Crossing The Floor Australian Parliament

Crossing the floor the act of a member of parliament who refuses to vote with his or her own party in a particular division and crosses the floor of the parliamentary chamber to join the political opponents and vote with them.

Crossing the floor australian parliament.

Senator reg wright from tasmania who served from 1950 to 1978 crossed the floor 150 times. Crossing the floor may mean changing to a second party after being elected as a member of a first party or voting against the approved party lines. A rebel liberal mp had no choice but to cross the floor over debate on a contentious mining bill in south australia s parliament leading to him being labelled as destructive and a bloody fool. Political parties in australia expect loyalty from their parliamentary members and as a result parties usually vote as a team.

So why did this senator cross the floor. Deirdre mckeown and rob lundie present the preliminary results of a study of instances of crossing the floor in federal parliament. Crossing the floor is rare. Such actions are rare in australia due to the strong party discipline exercised on members of parliament.

Only 12 per cent of divisions were affected by these floor crossings.