The Australian House of Representatives is the lower house of the Australian Federal Parliament, located in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. It has 150 Members, known as MPs, each of whom is the single representative of a constituency. Currently, 83 MPs are members of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), and 64 are members of either the Liberal or the National Parties, which form a coalition. Three MPs are independent.
The party (or coalition of parties) that holds the majority of MPs in the House of Representatives forms the Federal Government. Since December 2007 this has been the ALP, with a majority of 16 seats.
Members of the government are drawn from both the House of Representatives or the Australian Senate. However it is usual for the Prime Minister to be a member of the House of Representatives.