constitutional - hofreps - 1970

Contexts in which the word constitutional was used in the House of Representatives during the 1970s

I am informed by the Attorney-General that, so far as his Department is aware, no opinions of constitutional lawyers have been obtained on the matter referred to. [More…]
Havethe opinions of constitutional lawyers been obtained on the question of constitutional difficulties which might invalidate legislation to permit the electors of the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory to elect two members each to the Senate; if so, will he table them in the House. [More…]
The Commonwealth does not have constitutional competence to empower the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission to make an award in settlement of a demarcation dispute in the circumstances described in part (1) of the question. [More…]
What action does he intend to take regarding the political and constitutional position in the Northern Territory which led to the absence of a quorum in the Legislative Council on the morning of 6th May 1970. [More…]
The honourable member for Dawson (Dr Patterson), on behalf of the Opposition, raised the question of the constitutional capacity of the embargo continuing until such a stage as the Parliament itself has considered whether the agreement should be ratified. [More…]
Would the Prime Minister be prepared to submit to the people iti a referendum a request for constitutional power to control prices? [More…]
Can the Minister for the Interior inform the House of the outcome of the -recent discussions of the Joint Study Group investigating constitutional development for the Northern Territory Legislative Council? [More…]
The question of the revision of the border between Papua and Queensland is a complex one and involves constitutional and other considerations to which priority attention is being given by the Government. [More…]
My question is addressed to the Minister for the Interior and I refer to the committee comprised of Federal Ministers, members of Northern Territory Legislative Council and departmental officers set up to investigate the granting of greater constitutional powers to the Northern Territory Legislative Council. [More…]
This recommendation has legal and constitutional implications which have required protracted examination. [More…]
The Death Penalty Abolition Bill 1970 introduced in the Senate was, on 13th October 1971, referred to the Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs for inquiry and report. [More…]
There was a motion in the House of Assembly that no further constitutional changes would take place without its authority. [More…]
The AttorneyGeneral (Senator Greenwood) has in mind moving a motion that the Evidence (Australian Capital Territory) Bill be referred to the Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
It would seem that the States are agreed that there is a need for Constitutional reform. [More…]
1 am prompted by the crash of yet another travel agency today, and the stranding of well over another 100 Australians overseas, to ask why the Commonwealth is delaying so long in licensing travel agents as it is clearly entitled to do under its constitutional powers over trade and commerce with other countries and among the States. [More…]
Initially the intention was to include this report, because it was a somewhat technical document, as an appendix to a background document being prepared in my Department to assist the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs in its consideration of the subject of the law and administration of divorce, custody and family matters. [More…]
The Commonwealth has taken, and will continue to take, appropriate action within its constitutional responsibilities to protect the environment in ways appropriate to Australian circumstances, e.g. [More…]
For the information of honourable members I present a joint statement by myself and the Papua New Guinea Chief Minister on the constitutional discussions held during July and August this year. [More…]
I ask the Prime Minister a question concerning representation at the Constitutional Convention next year and the associated steering committee. [More…]
That is a highly technical question involving a matter of great constitutional and policy importance. [More…]
Has his Government given consideration to any of the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review. [More…]
As an interim measure the principles developed by the previous Government be adopted immediately and extended in accordance with the next recommendation; in addition, environmental impact statements be required at the Minister’s discretion after consultation with appropriate Ministers, where a proposal has significant environmental consequences and where Commonwealth funds are involved and/or where Commonwealth constitutional power is involved; as from 1st January 1974 the provisions of this paragraph to become mandatory without any discretion at all and the proposing Department or Authority be required to arrange, through the Department of the Environment and Conservation, for public hearings in the case of all impact statements involving the Commonwealth in order to ensure that the public is given an opportunity to express its views on the environmental impact of a proposal prior to the particular impact statement being prepared; the Department of the Environment and Conservation in consultation with other interested Departments to be directed to prepare draft guidelines for the requirements for and preparation of environmental impact statements and to advise on the need for and, if appropriate, the form of covering legislation. [More…]
ls the object of this exercise to drive up prices and increase the pace of the increased cost of living with a view to making justification for seeking further constitutional powers to control the economy with the idea that then the economy will be put in >a economic straitjacket? [More…]
Before any action is taken, or if no action at all is taken, will the Prime Minister use his personal influence or his constitutional powers to ensure that the people of the Torres Strait Islands have land rights conferred upon them without cost, so that they can decide what they want to do? [More…]
Can the Prime Minister yet say whether local government is to be represented at the coming constitutional convention with full voting rights? [More…]
The Bill was referred for consideration by the Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, which had not completed its consideration of the Bill before the elections last year. [More…]
In view of the support given by the then Labor Opposition to the McMahon Government’s proposals for constitutional reform in the Northern Territory and the introduction of a new Department of Urban and Regional Development, will the Government abide by that part of the offer made to the Legislative Council which proposed that control of urban land would come under a Territory executive. [More…]
My Government’s support for the direct representation of local government at the proposed Australian Constitutional Convention was clearly stated in the election policy speech. [More…]
Can he say which Premiers have expressed agreement with the proposal that Local Government should be represented at the foreshadowed constitutional convention with full voting rights. [More…]
I direct a question to the Prime Minister and ask: Under the Australian constitutional law, which is supreme - the Parliament or the Executive? [More…]
This is a matter which comes within the Constitutional, legal and administrative prerogative of the States. [More…]
Firstly, it is not constitutional to use the Act for the implementation of international agreements. [More…]
, (3), (4),(5) The Comonwealth has no Constitutional, legislative or administrative authority with respect to the pricing of flour and mill offals for domestic usage. [More…]
In accordance with the findings of the Constitutional Review Committee, it believes that the nearest possible margin to that would be 10 per cent. [More…]
I did have a conversation with the President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, a member of the Reserve Bank board, last Wednesday night, and in the course of a conversation on many matters he told me that if the Government were able to moderate the rise in prices through the application of such constitutional power as it obtains the trade union movement would fully co-operate in restraining wages and incomes. [More…]
Does the Prime Minister persist in his undertaking given to the Premiers at the Constitutional Review Convention that he would seek a reference of power from them with respect to price control? [More…]
What progress has been made with members of the Legislative Council in regard to constitutional advancement, giving more direct powers to the elected Members in respect of State-like responsibilities. [More…]
That submission has been considered by the Government which has decided that the next step towards the introduction of a reformed constitutional structure for the Territory should be to ask the Joint Committee on the Northern Territory to undertake an early inquiry ino the subject. [More…]
On behalf of the House of Representatives Select Committee on Road Safety I bring up the first report of the Committee which relates to a national authority, the constitutional position and statistical needs, together with minutes of proceedings. [More…]
If so, will he consider using the Commonwealth’s constitutional powers regarding interstate trade to make it compulsory for buses transporting interstate visitors to be fitted with seat belts? [More…]
Quite apart from any constitutional difficulties they might present, the kinds of income tax concessions the honourable member has in mind would not sit easily either with the Government’s policy of selective decentralisation or with our decision, announced in my recent Budget Speech, to abolish or modify a wide sweep of disguised expenditures within the taxation laws. [More…]
The first of these was on page 1641 and is headed ‘Nineteenth Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, Australian Constitutional Proposals’. [More…]
My reason is that constitutional provisions must be introduced to ensure that the people will have an opportunity to cast a vote on these vital issues affecting this country. [More…]
I pointed out in the course of my remarks that on this important constitutional matter, which is of great moment to the Australian people, I did not think that an honourable member of such high standing as the honourable member for Henty would treat the matter with scant respect and as a joke and refuse to act in the important capacity of teller on a matter that could change the lives of many Australians. [More…]
<3) The question involves matters of Government policy and also raises constitutional issues of some complexity. [More…]
Mr Deputy Speaker, I seek leave of the House to move a motion for the suspension of Standing Orders in respect of 5 Bills dealing with constitutional alterations. [More…]
Yet it is a technical Bill which has tremendous constitutional difficulties and it is not easy for some of us to see our way through what these difficulties are. [More…]
The Treasurer is responsible primarily for the preparation of legislation and Cabinet submissions on the exercise by the Australian Government of its constitutional powers with respect to banking and insurance and financial corporations. [More…]
I also inform the House that I have advised the Governor-General that in respect of the following proposed laws - Constitution Alteration (Simultaneous Elections) 1974, Constitutional Alteration (Mode of Altering the Constitution) 1974, Constitution Alteration (Democratic Elections) 1974, and Constitution Alteration (Local Government Bodies) 1974 - the conditions in the second paragraph of section 128 of the Constitution have been complied with. [More…]
It was in accordance with the recommendations of the Constitutional Review Committee in 1958 - the unanimous recommendations of all the members drawn from the Australian Labor Party, the Liberal Party and the Australian Country Party, and from both Houses. [More…]
I am unsure of what the honourable member means by ‘formal procedures’ but impact statements are required where a proposal has significant environmental consequences and Australian Government funds and/or constitutional power is involved. [More…]
What he has not told the House is that the Bill that he has lauded is in fact a Bill which seeks to subvert a constitutional provision that obliges the Commonwealth, if it acquires property compulsorily, to pay a just price. [More…]
That a message be sent to the Senate acquainting it of the resolution agreed to earlier this day by the House of Representatives relating to the participation of the Australian Parliament in the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
If the Australian Government is going to try to pretend that clause 6 (b) will preclude the Minister for Urban and Regional Development, who has his own constitutional authority and power, from declaring a region fit to be a growth centre, I think we have reached the highest point of plain ridiculousness that I have ever heard. [More…]
‘Export’ and ‘major commercial’ roads being roads which facilitate or would, if built, facilitate trade and commerce, or the development of trade and commerce, with other countries and among the States come within the constitutional power of Australia. [More…]
-Will the Prime Minister use his good offices with all governments concerned to urge a return to constitutional rule on the island of Cyprus as it existed before fighting began on 20 July? [More…]
I agree with the honourable member for Wentworth that it is a great pity that we do not set up this sort of committee consisting of members of this House because there is no terribly good reason why the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs should be the only one that gets involved with the actual details of this legislation. [More…]
Does the Minister regard that type of charge as being equivalent to television and radio licensing, which is the constitutional right of this Government? [More…]
-On behalf of the Joint Committee on the Northern Territory, I present the report of the Committee on constitutional development in the Northern Territory. [More…]
All honourable members who have done any reading on the subject would know that the role of conventions in the British tradition of constitutional law is very great indeed. [More…]
Will he inform the House of the constitutional provisions for the filling of casual vacancies in the Senate? [More…]
Is it a fact that this challenge threatens the constitutional basis of significant legislation enacted by past LiberalCountry Party governments in this Parliament? [More…]
The constitutional, defence, shipping and all other relevant aspects are at present under examination, and the interests of all parties concerned with the Torres Strait are being given full consideration in the course of this examination. [More…]
Are there any constitutional difficulties in entering into or carrying out such an agreement. [More…]
For constitutional reasons, the Tribunal could not be given the power of determination in this case. [More…]
Can he give the House the present position concerning the Constitutional Convention? [More…]
If there are constitutional problems, as stated in his letter, that prevent him discovering what payments have been made into or out of that fund, how could he know that the fund has nothing to do with the inquiry. [More…]
12) I am concerned to formulate and develop a national minerals policy for the comprehensive development of Australia’s mineral resources which conforms to the constitutional responsibilities of the Australian Government and to the constitutional responsibilities of the States. [More…]
In fact the Constitutional Convention could not have proceeded last year not just because the Senate could not agree on a delegation from the Australian Parliament but because there was at least one other Parliament- the Queensland Parliament- which also had not agreed to send a delegation to the Convention. [More…]
I have received advice from the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) that in accordance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of 1 August 1974, as amended on 21 August 1975, and of the Senate of 12 June 1975, and the nominations of Party leaders, the delegation to represent the Australian Parliament at the forthcoming meetings of the Australian Constitutional Convention will be as follows: [More…]
Australian National University Centre for Research on Federal Financial Relations- a non-repayable grant is made to the Centre for independent research in the field of Australian Government/State financial relations-including the problems of local government- with special reference to expenditure functions, intergovernmental co-operation, taxation and loan finance, grants and constitutional issues affecting financial relations. [More…]
Delay in proceeding with the plan has been caused by constitutional problems which have arisen between the Australian Government and the Clunies Ross Estate. [More…]
More than at any time, I believe, since Federation Australia needs to re-examine and learn the lessons of the constitutional crisis of 1975 and to make sure that that dark day- 11 November- is never repeated in this country. [More…]
I have received a message from the Senate intimating that it agrees with the Commonwealth Parliament’s participation in the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
I have been advised of the following nominations of members to be members of the Commonwealth Parliament’s delegation to the Constitutional Convention: The Right Honourable J. M. Fraser, M.P., the Right Honourable J. D. Anthony, M.P., the Honourable I. McC. [More…]
-I have received a letter from the President of the Senate advising that the Senate, by resolution on 3 June 1976, appointed Senators Brown, Button, Cavanagh, Greenwood, Webster and Withers to be members of the Commonwealth Parliament’s delegation to attend the Australian Constitutional Convention. [More…]
In view of his recent statements concerning constitutional development in the Northern Territory, I ask the Minister whether his attention has been drawn to calls by an independent member of the [More…]
Can he say whether Canada, which has a similar constitutional background to that which operates in Australia, ratified the Covenant on 19 May 1976; if so, why has Australia failed to ratify the Covenant. [More…]
Those who have studied constitutional history in this country and all honourable members opposite know that the rules are perfectly straight. [More…]
The proper solution lies in relieving the High Court of some of its present appellate jurisdiction and, to the extent the Constitution permits, of much of its present original jurisdiction, to allow the Court to concentrate on its role as a constitutional court and as the final general court of appeal in Australia. [More…]
1 ) Is it a fact that there is no constitutional barrier against any Australian Government abolishing (a) the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, ( b) the Australian Industrial Court, (c) the Federal Court of Bankruptcy, (d) the Family Court of Australia and (e) the Supreme Courts of the Territories. [More…]
-For the information of honourable members I present the resolutions adopted at the meetings of the Australian Constitutional Convention held in Hobart from 27 to 29 October 1976. [More…]
Will the Minister advise the House whether it is constitutional for State governments to move against religious groups? [More…]
Does the Government propose to amend the present Act in order to overcome constitutional invalidity; if so, how and when. [More…]
As he would be aware, Standing Committee D of the Australian Constitutional Convention meets this Friday with the prediction that there will not be any resolution of the difference of opinion regarding the Senate’s powers to block Supply or a Budget. [More…]
Is the Minister aware that today marks the decennial anniversary of the granting of constitutional power to the Commonwealth to make laws for Aborigines? [More…]
My question to the Prime Minister concerns a discriminatory provision at the very top of our legal and constitutional system which offends millions of the subjects of Her Majesty the Queen. [More…]
-I have to inform the House that we have present in the Gallery this afternoon members of the Constitutional Committee of the Swedish Parliament led by Mr Karl Boo, the Chairman of the Committee. [More…]
I table a paper entitled ‘Proposals for the Constitutional Development of the Australian Capital Territory’ and seek leave to make a statement relating to the same matter. [More…]
Is it a fact that when the Hancock Committee was investigating a proposed national superannuation scheme for Australia the Attorney-General’s Department was unable to tender any legal advice concerning the constitutional validity of such a scheme. [More…]
Does the Queensland Premier have the constitutional right to grant such entry or to issue a restriction-free visa to Mr Brych to visit Queensland? [More…]
If the present Prime Minister cannot recognise that something very squalid has taken place- if he remains impervious to the decencies and niceties of constitutional democracy then we are in for a very rough time indeed. [More…]
