Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T14:29:53.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Wood, F. L., The Constitutional Development of Australia (Sydney, 1933)Google Scholar, chaps, XVII ff.; Wise, B. R., The Making of the Australian Commonwealth (London, 1913).Google Scholar

2 The federal power is enumerated mainly in article 51 but also in articles 92, 95, 98, 114 et al. Cf. Quick, John and Garran, R. R., The Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth (Sydney, 1901), p. 511.Google Scholar

3 Official Year-Book of the Commonwealth of Australia (Canberra, 1941), p. 40 Google Scholar; Mackay, R. W. G., “The Distribution of Powers between the Commonwealth and the States” (Studies in the Australian Constitution, edited by Portus, G. V., Sydney, 1933, pp. 148–80).Google Scholar

4 Minutes of Evidence of the Royal Commission on the Constitution of the Commonwealth, Commonwealth Parliamentary Papers, 1929, F. 1251.

5 Australian Law Journal, vol. XVI, 1942, pp. 109–17.Google Scholar

6 The Times (London), 07 25, 1942.Google Scholar

7 Cf. Royal Commission on the Constitution, part I, p. 52.

8 Bailey, K. H., “The Working of the Constitution since Federation” (Studies in the Australian Constitution, p. 33).Google Scholar

9 On the origin and consequences of the amendment cf. Warner, K. O., An Introduction to Some Problems of Australian Federalism (Seattle, 1933), pp. 147–66.Google Scholar

10 Bailey, , “The Working of the Constitution,” p. 33.Google Scholar

11 Ellis, Ulrich, “Federal Reconstruction” (Australian National Review, vol. V, 1939, pp. 18–27).Google Scholar

12 Cf. Cowper, Norman, “The Financial Agreement” (Studies in the Australian Constitution, pp. 119–47).Google Scholar

13 Ellis, , “Federal Reconstruction,” p. 23.Google Scholar

14 Digest of War Legislation, edited by Woods, M. C. T. (Sydney, 1939), § 3401, p. 1101.Google Scholar

15 Quoted in Kerr, Donald, The Law of the Australian Constitution (Sydney, 1925), p. 164.Google Scholar

16 Ibid., p. 172.

17 Ibid., p. 167.

18 Australian Law Journal, vol. XIII, 1939, p. 297 Google Scholar; Round Table, vol. XXX, 1939–1940, p. 195.Google Scholar

19 Digest of War Legislation in Australia, § 2, p. 7.

20 Ibid., §1579, p. 523.

21 The Times (London), 06 27, 1940.Google Scholar

22 Charteris, A. H., “Declining Faith in Representative Government” (Trends in Australian Politics, edited by Duncan, W. G. K., Sydney, 1935, pp. 111–44)Google Scholar; Bland, F. A., “Public Administration in Wartime” (Australian Quarterly Review, vol. XIV, pp. 49–61).Google Scholar

23 Ibid., pp. 64-76.

24 Janes, C. V., “Australian Sectional Interests and the War” (Australian Quarterly Review, vol. XII, 1940, pp. 98–110)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bland, , “Public Administration,” pp. 49 ff.Google Scholar; The Times (London), 05 27, June 13, Dec. 17, 1941 Google Scholar, Feb. 18, 1942.

25 Cf. Digest of War Legislation in Australia, passim.

26 The Times (London), 09 9, 1939.Google Scholar

27 Digest of War Legislation in Australia, § 1, p. 6; The Times (London), 09 16, 1939.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., Nov. 13, 1939.

