-parliament-of-how-australians-vote-62160|url-status=live}}</ref> This often means that the composition of the Senate is different from that of the House of Representatives, contributing to the Senate's function as a [[Upper house|house of review]].

With proportional representation, and the small majorities in the Senate compared to the generally larger majorities in the House of Representatives, and the requirement that the number of members of the House be "nearly as practicable" twice that of the Senate, a joint sitting after a double dissolution is more likely than not to lead to a victory for the House over the Senate. When the Senate had an odd number of senators retiring at an election (3 or 5), 51% of the vote would lead to a clear majority of 3 out of 5 per state. With an even number of senators retiring at an election, it takes 57% of the vote to win 4 out of 6 seats, which may be insurmountable. This gives the House an advantage in joint sittings but not in ordinary elections, where the Senate may be too evenly balanced to get House legislation through.

A party does not need the support of the Senate to form government (needing only a majority in the House of Representatives), however the Senate can block supply, effectively preventing the government from lawfully spending money. Whether a government facing a Senate that blocks [[Confidence and supply|supply]] is obliged to either resign or call an election was one of the major disputes of the [[1975 Australian constitutional crisis|1975 constitutional crisis]]. However, even where the Senate does not block supply, they can still use their power to frustrate the legislative agenda of the government.