The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows: ( 1 ), (2) and (3) It is my Government’s view that Australia has been and will continue to be well governed by having as Head of State the Constitutional monarchy provided for in the Constitution. [More…]
Ian Robinson) - I have been advised of the following nominations of honourable members to be members of the Commonwealth Parliament’s delegation to the Constitutional Convention: Mr Malcolm Fraser, Mr Anthony, Mr Sinclair, Mr Ellicott and Mr Wilson have been nominated by the Prime Minister. [More…]
I am sure honourable members will agree that these are very proper and responsible proposals in the light of the constitutional development of the Northern Territory, and I commend them to the Committee. [More…]
I have received a letter from the President of the Senate advising that, in accordance with a resolution of the Senate of 3 1 May 1 978, Senators Button, Durack, J. R. McClelland, Robertson, Webster and Withers have been nominated to be members of the Commonwealth Parliament delegation to attend the Australian Constitutional Convention. [More…]
I ask the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs whether he is in a position to inform the House of the state of negotiations between the Australian Government and the Queensland Government in regard to the situation at Aurukun and Mornington Island, and what is the constitutional position regarding Commonwealth intervention? [More…]
1 ) Which of the members of his Ministry have delegated to public servants their constitutional power to supervise and authorise the expenditure of moneys approved by the Parliament. [More…]
The Committee will thus be able to make recommendations directly relevant to the future constitutional status of the Capital Territory. [More…]
Their interest in the development of the Territory and the aspirations of its people have been evidenced by successive enactments of the Commonwealth Parliament which have brought this Assembly to its present constitutional status, and we accept this generous gift as a further earnest of their continuing concern. [More…]
For the information of honourable members, I present the text of the Government’s responses to the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs’ report on annual reports and the Senate Standing Committee on Science and the Environment ‘s report on annual reports. [More…]
I see nothing in the accusations made which bears any relationship to our Standing Orders or to the constitutional responsibilities of a member of Parliament or which in any way reflect against my colleague, the honourable member for Macquarie (Mr Gillard). [More…]
The proposed new section is also of doubtful constitutional validity, because this Parliament only has power in relation to imported goods. [More…]
-The Minister for National Development will recall that in responding to a question earlier from the honourable member for Chifley he said in his unanswer, if I may use an inelegant word, that the delay in declaring the boundaries of the Capricornia Marine National Park was due to the fact that constitutional questions had not yet been resolved. [More…]
I refer to the constitutional conference taking place in London at the present time on the future of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. [More…]
Depending on the contingency each Party would be required to ‘act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional processes’ or to ‘consult immediately in order to agree on the measures which should be taken for the common defence’. [More…]
Does the Commonwealth Government, or do State Governments, possess the constitutional power to introduce petrol rationing. [More…]
Consideration of major changes in constitutional arrangements for self-government should await presentation to the Territory House of Assembly of the Report of the Select Committee on Constitutional Development, which is at present inquiring into this matter. [More…]
Constitutional responsibility for Southern Rhodesia resides in the United Kingdom Government. [More…]
During the parliamentary recess there were Ministerial discussions in Canberra with the Territory Select Committee on Constitutional Development, which were helpful to both sides. [More…]
Following the recommendations of the Select Committee on Constitutional Development set up by the first House of Assembly the Papua and New Guinea Act was amended in May 1968 to provide for further constitutional development in Papua and New Guinea. [More…]
Further constitutional changes to be put into effect later this year are now under examination. [More…]
Important or major changes in the constitutional arrangements for Papua and New Guinea of the sort that might be expected to require substantial amendment to the Act should in the Government’s view await consideration by the Territory House of Assembly of the report of the Select Committee on Constitutional Development so that such substantial amendment of the Act would be decided upon in the light of the views of the Territory people. [More…]
Yet it shows a complete un awareness of a possible line of constitutional development that has been asked for by the Speaker of the House of Assembly and shown in the questions asked of witnesses by the members of the House of Assembly committee investigating the constitutional structure. [More…]
That needs to be made clear if we are genuinely seeking uncoerced expressions of their opinion of the various stages of constitutional development. [More…]
The Commonwealth Government ought to be giving complete support to the International Labour Organisation’s decision on equal pay, because the Government has full constitutional power to apply equal pay to its own employees if it so wishes. [More…]
So, whatever equality we have under representative constitutional government is of the Orwellian kind, where some are more equal than others. [More…]
The important thing about this tax is not its constitutional validity, but its unfairness and inefficiency. [More…]
Yet this parliamentary division of functions and responsibility resides in a distribution of constitutional powers arrived at in the 1890s when no-one would be expected to have envisaged the development of Australia, the change in social and economic attitudes in our community and indeed throughout the world, the massive advances in technology that have produced these changed attitudes and the alterations that have occurred in the distribution of personal wealth and power. [More…]
I challenge them to join in the demand for a re-examination of the constitutional structure and the presentation of proposals to the Australian people to alter it. [More…]
This process has the Commonwealth saying that it would like to support a given appeal but that the matter is beyond its constitutional authority, and the States saying they would like to help and they do have the authority but please go back to the Commonwealth because only it has the funds. [More…]
Let me argue then, in the short term, for at least this much: That the Government refrain from using its constitutional limitations to justify its inactivity in any given field. [More…]
I would like to see a passport a constitutional right. [More…]
I want to go further and state in the most categorical terms that I believe the present Minister for Primary Industry and his counterparts in the States must share equally a large amount of blame for the problems and the difficulties in which the industry presently finds itself because the Ministers, both Federal and State, although holding the authority - the legislative power, the constitutional power - to take effective action to deal with this problem, did not exercise that power but preferred to say to the industrial organisation: ‘You have a look at this problem. [More…]
Although I accept that the distribution of the quotas within the States is the constitutional responsibility of the States and not the Commonwealth, the national quota from which the State quotas are derived is the responsibility of the Commonwealth. [More…]
The other point I would like to make is this: I think the Australian people were tired of the situation that existed for so many years in relation to Aboriginal policy when the States contended that the Commonwealth had the money and the Commonwealth contended that it did not have the necessary constitutional power. [More…]
Now I believe the Commonwealth has the resources to attack this problem and it now has the constitutional power, since the prohibition on it was removed by the greatest majority of Australian people in history in the referendum of May 1967. [More…]
It means that for the duration of this session we are to suspend the Standing Orders so that certain provisions relating to some of the greater abstractions that flow from constitutional beliefs shall not hold up the House. [More…]
the constitutional powers of the Commonwealth, State and Local Governments to legislate for the adequate control of aircraft noise and the necessity for legislation for this purpose, having regard to the fact that aerodromes may be owned or operated by the Commonwealth, State and Local Governments as well as private persons and organisations. [More…]
The Commonwealth does not have the constitutional authority to deny State or local government authorities the right to develop around an airport. [More…]
Of course, there has been an immediate and pained reaction from the various States but the hard truth is that this Government has only itself to blame because it has ignored the repeated warnings of the Opposition as to what the true legal and constitutional position is, was and always has been, that is, that the Australian national Government has the sole and the sovereign paramount right to decide what is to be done in the way of production of oil and natural gas in particular, the terms under which it is to be produced, the areas which are to be allocated to the producers and, above all, the ultimate price that is to be paid by the consumers. [More…]
In other words, the position is that a State which never had the constitutional power to do so is still dictating to another sovereign State the price that is to be paid for natural gas. [More…]
As far as I am concerned, I will do everything that I can within the limited constitutional power that I have to see that the interests of the Aboriginals in their ceremonies are properly and adequately preserved. [More…]
Experience in Australia and overseas has shown that drafting abilities are not likely to be developed unless the person concerned has a first-class knowledge of the law; in the Commonwealth field, constitutional law is especially important. [More…]
No Parliamentary Party under a constitutional form of government could accept such direction. [More…]
On 26th November last, the day after our rather farcical 1-day mini session, the tenth anniversary of the presentation by command to this Parliament of the report from the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review was celebrated. [More…]
The report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review told us what powers are required to make these proper allocations - for instance, control over fringe banking activity and over capital issues. [More…]
What we want is a government which believes in a proper rationing of available funds st reasonable rates of interest, a government which will see that those funds are devoted to the needs of people in housing rather than in more wasteful investments as at present, and a government which will, as I suggested earlier, act on the report of the 1959 Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, a report which, incidentally, was brought out by members from both sides of the Parliament and which recommends ways of giving the necessary powers for the necessary economic planning. [More…]
Like other honourable members I am aware that there are constitutional impediments in relation to the control of prices, services and wages but surely if this Parliament is to have the power it should have to guide the destiny of this country it must have separate power over wages and separate power over prices and services. [More…]
The honourable member for Adelaide (Mr Hurford) referred to the report of the Constitutional Review Committee tabled in 1959 when the Menzies Government was in power. [More…]
That report was promptly forgotten by the Government The document contained various proposals for constitutional change and it dealt with the two that I have mentioned. [More…]
I am not a constitutional lawyer nor am I a member of the High Court but I should like the honourable member to explain what he meant by that statement, particularly as this interview must have been watched by thousands of people like myself. [More…]
Consequently the extensions which we would ultimately seek to introduce in the terms of these conventions and the control of pollution are at this point beyond the constitutional power of the Commonwealth. [More…]
This will mean that, instead of acting in any way instead of the State legislation, this Bill will supplement the powers that are held by the several States and consequently will enable, in respect of all those areas that are within the constitutional power of the Commonwealth, action to be taken against ships where there is either pollution or threat of pollution. [More…]
I think that insofar as this new convention has been promulgated, when it is in a position where it can be ratified by the Commonwealth of Australia and necessary legislation is passed through this House, then based on the external affairs power the constitutional capacity of the Commonwealth to cover noxious cargoes from vessels which at this stage cannot be included by this legislation will be substantially increased. [More…]
He described how constitutional development would proceed and how the people of the Territory would be able to make a greater contribution towards the running of their affairs and to participate in government. [More…]
It is still being paid illegally without any constitutional foundation in 5 of the States. [More…]
However, there are constitutional and other problems in the way of extending the scope of the zone allowance provisions. [More…]
I have expressed the view before - I see nothing to change it - that Sir Garfield Barwick’s motives with respect to trade practices and companies were largely to take the pressure out of the claims for reform on a wide range of matters raised by the Constitutional Review Committee in 1958 and again in 1959. [More…]
To have an erosion of the Executive’s responsibility for foreign policy would be to abandon an approach which has been accepted in the past by governments of all parties and which is a tried and tested part of our constitutional practice. [More…]
It is a constitutional problem which at least one member of the Opposition recognised, that is the honourable member for Reid (Mr Uren). [More…]
Under the constitutional system as we understand it there is a division of function between the legislature, the Executive and the judiciary. [More…]
If honourable members opposite had even a basic knowledge of constitutional law they would know that the High Court has said that implicit in the Australian Constitution is the separation of the executive and the legislative functions of government. [More…]
Under the constitutional division of responsibilities the development of ports is a matter for decision by the State concerned in accordance with its own scale of priorities. [More…]
But it is the very essence of democracy that we respect the laws and that we follow nothing but constitutional procedures in our attempts to alter our laws. [More…]
I think it was the honourable member for Perth who said that we should step in and authorise - I do not know in what constitutional way this was to be done - the States to buy up all available land, to develop it and then make it available for housing. [More…]
In the case of a federal state, where for domestic purposes supreme legislative and executive power is divided between the federation and its component states or provinces, the question frequently arises whether the control of off-shore resources is exercisable, as a matter of internal constitutional law, by the federation itself, or by its component states or provinces, or is shared between both. [More…]
By agreement between the Commonwealth and the States, the constitutional issue was expressly set on one side. [More…]
The basis of the constitutional compromise of 1967 was criticised by some at the time, and honourable members will recall thai one of the terms of reference of a select committee of the Senate, appointed after the passage of the 1967 Act, was to report on the constitutional aspects of the petroleum legislation. [More…]
In these circumstances, the Government feels that, without prejudice to the petroleum agreement and to the action that has been taken in pursuance of it, the constitutional issue should now be decided once and for all, and without delay. [More…]
The States have constitutional authority to levy death duties and have done so for a considerable number of years. [More…]
In this respect I refer to my own experience on the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review under the Chairmanship of the Honourable Neil O’Sullivan. [More…]
Therefore, members of the Opposition Party have a constitutional right and a moral right - a right in every way - to be able to call upon the services of the draftsmen. [More…]
He must find out what it is; what the laws are of other countries concerning this subject; whether there are any international conventions which must be dealt with; whether it is constitutional; and what the High Court has said about the various aspects of the matter. [More…]
I do not want to delay the House unduly, but I would particularly cite one instance of the absurdities we can reach in terms of constitutional arrangements. [More…]
The High Court of Australia has held that, as a matter of constitutional law, laws for the government of a territory can operate wherever territorially the authority of the Commonwealth runs. [More…]
Because of the constitutional position, to which I have referred, the federal government has not been operating a medical care insurance plan as such or selling medical care insurance to individual Canadians. [More…]
Although the three suggestions I have made concerning the general practitioners are primarily the constitutional concern of the States, I believe the Federal Government must act as an initiator and catalyst in trying to solve the problem, because the general practitioner is an essential component of an efficient and satisfying health system. [More…]
Australia and, in particular, to examine the operation and administration of the medical and hospital benefits schemes, and to recommend such legislative and administrative measures by the Commonwealth as will, having regard to the constitutional division of . [More…]
As to the second part of the honourable gentleman’s question, which related to the Indonesian initiative, particularly from Mr Malik, the simple goals of the conference are as follows: Firstly, it is to be related to Cambodia if it can be kept that way; secondly, to try to ensure that there is no interference in the affairs of other countries, particularly Cambodia; thirdly, Cambodia to have the right of self determination and the people, by a free vote, to be able to express their opinions and have their opinions brought into legislative and constitutional effect; finally, that the International Control Commission for Cambodia be reinstated. [More…]
To emphasise the solemnity and sincerity of our undertaking, we have suggested that Australian assistance should be made part of treaty arrangements between the constitutional government of an independent New Guinea and the Government of Australia. [More…]
If self government is put in terms of concrete powers and functions instead of constitutional abstractions, one finds among New Guinea leadership a very general readiness to accept real responsibility now. [More…]
According to the Minister’s interpretation, the whole legislature of the State of Massachusetts is Communist because it has adopted a resolution condemning the war on the ground of constitutional invalidity; the republican Senator Charles Goodell, who moved a motion in Congress putting a time limit on the American commitment, is a Communist; Senator Fulbright is a Communist; Senator Mansfield is a Communist; Senator McGovern is a Communist; the whole United States Congress is a nest of overt Communism. [More…]
We also have constitutional difficulties which on the whole have not assisted Australian economic development and have not assisted our surmounting of those problems when they have arisen. [More…]
I think this Bill goes some of the way towards establishing an institution that can help us with the economic problems, andI congratulate those who have been responsible for drawing it up because I think they have shown an appreciation of the constitutional difficulties that an institution of this kind faces. [More…]
I think the Bill is well designed in relation to those constitutional difficulties. [More…]
It is a Bill that has an economic purpose but it operates within a constitutional field thatI would define in that manner. [More…]
The Corporation must be constitutional, and clause 6, I think, is a quite creditable and somewhat skilful way of defining a constitutional basis for the Corporation. [More…]
Of course, the Corporation has to be constitutional. [More…]
It is not limited by these constitutional requirements. [More…]
