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Fact Sheets in alphabetical order A Day in Parliament A Day in the Life of an MP Adjournment Debate Amendments Bills and Acts Budget Cabinet Clerk Coalition Coat of Arms Constitution Crossing the Floor Despatch Box Double Dissolution Elections Estimates Federation Frontbenchers & Backbenchers Functions of Parliament Governor-General Hansard House of Representatives Independents Inside Parliament House Joint Sitting of Parliament Leader of the Opposition Mace Main Committee Media Members of Parliament Ministers Ministers & Shadow Ministers Parliament House Facts Parliamentary Committees Party Leadership Party Meetings Party Whip Passing a Bill Petitions Political Party Preparing a Bill for Parliament President of the Senate Prime Minister Private Members & Senators Prorogation & Dissolution Question Time Senate Senators Separation of Powers Serjeant-at-Arms Speaker Speaker's Chair Standing Orders Three Levels of Government Usher of the Black Rod Where Bills Come From Fact Sheets in numerical order 01 The Coat of Arms 02 Despatch Box 03 The Speaker's Chair 04 The Usher of the Black Rod 05 Adjournment Debate 06 Amendments 07 Party Leadership 08 Main Committee 09 Party Meetings 10 The Serjeant-at-Arms 11 The Mace 12 Coalition 13 Prorogation & Dissolution 14 Independents 15 Leader of the Opposition 16 President of the Senate 17 The Governor-General 18 House of Representatives 19 Cabinet 20 Members of Parliament 21 Ministers & Shadow Ministers 22 Political Party 23 The Prime Minister 24 The Media 25 The Senate 26 The Party Whip 27 A Day in Parliament 28 Bills & Acts 29 Functions of Parliament 30 The Speaker 31 The Consitution 32 Senators 33 Double Dissolution 34 Federation 35 Separation of Powers 36 Passing a Bill 37 Frontbenchers & Backbenchers 38 Crossing the Floor 39 Question Time 40 A Day in the Life of an MP 41 Elections 42 Estimates 43 Parliament House Facts 44 Hansard 45 Inside Parliament House 46 Joint Sitting of Parliament 47 Private Members & Senators 48 Ministers 49 Parliamentary Committees 50 Petitions 51 Preparing a Bill for Parliament 52 Standing Orders 53 The Budget 54 The Clerk 55 Three Levels of Government 56 Where Bills Come From

43 Parliament House Facts

The building:

• the Parliament House building was designed by Mitchell/Giurgola and Thorp Architects. This was the winning entry from 329 entries in an international competition to design a new Parliament House
• the selected site covers 32 hectares on Capital Hill
• the first hole in the ground was dug in late 1980, and construction began. The building was officially opened on 9 May 1988, and the first sitting of Parliament was on 22 August 1988
• the building was constructed with 300,000 cubic metres of concrete and 90 percent of materials used are Australian
• the curved walls of the building are surfaced with red granite from Eugowra, about 270 kilometres northwest of Canberra
• the flag mast is 81 metres high and weighs 220 tonnes. The flag is 12.8 metres by 6.4 metres which is about the same size as the side of a double-decker bus, and is possibly the largest Australian flag flying in Australia
• the total cost of the building was $1.1 billion and is intended to last 200 years.

Inside:

• there are 4,500 rooms with a total area of 250,000 square metres
• the Foyer contains 48 Italian and Portuguese marble clad pillars
• the Great Hall contains a tapestry on the southern wall, and a parquet floor of Western Australian Jarrah with Ebony and Blackbutt inlays. The tapestry was woven in Melbourne and is based on Arthur Boyd’s painting of a bush landscape
• the House of Representatives chamber is decorated in the traditional lower house colour of green which has been muted to the colours of Australian eucalypt and acacia trees
• the Senate chamber is decorated in the reds of Australian soils and red gums
• the House of Representatives has 536 seats in the public galleries while the Senate can accommodate 596 people in the galleries
• there are hundreds of other works of art inside the building including rugs, paintings, sculptures and specially designed furniture. Among the many paintings are portraits of previous Prime Ministers, Speakers of the House of Representatives and Presidents of the Senate.

Download: 43 Parliament House Facts [195KB]

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