President of the Australian Senate

President of the Senate
Commonwealth Coat of Arms
Flag of Australia
Incumbent Sue Lines since 26 July 2022
Australian Senate
Style	The Honourable
Appointer	Elected by the Senate
Inaugural holder	Sir Richard Baker
Formation	9 May 1901
Deputy	Senator Andrew McLachlan
Salary	A$369,674
Website	aph.gov.au

This article is part of a series on the
Politics of Australia
Constitution
Monarchy Monarch Charles III Governor-General Sam Mostyn
Executive Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (ALP) Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles (ALP) Federal Executive Council Ministry Albanese ministry Cabinet
Legislature Australian Parliament Senate President Sue Lines (ALP) Leader Penny Wong (ALP) House of Representatives Speaker Milton Dick (ALP) Leader Tony Burke (ALP) Opposition Leader Peter Dutton (LP) Shadow Ministry
Judiciary High Court of Australia Chief Justice Stephen Gageler Keane Gordon Edelman Steward Gleeson Beech-Jones Federal Court of Australia Chief Justice Debra Mortimer List of Judges Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Chief Justice Will Alstergren List of Judges State and territory courts Law of Australia
Elections Recent elections 2022 2019 2016 2013 2010 2007 Federal electoral system Electoral divisions By-elections Referendums and plebiscites Voter registration Leadership spill Political parties Political funding
States and territories Governors and administrators Premiers and chief ministers Parliaments and assemblies State courts State electoral systems
Local government NSW Vic Qld WA SA Tas NT Political parties
Foreign relations Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Foreign Minister Penny Wong Diplomatic missions of / in Australia Nationality law Passports Visa requirements Visa policy Australia and the United Nations G20 APEC New Zealand United Kingdom United States Canada European Union China India
Ideologies Anarchism Christian Conservatism Environmentalism Far-right Hansonism Liberalism Monarchism Multiculturalism Nationalism Republicanism Secularism Socialism
Australia portal New South Wales Victoria Queensland Western Australia South Australia Tasmania Australian Capital Territory Northern Territory
v t e

The president of the Senate is the presiding officer of the Australian Senate, the upper house of the Parliament of Australia. The counterpart in the lower house is the speaker of the House of Representatives. The office of the presidency of the senate was established in 1901 by section 17 of the Constitution of Australia. The primary responsibilities of the office is to oversee senate debates, determine which senators may speak, maintain order and the parliamentary code of conduct during sessions and uphold all rules and orders of the senate. The current president is Sue Lines, who was elected on 26 July 2022.

The Senate elects one of its members as president at the start of each new term, or whenever the position is vacant. This is usually—though not necessarily—a member of the party or coalition that has formed government in the House of Representatives. Early presidents were members of the largest party or coalition in the Senate, which was not always the governing party, however this is no longer the case.^[1]

The president of the Senate's primary task is to maintain parliamentary procedure in the chamber during legislative sessions. Unlike the speaker of the House, the president of the Senate votes as an ordinary member during general debate, and has no casting vote in the case of a tie (a casting vote would effectively give the president's state an extra vote). The president of the Senate has also various administrative and ceremonial duties, sharing responsibility for the management of Parliament House and other parliamentary facilities and services with the speaker of the House.