46 Joint Sitting of Parliament
A joint sitting of Parliament means that members of the House of Representatives and senators meet together in one chamber. The reason for a joint sitting is to resolve a deadlock between the two chambers of the Parliament. The procedure is described in Section 57 of the Constitution.
The Commonwealth Parliament can only make laws when both the House of Representatives and Senate agree with contents of a bill and then pass it. Sometimes, one chamber (usually the Senate) rejects or refuses to pass a bill and the two chambers are deadlocked. Section 57 of the Constitution says that in the case of a deadlock, the Governor-General can dissolve the Parliament (a double dissolution), and after an election can arrange or convene a joint sitting of both chambers to try and pass the deadlocked bill(s) again. A government would only hold a joint sitting if it was sure that it had a majority of the combined votes to pass the bill or bills that previously had not passed.
The only time in the history of the Commonwealth Parliament that there has been a Section 57 joint sitting was in 1974.
The Whitlam government, which was elected in 1972, had a majority of nine votes in the House of Representatives but not a majority in the Senate. By April 1974, there were a number of bills that the Senate had not passed. To resolve this deadlock, the Prime Minister, Mr Whitlam, requested the Governor-General to use Section 57 and to dissolve both houses and call an election for 18 May.
The Labor government won the election but with a reduced majority of only five members in the House of Representatives. The government still did not have a majority in the Senate. So when the Senate rejected the same six bills again, the Governor-General, using Section 57 of the Constitution, convened a joint session of both houses on Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 August 1974 to vote together on the bills. These were three bills on electoral matters, two about health insurance and one to set up the Petroleum and Minerals Authority.
There are other occasions when both houses meet that are not joint sittings according to Section 57 of the Constitution. Joint sittings occur after an election and at the first meeting of the new Parliament. On this occasion, the Governor-General reads the program for the new government. This sitting of all members and senators is mostly held in the Senate chamber and is ceremonial, there being no formal parliamentary business.
Other recent joint sittings that were described as joint meetings of all members and senators were held in the House of Representatives on 23 and 24 October 2004. On the first day, the President of the United States of America, Mr George Bush, addressed all members and senators. On the following day, the President of the Peoples’ Republic of China, Mr Hu Jintao, did the same. These were ceremonial meetings of the Parliament and no parliamentary business was carried out.
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More information
House
of Representatives Practice Chapter 13: Disagreements between the Houses
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/pubs/PRACTICE/chapter13.htm