What is a Parliament?
While a Parliament can be used to describe the legislative branch of Government, which consists of the Sovereign (represented by the Governor General), the Senate and the House of Commons; in this context it is used to describe a period of time during which the institution of Parliament exercises its powers. A Parliament begins on the day established for the return of the writs from a general election and ends with the dissolution of Parliament and the calling of a general election. For example, the 36th Parliament began on 23 June 1997 and ended with the calling of the General Election on 22 October 2000. Constitutionally, Parliaments can exist for a maximum of five years, but generally they last for three to four years.
