page_title: New South Wales Legislative Assembly
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: New South Wales Legislative Assembly / History
caption_attribution_description: English: AUP Greater Newcastle bill being passed
context_page_description: 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.
  Members of the Legislative Assembly have the post-nominals MP after their names.
  From the creation of the assembly up to about 1990, the post-nominals "MLA" 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" attributed in part to executive dominance.
context_section_description: The Legislative Assembly was created in 1856 with the introduction of a bicameral parliament for the Crown Colony of New South Wales. In the beginning, only men were eligible to be members of the Assembly, and only around one half of men were able to pass the property or income qualifications required to vote. Two years later, the Electoral Reform Act, which was passed despite the opposition of the Legislative Council, saw the introduction of a far more democratic system, allowing any man who had been resident in the colony for six months the right to vote, and removing property requirements to stand as a candidate. Following Australia's federation in 1901, the New South Wales parliament became a State legislature. Women were granted the right to vote in 1902, and gained the right to be members of the Assembly in 1918, with the first successful candidate being elected in 1925.
caption: The Legislative Assembly chamber during debate on the Greater Newcastle Bill, 19 November 1937; Speaker Reginald Weaver presiding with the Member for Newcastle, Frank Hawkins speaking.
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