Federation of Australia

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Pre-1908 Federation of Australia The idea of a federation of the six Australian colonies was occasionally debated among Australian politicians, officials and others from about 1850 onwards, and there was support for the idea in official circles in Britain, especially after the Canadian colonies federated in 1867. The first practical step towards federation was the creation of the Federal Council of Australasia in 1885. It met several times between 1886 and 1899, but it had no executive powers, New South Wales remained aloof, and it was generally ineffective. In October 1889, in a speech at Tenterfield, the veteran New South Wales politician Sir Henry Parkes called for federation, with a strong executive controlled by the Australian people, to ensure that the colonies were properly defended. Following an informal conference in Melbourne in 1890, all the Australian colonies and also New Zealand sent delegates to a convention in Sydney in March 1891. It was chaired by Parkes. A sub-committee comprising Sir Samuel Griffith, Charles Kingston, Edmund Barton and Andrew Inglis Clark drafted a Constitution Bill. However, the colonial legislatures were slow to adopt it and, in particular, there was strong opposition in New South Wales. In 1893 popular support for federation began to grow, with the formation of federation leagues in most colonies and a conference of leagues in Corowa in New South Wales. In 1895 the premiers agreed that another convention should be held, with the delegates directly chosen by the electors. The Federal Convention met in Adelaide in March 1897 and was reconvened in Sydney in September 1897 and Melbourne in January 1898. There were 50 delegates and only Queensland was not represented. A Drafting Committee consisting of Barton, Sir John Downer and Richard O’Connor drafted a Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Bill which, with amendments, was adopted by the Convention. The Bill was then submitted to referenda in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. There were majorities in each colony, but only a slim one in New South Wales, where leading politicians such as George Reid remained half-hearted. In January 1899 the premiers made some amendments, mainly at the instigation of New South Wales, and new referenda were held in every colony apart from Western Australia. In 1900 delegates from the six colonies met Joseph Chamberlain, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in London. The negotiations resulted in a few slight amendments and the Constitution Bill was then passed by the British Parliament. Queen Victoria gave her assent on 9 July 1900 – and in the same month a referendum was held in Western Australia and the federationalists were victorious. A proclamation was signed by the Queen on 17 September 1900 declaring that on 1 January 1901 the six colonies would be united under the name of Commonwealth of Australia. Lord Hopetoun was appointed Governor General and on 31 December 1900 he commissioned the first Commonwealth Ministry, headed by Edmund Barton. The first Commonwealth Parliament was opened by the Duke of York in Melbourne on 9 May 1901. .

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Federation Teacher Notes
Government of Western Australia Department of the Premier and Cabinet Constitutional Centre of WA Federation Teacher Notes Overview The “Federation” program is designed specifically for Year 6 students. Its aim is to enhance students’ understanding of how Australia moved from having six separate colonies to become a nation. In an interactive format students complete a series of activities that include: Discussing what Australia was like before 1901 Constructing a timeline of the path to Federation Identifying some of the founding fathers of Federation Examining some of the federation concerns of the colonies Analysing the referendum results Objectives Students will: Discover what life was like in Australia before 1901 Explain what Federation means Find out who were our founding fathers Compare and contrast some of the colony’s concerns about Federation Interpret the results of the 1899 and 1900 referendums Western Australian Curriculum links Curriculum Code Knowledge & Understandings Year 6 Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) ACHASSK134 Australia as a Nation Key figures (e.g. Henry Parkes, Edmund Barton, George Reid, John Quick), ideas and events (e.g. the Tenterfield Oration, the Corowa Conference, the referendums) that led to Australia's Federation and Constitution, including British and American influences on Australia's system of law and government (e.g. Magna Carta, federalism, constitutional monarchy, the Westminster system, the Houses of Parliament) Curriculum links are taken from: https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/p-10-curriculum/curriculum-browser/humanities-and-social- sciences Background information for teachers What is Federation? (in brief) Federation is the bringing together of colonies to form a nation with a federal (national) government.
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JHSSA Index 2014
Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia Subject Index 1975-2014 Nos 1 to 42 Compiled by Brian Samuels The Historical Society of South Australia Inc PO Box 519 Kent Town 5071 South Australia JHSSA Subject Index 1975–2014 page 35 Subject Index 1975-2014: Nos 1 to 42 This index consolidates and updates the Subject Index to the Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia Nos 1 - 20 (1974 [sic] - 1992) which appeared in the 1993 Journal and its successors for Nos 21 - 25 (1998 Journal) and 26 - 30 (2003 Journal). In the latter index new headings for Gardens, Forestry, Place Names and Utilities were added and some associated reindexing of the entire index database was therefore undertaken. The indexing of a few other entries was also improved, as has occurred with this latest updating, in which Heritage Conservation and Imperial Relations are new headings while Death Rituals has been subsumed into Folklife. The index has certain limitations of design. It uses a limited number of, and in many instances relatively broad, subject headings. It indexes only the main subjects of each article, judged primarily from the title, and does not index the contents – although Biography and Places have subheadings. Authors and titles are not separately indexed, but they do comprise separate fields in the index database. Hence author and title indexes could be included in future published indexes if required. Titles are cited as they appear at the head of each article. Occasionally a note in square brackets has been added to clarify or amplify a title.