29 Ibid.

30 Ibid., Nov. 14, 1939.

31 For details cf. Commonwealth of Australia, Prime Minister's Department, The Federal Guide (Canberra, 01, 1944).Google Scholar

32 The Times (London), 11 13, 1939.Google Scholar

33 Cf. ibid., Nov. 16, 1939.

34 Ibid., Nov. 18, 1939.

35 International Labor Review, vol. XLV, 1942, p. 167.Google Scholar

36 Ibid., vol. XLV, 1942, p. 168; cf. Australian Quarterly Review, vol. XV, 1943, p. 68.Google Scholar

37 International Labor Review, vol. XLV, 1942, p. 167.Google Scholar

38 Department of External Affairs, Current Notes on International Affairs (Canberra), vol. XIII, 1942, p. 117.Google Scholar

39 The Times (London), 11 18, 1942.Google Scholar

40 International Labor Review, vol. XLVII, 1943, p. 354.Google Scholar Cf. ibid., vol. XLV, 1942, p. 166; vol. XLVIII, 1943, p. 629.

41 The Times (London), 04 30, 1942.Google Scholar

42 Ibid., July 26, 27, Aug. 7, 1940.

43 Ibid., June 20, 1940.

44 Ibid., Oct. 24, 1940.

45 Ibid.

46 Round Table, vol. XXXI, 1940–1941, p. 589.Google Scholar

47 Digest of War Legislation in Australia, § 2107, p. 677; The Times (London), 10 24, 29, 1940 Google Scholar; Round Table, vol. XXXI, 1940–1941, p. 589.Google Scholar

48 The Times (London), 10 5, Nov. 11, 1939.Google Scholar

49 Ibid.

50 Bland, , “Public Administration,” p. 71.Google Scholar

51 Ibid.

52 Ibid.

53 Australian Law Journal, vol. XIII, 1939, p. 297.Google Scholar

54 Cf. Round Table, vol. XXX, 1939–1940, p. 691.Google Scholar

55 The Times (London), 05 23, 1940.Google Scholar

56 Bland, , “Public Administration,” pp. 49 ff.Google Scholar

57 Department of External Affairs, Current Notes, vol. XIII, 1942, p. 117.Google Scholar

58 Ibid., p. 118.

59 International Labor Review, vol. XLV, 1942, p. 167.Google Scholar

60 Ibid., vol. XLVIII, 1943, p. 628.

61 Round Table, vol. XXXIII, 1944, p. 281.Google Scholar

62 Australian Law Journal, vol. XVI, 1942, p. 158 Google Scholar; The Times (London), 10 2, 1942.Google Scholar

63 Department of External Affairs, Current Notes, vol. XIII, 1942, p. 123.Google Scholar

64 Ibid. pp. 121 ff.

65 The Times (London), 11 25, 1942.Google Scholar

66 Ibid., Nov. 26, 1942.

67 Cf. ibid., Nov. 27, 28, 1942.

68 Ibid., Dec. 1, 1942.

69 Australian Law Journal, vol. XVI, 1942, p. 221 Google Scholar; The Times (London), 12 3, 1942.Google Scholar

70 For details of the bill's fate in the various state Parliaments see The Times (London), 12 3, 18, 1942, Jan. 27, Feb. 5, 8, 12, March 11, 1943Google Scholar; Round Table, vol. XXXIII, 1944, p. 281 Google Scholar; Australian Law Journal, vol. XVI, 1943, pp. 323–7.Google Scholar

71 The Times (London), 12 23, 1942, Dec. 10, 1943.Google Scholar

72 Round Table, vol. XXXIII, 1944, p. 281 Google Scholar; New York Times, March 24, 1944.

73 The Times (London), 11 20, 26, 1942, Dec. 16, 1943.Google Scholar

74 Ellis, , “Federal Reconstruction,” pp. 18 ff.Google Scholar; Australian News and Information Bureau, Fact Bulletin, no. 20, 08, 1944.Google Scholar

75 Cf. Ellis, , “Federal Reconstruction,” pp. 18 ff.Google Scholar; Scullin, J. H., “Call for Revision of Constitution” (Australian National Review, vol. V, 02, 1939, pp. 6–12)Google Scholar; Bland, F. A., quoted by State Government, vol. XVI, 1943, p. 16 Google Scholar; Lovat, Frank, “The Problem of Our Governing System” (Australian Quarterly Review, vol. XV, 1943, pp. 77–84).Google Scholar