New South Wales Legislative Assembly

Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly
58th Parliament
Type
Type	Lower house of the Parliament of New South Wales
History
Founded	22 May 1856
Leadership
Speaker	Greg Piper, Independent ; since 9 May 2023
Deputy Speaker	Sonia Hornery, Labor ; since 9 May 2023
Leader of the House	Ron Hoenig, Labor ; since 5 April 2023
Government Whip	Nathan Hagarty, Labor ; since 17 October 2023
Deputy Government Whip	Janelle Saffin, Labor ; since 3 May 2023
Manager of Opposition Business	Alister Henskens, Liberal ; since 3 May 2023
Opposition Whip	Adam Crouch, Liberal ; since 21 April 2023
Structure
Seats	93
Political groups	Government (45) Labor (45); Opposition (36) Liberal (25); Nationals (11); Crossbench (12) Greens (3); Independent (9);
Length of term	4 years
Elections
Voting system	Optional preferential voting
Last election	25 March 2023
Next election	2027
Meeting place
	Legislative Assembly Chamber; Parliament House, Sydney,; New South Wales, Australia
Website
	NSW Legislative Assembly

The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. The Assembly is presided over by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.

The Assembly has 93 members, elected by single-member constituency, which are commonly known as seats. Voting is by the optional preferential system.^[4]

Members of the Legislative Assembly have the post-nominals MP after their names.^[5] From the creation of the assembly up to about 1990, the post-nominals "MLA" (Member of the Legislative Assembly) were used.

The Assembly is often called the bearpit on the basis of the house's reputation for confrontational style during heated moments and the "savage political theatre and the bloodlust of its professional players"^[6] attributed in part to executive dominance.^[7]

^ "The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly". www.parliament.nsw.gov.au. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
^ "Other Office Holders". www.parliament.nsw.gov.au. Parliament of New South Wales.
^ Raper, Ashleigh (12 December 2022). "Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MPs resign from party over behaviour of leader Robert Borsak". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
^ Cite error: The named reference NSWpl-4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "The Role of Members of Parliament". Members. Parliament of New South Wales. 28 February 2008. Archived from the original on 24 April 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
^ Dusevic, Tom (4 December 2009). "Tawdry cast sits out dance of death playing in bearpit". The Australian. News Limited. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
^ Grove, Russell D. (Autumn 2010). "Being in Opposition – Opportunities Lost" (PDF). Australasian Parliamentary Review. 25 (1). Australasian Study of Parliament Group: 185–191. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2011.

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).

[1] "The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly". www.parliament.nsw.gov.au. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 7 April 2023.

[OOH-2] "Other Office Holders". www.parliament.nsw.gov.au. Parliament of New South Wales.

[4] Raper, Ashleigh (12 December 2022). "Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MPs resign from party over behaviour of leader Robert Borsak". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 12 December 2022.

[NSWpl-4-5] Cite error: The named reference NSWpl-4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[6] "The Role of Members of Parliament". Members. Parliament of New South Wales. 28 February 2008. Archived from the original on 24 April 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2011.

[7] Dusevic, Tom (4 December 2009). "Tawdry cast sits out dance of death playing in bearpit". The Australian. News Limited. Retrieved 20 May 2011.

[8] Grove, Russell D. (Autumn 2010). "Being in Opposition – Opportunities Lost" (PDF). Australasian Parliamentary Review. 25 (1). Australasian Study of Parliament Group: 185–191. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2011.

[1]

[2]

[a]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]