President of the New South Wales Legislative Council

President of the New South Wales Legislative Council
Incumbent John Ajaka since 21 February 2017
Style	The Honourable Mr / Madam President (in the Council)
Appointer	The Monarch's representative at the behest of the Legislative Council
Term length	Elected at start of each Parliament
Inaugural holder	Sir Alfred Stephen
Formation	20 May 1856
Deputy	Trevor Khan, MLC

The President of the New South Wales Legislative Council is the presiding officer of the upper house of the Parliament of New South Wales, the Legislative Council. The presiding officer of the lower house is the speaker of the Legislative Assembly. The role of President has generally been a partisan office, filled by the governing party of the time. As of May 2017 the president is John Ajaka.

Election

Between 1856 and when the Legislative Council was re-constituted in 1934 the president was appointed by the Governor. From 1934 the President was chosen by the council, however there was no contested election between 1934 and 1988. Instead each of Sir John Peden, Ernest Farrar, William Dickson and Sir Harry Budd continued to hold office until they ceased to be a member of the council, regardless of the composition of the council or which party was in government. In 1991 this was changed by legislation that required the president to be chosen by ballot after each election. Since 1991 the president is elected by the Council in a secret ballot. The Clerk of the Council conducts the election. The Presidency has always been a partisan office and the nominee of the government party has nearly always been elected—although this cannot be guaranteed since the government of the day does not necessarily have a majority in the Council. The president is assisted by an elected deputy president. The traditional practice has been that the government nominates an MLC to be elected as President, and the Opposition nominates an MLC to be Deputy President. However, as with now, this is not always the case.

Impartiality

The president has a casting vote (in the event of an equality of votes). Like the speaker, the president continues to attend party meetings, and at general elections stands as a party candidate. On the other hand, the president does not usually take part in debates in the Council and does not speak in public on party-political issues. He or she is expected to conduct the business of the Council in an impartial and dignified manner.

Section 22I of the NSW Constitution states that "All questions arising in the Legislative Council shall be decided by a majority of the votes of the Members present other than the President or other Member presiding and when the votes are equal the President or other Member presiding shall have a casting vote."

Role

The president’s principal duty is to preside over the Council, although he or she is assisted in this by the deputy president and a panel of acting deputy presidents, who usually preside during routine debates. The occupant of the chair must maintain order in the Council, uphold the Standing Orders (rules of procedure) and protect the rights of backbench councillors. The president, in conjunction with the speaker of the Legislative Assembly, also administers Parliament House, Sydney, with the assistance of administrative staff.

Although the president does not have the same degree of disciplinary power as the speaker does, the Council is not as rowdy as most Australian legislative chambers, and thus his or her disciplinary powers are seldom exercised.

Perquisites and ceremony

Sir John Peden (1929–1946) in the full traditional dress presiding over the State Opening of Parliament, 18 September 1929.

Following the Westminster tradition inherited from the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, the traditional dress of the speaker includes components of Court dress such as the black silk lay-type gown (similar to a Queen's Counsel gown), a wing collar and a lace jabot or bands (another variation included a white bow tie with a lace jabot), bar jacket, and a full-bottomed wig.

The dress of speakers has often variated according to the party in power, but is determinate on the personal choice of the speaker. Most Labor party presidents eschewed the wig while retaining the court dress, while conservative and independent speakers tended to wear the full dress.

The president, currently, no longer wears the full traditional court dress outfit. Max Willis (1991-1998) was the last president to do so. From 1998 to 2011, all the presidents opted not to wear any dress at all, preferring normal business attire. However, upon his election, President Harwin returned to tradition by wearing the gown during question time and on significant occasions such as the Opening of Parliament. However, there is nothing stopping any given speaker, if they choose to do so, from assuming traditional court dress or anything they deem appropriate.

