unrepresentative swill

noun

The Australian Senate or its members.

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Meanings

noununrepresentative swill (uncountable)
  1. AustralianderogatoryhumoroussometimesuncountablegovernmentThe Australian Senate or its members.

    Actually, the best part of the unrepresentative swill being reduced to a rubber stamp is all of those wonderful lefty whinges will be shown to be lies.

    2004 November 10, L'acrobat, “Australian Design Standards ( Helmets )”, in aus.bicycle (Usenet), message-ID <vAhkd.30973$K7.11382@news-server.bigpond.net.au>
    3 more examples

    Then you want a Minister from the House of Representatives chamber to wander over to the unrepresentative chamber and account for himself. You have got to be joking. Whether the Treasurer wished to go there or not, I would forbid him going to the Senate to account to this unrepresentative swill over there… [interjections] where you are into a political stunt.

    1992 November 4, Paul Keating, “QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: Loan Council Arrangements”, in parliamentary debates (House of Representatives), page 2,547

    It's a shame this is the final season of the misadventures of embattled lawyer turned member of the unrepresentative swill Cleaver Greene (Richard Roxburgh).

    2018 September 16, Bridget McManus, “TV picks: Sunday, September 16”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, archived from the original on 04 Feb 2020

    While the deterrent of by-elections has forced Morrison's lower house ministers to retire ahead of an all-but-certain return to opposition, those in the Senate can take a wait-and-see approach. While Steve Ciobo, Michael Keenan and Christopher Pyne have already bowed out (along with former ministers Julie Bishop – who didn't even bother with her usual cocktail party – and Craig Laundy), the Nationals' Senate Leader Nigel Scullion is the sole declared Cabinet refugee of the unrepresentative swill.

    2019 April 2, Joe Aston, Myriam Robin, “Federal budget 2019: A tale of two treasurers”, in The Australian Financial Review, archived from the original on 04 Feb 2020

Origin

Coined by then-Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating in a parliamentary address on 4 November 1992. Some sources state he used the phrase earlier, in 1989.

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Cite this entry
APA

unrepresentative swill. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unrepresentative%20swill

MLA

“unrepresentative swill.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unrepresentative%20swill. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unrepresentative swill,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unrepresentative%20swill.

Source: unrepresentative swill on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.