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A Comparison of the Constitutions of Australia and the United States
Buffalo Law Review Volume 4 Number 2 Article 2 1-1-1955 A Comparison of the Constitutions of Australia and the United States Zelman Cowan Harvard Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/buffalolawreview Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, and the Constitutional Law Commons Recommended Citation Zelman Cowan, A Comparison of the Constitutions of Australia and the United States, 4 Buff. L. Rev. 155 (1955). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/buffalolawreview/vol4/iss2/2 This Leading Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Buffalo Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A COMPARISON OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF AUSTRALIA AND THE UNITED STATES * ZELMAN COWAN** The Commonwealth of Australia celebrated its fiftieth birth- day only three years ago. It came into existence in January 1901 under the terms of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, which was a statute of the United Kingdom Parliament. Its origin in a 1 British Act of Parliament did not mean that the driving force for the establishment of the federation came from outside Australia. During the last decade of the nineteenth cen- tury, there had been considerable activity in Australia in support of the federal movement. A national convention met at Sydney in 1891 and approved a draft constitution. After a lapse of some years, another convention met in 1897-8, successively in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne.
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Yet We Are Told That Australians Do Not Sympathise with Ireland’
UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE ‘Yet we are told that Australians do not sympathise with Ireland’ A study of South Australian support for Irish Home Rule, 1883 to 1912 Fidelma E. M. Breen This thesis was submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy by Research in the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, University of Adelaide. September 2013. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... 3 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .............................................................................................. 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .............................................................................................. 4 Declaration ........................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgements .............................................................................................. 6 ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ 7 CHAPTER 1 ........................................................................................................................ 9 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 9 WHAT WAS THE HOME RULE MOVEMENT? ................................................................. 17 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ....................................................................................
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Australian Federation: Its Aims and Its Possibilities
Australian Federation: Its Aims and its Possibilities Willoughby, Howard A digital text sponsored by New South Wales Centenary of Federation Committee University of Sydney Library Sydney 2001 http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/fed/ © University of Sydney Library. The texts and Images are not to be used for commercial purposes without permission Source Text: Prepared from the print edition published by Sands & Mcdougall Limited, Collins Street Melbourne 1891 First Published: 1891 Languages: Latin Australian Etexts 1890-1909 prose nonfiction federation 2001 Creagh Cole Coordinator Final Checking and Parsing Australian Federation: Its Aims and its Possibilities With a Digest of the Proposed Constitution, Official Statistics, and a Review of the National Convention by Melbourne Sands & Mcdougall Limited, Collins Street 1891 Preface. THE first portion of this work appeared in the columns of the Melbourne Argus. The republication is at the request of many readers, and with the kind consent of the proprietors of the journal in question. The object in view has been to put principles before the public rather than details, because the subject itself is new to most of us; it has been talked about after public dinners, rather than thought out in the closet; and unless principles are grasped it may not be easy to arrange the compromises on which all federations are founded. In the following pages the writer has endeavoured to state certain vital principles as clearly as was in his power, and to strongly, though fairly, advocate their adoption. For instance, the necessity for a Customs union is maintained throughout. But as a rule his aim is to give both sides of a case, so that the problem may be grasped, and so that federalists who differ may do so with good feeling and with mutual respect, and without injury to the national cause on which so much depends.
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Australian Federation
AUSTRALIAN NATIVES' ASSOCIATION. VICTORIAN BOARD OF DIRECTORS. AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION: LECTURE ON The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia Bill, AS ADOPTED BY THE NATIONAL AUSTRALASIAN CONVENTION AT SYDNEY, 9th April, 1891. Jr. H- TvL«,.J (1*PJ F. W. Niven & Co., Printers, &c., Melbourne and Ballarat. AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA. Although now brought within the range of practical politics for the first time, the Federation of Australia is no new subject. Indeed one is surprised on going through the records of Australian politics to find how old it is. It appears almost simultaneously ^vith the foundation in Australia of other colonies than New South Wales. For just as clearly as the early colonists saw that the division of our island continent into separate self-governing colonies was absolutely necessary for the proper development of the material resources of its vast territory, so clearly did they see that the re-union of these separate colonies under a federation, wherebjr they would be united under one national Government without their separate administrations, legislatures, and local patriotisms being extinguished, would be as necessary for the full development of the national life of their people. The first move in the matter was in 1849, when a committee of the British Privy Council, appointed at the instance of Earl Grey, reported on the subject. At that time there were only jthree colonies on the mainland, viz., New South Wales, South Australia, and Western Australia. The report of the committee was adopted by Earl Grey, and a bill to give effect thereto was introduced into the British Parliament in the following year, but meeting with opposition was abandoned.
