Special thanks to Murray for organising the tour of parliament house with our excellent tour guide Jack Batty MP.
It was a fascinating tour and Jack provided us with the history of the old and the new Parliament Houses. Jack was a wealth of knowledge and happy to take many questions.
We were taken on a tour of the various houses and chambers and what happens in each.
- House of Assembly. The speaker presides over the House of Assembly, which is composed of forty-seven members, each representing a separate electorate. Government is formed by the party commanding a majority in the House of Assembly. Bills are most often introduced into the House of Assembly, usually by the Government, but sometimes by the Opposition or a private member. The clauses of the Bills are debated by both Government and the Oppositions. As each member may ask up to 3 questions for each clause of a Bill, debates can go on for a long period of time, often well into the evening and early morning.
- Legislative Council: The Legislative Council is the Upper House of Parliament of South Australia, and acts as a House of Review. Comprises of members elected by proportional representation to represent the entire State. The Legislative Council reviews all the Bills which have been received from the House of Assembly, and those which are passed then go the Governor for “Royal Assent” before becoming law.
- There are many symbols taken from the English parliament (the Mace, the Black Rod, the “bloodlines”). Both Chambers are decorated in distinct colours: green for the House of Assembly (a nod to the grass on the Common in a village) and red (the colour of Lords’ Court robes) for the Legislative Council, again referencing the English Parliament House of Commons and House of Lords.
It was a truly informative tour and Jack provided extensive information and explanations.
Many thanks to Jack Batty MP for taking the time to explain the workings of Parliament House.
We concluded the day with lunch at the Strathmore Hotel.
Always a fun day on a Vocational Tour. Great to see both members and their partners.