The Australian Constitution 1901

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Recommended: Importance of the doctrine of separation of powers

The Australian Constitution 1901 was drafted through constitutional conventions held in the 19th century and passed by the UK Parliament. To this day there have only been 8 out of 44 successful referendums to change the Constitution. With such low successful rates ‘Australia is the frozen continent1’ as the last successful referendum was in 1977. However the Constitution allows for advancement through the legitimate process of interpretation and by doing so it relates to the fundamental principles of federalism, democracy and rule of law.

The purpose of the Constitution is to provide a legal framework that governs the power of law making authorities. The Doctrine of Separation of Powers is one way that boundaries are set for the legislative, executive and judiciary in means of stating their limit to create, enforce and applying legislation. By doing so the Doctrine prevents an anti-democratic Government and allows for checks and balances.

While the Constitution gives authority for the Doctrine of Separation of Powers it also creates Federalism through the distribution of powers between the Commonwealth and the State. With the enforcement of the Exclusive powers exercised by the Commonwealth, Concurrent shared powers between Commonwealth and State, and Residual powers left with State it allows for a relationship between the both levels of Government, while the existence of Section 1092 prevents inconsistencies between State and Commonwealth law, as Commonwealth law always prevails. Which weakens the States constitutional and financial position.

The Constitution provides a base for Parliamentary Sovereignty, which is the power to make and unmake law by allowing the legislative body absolute sovereignty as the supreme law makin...

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...ublic is unaware or they simply do not see the benefits of the change. However when compared to Victorian level the process is far less complicated and in some circumstances does not require the public to vote upon. The neglect in the differences of difficulty could be due to section 109, which requires Commonwealth Law to prevail therefore if Victoria did pass the amendment to the Constitution, and the Commonwealth did not see fit then the amendment could be abolished. Yet the likely hood of changing the voting system to elect a Governor or Governor-General may not be as successful as hoped, by examining past referendums if they have no benefit to societies way of life then they are usually neglected by the public. Therefore both levels of Government need to persuade the public the importance of making the change, otherwise the referendum will never be successful.

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