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The Idea of a Federal Commonwealth
Chapter One Th e Idea of a Federal Commonwealth* Dr Nicholas Aroney Arguably the single most important provision in the entire body of Australian constitutional law is s. 3 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 (UK). Th is section authorised Queen Victoria to declare by proclamation that the people of the several Australian colonies should be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia. Several things are at once noticeable about this provision. Of primary importance for present purposes is that, while the formation of the Commonwealth depended upon an enactment by the Imperial Parliament at Westminster and a proclamation by the Queen, the Australian Commonwealth was itself premised upon the agreement of the people of the several colonies of Australia to be united into a federal commonwealth. Th e framers of the Constitution could arguably have used any one of a number of terms to describe the nature of the political entity that they wished to see established. Th e federation was established subject to the Crown and under a Constitution, so they might have called it the Dominion of Australia and describeddescribed it as a constitutional monarchy. Th e Constitution was arguably the most democratic and liberal that the world had yet seen, so perhaps they could have called it the United States of Australia and describeddescribed it as a liberal democracy. But to conjecture in this way is to hazard anachronism. Th e framers of the Constitution chose to name it the Commonwealth of Australia and toto describedescribe it as a federal commonwealth.
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The Deakinite Myth Exposed Other Accounts of Constitution-Makers, Constitutions and Citizenship
The Deakinite Myth Exposed Other accounts of constitution-makers, constitutions and citizenship This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Murdoch University 2005 Geoffrey Trenorden BA Honours (Murdoch) Declaration I declare that this thesis is my own account of my research and contains as its main content work which has not previously been submitted for a degree at any tertiary education institution. …………………………………….. Geoffrey Trenorden ii Abstract As argued throughout this thesis, in his personification of the federal story, if not immediately in his formulation of its paternity, Deakin’s unpublished memoirs anticipated the way that federation became codified in public memory. The long and tortuous process of federation was rendered intelligible by turning it into a narrative set around a series of key events. For coherence and dramatic momentum the narrative dwelt on the activities of, and words of, several notable figures. To explain the complex issues at stake it relied on memorable metaphors, images and descriptions. Analyses of class, citizenship, or the industrial confrontations of the 1890s, are given little or no coverage in Deakinite accounts. Collectively, these accounts are told in the words of the victors, presented in the images of the victors, clothed in the prejudices and predilections of the victors, while the losers are largely excluded. Those who spoke out against or doubted the suitability of the constitution, for whatever reason, have largely been removed from the dominant accounts of constitution-making. More often than not they have been ‘character assassinated’ or held up to public ridicule by Alfred Deakin, the master narrator of the Conventions and federation movement and by his latter-day disciples.
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An Interchange of Ideas – the Flows of Legal Information Across the Tasman
AN INTERCHANGE OF IDEAS – THE FLOWS OF LEGAL INFORMATION ACROSS THE TASMAN Jeremy Finn* I. Introduction There have long been many links between the legal systems of New Zealand and Australia, and developments on one side of the Tasman have influenced the law on the other side. All Australasian lawyers know of the Torrens system of registration of titles to land, perhaps the prime example of legislation of the migration of legislation. Only a small proportion of those lawyers would be familiar with the Australian use of New Zealand precedents for “family law” statutes, a phenomenon discussed in Part II.F below. More recent decades have seen the enactment in New Zealand of the Fair Trading Act 1986, closely modelled on the Australian Trade Practices Act 1974, and the development in the Australian youth justice system of family group conferences from the New Zealand model initiated in 1989. It is also generally known, too, that the legal profession on each side of the Tasman included a number of lawyers who first qualified on the other side of the Tasman Sea, or who have had significant professional experience there. Two famous early examples are Richard Davies Hanson, the long serving chief justice of South Australia, who practised in New Zealand from 1840 to 1846 before going to Adelaide and Henry Samuel Chapman who had both a legal and judicial career in New Zealand and experience in governmental, political and legal circles in Tasmania and Victoria. Only a specialist historian would, however, know of their close contemporary Arthur Todd Holroyd, an English barrister who practised in New Zealand in the 1840s before moving to Sydney, entering politics and spending almost a decade in the Legislative Assembly, as well as being appointed a Master of the Supreme Court in New South Wales and briefly an acting judge of that court in 1879.1 I am currently engaged in a long- term project to identify and describe the 560 lawyers admitted to practice in New Zealand between 1841 and 1880.
