Constitution

THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION

The Australian Constitution is an act of the United Kingdom Parliament that came into force on 1 January 1901. Today, the text remains almost exactly as enacted. Only a few changes, and none since 1977, have been made by the people voting a referendum.

The Constitution entrenches the monarchy at the apex of the Australian system of government. In effect, it establishes the Queen as Australia’s Head of State. Section 2 provides that the Governor-General, ‘appointed by the Queen shall be Her Majesty’s representative in the Commonwealth, and shall have and may exercise in the Commonwealth during the Queen’s pleasure, but subject to this Constitution, such powers and functions of the Queen as Her Majesty may be pleased to assign to him’.

The preamble to the United Kingdom Act that sets out the Constitution begins:

WHEREAS the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established:

Legislative and executive power are conferred upon the monarch. Section 1 provides that ‘legislative power of the Commonwealth shall be vested in a Federal Parliament, which shall consist of the Queen, a Senate, and a House of Representatives’, while under section 61 executive power ‘is vested in the Queen and is exercisable by the Governor‑General as the Queen’s representative’.

The Constitution still incorporates references to the monarchy in a way that reflects Australia’s status in 1901 as a United Kingdom Dominion. Section 59 provides that the Queen ‘may disallow any law within one year from the Governor‑General’s assent’. This power has never been used and is now obsolete. Its continuing presence in the Constitution is a reminder of the initially limited scope of Australian independence. It also highlights the ongoing ambiguity of Australia’s constitutional status.

To read the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (The Constitution), click on the PDF file below.