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The Government of the Australian Commonwealth in the War and Post-War Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

Werner Levi
Werner Levi*
Affiliation:
The University of Minnesota
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Extract

Social, economic, and technological developments forced the six Australian states in 1900 to constitute themselves into a federal Commonwealth. Many decades of agitation and deliberation were needed until the states finally agreed to submit themselves to a central government. Reluctantly they renounced some of their sovereign rights and granted to the Commonwealth a restricted number of defined and specified powers. Powers not specifically named in the constitution as belonging to the Commonwealth remained with the states. Within the scope of their power, the Commonwealth and the states are independent.

One of the guiding principles of the makers of the constitution was, of course, to transfer those powers to the central government which were believed to be needed for the adequate handling of nation-wide affairs. The regulation of matters of more regional concern remained in the hands of the states. However, the developments which brought about the necessity for federation did not cease with the establishment of the constitution. The borderline between matters of national and matters of regional concern shifted further, increasing the field of national affairs. The constitutional distribution of powers between the Commonwealth and the states was soon outmoded by events. Almost immediately after the inauguration of the constitution, criticism arose from many sides because the powers granted to the Commonwealth were considered insufficient for the proper discharge of the central government's obligations toward the nation.

With the growing demands made upon the state in Australia, as everywhere else, the volume of this criticism increased. The dissatisfaction found expression in eighteen proposals for constitutional change between 1900 and 1944, almost all of them dealing with the extension of Commonwealth power.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , February 1945 , pp. 14 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1945

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References

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