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Disciplinary and Ethics Committee
FOOTBALL FEDERATION OF AUSTRALIA DISCIPLINARY AND ETHICS COMMITTEE DETERMINATION OF THE COMMITTEE IN THE FOLLOWING MATTER: Player and club Michael Marrone of Adelaide United Alleged offence Serious unsporting conduct Date of alleged offence 21.11.2017 Occasion of alleged offence Match between Sydney FC and Adelaide United (FFA Cup Final) Date of Disciplinary Notice 22.11.2017 Basis the matter is before A referral: see clause 24.4(b) the Disciplinary Committee Date of Hearing Tuesday 28.11.2017 Date of Determination 30.11.2017 Disciplinary Committee John Marshall SC, Chair Members Lachlan Gyles SC, Deputy Chair Rob Wheatley A. INTRODUCTION 1. This matter concerns an incident which occurred between Michael Marrone (the Player) and a ball-boy where the Player made contact with a ball-boy and the ball- boy finished up on the ground. It is unacceptable for anyone assisting in the conduct of any game to be knocked to the ground by a player, let alone in the A- League or FFA Cup. No previous case which has involved a ball-boy or ball-girl has come before the Committee. Nevertheless, there have been instances where players have made contact with referees and other match officials and in such cases the Committee has applied a zero tolerance approach. Assuming the Player did not intend to knock the ball-boy to the ground, his conduct was nevertheless reckless and it is clearly inappropriate that a young ball-boy finished on the ground and could have been injured as a direct effect of the Player’s actions. 2. The Player’s evidence was that he thought that the ball-boy might not give him the ball “so I was going to have to grab it”.
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The Constitutional Conventions and Constitutional Change: Making Sense of Multiple Intentions
Harry Hobbs and Andrew Trotter* THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS AND CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE: MAKING SENSE OF MULTIPLE INTENTIONS ABSTRACT The delegates to the 1890s Constitutional Conventions were well aware that the amendment mechanism is the ‘most important part of a Cons titution’, for on it ‘depends the question as to whether the state shall develop with peaceful continuity or shall suffer alternations of stagnation, retrogression, and revolution’.1 However, with only 8 of 44 proposed amendments passed in the 116 years since Federation, many commen tators have questioned whether the compromises struck by the delegates are working as intended, and others have offered proposals to amend the amending provision. This paper adds to this literature by examining in detail the evolution of s 128 of the Constitution — both during the drafting and beyond. This analysis illustrates that s 128 is caught between three competing ideologies: representative and respons ible government, popular democracy, and federalism. Understanding these multiple intentions and the delicate compromises struck by the delegates reveals the origins of s 128, facilitates a broader understanding of colonial politics and federation history, and is relevant to understanding the history of referenda as well as considerations for the section’s reform. I INTRODUCTION ver the last several years, three major issues confronting Australia’s public law framework and a fourth significant issue concerning Australia’s commitment Oto liberalism and equality have been debated, but at an institutional level progress in all four has been blocked. The constitutionality of federal grants to local government remains unresolved, momentum for Indigenous recognition in the Constitution ebbs and flows, and the prospects for marriage equality and an * Harry Hobbs is a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law, Lionel Murphy postgraduate scholar, and recipient of the Sir Anthony Mason PhD Award in Public Law.
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Corowa (1893) and Bathurst (1896)
Papers on Parliament No. 32 SPECIAL ISSUE December 1998 The People’s Conventions: Corowa (1893) and Bathurst (1896) Editors of this issue: David Headon (Director, Centre for Australian Cultural Studies, Canberra) Jeff Brownrigg (National Film and Sound Archive) _________________________________ Published and Printed by the Department of the Senate Parliament House, Canberra ISSN 1031–976X Published 1998 Papers on Parliament is edited and managed by the Research Section, Department of the Senate. Copy editor for this issue: Kay Walsh All inquiries should be made to: The Director of Research Procedure Office Department of the Senate Parliament House CANBERRA ACT 2600 Telephone: (02) 6277 3078 Email: [email protected] ISSN 1031–976X ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Centre for Australian Cultural Studies The Corowa and District Historical Society Charles Sturt University (Bathurst) The Bathurst District Historical Society Cover design: Conroy + Donovan, Canberra Introduction When Henry Parkes delivered his Tenterfield speech in October 1889, declaring federation’s time had come, he provided the stimulus for an eighteen-month period of lively speculation. Nationhood, it seemed, was in the air. The 1890 Australian Federation Conference in Melbourne, followed by the 1891 National Australasian Convention in Sydney, appeared to confirm genuine interest in the national cause. Yet the Melbourne and Sydney meetings brought together only politicians and those who might be politicians. These were meetings, held in the Australian continent’s two most influential cities, which only succeeded in registering the aims and ambitions of a very narrow section of the colonial population. In the months following Sydney’s Convention, the momentum of the official movement was dissipated as the big strikes and severe depression engulfed the colonies.
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