The Senate

---

Senate candidates

---

New South Wales

Victoria

Queensland

Western Australia

South Australia

Tasmania

Australian Capital Territory

Northern Territory

The 2016 election was a double dissolution, with each state electing 12 Senators. In each state, the first six Senators elected got six-year terms (expiring 30 June 2022), while the second six got three-year terms (expiring 30 June 2019). These Senators will face election at the 2019 election.

This will be the first half-Senate election since the 2016 reforms to the Senate election system. These were designed to prevent a repeat of situation in 2013, in which Senators were elected with virtually no electoral support, as a result of organised preference-farming. The changes abolished the automatic allocation of preferences by parties, and allowed voters to cast a valid Senate vote by indicating a limited number of preferences either above or below the line.

This is expected to make it much harder for minor party candidates to be elected. At this election, six of the nine Australian Greens Senators face election, as do eight other Senators elected as minor-party candidates. It is likely that many of these will lose their seats.

The table below shows the votes cast in the 2016 Senate election expressed as quotas for a half Senate election, at which the quota for election in the states is 14.3% (after preferences).

Go to the Guide to the House of Representatives election

Return to the main page