Parliamentary Education SectionParliament of New South Wales

Playing Your Part - D: The Parliament of New South Wales 1

The houses of The ParliamenT of new souTh wales - The leGislaTiVe CounCil

Many of the symbols, practices and procedures of the New South Wales Parliament derive from those developed over the centuries by the English Parliament. The Black Rod is carried by the Usher of the Black Rod, an officer with important administrative and ceremonial roles in the Legislative Council. Its use can be traced back to 1361 in England. A Black Rod has been used by the Upper House in New South Wales since 1856 and the current one is the third, having been presented by the Bank of NSW in 1974.

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The leGislaTiVe CounCil1 Queen’s or Governor’s Chair2 President3 Chairman of Committees4 Clerk of the Parliaments5 Deputy Clerk/Clerk Assistant6 Leader of the Government7 Minister/s8 Usher of the Black Rod9 Opposition Leaders10 Cross Benches11 Hansard Gallery12 Press Gallery13 Government Advisers14 Government Benches15 Opposition Benches16 Public Galleries17 Bills before the House

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Parliamentary Education SectionParliament of New South Wales

Playing Your Part - D: The Parliament of New South Wales 2

The leGislaTiVe assembly1 Speaker2 Clerk of the Legislative Assembly3 Deputy Clerk4 Clerk-Assistant5 Serjeant-at-Arms6 Ministers7 Government Back Benches8 Mace9 Shadow Ministers10 Opposition Benches11 Bills before the House12 Public Gallery13 Speaker’s Gallery14 Hansard Gallery15 Bar of the House16 Opposition Advisers17 Government Advisers 18 Press Gallery19 Northern Gallery

The houses of The ParliamenT of new souTh wales

The leGislaTiVe assembly

The Mace is carried into the Legislative Assembly Chamber by the Serjeant-at-Arms as a symbol of the authority of the Speaker. The Mace was a medieval weapon but its ceremonial use was part of the functioning of the House of Commons by 1629. The Legislative Assembly of New South Wales, however, did not acquire its Mace until 1974 when it was presented to the Chamber by the Jewish Board of Deputies.

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Upstairs Gallery

Parliamentary Education SectionParliament of New South Wales

Playing Your Part - D: The Parliament of New South Wales 3

Make a mace - for the classroom, for an assignment, or just for fun.

You can make it out of cardboard or something more solid, like MDF or plywood.

Use the pictures as stencils to transfer the shapes to your wood or cardboard - you can make your mace small or larger by enlarging this page on a copier.

Cut out the shapes, slot the two head parts into each other, and the two tail parts into each other.

The shaft could be anything from a straw to a curtain rod depending on how big you want to make your mace. Make cross-shaped cuts in each end and slot the assembled head into one end, and the tail into the other. You will probably need to glue or tape them in.

Colour or decorate your mace any way you want!

Activity D2: Make a Mini Mace

Parliamentary Education SectionParliament of New South Wales

Playing Your Part - D: The Parliament of New South Wales 4

The Mace and ParliamentThe mace plays a significant ceremonial role in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. Ceremonies and traditions associated with the mace, developed over centuries in the British Parliament have, with modifications, been adopted by all Australian Lower Houses of Parliament.

In the Parliament of New South Wales the mace symbolises the authority of the Speaker of the House. It is carried into the Chamber by the Serjeant-at-Arms ahead of the Speaker as he or she enters, and then is placed on a rack at the end of the central table, its head facing the Government benches. It remains there while the House is sitting and the Speaker is in the chair. During the passage of a bill, however, the House sometimes moves into ‘Committee of the Whole’. This occurs after the second reading debate and allows the Members to consider each part of the bill in great detail, clause by clause. During the Committee of the Whole, the Speaker leaves the chair and the Chairman of Committees takes over. The mace is removed from its table brackets and placed on lower brackets below the level of the table. When the Committee has concluded and the Speaker resumes the chair, the mace returns to the higher brackets. The mace is also carried by the Serjeant-at-Arms on other cermonial occasions such as a Governor’s Opening of Parliament.Maces have a long history and tradition, as weapons originally, and then as symbols of authority, and are used in many parliaments around the world. The mace derives from an ancient club-like weapon which by 700 BC the Babylonian and Assyrians were also using as a ceremonial symbol of authority. In the Middle Ages, maces regained popularity as weapons against armoured knights. Maces were supposedly also used by Bishops, who sometimes took part in battles but could not use sharp-edged weapons since canonical law prevented them from shedding blood. At the same time, maces came to be used as symbols to represent the authority of institutions as well as the power of rulers.

The ceremonial maces first used in Parliament were quite similar to the military versions, but by the seventeenth century they were purely ceremonial and ornamental, the mace head being topped with a Royal Crown with orb and cross. The British Houses of Parliament have had many different maces - the House of Commons’ current one, made in the seventeenth century, has been in regular use since 1825. Since at least the seventeenth century, it has been held that the British House of Commons cannot sit unless the mace is present.

The mace used by the New South Wales Legislative Assembly is much more recent than the House itself. There is no tradition that the House cannot sit unless the mace is present (since it did actually sit for 120 years without one!). The Legislative Assembly was created in 1856 and sits in a Chamber dating back to 1843. However, the mace was only presented to the House by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies in 1974 as part of the celebration of 150 years of parliamentary institutions in Australia.

The New South Wales mace was made by Garrard & Co Ltd, of London, the Crown Jewellers, at a cost of £3,500 sterling (probably about $A10,000 then but now worth many times that), of silver with an applied surface of gold (the completed electro-gilding technique is known as ‘silver-gilt’). It is 1.5m in length, traditional in form, with the Royal Arms on the cushion at the head, the Arms of New South Wales on the front and an inscription on the back recording the donors and presentation.

The mace on the Table in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

Parliamentary Education SectionParliament of New South Wales

Playing Your Part - D: The Parliament of New South Wales 5

Activity: Behind the Scenes at Parliament House

A lot goes on behind the façade at Parliament House. On a sitting day, in particular, it is like a village, with all the services and activities needed to support Members in their work. The pictures on page 4 refer to a few of these.

1. Match the descriptions with the picture labels A, B, C, D, E, F or G.:

Description Label Public Entrance (historic front of building off Macquarie Street, Sydney)

Dining Room (kitchens and dining rooms provide catering services for Members, staff and visitors)

Press Conference Room (Members and others communicate with the public through journalists)

Administration Offices (provides administration, organisation, information technology, professional support for all the activities of Members and staff)

Legislative Chamber (Members meet and debate in the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council Chambers)

Library (Provides research and information services for Members and staff)

Parliamentary Facilities (provides cleaning, building maintenance, engineering, air conditioning, water, electricity, delivery, stores, printing for Members and staff)

2. The people listed below are some of the people who work in Parliament House. Write the letter of the picture/s they are found in next to each person’s title.

People Seen in which picture/s?

The Speaker DJournalist/s

Visitor

Minister

Security Officer

Opposition Member

Engineer

Waiter

Clerk

Researcher

Gardener

Librarian

Hansard Reporter

AdministrativeOfficer

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Parliamentary Education SectionParliament of New South Wales

Playing Your Part - D: The Parliament of New South Wales 6

Inside the Parliament of New South Wales

Behind the SceneS - Parliament of new South waleS

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