There is no implication that it is bound narrowly by a constitutional purpose, but it will serve a constitutional purpose. [More…]
The drafter has or drafters have maximised the use of constitutional power. [More…]
They have used protective clauses so that we do not go beyond the constitutional power. [More…]
We know that this Parliament is covered under section 51 of the Constitution as regards constitutional power. [More…]
One can say that clause 5 relates to a constitutional aspect, insofar as it overcomes the constitutional bar against the Commonwealth’s operating an industrial organisation. [More…]
I ask the Minister foi External Territories whether he will obtain and table the text of the statement made al the Waigani seminar by the ViceChancellor of the University of Papua and New Guinea, formerly the Assistant Administrator of the Territory, concerning the interference by the Administration with the proceedings and deliberations of the House of Assembly select committees, the present one and the last one, on constitutional development. [More…]
The first thing the chairman asked me was: What form of constitutional advancement or procedure would the Commonwealth accept? [More…]
My answer was: ‘It is not for the Commonwealth to say what form of constitutional development you require but for you to tell us what you want’. [More…]
It shows that Ministers of the Government met and discussed with the committee the various aspects of future constitutional change. [More…]
The point at issue is not the merits of that legislation, nor is it whether the States were misled as to the Commonwealth’s wishes and the Commonwealth’s view of its constitutional powers. [More…]
Each of these matters is of considerable significance to this Parliament in a constitutional sense. [More…]
One cannot evade the constitutional situation that when a Minister is still a Minister and is acting within his department negotiating with people, he ought to have the full backing of his Cabinet. [More…]
I ask that those honourable members on the Government side who claim they believe in a working federal system and who claim that they give observance to proper constitutional proprieties should consider very carefully what is involved in those words moved by the honourable member for Dawson this morning. [More…]
Two sacred constitutional issues are at stake. [More…]
In every case in those discussions the Ministers have been seeking to evade or to slide around the known constitutional position. [More…]
They had to meet because otherwise the whole of their rickety structure of constitutional invasion would fall and collapse completely. [More…]
This states that the Governments decided, in the national interest that, without raising questions concerning, and without derogating from their respective constitutional powers, they should co-operate for the purpose of ensuring the legal effectiveness of authorities to explore for, or to exploit the petroleum resources of the submerged lands off our coasts. [More…]
But I want to say that you, Mr Deputy Speaker, gave a very wise decision earlier this afternoon when you dealt with the matter that exercised your mind and which was raised by the honourable member for Wills (Mr Bryant) because when he said that this was not just an issue touching on a technical or a constitutional matter you had doubt in your mind as to whether the matter was a broad one. [More…]
They are neither technical nor constitutional. [More…]
The discovery of oil and minerals off the coast of Australia created the necessity for legislation and a constitutional problem arose. [More…]
in some cases, even their vagueness, there is evidence of careful drafting where necessary to conform with apprehended constitutional limitations. [More…]
Early events will determine whether there is to be a constitutional challenge on this basis, and the sooner the better in view of the present economic and political climates. [More…]
There is no constitutional limitation on the Commonwealth in certain fields. [More…]
The British authorities keep us informed about constitutional developments in respect of their South Pacific territories, including the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. [More…]
Waigani Seminar by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Papua and New Guinea that there had been interference with the proceedings and deliberations of the House of Assembly select committees on constitutional development. [More…]
The Constitutional Committee, the current Constitutional Committee, consists of 14 members, of whom 2 were official members. [More…]
I was a member of the current Constitutional Committee and in fact I was Deputy Chairman. [More…]
Both the previous Select Committee and the present Committee sought the Government’s views on constitutional development in the Territory and on proposed developments in the Territory which might have a bearing on Australia itself. [More…]
The Committee is also concerned that the policy of the Australian Government with regard to constitutional development in the Territory should be clear before the people of the two Territories are asked to choose their future. [More…]
It is obvious that in all constitutional development of this Territory the Australian Government would have the closest interest. [More…]
The committee visited all district headquarters for the purpose of finding out what steps the people wanted taken in the constitutional development of our country. [More…]
Committee on Constitutional Development which was tabled by Mr Arek in the House of Assembly on 12th March. [More…]
While in Canberra your Committee took the opportunity to discuss constitutional development with Professors Davidson and Sawer of the Institute ot Advanced Studies, Australian National University. [More…]
Your Committee also accepted an invitation to meet representatives of the Council on New Guinea Affairs for a general discussion about constitutional development. [More…]
The Constitutional changes now proposed are the direct result of your Committee’s Canberra talks and reflect the importance that the Commonwealth Government places on the work of your Committee. [More…]
The Committee is now reviewing the constitutional position that has been reached and will probably propose further talks with the Commonwealth Government later in 1970. [More…]
The Government regards Mr Johnson’s explanation of the role of an official member of the House of Assembly serving as a member of the Select Committee on Constitutional Development as being entirely appropriate. [More…]
This is precisely what Dr Gunther objected to when he resigned from the previous constitutional committee. [More…]
The only way in which the Government has attempted to involve people in the Territory in resolving this basic issue is through the successive constitutional committees. [More…]
However, there is an inference that this paternalism of Government attitudes has affected the work of these constitutional committees. [More…]
The basic allegation which Dr Gunther has made is that the previous Select Committee on Constitutional Development appointed by the House of Assembly in May 1965 was subject to ‘interference by the Government through directions to the official members’. [More…]
1 understand that the purpose of the intervention was to ensure that the Constitutional Committee concentrated on issues of development of the existing system rather than the broader issues which the Territory would have to face. [More…]
further developments of the present Mouse of Assembly will tend to predetermine the pattern of future constitutional development. [More…]
Although the Committee has examined long term constitutional matters, including the constitutions of other countries and the relationship between the legislature and the executive in such countries, it has restricted the ambit of ils recommendations to matters affecting the 1968 House of Assembly. [More…]
As I understand its deliberations, not only due to the official membership but to the expatriate membership, it is still not yet coming to grips with what must surely be the basic constitutional development which we must envisage for New Guinea - the presidential and congressional system, or the parliamentary and ministerial system - the Washington or the Westminster system. [More…]
The Government has always used reports of the constitutional committees as an alibi for its own conservatism. [More…]
The final report of the Committee was very limited.I note that the report of the United Nations Visiting Mission to the Territory in 1968 stated that the members were a little timid in their approach to constitutional progress. [More…]
This has also apparently been the experience of some members of the present Constitutional Committee. [More…]
Government officials found the activities of the Constitutional Committee objectionable not only because they might upset the timetable laid down by the Department of External Territories but also because the Committee challenged the monopoly of policy making. [More…]
The Minister’s statement largely deals with the job of the Select Committee on Constitutional Development. [More…]
But that can so obviously be carried out in innumerable other ways without wishing to take the worst features of the Australian Constitutional system to the Territories of Papua and New Guinea. [More…]
The issue in part is the charge of improper influence by the Government on a constitutional committee. [More…]
This provision therefore is intended to declare the constitutional principles (1) that the House of Representatives is solely responsible for the form of the money Bills to which the section relates; (2) that the Senate may request alterations in any such Bill; (3) that if such request is not complied with, the Senate must take the full responsibility of accepting or rejecting the Bill as it stands. [More…]
But before 1 deal with Chowilla, I point out to the honourable member for Hawker (Mr Jacobi) that he should read something about constitutional government. [More…]
He should realise that when a Party wins a number of seats and can govern, that is the constitutional position. [More…]
It was regarded as one of the minor aberrations of a person who brought his professional pursuit into this chamber despite the constitutional aberrations that afflict this country. [More…]
My disillusion even with joint select committees stems from the Committee on Constitutional Review to whose work I and others devoted over 100 full sitting days and subsequent Ministers have paid scant regard. [More…]
In March he suggested committees on external affairs and defence; transport and communications; trade, industry and labour; legal, constitutional and home affairs; health, welfare, education and science; and national finance and development. [More…]
Any change of forms of procedure for dealing with legislation must take account of this reality and must not in any way inhibit the political confrontation which is part of our democratic and constitutional process. [More…]
Thirdly, and most importantly, there is the preservation of the constitutional and traditional role of the House. [More…]
In our constitutional system, the Executive must sit in this chamber. [More…]
Equally, it is not appropriate that the political confrontation which is the essence of our constitutional and political system should happen anywhere but in this forum. [More…]
Another notable joint committee was the Constitutional Review Committee of the late 1950s. [More…]
It is true that the report has had little impact on subsequent constitutional reform, but this is no reflection on the Committee or the seminal document it produced, lt served also to give invaluable experience in the whole basis of Australian government to a generation of parliamentarians, including the present Leader o! [More…]
of course, almost limitless and could certainly include such matters as Commonwealth-Stale relationships, migration, tariff policy, law reform, censorship, industrial relations, constitutional review, poverty, pollution, urban renewal, education policies and so on. [More…]
That is not relevant te this discussion and it is, in any case, a proposition which does not appear to be constitutionally feasible. [More…]
Because of the Commonwealth Government’s acknowledged constitutional authority over minerals and petroleum products beneath the submerged lands of our continental shelf, will the Prime Minister take immediate action to settle the dispute regarding the price of natural gas which is delaying the distribution of this important fuel to New South Wales? [More…]
1 believe that there is an enormous need for co-operation with the States which from a constitutional point of view are responsible. [More…]
Under our existing constitutional and administrative arrangements this is a sphere which belongs to the State and which the Commonwealth would be very reluctant to invade. [More…]
This has meant that more and more the Commonwealth has been able by indirect means to take out of the hands of the States the determination of priorities of expenditures over a widening area of functioning in which the States have clear constitutional responsibility. [More…]
But what is being suggested in this document is that the Commonwealth in essence is determining the priorities and the pattern of development of the States in those fields that are still the constitutional responsibility of the States. [More…]
Nevertheless, the complaints are real enough that the Commonwealth in essence, by reason of the power of the purse or the financial domination, is able to set the pattern of development even in those fields that arc still the constitutional responsibility of the States. [More…]
I know it is difficult in a federal system to arrive at anything like an equitable pattern of distribution of financial resources in relation to constitutional responsibility. [More…]
Use can be made of tax power directly and indirectly to do things that perhaps could not be done in a strict constitutional sense, and so on. [More…]
The Ministers considered however that if the proposed levy system were imposed by the Comomnwealth it would certainly be successfully challenged on the grounds that legislation to limit production was beyond the constitutional powers of the Commonwealth. [More…]
and (7) The Government is concerned at the problem of over-production in the egg industry and would support any constitutional scheme acceptable to the majority of producers aimed at controlling production. [More…]
In New Guinea the previous constitutional committee - that presided over by the present Speaker of the House of Assembly. [More…]
It was announced in the Press communique released at the end of the meeting that the Standing Committee had formed the opinion that legislation to effect a uniform - I think it is important to emphasise the word ‘uniform’ - reduction in the voting age would present no legal or constitutional problems. [More…]
I want to mention if I may what steps have been taken since 1 took office to look into this question of the reduction of the age of majority not only for electoral purposes but for other purposes which are relevant to the Commonwealth’s sphere of constitutional competence. [More…]
In constitutional matters - I am speaking now of section 41 - the modern tendency, which I think is hallowed by authority, is to regard a written constitution as a living, organic document which is allowed, as it were, to some extent - albeit a limited extent - to grow with the times. [More…]
Accordingly, when the High Court decision in the Hamersley case cast doubt on the constitutional validity of the receipts duty legislation of the States in its application to certain types of receipts, the Prime Minister (Mr Gorton) indicated last September that the Commonwealth would see that the States did not lose revenue in 1969-70 in the event that this doubt was confirmed. [More…]
I believe (hat this method could well succeed provided that we gel round any constitutional problems that may be involved. [More…]
- that the States have the constitutional responsibility in this field. [More…]
The whole trouble seems to be that the Labor Party does not understand, first of all, that the States have the constitutional responsibility. [More…]
Of course, the defence power was used first of all, and then the New South Wales and Victorian Governments passed special Acts Which gave constitutional authority for the construction of the Snowy Mountains scheme. [More…]
There has been reference to defence powers and constitutional approaches but fundamentally there was a starting point which made the scheme possible. [More…]
I don’t agree with any of these constitutional reasons because they are all hooey talk from those who don’t want national development.’ [More…]
The third flows from the constitutional section 51 problem. [More…]
It is hard for me to see why there should be objections to constitutional methods of clarifying the constitutional issue. [More…]
The Leader of the Opposition has pointed out that the people of New Guinea themselves have appointed a constitutional committee which has been working for some time and with which I have conferred and 1 think with which he has conferred, lt would appear to me that that committee, which is going to report on and suggest the matters which might happen in New Guinea, should continue its work, which would then give an opportunity for debate, if necessary, here without us appointing another committee on top of it. [More…]
What we have before us is what I have chosen to describe as a constitutional contrivance. [More…]
1 merely point out the devious constitutional contrivance that has had to be undertaken to give this system any legality. [More…]
This is a constitutional contrivance to get around an adverse decision of the court. [More…]
for constitutional reasons its provisions are not applicable to intrastate services, except in the case of those operated by Trans- Australia Airlines. [More…]
For this and for Constitutional reasons it was preferable that it should be sited in Commonwealth Territory. [More…]
There are financial limitations on the assistance which can be given by the Commonwealth and the States and there are constitutional limitations on what the Commonwealth can do. [More…]
The Committee recognised the importance of ensuring that the House acts responsibly in carrying out its constitutional and parliamentary functions, particularly when the House is voting in division. [More…]
Accordingly I have adapted the method which was unanimously agreed to 12 years ago by the Constitutional Review Committee upon which both sides of both Houses were represented. [More…]
The Prime Minister as a matter of practice and the Treasurer, one would think, as a matter of constitutional requirement, must belong to the House of Representatives. [More…]
However until both chambers of the Parliament exercise their constitutional power to give representation in the Senate to the 2 territories there can be no participation in the Senate by any representative of either of the territories. [More…]
It is a particular point of interest to note that, while an original State has a constitutional right to equal representation in the Senate, such right need not necessarily be conceded to any new States, thus indicating that the system is based upon maintaining the status of the original States as a condition precedent to the establishment of the Commonwealth. [More…]
I now turn for a moment to the constitutional provisions in respect of Territory representation. [More…]
Effective and balanced Senate representation is a constitutional right of each original State. [More…]
Is the Opposition suggesting that the State housing authorities are not competent to decide these matters, that they have not the expertise and that these are not unquestionably matters which lie within the constitutional powers of the States? [More…]
As I see it, far too often some people are apt to forget about such things as constitutional responsibility. [More…]
I find it very difficult to understand how it can be regarded as aggression from the North when the General Conference on Indo-China regarded the whole territory as one territory and the division line as not constituting a political or constitutional demarcation. [More…]
In this very Parliament, which is the premier law making authority in the land, we witnessed not only blatant defiance of constitutional law and order and elected authority by one misguided individual, but we saw the leader of a once great democratic Party stand up and incite his Party to anarchy. [More…]
One of the Australian Labor Party’s major aims is to clothe the Commonwealth Parliament with unlimited powers and with the duty and authority to create States possessing delegated constitutional powers. [More…]
New initiatives are needed here, although, as the House knows, there are constitutional difficulties. [More…]
I suggest to the Minister that consideration be given to referring either to a select committee of this Parliament or a standing committee of the Senate the consideration of such matters as the comparative cost of nuclear and thermal stations, the siting of the power stations, the relation of the first station to planning for the future power needs of Australia, constitutional limitations on the utilisation of nuclear power, the environmental effects of nuclear power stations and Australia’s preparedness for the advent of nuclear technology. [More…]
As far as the States are concerned, it is unconstitutional. [More…]
