The Constitution of Australia is the law that set up the Australian Commonwealth Government and says how it works. It is made up of several documents. The most important is the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia. The people of Australia voted in referendums from 1898–1900 to accept the Constitution. The Constitution was then passed as a part of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 (Imp), an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Queen Victoria signed it on 9 July 1900. The Constitution became law on 1 January 1901. Even though the Constitution was an Act of the United Kingdom parliament, the Australia Acts took away the power of the United Kingdom parliament to change the Constitution. Now only the Australian people can change it by referendum.
Two other laws support the Australian Constitution. The first is the Statute of Westminster, as passed by the Commonwealth as the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942. The second is the Australia Act 1986, which was passed by the Parliaments of every Australian state, the United Kingdom, and the Australian Federal Parliament. Together, these Acts had the effect of cutting all constitutional links between Australia and the United Kingdom. Even though the same person, King Charles III, is the monarch of both countries, these are now separate countries.
Under Australia's common law system, the High Court of Australia and the Federal Court of Australia have the power to decide what the constitution actually means.
History
The history of the Constitution of Australia began with moves towards federation in the 19th century. The Australian colonies joined together to form the Commonwealth of Australian in 1901.
Federation.
In the mid-19th century, the Australian colonies needed to work together on things that affected them all, especially tariffs between the colonies. This cooperation led to plans to join the colonies together in a single federation. The push to do this came mainly from Britain and there was little local support. The smaller colonies thought they would be taken over by the larger ones. Victoria and New South Wales did not agree about the need to protect local industry, as opposed to allowing everyone to trade freely. The then-recent American Civil War also weakened the case for federalism. These difficulties led to the failure of several attempts to bring about federation in the 1860s and 1850s.
By the 1880s Australians were worried about the growing presence of the Germans and the French in the Pacific. Along with a growing Australian identity, this created the opportunity to start the first inter-colonial body, the Federal Council of Australasia, in 1885. This Federal Council could make laws on certain subjects, but did not have a permanent office, an executive, or its own source of income. New South Wales, the largest colony, would not take part.
Henry Parkes, the Premier of New South Wales, pushed for a series of conferences in the 1890s to talk about federalism. The first was in Melbourne in 1890, and another, the National Australasian Convention, in Sydney in 1891. These were attended by colonial leaders. By the 1891 conference, many people wanted a federal system. Most of the discussion was about how this federal system would work. With help from Sir Samuel Griffith, a draft constitution was written. These meetings did not have popular support. The draft constitution also left out important, but difficult, issues, such as tariff policy. The draft of 1891 was given to colonial parliaments but was not supported by New South Wales. Without New South Wales, the other colonies were unwilling to continue.
In 1895, the six premiers of the Australian colonies agreed to set up a new Convention by popular vote. The Convention met over the course of a year from 1897 to 1898. The meetings produced a new Constitution that was the same as the 1891 draft, but with added provisions for responsible government. To get popular support, the draft was voted on by the electors of each colony. After one failed attempt, a changed draft was given to the electors of each colony except Western Australia. Five colonies passed the Bill that was then sent to the Westminster Parliament with a letter requesting the Queen to make it into law.