New South Wales elects 47 Members to the Australian House of Representatives and 12 Senators to the Australian Senate. Federal elections take place every three years or less. They can occur at any part of the year but would not be conducted at the same time as State elections. The boundaries of the 47 Federal electorates are different to the 93 State Electorates.

The voting system for the Australian House of Representatives is a full preferential system, not an optional preferential system like the one that is used to elect the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. In this system the voter is required to place a number in the square against the names of every candidate, indicating their order of preference from "1" (first choice) downwards.

Voting for the Australian Senate is more like the system that is used to elect the New South Wales Legislative Council, with the option of voting for groups or individual candidates. However, there are some differences in the rules and methods of counting.

For more information on Federal Elections, visit the Australian Electoral Commission website.