I am not sure whether it would be an equitable tax even if it had been constitutional. [More…]
I think I mentioned in the House last week or the week before when talking about constitutional matters that we have a situation in which the States are reorganising and financing projects concerning the farming industry. [More…]
The Ministry of 24 members could be brought here to form a quorum and to carry legislation which may have some bearing on the constitutional crisis. [More…]
It is obvious that the Government does not want constitutional reform. [More…]
I suggest that the honourable member should acquaint himself with the contents of this report related to constitutional reform. [More…]
I have already mentioned constitutional review. [More…]
This matter was considered by this constitutional review committee as far back as 1958 yet the Government has sat on the report and done nothing with it. [More…]
Is the Minister for National Development aware of the report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review presented in 1959? [More…]
Has he or the Government considered that Committee’s recommendation for constitutional amendments to empower the Commonwealth Parliament to make laws with respect to, firstly, the manufacture of nuclear fuels and the generation and use of nuclear energy and, secondly, ionising fuels? [More…]
Has the Government made its decision to construct the nuclear power station in the Australian Capital Territory at Jervis Bay on the basis of its having totality of constitutional power in that Territory? [More…]
If so, has the Government restricted its area of construction because of its failure to seek constitutional power to the extent necessary in the interests of the Commonwealth? [More…]
Whatever the constitutional situation may be, the honourable member will be happy to know that matters of this nature are arranged by agreement between the Commonwealth and the States. [More…]
For about the fourth time in the last 24 hours I again refer to a document which the Minister for National Development (Mr Swartz) has said does not exist - the report of the Constitutional Review Committee. [More…]
Is he suggesting that it was a colossal mistake for the people of the country to overthrow his regime by constitutional means, by unanimous decision of their elected legislature. [More…]
I believe thai this government is as constitutional as any government in Cambodia could be. [More…]
I ask the Minister for Primary Industry whether any constitutional or International Sugar Agreement barriers would be raised by the Commonwealth to the establishment in Tasmania of a sugar beet industry capable of eventually producing the State’s annual sugar requirements of 26,000 tons. [More…]
In 1947 we reached the constitutional dividing line - the parting of the waters - when we had a referendum to determine who would be responsible for certain aspects of social services. [More…]
This was recommended unanimously by the Constitutional Review Committee in 1958 and again in 1959. [More…]
But later, because of constitutional reasons, this method was abandoned and the social service tax was included in the general tax assessment. [More…]
Practically the whole of it is involved in the constitutional change. [More…]
I make no apologies for these questions, which refer without exception to matters for which the Commonwealth has made legislative provision or can exercise constitutional responsibility. [More…]
Education is not just a constitutional concept. [More…]
We shall fight this Communistic ramp against individual freedom by every means in our power - political, legal, constitutional and physical. [More…]
Here again we have the attitude, which has been expressed in a letter from the Minister for Health (Dr Forbes) about this particular matter, that there is some kind of constitutional barrier which prevents the Commonwealth from assisting in a matter of this kind. [More…]
We have seen constitutional problems swept aside. [More…]
The Commonwealth’s constitutional powers on housing are limited and the scheme must be considered in the wider context of Commonwealth housing policy as a part of the overall approach to the needs of the community. [More…]
What is needed, of course, is a constitutional change and the introduction of comprehensive federal company law. [More…]
The Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in its report in 1959 pointed out that the existing Australian company law legislation consisting of Acts of the 6 States and the company ordinance of the Australian Capital Territory exhibited areas of wide divergence that in the view of the Committee could only be overcome by the introduction of comprehensive Federal company law legislation. [More…]
The Committee recommended this course in its report but the Liberals failed to take any action to secure the necessary constitutional change. [More…]
.Government to flounder around pointing the bone at State governments and State Ministers for Mines when it itself could overcome its constitutional impediments by , the method I have just outlined. [More…]
The Ministers considered, however, that if the proposed levy system were imposed by the Commonwealth it would certainly be successfully challenged on the grounds that legislation to limit production was beyond the constitutional powers of the Commonwealth. [More…]
If a proposal is to be contemplated which prevents any large scale combines or companies involved in the poultry meat industry from entering the egg industry, this could be achieved only by uniform State legislation, as production controls are beyond the constitutional powers of the Commonwealth. [More…]
There is no constitutional requirement saying that they can be held only after certain intervals. [More…]
The only constitutional requirement is that they cannot be held at greater intervals than 3 years. [More…]
lt may or may not be a constitutional law but this should not be left in any dispute. [More…]
There is a tiny minority of aliens in the Army whose constitutional position is different, but what I am about to say applies to the overwhelming majority, namely, that they are subjects of the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, according to the covering clauses of the Constitution and other clauses within it. [More…]
There was to be a Constitutional Review Committee which was to be charged particularly with devising a method of ensuring in the future some coincidence between the dates of elections for the House of Representatives and of elections for the Senate.. [More…]
The decision so to limit the scope of the legislation is based on legal considerations of a constitutional nature. [More…]
When the Lighthouses Act was first enacted, it relied in the main on the Commonwealth’s constitutional power in relation to’lighthouses, lightships, beacons and buoys’. [More…]
In addition, one of the questions that I posed to the Minister in this place some time ago was as to whether or not his Department or in fact the Government had concerned themselves in any way in the matter of what ought to be done in the national interest insofar as constitutional reform was concerned in the setting up of a nuclear power station. [More…]
Accordingly, the committee has recommended that the Commonwealth Parliament should be empowered by constitutional amendments to make laws with respect to: [More…]
Australian constitutional arrangements are somewhat different from those of Canada. [More…]
The repeated pronouncements by the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the Minister for Labour and National Service which are calculated to embarrass, compromise and prejudice the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission in the discharge of its constitutional and statutory functions and its hearing of pending matters such as the oil industry and national wage cases initiated and conducted by the Australian Council of Trade Unions. [More…]
But the Opposition is not prepared to remain silent and idle in the face of the repeated pronouncements by the Prime Minister (Mr Gorton) and other Ministers which are clearly calculated to embarrass, compromise and prejudice the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission in the discharge of its constitutional and statutory functions. [More…]
The constitutional function and authority of the Commission flows directly from section 51 of the Constitution. [More…]
It has failed to act on the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review which advocated a widening of the economic powers of the Commonwealth. [More…]
The third alternative, of course, would require constitutional amendment or a more imaginative legislative scheme that would enable the Government to legislate in a policy arena in a policy way so as to fix wages and prices. [More…]
It may not inevitably require constitutional amendment but we have had a number of recommendations on this matter from responsible bodies. [More…]
As to the first part of the question, basically the constitutional responsiblity for standards in nursing homes is a matter for the State governments, as of course was recognised by the honourable gentleman, or at least was implicitly recognised by the Nimmo Committee as was evident from the recommendation of that Committee which was referred to by the Leader of the Opposition. [More…]
Many people took into account the invalidity of the legislation which operated from November 1969 to 30th September 1970, and relied on the validity of the High Court’s decision, lt intrigues me that a government which claims to subscribe to law and order should, when it suits it, be prepared to use any sort of subterfuge to validate what the supreme court in our constitutional system - the High Court - says is invalid. [More…]
If the Government believes in law anil order, surely once a law has been ruled to be invalid there is no obligation on people to obey it and they are within their constitutional rights in not paying the tax. [More…]
I do not know whether the examination should take place on the basis of a constitutional convention, which is very difficult to secure once the Constitution has been formed. [More…]
It is not easy under the constitutional law which exists in the States and in the Commonwealth to find anything novel, but something was found and I think some tribute should be paid at this time to Mr Townsend, who is the Under-Secretary of the Treasury in Western Australia. [More…]
The Commonwealth saw a need to give assistance to the States and it used its constitutional power to bring forward Bills which would make valid those sections which had been found invalid. [More…]
We are, of course, subjected to a constitutional dilemma in Australia. [More…]
This Agreement, signed by me on behalf of the Government on 21st July iti Belgrade, will come into force on the date on which the two countries notify each other that their respective constitutional and other requirements necessary to give effect to the Agreement have been complied with. [More…]
As far as the constitutional powers or rights of the Commonwealth to act in such cases is concerned, I say that no doubt exists because nearly all shipping in Australian waters is engaged in trade and commerce with other countries and among the States and therefore can be made subject to Commonwealth laws. [More…]
So one can see that as far as the Constitutional powers of the Commonwealth are concerned no doubt whatever exists that the Commonwealth has the power to act in this way. [More…]
So the combination of the two would - but for constitutional reasons, I hope - empower a Labor Government to provide a 35-hour working week. [More…]
The State governments have the constitutional authority in this area. [More…]
Mr Speaker, the failure of the Federal Government’s monetary and fiscal policies to halt the insidious increase in costs and prices throughout the nation demands that the Government be given constitutional powers to intervene directly in Australian industry for the regulation of prices of basic industrial commodities such as steel, aluminium, oil, petrol and chemicals. [More…]
The Act was launched with unheeded pleas for State mirror legislation, and is of doubtful constitutional validity in many parts. [More…]
Should the constitutional validity of the Act be upheld, in whole or part, and the confusion of the old Huddart Parker v. Moorehead and Coal-Vend judgments be dispelled, what will emerge still will be a ludicrously inadequate watchdog without relevance to the overriding need for national price control. [More…]
Paradoxically, that portion of the Trade Practices Act of undoubted constitutional validity relates to the overseas shipping conferences and their agreements with [More…]
The constitutional power that the Commonwealth possesses in relation to this matter is now being tested. [More…]
I remind the House of the report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review which reported to this Parliament in November 1959, almost 11 years ago, and entirely overlooked by the Minister for Primary Industry (Mr Anthony). [More…]
Regrettably, we do not find such action taken by the present Federal Government, in spite of the fact that the Constitutional Review Committee contained a majority of Government members. [More…]
Such a power has never been envisaged for the Commission and, in any event, the Commonwealth Government could not, for constitutional reasons, confer it on the Commission without the approval of the States. [More…]
This Bill is designed to meet the constitutional position disclosed by the decision of the High Court of Australia given last June in Worthing v. Rowell and Muston Pty Ltd and Others. [More…]
For constitutional reasons, some exceptions must be made to the application of State provisions as they stand, lt will therefore be necessary to make regulations modifying the applied provisions so that they can operate effectively. [More…]
The Commonwealth Parliament does not have the constitutional power to intrude into many of these fields which come within State laws. [More…]
As any change in the constitutional structure of Australia is beyond credibility, the only solution is to restore and revitalise the existing system, lt must be conceded that the Commonwealth government cannot carry out important parts of its responsibilities without effective State and local administration. [More…]
ls the Government considering any change to the present arbitration system or to its constitutional powers to deal with inflationary trends? [More…]
In 1959 when the Constitutional Review Committee .sat it made what was considered from an all party point of view, one could almost say, to be a reasonable set of guidelines to be followed. [More…]
Although the Stale is afforded certain constitutional provisions of protection which we know of in this place, it is in fact the securing of external investment which is a problem. [More…]
Today is an important constitutional day in the history of the Australian Parliament We have been discussing 4 Bills this afternoon. [More…]
This happened in the institution which for so long was told it had no constitutional responsibility for edu cation. [More…]
To follow the convention was strictly in accordance with Australian constitutional law. [More…]
Are there any constitutional limits to regulating these fields of credit supply through the mechanisms of the Reserve Bank? [More…]
As the honourable member well knows, there are considerable constitutional limits upon the strictly regulatory powers of the Reserve Bank in the field to which he has referred. [More…]
Surely he is aware of the difficulty of obtaining in Canberra, even if it were the desire of the Government, necessary constitutional powers which would never be given by the people of Australia. [More…]
and (2) What may be included in an award made by the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission in settlement of a dispute depends upon such matters as the ambit of the dispute, the definition of ‘industrial matters’ in me Conciliation and Arbitration Act and, the meaning of industrial dispute’ in the constitutional sense. [More…]
Is there a constitutional requirement which specifies that a Presidential member of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission shall be a life appointed Judge. [More…]
He had some sort of odd constitutional theory in respect of migration and he felt that we could in some way or other get around the Constitution and feed money into hospitals, health services, mental institutions and local government. [More…]
Now without going into the matter at any great length it is quite clear that the keeping of public order would not be possible without the exertion from time to time upon the lieges of some degree of physical force, and the most succinct exposition of the situation in relation to this is probably found in Chapter 38 of Wade and Hood-Phillips Constitutional Law’, and because some of what is written in that book is very apt for this case I propose to read. [More…]
Does the utilisation of this land by the United States involve the relinquishment of Australian sovereignty over the area; if so, by what constitutional authority has this been done. [More…]
If so, why does the Commonwealth regularly make submissions to the Commission which are designed to encourage it to consider the economic consequences of its decisions rather than to place primary emphasis on its constitutional role as a dispute settler. [More…]
Did he, in his official Press release of 12th June 1970, admit that his earlier announced scheme for civilian service as an alternative to national service would probably not be acceptable under International Labour Organisation Conventions and would have no constitutional basis; if so, why did he advocate such a proposal before he had properly examined its legality and TLO acceptability. [More…]
Constitutional difficulties must be avoided and the provisions of international Conventions on forced labour which Australia has ratified not breached. [More…]
A scheme which would provide civilian service as an alternative for all national service registrants could be construed as “man power” control, in which case there would not be a constitutional basts for it at the present time, and would probably not be acceptable under the ILO Conventions.’ [More…]
That allthe words after’That’be omitted with a viewto interring the following words in place thereof: this House has no confidence in the Government because of its failure to report to the House on the details and purposes of its monetary, fiscal, constitutional and industrial policies fur curbing inflation’. [More…]
When he became Attorney-General, Sir Garfield Barwick decided that two constitutional reforms - trade practices and company laws - were unquestionably urgent but he believed that they could be achieved by co-operation between the [More…]
Price control would sweep the Australian community today if it were submitted to it by way of constitutional amendment. [More…]
He volunteered the support of the Labor Party for constitutional reforms on a variety of issues. [More…]
Thirdly, the Leader of the Opposition mentioned the constitutional position. [More…]
The Prime Minister has indicated that we will not know our constitutional power until the High Court gives a decision in the pipe companies case which is before it. [More…]
House on the details and purposes of its monetary, fiscal, constitutional and industrial policies for curbing inflation. [More…]
Constitutional action may or may not be necessary as regards the Trade Practices Act. [More…]
In spite of what the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Whitlam) said, he does not know that we do not have the full powers required constitutionally in this field. [More…]
I do not know and he does not know the extent of the constitutional powers we now have and we will not know until after the High Court’s decision on the case before it. [More…]
Are we supposed to come to the House and discuss the constitutional actions required when nobody at this moment knows what the present constitutional position is and, therefore, whether any constitutional action is required? [More…]
They evaded the main issue and put to the House that the Government had failed to report to the Parliament and had not given details of its monetary, fiscal, constitutional and industrial policies for curbing inflation. [More…]
He dealt at length with a number of questions, including constitutional reform. [More…]
There has been a lot said about principles and constitutional problems and the like. [More…]
This House has no confidence in the Government because of its failure to report to the House on the details and purposes of its monetary, fiscal, constitutional and industrial policies for curbing inflation. [More…]
First, we should realise that we do not have constitutional power to do it. [More…]
There has been a failure to report details and purposes of the Government’s monetary, fiscal, constitutional and industrial policies. [More…]
When he speaks of price control and getting the constitutional power for it we know what he means. [More…]
What constitutional right does the Government have to continue to place an embargo on sugar without the agreement of the Parliament? [More…]
Although it has been pointed out that nobody can be accused of having acted criminally with respect to the matter dealt with by the Bill, in a parliamentary and constitutional sense the payments made are unlawful. [More…]
Legal advice was received to the effect that it was not within the constitutional power of the Commonwealth to provide further funds for this purpose. [More…]
