Government in Australia
| Date | 01 October 1934 |
| Published date | 01 October 1934 |
| Author | F. Bland |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1934.tb02396.x |
Government
in
Australia
By
F.
A.
BLAND,
M.A.,
LL.B.
Lecturer in Public Administration at the University
of
Sydney
I.
THE
STRUCTURE
OF
GOVERNMEXT
(a)
The
Constitution
The Imperial Act of
1900,
which united
the
people
of
Australia
in
one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the
United Kingdom
of
Great Britain and Ireland, was the consummation
of
fifty
years’ experience, and of many years’ agitation. And it was
a compromise between conflicting local patriotisms and national
sentiment, between the desire for domestic independence and the
necessity for united action
in
matters of common concern. In the
result,
an
economy in which there were
six
separate and somewhat
aloof colonies, each with their
own
parliaments, judicial system, and
tariff, was replaced by a Federation comprising
a
Commonwealth
Government and six State Governments.
To
the Commonwealth
Government was assigned certain defined powers in matters of
common concern,
e.g.,
tariffs, defence, and currency, while the States
retained the residue and, at the same time, preserved their identity
as self-governing communities. While each State retained its former
Constitution, except in
so
far
as
it
was altered or controlled
by
the
Commonwealth Constitution,
the
people in each State, as well as of
Australia, also became subject
to
the Commonwealth Constitution
as
the fundamental law for both the Commonwealth and the States.
Australians quickly found that a Federal system requires
a
high
degree of political capacity, infinite patience, and a willingness to
compromise. Conflicts between State and Federal loyalties
are
frequent, and these have not been rendered less acute by the realisa-
tion that the growing financial supremacy of the Commonwealth
is
gradually attenuating State independence. Furthermore, in place
of
Parliamentary Sovereignty confirmed by the Imperial Colonial
Laws Validity Act,
1865,
the people had to readjust themselves to
a
situation in which the High
Court
of Australia repeatedly declared
ultra
vires
rneasurm and actions
of
the Commonwealth and State
legislatures and Executive Councils.
And
amendments
of
the
Con-
stitution by popular referendum have proved exceedingly difficult.
Proposed laws for the alteration
of
the Constitution have been
sub-
381
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