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Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act
An Act to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia
[ 9 th
July 1900 ]
WHEREAS the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on
the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established:
And whereas it is expedient to provide for the admission into the Commonwealth of other Australasian Colonies and possessions of the Queen: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
Short title
1. This Act may be cited as the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act .'
Act to extend to the Queen's successors
2. The provisions of this Act referring to the Queen shall extend to Her Majesty's heirs and successors
in
the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.
Proclamation of Commonwealth
3. It shall be lawful for the Queen, with the advice of the Privy Council, to declare by proclamation2
that,
on and after a day therein appointed, not being later than one year after the passing of this Act, the
people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her
Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall
be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia. But the
Queen may, at any time after the proclamation, appoint a Governor-General for the Commonwealth.
Commencement of Act
4. The Commonwealth shall be established,and the Constitution of theCommonwealth shall take effect,
on and after the day so appointed. But the Parliaments of the several colonies may at any time after the passing of
this Act make any such laws, to come into operation on the day so appointed, as they might have made if the
Constitution had taken effect at the passing of this Act.
Operation of the Constitution and laws
5. This Act, and all laws made by the Parliament of the Commonwealth under the
Constitution, shall be binding on the courts, judges, and people of every State and of every part of the
Commonwealth, notwithstanding anything in the laws of any State; and the laws of the Commonwealth
shall be in force on all British ships, the Queen's ships of war excepted, whose first port of clearance and
whose port of destination are in the Commonwealth.
Definitions
6. "The Commonwealth" shall mean the Commonwealth of Australia as established under this
Act.
"The States" shall mean such of the colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania,
Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia, including the northern territory of South Australia, as for the time being are parts of the Commonwealth, and such colonies or territories as may be admitted into or
established by the Commonwealth as States; and each of such parts of the Commonwealth shall be called "a
State." "Original States" shall mean such States as are parts of the Commonwealth at its establishment.
Repeal of Federal Council Act
7. The Federal Council of Australasia Act, 1885, is hereby repealed, but so as not to affect any
laws passed by the Federal Council of Australasia
and in force at the establishment of the Commonwealth. Any such law may be repealed as to any State by
the Parliament of the Commonwealth, or as to any colony not being a State by the Parliament thereof.
Application of Colonial Boundaries Act
8. After the passing of this Actthe Colonial Boundaries Act, 1895,shall not apply to any
colony which becomes a State of the Commonwealth; but the Commonwealth shall be taken to be a
self-governing colony for the purposes of that Act.
Constitution
9. The Constitution of the Commonwealth shall be as follows:
EXHIBIT
Chapter I - The Parliament
PART V
- POWERS OF THE PARLIAMENT
Legislative powers of the Parliament
51. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power 12
to make laws for
the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to:
i. trade and commerce with other countries, and among the States;
ii. taxation; but so as not to discriminate between States or parts of States;
iii. bounties on the production or export of goods, but so that such bounties shall be uniform
throughout the Commonwealth;
iv. borrowing money on the public credit of the Commonwealth;
v. postal, telegraphic, telephonic, and other like services;
vi. the naval and military defence of the Commonwealth and of the several States, and the control
of the forces to
execute and maintain the laws of the Commonwealth;
vii. lighthouses, lightships, beacons and buoys;
viii. astronomical and meteorological observations;
ix. quarantine;
x. fisheries in Australian waters beyond territorial limits;
xi. census and statistics;
xii. currency, coinage, and legal tender;
xiii. banking, other than State banking; also State banking extending beyond the limits of the State
concerned, the incorporation of banks, and the issue of paper money;
xiv. insurance, other than State insurance; also State insurance extending beyond the limits of the
State concerned;
xv. weights and measures;
xvi. bills of exchange and promissory notes;
xvii. bankruptcy and insolvency;
xviii. copyrights, patents of inventions and designs, and trade marks;
xix. naturalization and aliens;
xx. foreign corporations, and trading or financial corporations formed within the limits of the
Commonwealth;
xxi. marriage;
xxii. divorce and matrimonial causes; and in relation thereto, parental rights, and the custody and
guardianship of
infants;
xxiii. invalid and old-age pensions;
xxiiiA the provision of maternity allowances, widows' pensions, child endowment, unemployment, pharmaceutical,
sickness and hospital benefits, medical and dental services (but not so as to authorize any form
of civil conscription), benefits to students and family allowances;
xxiv. the service and execution throughout the Commonwealth of the civil and criminal process and
the judgments of
the courts of the States;
xxv. the recognition throughout the Commonwealth of the laws, the public Acts and records, and
the judicial
proceedings of the States;
xxvi. the people of any race for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws;
xxvii. immigration and emigration;
xxviii. the influx of criminals;
xxix. external affairs;
xxx. the relations of the Commonwealth with the islands of the Pacific;
xxxi. the acquisition of property on just terms from any State or person for any purpose in respect of
which the Parliament has power to make laws;
xxxii. the control of railways with respect to transport for the naval and military purposes of the
Commonwealth;
xxxiii. the acquisition, with the consent of a State, of any railways of the State on terms arranged
between the Commonwealth and the State;
xxxiv. railway construction and extension in any State with the consent of that State;
xxxv. conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes extending
beyond the limits of any one State;
xxxvi. matters in respect of which this Constitution makes provision until the Parliament otherwise
provides;
xxxvii.matters referred to the Parliament of the Commonwealth by the Parliament or Parliaments of
any State or States,15
but so that the law shall extend only to States by whose Parliaments the
matter is referred, or which afterwards adopt the law;
xxxviii.the exercise within the Commonwealth, at the request or with the concurrence of the
Parliaments of all the States directly concerned, of any power which can at the
establishment of this Constitution be exercised only by the Parliament of the United
Kingdom or by the Federal Council of Australasia;
xxxix. matters incidental to the execution of any power vested by this Constitution in the Parliament
or in either House thereof, or in the Government of the Commonwealth, or in the Federal
Judicature, or in any department or officer of the Commonwealth.
Exclusive powers of the Parliament
52. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have exclusive power to make laws for the peace, order, and good
government of the Commonwealth with respect to:
i. the seat of government of the Commonwealth, and all places acquired by the Commonwealth for public purposes;
ii. matters relating to any department of the public service the control of which is by this Constitution transferred to the Executive Government of the Commonwealth;
iii. other matters declared by this Constitution to be within the exclusive power of the Parliament.
Powers of the Houses in respect of legislation
53. Proposed laws appropriating revenue or moneys, or imposing taxation, shall not originate in the Senate. But a
proposed law shall not be taken to appropriate revenue or moneys, or to impose taxation, by reason only of its
containing provisions for the imposition or appropriation of fines or other pecuniary penalties, or for the demand or
payment or appropriation of fees for licences, or fees for services under the proposed law.
The Senate may not amend proposed laws imposing taxation, or proposed laws appropriating revenue or moneys for the
ordinary annual services of the Government. The Senate may not amend any proposed law so as to increase any
proposed charge or burden on the people.
The Senate may at any stage return to the House of Representatives any proposed law which the Senate may not amend, requesting, by message, the omission or amendment of any items or provisions therein. And the House of Representatives may, if it thinks fit, make any of such omissions or amendments, with or without modifications.
Provided in this section, the Senate shall have equal power with the House of Representatives in respect of all proposed
laws