The Council believes that the constitutional requirement provides the participating State associations with a strong and genuine incentive to reach agreement particularly in respect of matters for ultimate submission to State and Federal Governments, lt points out that one effect of reaching unanimity before approaches are made to Governments reduces the possibility of dissent at that level. [More…]
I make the point very strongly that the cost of litigation today can be prohibitive, and in many cases public spirited citizens with appropriate assistance from the Commonwealth of Australia would be prepared to test matters of grave constitutional importance. [More…]
The point I want to make is that within my city there is a grave matter of constitutional importance. [More…]
I wanted to cite the parallel of the offer which had been made by no less a person than the Prime Minister of Australia (Mr Gorton) to any of the States which are prepared, to challenge the constitutional validity of the legislation to which I have referred. [More…]
The special circumstance relates specifically to a test case which is looming and on which an approach will be made to the Commonwealth for assistance in respect of certain legislation of the State of New South Wales which transgresses upon the Commonwealth’s constitutional rights and sovereignty over the continental shelf. [More…]
But the establishment of an overall authority by the Commonwealth to do this particular job is not constitutional and in my opinion is not desirable. [More…]
1 believe that, given the grave circumstances in which the House has met this afternoon - circumstances so grave that they are probably unparalleled in the constitutional history of the Commonwealth of Australia - taken in conjunction with the direct imputation against the character and integrity of the Prime Minister (Mr Gorton), nothing less than what has been proposed by the Leader of the Opposition should be fulfilled by this House, in fairness to the Prime Minister who has had his integrity impugned, in fairness to the journalist who interjected, but more especially in fairness to the Australian public who at this point will be experiencing some difficulty in trying to sort out fact from misrepresentation. [More…]
As to the reasons there should or should not be an election, I believe that when we are speaking about this problem we should speak against the constitutional background with some knowledge of constitutional law and constitutional procedures and practice. [More…]
I want to quote from one of the greatest of the constitutional authorities known in our time. [More…]
The point that I want to make is that under section 28 of the Commonwealth Constitution - and I would have thought that the honourable gentleman bad some knowledge of constitutional practice - members are elected to Parliament for 3 years. [More…]
The third point is: Let us have a look at constitutional practice. [More…]
The Minister for Social Services (Mr Wentworth) made statements concerning Queensland’s policies to the effect that the Commonwealth would have to exercise its new constitutional, powers gained in May 1967 if nothing was done to rectify those policies. [More…]
A constitutional procedure which takes up only a minute part of the working day of each of these 3 gentlemen has been used to justify another department of state. [More…]
But the Arbitration Commission’s authority and very existence rests upon the constitutional requirement that it must conciliate and arbitrate to prevent and to settle industrial disputes. [More…]
The Opposition has within its platform the implementation of a recommendation that there should be an amendment of the Commonwealth Constitution to clothe the Commonwealth Parliament with unlimited powers and with the duty and authority to create States possessing delegated constitutional powers. [More…]
The unhappy nature of this Liberal Party discord has been exposed by the discreditable attempted manipulation of the Press by the former Prime Minister and the former Minister for Defence, in each case, by one to embarrass the other; and this, more than anything else, is the substantial issue upon which the attack of the Opposition rests, because it symbolises the grave defect or the serious failure of the previous Government to carry out the constitutional requirements developed through tradition and handed down to us from Great Britain and upheld by the system of government in this country of collective responsibility of the Cabinet. [More…]
That is the constitutional side. [More…]
Under the constitutional arrangements introduced late last year for the transfer of greater responsibility to Ministerial and Assistant Ministerial Members in Papua and New Guinea, health matters, including malaria control, come within the final authority of the Ministerial Member for Public Health. [More…]
Despite our assistance to overcome a constitutional problem associated with getting the levy operative and despite the undoubted levy collected by the Board for mainland honey sold in Tasmania, the Board, for some strange reason, did not include in the film any reference to Tasmanian bee keepers. [More…]
What does the Minister for the Interior know about constitutional reform? [More…]
I suggest that in addition to the constitutional limitations which exist in this field there is a real possibility that the entire arbitration structure would fail completely if limitations such as those which have been suggested publicly in this House were imposed on that body. [More…]
This is not good enough for the people of Australia who look to this place and to no other place for legislation covering areas in which we have the sole constitutional right to operate. [More…]
Any scheme which is evolved would certainly need not to represent any form of manpower control because that would produce constitutional difficulties of the type of which the honourable gentleman would be well aware. [More…]
A constitutional problem confronted the Government. [More…]
The reason for this is to provide the basis as to when distributions should take place, and the one-tenth variation is in accordance with a decision of the all party Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Review. [More…]
The Constitutional Review Committee stated that a reduction of the permissible margin from one-fifth to one-tenth would not greatly affect huge electorates. [More…]
The United States Supreme Court and the Constitutional Review Committee are just two responsible authorities worth quoting. [More…]
A Labor government will, therefore, hold a referendum to seek approval from the Australian people for the removal of the anomalies and ridiculous restrictions inherent in today’s horse and buggy constitutional powers to settle industrial disputes. [More…]
I mention the matter because the Prime Minister’s proposal for amending the Conciliation and Arbitration Act in such a way as to compel the Commission to place economic questions above its constitutional obligations is fraught with very serious consequences. [More…]
The constitutional role of the Commission was perhaps best stated by its President, Sir Richard Kirby, in the 1965 national wage case, when he said that whilst price stability for the community at large should be considered - and I now quote him exactly - ‘to give it dominance rather than influence as one factor to be considered is not only wrong policy, but also something this Commission was not created to do, should not do, and has not the competence or power to do’. [More…]
I am a little tired of the argument that this cannot be done because of the constitutional requirement that the principle of one in all in should apply to any concession or monetary advantage that is made available to a section of the community. [More…]
So far as the States are concerned, their governments alone have the constitutional responsibility to control leasing or freeholding of any land in their States and the taking up of that land by overseas interests. [More…]
The Commonwealth Government must exercise its constitutional responsibility to manage the financial affairs of the nation. [More…]
We cannot take from them the direct constitutional responsibility for local government, notwithstanding what the honourable member for Dawson may say. [More…]
States have certain constitutional powers and rights. [More…]
The first is a constitutional guarantee along the lines of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or the American [More…]
I will not pursue this course now, for it is clear that if there are ever any substantial constitutional guarantees in Australia, it will not be for quite some years, and the problem requires a much more urgent attention. [More…]
It is true that the late Dr Herbert Vere Evatt was an eminent constitutional lawyer. [More…]
In the area of roads and in the areas of vehicles there are aspects on which the Commonwealth, because of its constitutional position and responsibility, can properly be heard. [More…]
that 90 per cent of serious accidents are caused by human behaviour, it is realised immediately that this is the constitutional responsibility of the States themselves. [More…]
But extreme centralism is not constitutional and would not be efficient in a country as large as Australia, appealing though it may sound to oversimplifiers. [More…]
Let me go through each of the elements of improved road safety and sum up what is being done by the Commonwealth within the constraints of constitutional power and administrative efficiency. [More…]
I submit that the true colours of this Government were nailed to the mast by the then Attorney-General, the honourable member for Berowra (Mr Hughes), when he spoke at a seminar on constitutional development for New Guinea. [More…]
It is also worth noting that the Government appears to have no objections to the Australian Constitution, dedicated as it is to the protection of property, because it has done nothing about the recommendations for constitutional reform made by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reform. [More…]
We can only assume that Government supporters agree with their colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr Bury), who dis missed Sir Henry’s plea for constitutional reform as a ‘fatuous exercise’. [More…]
The broad areas of complaint the Opposition relies on to support this motion are these: In the discharge of your duties, Mr Speaker, you have revealed serious partiality in favour of Government members and have displayed bias against members of the Opposition; you have been arbitrary and unjust in many of your decisions; you have failed to interpret or apply correctly the Standing Orders of the House; you have abused the great constitutional convention of ministerial responsibility by permitting amendments to no confidence and censure motions contrary to the intention of these motions. [More…]
Eminent legal opinion has it that States have neither property in nor constitutional control over territorial waters be’.ow the low tide mark. [More…]
The view held by Government supporters is that democracy means that a government which wins power by gaining a majority of the votes is then constitutional and has the right to do virtually as it pleases for another 3 years. [More…]
Mr Lewer gave as his authority chapter 38 of Wade and Hood-Phillips ‘Constitutional Law’ at page 525. [More…]
That was the result of a constitutional guarantee, but it happened in a state where the philosophy is that the judiciary is an arm of the executive. [More…]
Is he able to say whether it is competent for a Judge of the South Australian Supreme Court to give an authoritative and binding ruling on the constitutional validity of the Supreme Court Act and the rules of South Australia to confer the judicial powers of the Commonwealth on non-judicial officers of the South Australian Supreme Court as was done in the case of Nicholls v. Nicholls (1962) 3 F.L.R. [More…]
by leave - I wish to inform the House that the Government has accepted the recommendations of the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly Select Committee on Constitutional Development as agreed upon by that House on 11th March 1971. [More…]
The Government undertook, however, because this was also the wish of the Committee, to stand short of constitutional changes requiring amendment to the Papua and New Guinea Act until such time as the House of Assembly had considered the Committee’s report. [More…]
House of Assembly Select Committee on Constitutional Development [More…]
To consider ways and means of preparing and presenting, and to draft for the consideration of this House, a set of constitutional proposals to serve as a guide for future constitutional development in the Territory. [More…]
It also made an overseas visit to study constitutional development in recent independent countries. [More…]
Both the third interim report presented on 3rd September 1970 and the final report contained recommendations for constitutional change. [More…]
this operation is concerned is very limited by constitutional considerations. [More…]
Government supporters often say that the Commonwealth Government cannot do this because it does not have sufficient constitutional power. [More…]
The honourable member tends to ignore both the constitutional rights of the States and what I believe to be the States’ wishes in this matter. [More…]
Nevertheless we recognise the fact that the States have a constitutional responsibility in the matter of ports and we seek to achieve the end result talked about by the honourable member for Newcastle more by co-operation than by dictation. [More…]
I repeat that we all need to recognise that the States have constitutional rights in this field. [More…]
Not only do they have constitutional rights but also do they wish to maintain those rights in this field. [More…]
These Assistant Ministers - I use that term to describe all the persons I have hist referred to- are not Ministers of State in the strict Constitutional sense. [More…]
Because they are not Ministers of State in the constitutional sense, section 44 of the Constitution precludes the payment of any salary to Assistant Ministers in respect of their duties. [More…]
The purpose of this Bill is to give effect to certain recommendations made by the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly Select Committee on Constitutional Development and agreed to by that House. [More…]
This is mainly because of the constitutional situation. [More…]
Whereas there are certain specific matters which are the responsibility of the Commonwealth Government, education by and large is still the constitutional responsibility of the State governments. [More…]
Under the constitutional arrangements that prevail, these instrumentalities are unable to provide the services and to resume areas that are required because of the inadequacy of funds available to them. [More…]
At first in the 1950s Prime Minister Menzies insisted that since education was not the direct constitutional responsibility of the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth should not enter into the field of education finance. [More…]
But one of the main criticisms I am making of the Government is that at the end of 1959 the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review came down with a report containing a number of recommendations. [More…]
I challenge any honourable member opposite to rise in this place next week and to indicate that something constructive will be done with respect to constitutional review. [More…]
A committee should be set up to study constitutional review so that the Government may arm itself - without using accusations of centralism and God knows what other terms - with sufficient powers for the good of the nation. [More…]
The Joint Study Group on Northern Territory Constitutional Development completed its first week of discussions last week. [More…]
Fifteen years ago, when any questions of education were raised in this Parliament it was pointed out to us absolutely from those on the opposite side that it had nothing to do with us, that it was totally a matter for the States; that education was the prerogative of the States and their constitutional right. [More…]
As has been pointed out this Bill is purely a machinery one but the constitutional issue of the Commonwealth’s responsibility for education and for universities is the important issue. [More…]
The Commonwealth should use its constitutional responsibilities with respect to insurance and social services to introduce a scheme not only to maintain the pre-accident income of persons injured in industrial and highway accidents but also to pay in full and at once the medical and hospital fees they incur. [More…]
There has also been a steady increase in the proportion of hospital costs met through patients’ fees, but this is as a result of a decision by State governments, which, after all, have the constitutional authority. [More…]
But from my reading of section 62 of the Constitution relating to the functions of the Executive Council and the functions of government it would seem to me not to be difficult to overcome the constitutional problems. [More…]
On this occasion the new Prime Minister has been very circumspect in outlining the constitutional and the executive responsibilities of the proposed Assistant Ministers. [More…]
In support of this motion I deal firstly with what the Opposition considers to be a doubt about whether the appointment of Assistant Ministers is constitutional. [More…]
A question had been directed to the Speaker relating to the constitutional position of the under secretaries who had been appointed at that time. [More…]
Surely the Government should produce to the Opposition some eminent authority to prove the constitutional position. [More…]
But before any government brings to the Parliament a proposal over which there is a constitutional doubt, we on this side of the House are entitled to have some judicial judgment as to the position. [More…]
Cannot honourable members imagine how they would challenge the constitutional position again and again if a Labor government was proposing this? [More…]
Yet they are prepared to look past the constitutional position and to hell with the Constitution as it were. [More…]
They ignore the famous ruling of that famous personality and famous Speaker, and at the same time give effect to a proposal about which there is constitutional doubt. [More…]
I am shocked that the Minister, who was involved previously in a similar matter, would sponsor a proposal in this Parliament when he had to fight for a chair to sit on in 1952, because the then Speaker thought his appointment was not constitutional. [More…]
I made the proposal quite seriously from this side of the Parliament today that, apart from the constitutional position which is in grave doubt, the major consideration in the introduction of this legislation is to see that the Prime Minister achieves a majority over those who seek to dethrone him. [More…]
Important constitutional queries are before the Parliament at the present time. [More…]
The Opposition is posing very reasonable constitutional queries. [More…]
I suggest again that, because of the grave constitutional doubts raised in connection with this measure, it should be set to one side, at least until those doubts have been answered. [More…]
What a ludicrous situation it will be if in fact he finds that the measure is totally unconstitutional and that Parliament has been bludgeoned into making a decision which the House, the Parliament and half the people in the nation are querying. [More…]
Mr Deputy Speaker, I reiterate that this represents contempt of the Parliament.I join with my colleagues in registering a protest and in asking that, at least on this point alone, the matter be set to one side until the constitutional position has been properly clarified. [More…]
It was arranged only last week that there would be a cognate debate not only on this Bill but also on the constitutional statement made by the Minister, also last week. [More…]
The Papua New Guinea Bill 1971 and the ministerial statement entitled Papua New Guinea: Constitutional Development both arise from the report of the House of Assembly of Papua New Guinea wherein it recommended certain constitutional changes for its own country. [More…]
1 say that the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly Select Committee on Constitutional Development ran away from two vital issues. [More…]
It is ignored in the superficial and unreal report of the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly Select Committee on Constitutional Development on the troubles at the Gazelle Peninsula in violence against the introduction of the multi-racial council. [More…]
Nor can it be said that the House of Assembly was talked or pressured by the Australian Administration into its findings, for the plain fact of the matter is that the House of Assembly, of its own initiative, set up the Select Committee on Constitutional Development, which travelled widely in Papua New Guinea, visiting other developing societies and hearing a great deal of evidence. [More…]
I was pleased to see that the Constitutional Development Committee has left open this issue. [More…]
The question of an upper house is left quite open in the report of the Constitutional Development Committee. [More…]
