New South Wales Legislative Council

Legislative Council
Legislative Council
58th Parliament
Type
Type	Upper house of the Parliament of New South Wales
History
Founded	25 August 1824
Leadership
President	Ben Franklin, Nationals ; since 9 May 2023
Deputy President and Chair of Committees	Rod Roberts, Independent ; since 9 May 2023
Leader of the Government	Penny Sharpe, Labor ; since 28 March 2023
Deputy Leader of the Government	John Graham, Labor ; since 28 March 2023
Leader of the Opposition	Damien Tudehope, Liberal ; since 28 March 2023
Government Whip	Bob Nanva, Labor ; since 3 May 2023
Deputy Government Whip	Cameron Murphy, Labor ; since 21 April 2023
Opposition Whip	Chris Rath, Liberal ; since 21 April 2023
Structure
Seats	42
Political groups	Government (15) ; Labor (15) Opposition (14) ; Liberal (9) ; National (5) ; Crossbench (13) ; Greens (4) ; Shooters, Fishers, Farmers (2) ; Animal Justice (1) ; Legalise Cannabis (1) ; Libertarian (1) ; One Nation (1) Independent (3)
Length of term	8 years
Elections
Voting system	Single transferable vote
Last election	25 March 2023
Next election	2027
Meeting place
	Legislative Council Chamber; Parliament House, Sydney,; New South Wales, Australia
Website
	NSW Legislative Council

The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. It is normal for legislation to be first deliberated on and passed by the Legislative Assembly before being considered by the Legislative Council, which acts in the main as a house of review.

The Legislative Council has 42 members, elected by proportional representation in which the whole state is a single electorate. Members serve eight-year terms, which are staggered, with half the Council being elected every four years, roughly coinciding with elections to the Legislative Assembly.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

[a]