List of presidents of the Legislative Council

#	President	Party affiliation	Term start	Term end	Time in office
1	Sir Alfred Stephen	None	20 May 1856	28 January 1857	253 days
2	John Plunkett	None	29 January 1857	6 February 1858	1 year, 8 days
3	Sir William Burton	None	9 February 1858	10 March 1861	3 years, 29 days
4	William Wentworth	None	24 June 1861	10 October 1862	1 year, 108 days
5	Sir Terence Murray	None	14 October 1862	22 June 1873	10 years, 251 days
6	Sir John Hay	None	8 July 1873	10 January 1892	18 years, 186 days
7	Sir John Lackey	None	26 January 1892	23 May 1903	11 years, 117 days
8	Sir Francis Suttor	Progressive	23 May 1903	4 April 1915	11 years, 316 days
		Liberal Reform
9	Frederick Flowers	Labor	27 April 1915	14 December 1928	13 years, 231 days
10	Sir John Peden	Nationalist	5 February 1929	22 April 1946	17 years, 76 days
		United Australia
		Liberal
11	Ernest Farrar	Liberal	30 April 1946	16 June 1952	6 years, 47 days
12	William Dickson	Labor	18 August 1952	22 May 1966	13 years, 277 days
13	Sir Harry Budd	Country	9 August 1966	5 November 1978	12 years, 88 days
14	Johno Johnson	Labor	7 November 1978	3 July 1991	12 years, 238 days
15	Max Willis	Liberal	3 July 1991	29 June 1998	6 years, 361 days
16	Virginia Chadwick	Liberal	29 June 1998	5 March 1999	249 days
17	Meredith Burgmann	Labor	11 May 1999	2 March 2007	7 years, 295 days
18	Peter Primrose	Labor	8 May 2007	17 November 2009	2 years, 193 days
19	Amanda Fazio	Labor	24 November 2009	3 May 2011	1 year, 160 days
20	Don Harwin	Liberal	3 May 2011	30 January 2017 (2017-01-30)	5 years, 272 days
21	John Ajaka	Liberal	21 February 2017	Incumbent	7 years, 300 days

Deputy President and Chair of Committees

Originally titled Chairman of Committees, the current style was adopted on 5 May 2004 during the term of the first female holder of the office. Various legal and constitutional amendments to follow this change were made in the Constitution Amendment (Parliamentary Presiding Officers) Act 2014.

Chairman of Committees	Party affiliation	Term start	Term end
George Allen	None	4 June 1856	15 January 1873
Joseph Docker	None	15 January 1873	9 February 1875
Sir Joseph Innes	None	9 February 1875	16 December 1880
Joseph Docker	None	16 December 1880	11 December 1884
William Piddington	None	17 March 1885	25 November 1887
Archibald Jacob	None	1 December 1887	28 May 1900
William Trickett	None	13 June 1900	23 July 1912
Broughton O'Conor	Liberal Reform	24 July 1912	22 April 1934
	Nationalist
	United Australia
Ernest Farrar	United Australia	2 May 1934	22 April 1946
	Liberal
Thomas Steele	Country	30 April 1946	11 March 1953
Ernest Gerard Wright	Labor	11 March 1953	22 April 1967
Stanley Eskell	Liberal	2 August 1967	6 March 1969
Thomas McKay	Liberal	12 March 1969	5 November 1978
Clive Healey	Labor	8 November 1978	22 February 1988
Sir Adrian Solomons	National	28 April 1988	2 July 1991
Duncan Gay	National	3 July 1991	10 May 1999
Tony Kelly	Labor	11 May 1999	29 April 2003
Amanda Fazio	Labor	30 April 2003	5 May 2004
Deputy President	Party affiliation	Term start	Term end
Amanda Fazio	Labor	5 May 2004	24 November 2009
Kayee Griffin	Labor	24 November 2009	4 March 2011
Jenny Gardiner	National	3 May 2011	5 May 2015
Trevor Khan	National	5 May 2015	Incumbent

Assistant President

Assistant President	Party affiliation	Term start	Term end
Fred Nile	Christian Democrats	28 June 2007	7 May 2019
Shaoquett Moselmane	Labor	7 May 2019	6 April 2020
Rod Roberts	One Nation	17 June 2020	Incumbent

External links

• NSW Legislative Council
• NSW Parliamentary Record