On the other hand, the Government has supported the formation of a Select Committee of Constitutional Development with members drawn, not from the ranks of Labor Press secretaries or ex-Australian trade union organisers, but from indigenous and expatriate members of the elected representatives of the people of Papua New Guinea; people who live and work in the Territory; people who can speak the lan guage of the Territory and who, presumably, have some knowledge in depth of the customs and mores of the Territorians. [More…]
1 note also in the constitutional recommendations of the Select Committee’s report that the system of government for Papua New Guinea should be a single central government as at present. [More…]
I rise to support the statement of the Minister for External Territories (Mr Barnes), the purpose of which was to inform the House that the Commonwealth Government had accepted the recommendations of the House of Assembly’s Select Committee on Constitutional Development. [More…]
I speak about these things because I think that this, rather than some particular constitutional step which the Government is taking at the moment, is basic. [More…]
Even if they are not, the key to the whole situation is the fact that they are based on the Arek Constitutional Committee’s report. [More…]
I will not take the time to detail them, but each of them is founded in the Arek Constitutional Committee’s report. [More…]
With the report of the Arek ‘Constitutional Committee before us, I think it is drawing a long bow to say that for some reason or other the people who rushed around the Territory at a greater rate than any of us have done, even including the honourable member for Fremantle have deluded themselves, have been manipulated or have otherwise got the message wrong. [More…]
The Joint Committee on Constitutional Review back in 1959 advocated a widening of the economic powers of the Commonwealth for the specific purpose of reforming our industrial laws. [More…]
Why did the Government fail to act on the recommendation of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in 1959 when the report of that Committee was tabled in this Parliament? [More…]
This was our attitude in the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Review. [More…]
If: the High Court’s decision shows that the Commonwealth’s constitutional power is still inadequate the Labor Party will certainly support any referendum to modernise, amplify, that power. [More…]
As there is no provision in the Slates Grants Act 1970 to permit deductions to be made from the grants where a State, or ils authorities, do not pay pay-roll tax, it is necessary to include such a provision in order to meet the possibility that the High Court will uphold the challenge by Victoria and South Australia to the constitutional validity of pay-roll tax in its application to State governments. [More…]
In 1958 and again in 1959 the all party Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Review had unanimously recommended that the Parliament should seek powers by referendum to deal with restrictive practices including resale price maintenance. [More…]
Of course, there are constitutional problems, but in this case the reluctance of the Government to pass adequate legislation is obvious. [More…]
He has seriously weakened his claim to break with the Gorton methods of riding roughshod over constitutional procedures . [More…]
Then there is the constitutional aspect - the question whether Commonwealth powers in this field of superannuation could apply. [More…]
By reason of financial domination and to some extent the way in which taxes are allocated under the Commonwealth Constitution, it has become inevitable that the preponderance of financial resources should be available to the Commonwealth but that there, still is a variety of constitutional responsibilities that lie with the States and the local authorities but which are not matched by the availability of finance. [More…]
1 suppose one could say that we expected this kind of measure, that we knew what the constitutional arrangments were. [More…]
I do not want to speak at great length on this, but 1 do think that it is important for some protest to be made in this Parliament about what appears to be the extremely high-handed manner in which this Bill has been framed, whereby the Commonwealth has reserved for itself virtually the right to take money out of the Victorian Treasury if the Victorian Government is able to prove in the High Court that the payroll tax which the Commonwealth has been levying against it is not constitutional. [More…]
If it is not constitutional, I hope that the Commonwealth will, when it gets to this refund clause, refund all payroll tax which it has already collected from local government bodies and other bodies over a considerable number of years. [More…]
As everyone knows - this is a point that has been forgotten by the Opposition - the constitutional authority for education rests with the States. [More…]
Secondly, it is a matter which is the direct constitutional authority of the States. [More…]
Let me just point out once again that the constitutional authority for education rests with the States. [More…]
They have the constitutional authority and that is where it rests, but I believe they are handling that authority well. [More…]
Solomon Islands Protectorate on 16 November 1970 that a timetable of constitutional and economic development be drawn up leading to independence and did he note that the official members of the Council did not oppose or vote on the motion on the ground that the matter was one for Solomon Islanders to determine for themselves. [More…]
The Government looks to the House of Assembly to represent the views of the majority of the people and to take the initiative in such matters as the pace and nature of constitutional development. [More…]
and Windeyer J. in Bonser v. Lamacchia that the States have neither property in nor constitutional control over territorial waters below the low tide mark. [More…]
May [ now return to the principles relating 10 constitutional law and practice? [More…]
The Government has not stumbled into a constitutional crisis on the floor of the House. [More…]
Conveying to the Military Government oi Pakistan the conviction that the overwhelming election of Mujibar Rahman should be allowed to follow its normal constitutional path to the formation of a Government. [More…]
The wisest course of action for them to adopt would be for this constitutional process which they themselves set in motion, and which led to such a startling result in the immense victory of the Awami League in East Pakistan, to proceed. [More…]
conveying to the Military Government of Pakistan the conviction that the overwhelming election of Mujibur Rahman should be allowed to follow its normal constitutional path to the formation of a government;- [More…]
The honourable member seems to bypass the real fact of the matter, that is, that the States have the constitutional authority in this area. [More…]
These included justice for those undertaking the military service, the relevant constitutional requirements and the relevant ILO conventions which have been ratified by the Australian Government. [More…]
Firstly, there is the question of constitutionality. [More…]
The alternative open to all men which the Bill proposes would involve the Government in exceeding its constitutional powers. [More…]
It would amount to direction of manpower which constitutionally the Government can assume only in time of declared war. [More…]
Certainly, this vital aspect of the constitutional implications is one which is totally ignored by the Opposition in bringing this proposal again before the House. [More…]
Lastly, the Japanese government believed that the Communist regime in China is backing the Japan Communist Party in its programme of seeking violently to overthrow the constitutional system and the present Government of China. [More…]
Sihanouk was replaced as Head of State by the legal, constitutional processes of the Government of Cambodia. [More…]
Another matter which I want to mention concerns constitutional reform. [More…]
Everyone knows that they have no constitutional basis. [More…]
Let us see the constitutional position and let us see how honourable members with their sense of responsibility are prepared to vote on the motion I have put forward. [More…]
Is the Parliament to be run constitutionally by you, Mr Speaker or just at the whim of the. [More…]
Council, if you please, and yet this major departure from the constitutional position which this Parliament has previously upheld is to be taken without the Parliament itself determining whether it should be taken or whether it is constitutional. [More…]
Surely it is essential that Parliament should know precisely what the constitutional position is, what kinds of alterations should be made to the Standing Orders and, above all, what are to be the functions of the Assistant Ministers. [More…]
I speak only because I believe that Parliament should fully discuss this whole question in the light of what the Government can say about the need for these people, their functions, how they can be integrated into the system having regard to constitutional difficulties and so on. [More…]
Some suggestion has been made that the proposal to have the Assistant Ministers sworn of the Executive Council so that they make undertake the duties to be placed upon them is unconstitutional. [More…]
When I was the AttorneyGeneral I had occasion to consider very fully the question of the constitutionality of the appointment of Assistant Ministers. [More…]
I think I should tell the House that I am quite satisfied that the proposal announced by the Prime Minister (Mr McMahon) during the last session is perfectly constitutional having regard to the duties which it is proposed should repose in these honourable gentlemen. [More…]
I also stated the constitutional position as it has been developed by the honourable member for Berowra. [More…]
I assure the House that the basis on which I prepared that paper was the letter which the honourable member wrote to me informing me of the constitutional position and that the way in which these Assistant Ministers would be appointed and would operate would not be a violation of the consitutional position in any way whatsoever. [More…]
The first is the constitutional question. [More…]
I sought an opportunity to talk on the constitutional position, but your ruling, Mr Speaker, prevented me from exploiting it. [More…]
I want to leave that part of the subject and go now to the constitutional position. [More…]
One of my last tasks as Attorney-General was to tender some advice on the constitutionality or otherwise of the proposal to appoint Assistant Ministers or, as they might otherwise be called but are not being called, parliamentary under-secretaries. [More…]
In examining this question of the constitutionality of the proposal, we should first of all bear in mind that this is no novel experiment. [More…]
We should take note of the fact that the only person who raised any question against the constitutionality of appointing gentlemen to assist Ministers of the Crown was Mr Speaker Cameron, who did so in 1952. [More…]
It was taken for granted that this was a perfectly constitutional proposal. [More…]
I came quite clearly to the conclusion, which I still hold without any doubt, that the appointment of Assistant Ministers - they receiving no emolument for performing the duties they will perform - offends against nothing in the Constitution and offends against no constitutional convention or principle. [More…]
It is because of this, as well as the other reasons I have endeavoured to express, that there arises no doubt in my mind as to the perfect constitutional propriety of this proposal. [More…]
I would like to sum up the legal and constitutional position, as I see it and as I saw it when I advised as Attorney-General, in this way: a Member of Parliament not appointed to administer a Department of State - [More…]
It is merely a matter of terminology - but this does not make him a Minister of State in the constitutional sense; [More…]
It is years since I looked at this matter on the Constitutional Review Committee but I would not be disposed to dispute their view. [More…]
There is very little more to be said because already the Opposition has conceded the constitutional right of the Prime Minister to appoint Assistant Ministers to help Ministers of State in the administration of their functions. [More…]
Historically, it has always been the practice, when a Minister of State or a Minister of the kind mentioned by my colleague the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr N. H. Bowen), such as a Minister without portfolio, an Assistant Minister or some other person who might be assisting a Minister for the time being, has been appointed, for those announcements to be communicated first of all to the Governor-General because it is his constitutional right to appoint the individuals. [More…]
So, constitutionally it is my responsibility to advise him first of all. [More…]
He agreed, and consequently it was done in accordance with constitutional practice and in accordance with the express approval of the Governor-General himself. [More…]
The exhibition we are witnessing today makes evident the wisdom of our forefathers when they draw up the constitutional requirements of the Senate. [More…]
If the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ can get over its constitutional constipation there is no reason why the national Government should not do so. [More…]
The first is that it would be illegal because it is beyond our constitutional power; the second is that it would be undesirable; and the third is that it would be ineffective. [More…]
I would recall to honourable gentlemen that Sir Robert Menzies in March 1956 pointed out that Commonwealth laws on hire purchase would be of doubtful constitutional validity. [More…]
It was for this reason, amongst others, that the Constitutional Review Committee was set up a couple of months later. [More…]
He thought that there were constitutional difficulties about the setting up of a national commission. [More…]
In the public interest it is desirable that that gap should be filled quickly, and the Government proposes to introduce, as a matter of urgency, legislation to overcome the constitutional defects which have been found to exist in the Trade Practices Act. [More…]
This new legislation, for reasons of urgency, will be similar in scope to the present Trade Practices Act, except for amendments needed to bring it into constitutional operation. [More…]
The Minister spoke for about two-thirds of his time in a manner which suggested he was going to give a law book type treatise on constitutional law. [More…]
The Constitutional Review Committee pointed out in 1959 that there is now one Australian integrated economy and that its various components are interdependent and the condition of any one affects all the others. [More…]
In the time remaining to me I might just shorten my remarks by saying that as recently as 2 years ago one of the most learned writers on Australian constitutional law described Australia as ‘constitutionally the frozen continent’. [More…]
To me, federalism involves as a basic fact living under a federal constitution and if one is to live under a federal constitution it is one of the primary duties of the federal government, the national government, to explore the limits of constitutional power given to it under that constitution and then, having explored them with a view to ascertaining them by judicial decision, act within them in what one conceives to be the national interest. [More…]
I point out to the honourable member for Berowra (Mr Hughes) that in the first report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review which was tabled in this House on 1st October 1958 and which had the support of both sides of the House, the Committee in paragraph 149 stated that the powers collectively of the [More…]
One point that was clear throughout the report of the Constitutional Review Committee was that economic circumstances tend to change all the time, the pattern of trade changes, the people from whom we buy and to whom we sell change, the nature of the internal economy changes and the nature of international integration changes. [More…]
But we all know that what it would like to do is to take over the services provided by the States and run them from Canberra and to abolish the States if it had the constitutional capacity to do so. [More…]
What was claimed in the past to be a constitutional difficulty which prevented the Government from providing taxation variations in order to encourage industry to move to provincial towns and cities I believe is no longer a problem since the States have received the right to impose payroll tax. [More…]
I am informed by the Department of External Territories that the Report of the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly Select Committee on Constitutional Development did indicate that there was support for self-government in the Bougainville and East New Britain Districts. [More…]
Can he say what constitutional power enables the Commonwealth Department of Civil Aviation to control all air traffic and air traffic accident investigations yet denies the same right of road traffic and road traffic accident investigation to his Department? [More…]
Practically the whole of it is involved in the constitutional change. [More…]
I have no faith whatsoever - and I say this as emphatically as anyone may like - in the constitutional processes of the American system. [More…]
I had wished to speak on some constitutional questions in Papua New Guinea. [More…]
lt has been suggested that there may be some constitutional difficulties which would prevent this because whilst there is no doubt that the Commonwealth has the ability to charge such a tax the Constitution is so written that if a tax is imposed, it must be imposed equally throughout the Commonwealth. [More…]
I am not a constitutional lawyer and I do not propose to argue that point. [More…]
I suggest that if, by some constitutional change, education became a Commonwealth responsibility, we would regard education as having the same priority as other matters with which the Commonwealth is concerned. [More…]
It has failed to act on the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, published in 1959, which advocated a widening of the economic powers of the Commonwealth. [More…]
The Government will also quickly claim that there could be constitutional problems in our proposals. [More…]
I do hot’ intend to take time this afternoon to rebut it, but 1 simply say that there is a vast number of issues facing this nation’s future prosperity and development that will sooner or later have to be overcome by a Federal Government progressive enough to sponsor a new constitutional convention between the States and the Commonwealth. [More…]
I think everyone is aware of the fact that President Thieu rushed through a constitutional amendment that virtually forced every other candidate for the presidency of South Vietnam out of the field. [More…]
As I said, this Government has been manipulated by a South Vietnamese President who introduced a constitutional amendment that forced every other candidate out of the presidential field. [More…]
The Federal Government’s reluctance to use its constitutional power to allow third grade meat from the Northern Territory to move freely on world markets is an example of bureaucratic indifference to the important problems that are to a degree exclusive to this part of Australia. [More…]
Had they done this, they would have been supplied with a very fine exposition setting out the cost of the authority, the question of constitutional powers and so on. [More…]
The joint study group that was set up by the Government has met on 2 occasions, the last meeting being held in June when the officials appointed by the Government discussed the matter of constitutional reform for the Northern Territory wilh an equal number of members of the Northern Territory Legislative Council. [More…]
I ask him when the House can expect to receive a Bill on this subject, which also is within the constitutional power of this Parliament, which also was promised more than a year ago by the Gorton Government, and which also has been more than ever justified by events in the meantime. [More…]
Then he said that the growers’ request for a marketing authority raises constitutional and financial difficulties. [More…]
Fifty per cent of the people they represent are in trouble, yet they come in here and talk of constitutional and financial difficulties and say: ‘By all means let us find the money when they go broke; by all means let us move them off their farms.’ [More…]
Four years for a people in trouble, and the best the Government can come up with in answer to the constructive suggestions that the Opposition has made is that it will do something when it overcomes the constitutional difficulties which were not seen by the committee of inquiry that sat in Tasmania and when it overcomes some of the financial difficulties which never seem to exist in matters appertaining to the mining industry, for example. [More…]
I note from the speeches that were made during the debate yesterday that Government supporters have asked 2 questions: Firstly, would such a body be constitutional? [More…]
which set up the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review which dealt with this matter some years ago? [More…]
The Government Parties have not yet plucked up sufficient courage to bring this matter of constitutional review before this House for debate so that something may be done on this matter. [More…]
I will quote briefly, because it will be incorporated, from this report on constitutional review. [More…]
On further aspects of this report which relate to the measures before the House and to which consideration might be given by this Government, I also ask to be incorporated in Hansard, if the Minister will agree, the Committee’s recommendations in paragraphs 970 and 971 relating to ‘Proposed Constitutional Alteration’. [More…]
I have some sympathy for the Minister who has made the explanation that, because of some constitutional constriction as applied by the Senate, he is unable to include the clause in the way indicated. [More…]
They will not understand the constitutional complexities. [More…]
As I understand the position, the Minister for Prim ary Industry advised that the Senate could not accept the amendment, I assume, on constitutional grounds. [More…]
The only objection to our amendment to clause 7 was related to the constitutional difficulties between the Senate and the House of Representatives. [More…]
In the opinion of the Minister, our amendment to clause 7 could not be accepted because of the constitutional problem. [More…]
However, there is no constitutional problem in this amendment. [More…]
The Opposition is prevented by certain constitutional provisions from moving an amendment which would increase the amount of money appropriated with respect to this Bill. [More…]
It may even be necessary to have constitutional alterations but these changes should not be a total bar to the adoption of any proposition for the streamlining of this Parliament. [More…]
Despite all the brilliant constitutional lawyers who suggested that it was not competent for the Commonwealth to legislate, apparently the High Court in the recent trade practices decision indicated that the coast was quite clear for any government in Australia to legislate in this field and I hope at last that that field will be entered fairly quickly and we will not again have to await protracted examination before some sort of skeleton attempt is made to grapple with it. [More…]
However the Commonwealth has given an assurance that it will support any constitutional scheme acceptable to a majority of egg producers to control production. [More…]
However, the Commonwealth has given an assurance that it will support any constitutional scheme acceptable to the majority of egg producers to control egg production. [More…]
During the course of a speech yesterday afternoon by the honourable member who preceded me I had cause to make some reference to the document dealing with constitutional review. [More…]
If it is done by legislation constitutional problems are encountered. [More…]
1 am concerned by the practice - which has happened almost every year since Federation - but I have been informed that the Commonwealth Government has no constitutional powers to stop it,’ Mr Chipp said. [More…]
The Commonwealth progressively has contributed more and more moneys towards the maintenance and expansion of State educational systems and also towards the nongovernment system; but because of constitutional requirements it has been forced to do this mainly through grants under section 96, with the money earmarked for specific purposes. [More…]
What the honourable member for Sturt simply does not understand and what many of his colleagues do not understand is that at the moment education constitutionally is the province of the State governments. [More…]
Now, until that situation is changed, that is the constitutional structure within which any responsible government of this country must administer the education system and must plan its educational appropriations. [More…]
I think it is probably true that there is no constitutional head of power that permits us to legislate with regard to pollution. [More…]
I do not anticipate that we will strike any trouble, but if we do we will make those decisions that we regard as being in the best interests of this country even though we might have no constitutional head of power relating to pollution. [More…]
Has he been advised, as he is reported to have said, that the Commonwealth has no constitutional powers to stop the practice? [More…]
Nearly 4i years ago the people of Australia said emphatically that the constitutional authority for the advancement of the Aboriginal people should lie squarely on this Parliament. [More…]
Admittedly there would not be a ready-made situation where we could get unity, but let us make it clear that if we give self-government quickly in the areas that want it now, as has been established by the final report of the House of Assembly Select Committee on Constitutional Development, we will be easing’ a lot of the tension. [More…]
Under the constitutional development approved by the House of Assembly and approved by our Government the people of the Territory have been given a tremendous amount of self-government. [More…]
These new markets also are largely beyond the constitutional control of the Australian monetary authorities. [More…]
Of course, when Mr Callaghan wrote that in October 1970 we did not have the decision in the Rocla pipes case and it seems that as a result of that case it has been affirmed by the majority of judges in the High Court that what the Australian Labor Party had asserted for a good many years was necessary, but which was always howled down as unconstitutional, was in fact constitutional all the time. [More…]
Firstly, there is the matter raised by the honourable member for Melbourne Ports (Mr Crean) regarding the constitutional situation which flows from the decision of the High Court of Australia in the Rocla pipes case. [More…]
I point out that it is, of course, still not certain to what extent this case has clarified the Commonwealth’s constitutional powers to control financial corporations. [More…]
I think, in a strict constitutional sense, there would be some difficulty in levying that tax, as a State tax, upon Commonwealth instrumentalities, but apparently the Commonwealth Government is doing what it regards as the decent thing for once and is voluntarily making liable for a tax that constitutionally could not be collected a set of bodies which is listed in a document called the ‘Attachment’. [More…]
But the questions would be of such a nature and likely to recur with such melancholy frequency as to increase beyond suitable bounds the work load of the High Court in its constitutional supervisory role in relation to officers of the Commonwealth. [More…]
The Joint Committee on Constitutional Review made certain recommendations in this field which the Government has ignored because it is a capitalist oriented government. [More…]
lt has failed to act on the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review of 1959 which advocated the widening of the economic powers of the Commonwealth. [More…]
Nothing seems to me to be more absurd than the propounding of quite inadequate policies in the fond belief that we are adding lustre to a constitutional arrangement that began to subside into irrelevance more than a generation ago. [More…]
Respectfully I disagree with the view reached by the joint committee of the Parliament dealing with constitutional reform where the committee took the view that: [More…]
I do not want to offend any lurking sense of federalism that may exist on my side of the Parliament, but I have had enough of this and I believe that this Parliament and the people of this country should, in all conscience and in good sense, turn to the recommendation made by the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review and ask that the power should be conferred on this Parliament to deal, as the Committee put it, with: . [More…]
However, I do not agree with his view that the findings of the Constitutional Review Committee provide the answer. [More…]
For constitutional reasons, as has been pointed out in this debate, there are limits to the extent to which the Commonwealth can take action to stem the rising trend in wages and prices. [More…]
The purpose of this Bill is to give effect to certain recommendations made by the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly Select Committee on Constitutional Development and agreed to by that House. [More…]
The Select Committee on Constitutional Development was set up by the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly on 24th June 1969. [More…]
Its task was to draft a set of constitutional proposals as a guide for future constitutional development in Papua New Guinea. [More…]
Both the final report, and the Third interim report presented on 3rd September 1970, contained recommendations for constitutional change. [More…]
The purpose of the Bill, as I have indicated to honourable members, is to give effect to the remaining recommendations of the House of Asembly Select Committee on Constitutional Development as approved by that House. [More…]
The amendments contained in this Bill give legislative effect to the request by the House of Assembly for changes in the constitutional framework for Papua New Guinea. [More…]
There ought to be some very close inspection and analysis of the results of the constitutional review that took place because one gets sick and tired when trying to look at things on a national basis and the concept of what is best for the country when one has to cling to this lousy idea that one cannot move any further than the boundary of Victoria because the River Murray defines such a boundary or because some mountain range defines the boundary of another State. [More…]
The assurance through the Commonwealth’s constitutional powers over imports and exports of a guaranteed access to the Australian market for all producers of Australian crude oil - and as a concomitant to this guarantee the fixing of an appropriate price for that crude. [More…]
States, whose fiscal policies can have a marked effect on prices, as the latest cost of living index has again shown, and whose constitutional powers to supervise prices are much greater than the Commonwealth’s? [More…]
lt is not the constitutional practice to answer questions as to Cabinet as sought in the latter part of (2), (3), (4) and (5). [More…]
J am referring to the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Review. [More…]
Since it is impossible to implement any prices and incomes policy in Australia without the co-operation of the States, whose fiscal policies can have a marked effect on prices and whose constitutional powers to supervise- prices are much greater than the Commonwealth’s, I ask the right honourable gentleman whether he has agreedto call a special Premiers Conference. [More…]
The ANZUS Treaty, as honourable members will know, provides that in the event of an armed attack on any one of them or on their forces in the Pacific area, the United States, Australia and New Zealand would each act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional processes. [More…]
But to answer the question itself, I think I did in about November 1968 express the view in this House that we should have a securities and exchange system in Australia and that, because it was thought at that time that we probably did not have the constitutional jurisdiction, the States should establish the system. [More…]
Only myopic vision and lack of openness to the future - not constitutional impediment - prevents this Government from insisting on the States doing the following: Firstly, extending the Holmesglen prefabricated concrete factory’s activities to include competition with speculative bi,i.d:rs; secondly, ensuring that provision is made for expert advice and the granting of loans for the renovation of houses in the inner suburbs; and, thirdly, taking positive steps to ensure that low income houses, which inevitably are small, have sufficient inbuilt flexibility of design to m?2i the changing needs of families. [More…]
lt is to be observed that the proposed constitutional alteration refers to charges in addition to rates of interest. [More…]
Also, we would like to see the establishment of a revolving fund within the Division to cater for all persons who come within the Commonwealth’s constitutional responsibility, extend the purposes for which such an additional and supplementary war service homes advance can be made, and establish a war service homes financial division so that money could be made available over a wider spectrum at the realistic interest rate of 3t per cent. [More…]
The purpose of the Bill is to overcome the constitutional defects that were found to exist in the Trade Practices Act in that case. [More…]
the constitutional powers believed to be available to sustain the legislation, it was open to legal objection. [More…]
Apart from minor drafting changes and some transitional provisions, and some changes concerning the manner of fixing the remuneration and certain related matters for the statutory office holders, the provisions of the Bill differ from the existing Act only to the extent that is necessary to remedy the constitutional defects. [More…]
The Bill accordingly authorises the Commissioner to retain documents he has obtained from other persons so long as the documents can be related to a relevant head of constitutional power. [More…]
We have had lectures on education over the years from the former Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, showing that there was no Commonwealth constitutional obligation for education. [More…]
Enable the Commonwealth Bank and the War Service Homes Division to lend up to 100 per cent of the value of properties against which their advances are made; establish a revolving fund within the War Service Homes Division to cater for all persons who come within the Commonwealth’s constitutional responsibility: and extend the purposes for which additional and supplementary war service homes advances can be made. [More…]
Further, following the High Court of Australia’s decision in the concrete pipes case, the Government has introduced legislation to overcome the constitutional defects that were found to exist in the Trade Practices Act, while it completes its examination of ways of strengthening the legislation. [More…]
T ask bini when the House can expect to receive a Bill on this subject, which also is within the constitutional power of this Parliament, which also was promised more than a year ago by the Gorton Government, and which also has been more than ever justified by events in the meantime. [More…]
For over 12 years the Liberals have stalled on the unanimous recommendations of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review. [More…]
I do not know why there was any kind of scepticism in Australia about our powers constitutionally over what are described in placitum 51 (x.) [More…]
If was argued that we had no power to operate in this field, lt was suggested from our side that we would treat this sort of thing as though it was within the scope of the constitutional power. [More…]
It is poetic justice that the Chief Justice sat in judgment on this Act and provided the constitutional basis on which a Labor government will be able to return any new legislation to his original proposals. [More…]
in short, the judgment is a victory for Chief Justice Barwick and for Professor Richardson and a slap in the face to those who, over many years, have used the celebrated section 92 of the Constitution as an instrument of constitutional subversion. [More…]
It constitutes a sweeping alteration to the opera- tion of and the policy lying behind the previous Act now declared invalid on constitutional grounds not directly relevant to this clause. [More…]
Before moving on to that amendment I would say that the Act which was introduced into this House last year to enable the setting up of the Commission was introduced under the constitutional powers of the Commonwealth of Australia. [More…]
But I hope that the Government in assessing the total constitutional pattern in Australia will give consideration to that Committee’s representations. [More…]
There is no doubt that whilst the dominance of finance is here many of the functions that constitutionally have to be performed by governments still remain as part of the province of State and local authorities and to be carried out by them. [More…]
He was supported in this contention by the Professor of Public Administration at the University of Queensland, Professor K. W. Knight, who urged that a constitutional conference should be called to realign Australia’s Federal, State and local authorities financing, and he added that the responsibilities of financing at all 3 levels were completely out of phase’. [More…]
We do not believe that what is evolving in Papua New Guinea is an ideal constitution but most of the proposals which the Minister for External Territories (Mr Barnes) has put before us are proposals which the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly accepted from the Select Committee on Constitutional Development. [More…]
It is important at this stage to make one or two other comments on the whole constitutional situation. [More…]
I think that if they had the gift of the Leader of the Opposition as a political leader up there they might do very much worse in hastening the sort of constitutional changes that are necessary. [More…]
In rising to support this Bill I would first like to point out that the purpose of the Bill is to give effect to certain recommendations made by the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly Select Committee on Constitutional Development and agreed to by the House. [More…]
As a result of the recommendations of this Select Committee on Constitutional Development the Government is preparing to grant full internal selfgovernment during the period 1972-76. [More…]
I would remind the honourable member that this is a Bill to give legislative effect to the request of the House- of Assembly of New Guinea for changes in the constitutional framework of Papua New Guinea. [More…]
Whilst 1 agree with the sentiments expressed by the honourable member for Hume, nevertheless this Bill is to give effect to certain recommendations made by the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly Select Committee on Constitutional Development, lt does not relate to agriculture, trade or anything of that nature and the honourable member is getting away from the subject matter of the Bill. [More…]
At this time when they are moving into great responsibility given by this Bill and by the development of their own constitutional government, it is important that we stand with them, that wc understand them and give them the sympathy that they need, lt would be tragic if anybody from this country did anything to destroy that confidence or to disrupt the progress that they are making towards selfgovernment. [More…]
Mr Speaker, with some diffidence of course, 1 place before you that we are discussing constitutional questions and the honourable member for Hume spoke rather disparagingly about the 2.5 million people of Papua New Guinea. [More…]
I am quite sure that the Premier of Queensland is quite irrelevant to any decent constitutional system and so 1 will not talk about that. [More…]
I have read some of the findings of the House of Assembly Select Committee on Constitutional Development. [More…]
We know from the survey of the constitutional committee that they are relatively conservative compared with their lowland counterparts. [More…]
I refer to the report of the Constitutional Committee. [More…]
If I say that a man by the name of Yuwi, a member of the Select Committee on Constitutional Development, opposed the Committee’s report I am right. [More…]
The report of the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly Select Committee on Constitutional Development has been accepted - not unanimously; I agree with the honourable member for KingsfordSmith (Mr Lionel Bowen). [More…]
The Government has accepted the appointment by the House of Assembly of a select committee to consider constitutional change. [More…]
We are asking that, where the Select Committee on Constitutional Development and the House of Assembly are silent, the Government adopt the same system of selection as that specifically recommended for the selection of the Deputy Chairman. [More…]
There are, of course, innumerable instances in unitary states or in states of uncertain constitutional structure, where such declarations have been made. [More…]
The question of the revision of the borde between Papua and Queensland is a complex one and involves constitutional and other considerations to which priority attention is being given by the Government. [More…]
I repeat again that the constitutional issue should now be decided once and for all and without delay. [More…]
Constitutional problems are of course involved here. [More…]
If this is the only way in which the Government can get around the constitutional limitations, substantial legal opinion has been expressed to members of my Party that this position would be ultra vires because a good that is reasonably suspected of being stolen is not established as an imported good. [More…]
He was supported by the late Mr David Drummond, with whom I worked for nearly 4 years on the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Review. [More…]
lt happens to be on a State border and the Commonwealth therefore has some constitutional powers in respect of interstate trade and commerce. [More…]
Has he considered the suggestion made by the Industrial Registrar, Dr Ian Sharp, that a commission of inquiry constituted on a CommonwealthState basis and including management, unions, lawyers, economists, academics and representatives of both Commonwealth and State Governments be instituted to consider such matters as trade union law, over-award payments, penal sanctions, the need for constitutional amendments and other problems that have arisen in recent years. [More…]
The Commonwealth Government has made it clear on a number of occasions that it would support any constitutional scheme acceptable to a majority of egg producers to regulate egg production. [More…]
But even if this constitutional power was not there, the national Government has full and adequate powers of other kinds. [More…]
While that injustice continues, the tempo of the economy will decline - I want to explain that in a moment - and it will continue to do so until we do something along the lines that the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, as far back as 1959, suggested was needed in Australia. [More…]
Secondly, I will again remind the House that direct price control or a national prices policy, apart from failing to direct itself at the true source of the problem, and apart from constitutional difficulties, is an ineffective and inefficient way of curbing prices. [More…]
How many more deaths must there be before the Australian Government feels compelled to use its good offices with the Governments of both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland to promote, on behalf of the friends of both countries, a representative constitutional convention charged with the task of formulating a political settlement. [More…]
Setting aside the constitutional difficulties which exist in our federation where States rightly claim areas of authority - though we all know that the Labor Party does not want the States to have any authority - one finds in these economic arguments a great tendency to brush aside constitutional problems, even by Labor Queen’s Counsel. [More…]
The Treasurer has said from time to time that the Commonwealth has no constitutional power over prices. [More…]
One always speaks tentatively in the field of constitutional law, knowing that decisions in the High Court go sometimes one way or another way on a very fine balance of numbers. [More…]
He has gone no further than the constitutional convention requires and obliges him to go in the fulfilment of his high office. [More…]
Let us remember that the validity of the Act was tested in our supreme constitutional tribunal and it was upheld. [More…]
This is a fact of constitutional and legal history that must be recognised and respected just as the rule of law is recognised and respected. [More…]
Tariffs are the most effective means in the whole armoury of economic policy for an Australian government because of the constitutional divisions of powers in Australia. [More…]
The question concerns the research centre on Federal and State relations which the Government is to establish at the Australian National University, and the constitutional convention on Federal and State relations which the State Attorneys-General have proposed. [More…]
Since the financial commitments of local and semi-government authorities, both in borrowings and revenues, have increased more than twice as fast as have State government commitments and soon will overtake the State commitments I ask, firstly, whether the Government will authorise the ANU centre to deal with local governments’ relations with the Federal and State Governments and, secondly, whether the Government will express the view to the States that any constitutional convention should be attended by delegates of local government and semi-government authorities. [More…]
What we have is a State government responsibility for areas within their confines - a constitutional responsibility. [More…]
It is not within its constitutional province to do this decentralisation but the Commonwealth should set the pattern and that is what I think the Opposition should be asking for. [More…]
But the question of constitutionality is indeed important. [More…]
Unfortunately the Federal Council of Australian Apiarists Associations has been largely ineffective in recent years because of its constitutional requirement that all decisions on major matters must be unanimous. [More…]
One could almost say that the Act has been, since it was first introduced, with its so-called constitutional rights to certain union organisations, responsible for the type of situation with which Australia has been confronted for many years and which is still in existence. [More…]
My question to the Prime Minister concerns proposals by the State to hold a constitutional convention to modernise the Constitution. [More…]
I also want it to be known to the House that I have taken this matter up with the Attorney-General - this happened some time ago - and I asked him to prepare a paper for me not only as to the method by which we should look at reviews of the Constitution but also to see whether he can give me some idea of the constitutional issues as between the Commonwealth and the States that might be the subject of discussion. [More…]
I heard the then Prime Minister - the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports - when asked whether he would give assistance to non-state schools, say in calm confident but precise and succinct manner tones: ‘I have not the constitutional power’. [More…]
It draws all sorts of constitutional red herrings across the path to make it look as though there is good constitutional doctrine in favour of their stand which can only drive a wedge into the Australian community, a community which believes in freedom and diversity in education. [More…]
In view of the fact that Stale governments will shortly be having constitutional discussions - not before time - sponsored by Victoria, what positive steps will the Commonwealth take not only to participate in these discussions but to make a useful contribution as well? [More…]
To correct this impression I would therefore seek leave to incorporate in Hansard the letter which the Secretary of the Department of Defence sent to the Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs of the Senate on 9th November. [More…]
The Secretary Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs Parliament House Canberra A.C.T. [More…]
The Death Penalty Abolition Bill 1970 introduced in the Senate was, on 13th October 1971, referred to the Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs for inquiry and report. [More…]
Government schools in the various States are the constitutional responsibility of the individual State governments, each of which receives increasingly large sums annually from the Commonwealth Government. [More…]
Has the Prime Minister yet received a reply from the Premiers of the Australian States as to whether representatives of local government bodies are to be invited to attend the constitutional convention to consider Commonwealth, State and local government relationships? [More…]
As a constitutional review is a matter for all Australians and all sections of government, will the Prime Minister now advise the Premiers that the Australian Government will welcome the attendance of representatives of local government bodies at the proposed convention? [More…]
The right honourable gentleman will have seen the announcement by the New South Wales Premier on the composition of the delegation from the New South Wales Parliament to the proposed constitutional convention. [More…]
The right honourable Sir Robert Gordon Menzies said that he had no constitutional power to give aid to independent schools. [More…]
Although I am not a constitutional lawyer I know that the Crown cannot prosecute the Crown. [More…]
I appreciate the constitutional problems involved, but it is preferable not to collect the money and thus avoid the rigmarole and read tape of having to refund it to a State government which in turn decides whether it will pass it on to individuals under the guise of promotion and research funds or do something else with it. [More…]
I have in my hand the report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review which reported in 1959. [More…]
The Joint Committee on Constitutional Review was an all Party committee of this Parliament. [More…]
It reported on the constitutional changes which should be made. [More…]
Along with so many other recommendations which have been made to this Government, the recommendations contained in the report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review have been shelved for all these years. [More…]
However, quite apart from that, let us be realists and recognise that the constitutional limitations imposed by section 92 of the Constitution have created really tremendous problems for the transport system of this country. [More…]
The honourable member would know, of course, that the Commonwealth has no constitutional power to introduce price control. [More…]
All I say on that is that there is not constitutional power for the Commonwealth to fix prices. [More…]
I listened carefully to my friend from Wakefield who said: ‘Well, this Parliament has not got the constitutional powers to do that’. [More…]
I would think that a Labor government could do this without constitutional powers. [More…]
I hope now that I have removed the assurance of my honourable friend that a Labor government would not need constitutional powers to bring about this carrot and stick way of standing over business and implementing price control through the back door. [More…]
I know that it applies only to the Australian Mainland and to nowhere else and I know that it could be brought into operation only in accordance with the constitutional processes of the United States of America on the one hand and Australia on the other and that it is possible to imagine that in the event of an attack on Australia the Congress of the United States might, under its constitutional processes, say: Well, neverheless, in spite of the fact that this has happened we are not going to support the President in his support’. [More…]
I pay tribute to Professor Sawer who, many years ago, was a teacher of mine but in more recent times has become quite an authority in the field of constitutional law in Australia, particularly around the functionings of our Federal system. [More…]
A mixture of constitutional and political considerations compels any Commonwealth government to proceed with a certain delicacy in asserting its dominance; [More…]
That is the constitutional nexus, but the political and socio-economic reality in Australia, for good or ill and much as we talk about decentralisation, is that the capital cities are growing faster in terms of the aggregation of population than are the areas outside them. [More…]
I hope that, whatever consideration is given in the months ahead to what are called constitutional conventions and attempts to alter the constitutional distributions and so on, the local authorities will not be overlooked. [More…]
Perhaps there would be great virtue in the suggestion that a constitutional convention be held by the Commonwealth and the States. [More…]
When one looks at that Party’s complete absence of policy - and the Liberal Party is in the same position - one can well understand why the Australian Aborigines suffered so much under Liberal-Country Party governments - particularly State governments - over all the years before the Commonwealth, by constitutional change, took up at least part of the challenge thrown down to it by the people of Australia at that time. [More…]
Secondly, the raising of taxes by the States is a matter of the constitutional responsibility of the States and I think it would be improper for me to suggest to them that the question of the incidence of their taxes should be incorporated into a public inquiry by the Commonwealth as to the incidence of its taxes. [More…]
I believe that local government as well should be represented at the coming constitutional convention, and local government should be represented in the councils where the decisions are made as to what funds are to be provided to the various States. [More…]
I cannot understand why they have not rebelled before this, especially when this conference, as was the case with the Premiers Conference 1 referred to which was held in the 1940s, has become a regular piece of national machinery of government but in fact has no constitutional basis for being held. [More…]
However, it is only a small part of the very large amount of assistance given by the Commonwealth to the States to help them to discharge, at their own discretion, their constitutional responsibilities. [More…]
The honourable member will have to read some constitutional law; 1 cannot help him any further. [More…]
I have yet to be convinced that the Assistant Ministers have any constitutional power in this Parliament at all. [More…]
A former Speaker of this Parliament, the long since deceased Archie Cameron, refused to recognise Assistant Ministers because he said that constitutionally they had no rights whatever in this Parliament. [More…]
Someone may well do it because there is no constitutional position in this Parliament which allows for the appointment of Assistant Ministers. [More…]
I suggest to honourable members opposite that they read the speeches made in days gone by when this matter was debated and when the late Archie Cameron clearly outlined to the former Prime Minister, Mr Menzies, the reason why the appointment of Assistant Ministers could not be accepted in Australia as being constitutionally correct. [More…]
I have outlined the constitutional and practical reasons why this proposal should not be adopted and 1 hope that the House will not support the motion. [More…]
It is a system which was in operation in most parliaments throughout the world, but because of our constitutional problem in regard to the payment of Ministers of State only, the Parliamentary Secretaries could not be paid for their duties as Parliamentary Secretaries. [More…]
It cannot be stated too emphatically that this declaration was not Labor policy and in framing it this Council exceeded its constitutional authority. [More…]
Briefly, they consist of, firstly, provision, through the Bureau of Mineral Resources of my Department, of the basic geological and geophysical survey services, on a national basis, which are needed by the oil search industry to base its own more particular and concentrated exploration for petroleum deposits; secondly, subsidisation of the exploration for petroleum under a legislative scheme introduced in 1957, involving a Commonwealth expenditure, as at last month, of over SI 17m; thirdly, provision of special income tax concessions to petroleum search companies and investors in these companies, and, fourthly, the assurance through the Commonwealth’s constitutional powers over imports and exports of a guaranteed access to the Australian market for all producers of Australian crude oil - and, as a concomitant to this, a guarantee of the fixing of an appropriate price for that crude. [More…]
That paragraph (c) be amended by omitting from and including the next sitting’ and inserting ‘when the constitutional position of Assistant Ministers has been determined’. [More…]
The amendment hinges on the question of the constitutional position of the Assistant Ministers in this Parliament. [More…]
The Opposition believes that there are real grounds for believing that the appointment of Assistant Ministers in this Parliament is unconstitutional and that, until such time as that has been resolved, there is no reason why the Standing Orders of this Parliament should be altered to meet the contingencies of their appointment. [More…]
At that time the question of their constitutional position was questioned on this side of the Parliament. [More…]
The then Speaker of the Parliament, Mr Deputy Speaker - and a member of your own Party, Mr Lucock - a memorable and remarkable Speaker in every way, a very intelligent Speaker and a Speaker with great foresight and great respect in the community, the late A. G. Cameron, held that the position of the Under-Secretaries, who were the equivalent of the Assistant Ministers in this Parliament, was unconstitutional and he refused to give them even a chair in Parliament House. [More…]
I wish to quote what the late A. G. Cameron had to say on 27th May 1952 in substantiating his view that the appointment of Under-Secretaries was unconstitutional. [More…]
The fact of the matter is the Prime Minister must doubt the constitutional position of the Assistant Ministers. [More…]
The situation is if a challenge were to be made in the highest court of this country their positions may well bc declared vacant because until such time as the courts of this land declare that they are constitutionally appointed and that they are not occupying offices of profit under the Crown there is no reason why the Standing Orders of this Parliament should be implemented or altered to suit them. [More…]
That could happen if some elector decided to take this matter to the courts and challenge whether they have been constitutionally appointed. [More…]
The point I make is that: It is not only right but also just and proper that persons exercising executive authority in this country should do so constitutionally. [More…]
If the Government believes that is the case it should not hestitate to take the matter up with the constitutional authority. [More…]
What would be more simple than for the Government to put to the Justices of the High Court submissions in respect to the activities these members are carrying out and the emoluments, expenses and allowances, if any, they receive and let the court decide whether they have been constitutionally appointed. [More…]
We are not worried about whether they have been constitutionally appointed or not’. [More…]
I go back a few years now to when the present Leader of the House was refused by one of the most eminent Speakers of this Parliament any right whatsoever within the precincts of the Parliament as an UnderSecretary or Assistant Minister, whatever you may call him, because that Speaker said that he had no constitutional right to be here. [More…]
He was a man who insisted on the Government that appointed him fulfilling to the letter the constitutional requirements of the law. [More…]
They knew it was unconstitutional. [More…]
This would clear up the constitutional position. [More…]
Parliament would go so far as to refuse facilities to persons in this capacity if he thought there was not some constitutional doubt? [More…]
Why should the Standing Orders of this Parliament be altered in order that we may change our whole system of internal organisation to suit members who may be unconstitutionally appointed? [More…]
That is why I have moved this amendment on behalf of myself, because it is an amendment vote, that when the constitutional position of Assistant Ministers has been determined, then these standing orders will take effect. [More…]
We have not heard one statement in this Parliament from the Prime Minister or anyone as to what is the constitutional position. [More…]
We all know the reason why they were appointed but no Minister or Member from the other side has come into this Parliament and said that constitutionally the Government has the authority to appoint these Assistant Ministers. [More…]
I have moved my amendment and 1 hope that it will be carried and if it is not carried, I hope some elector - I appeal to them - will go to the High Court and challenge the standing of Assistant Ministers because, in my view, backed up by the evidence of years gone by in similar circumstances, these Assistant Ministers have been unconstitutionally appointed. [More…]
I think that the Government has reached the real depth of political intrigue and sordid events when it appoints people, irrespective of the constitutional position, because of internal party rows. [More…]
I have said that in all sincerity knowing full well the suffering that the Assistant Ministers would be personally caused if their seats were declared vacant but in the interests of democracy, let us be on sound constitutional grounds on this matter. [More…]
However, in view of the undoubted constitutional doubts in regard to this question, I think we at least should be furnished with some kind of legal opinion as to why it is that the Assistant Ministers are now legitimate. [More…]
As I understand the situation, this scheme has been undertaken in conjunction with the States, which for constitutional reasons are responsible for its implementation. [More…]
The Bills to amend these 2 Acts will make possible the extension of the Commission’s jurisdiction in these 2 Territories to disputes involving persons in employment, whether or not they are in an industry, in the Constitutional sense of that word. [More…]
He said: f mention to the honourable member for Stirling that we are asking the State and Commonwealth Standing Committee of Attorneys-General to examine the very complex legislative position which exists with regard to a number of matters such as the constitutional arrangement, the legal position in regard to small craft and a number of other matters. [More…]
High Court decisions given in 1965 in the field of civil aviation have made it clear that the constitutional powers of the Department of Shipping and Transport are much greater than it thought they were. [More…]
I refer to section 460 which appears on page 64 of the report from the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, 1959. [More…]
What has this Government done about this matter, to bring about the necessary constitutional review and changes to protect the coastline of this country from oil pollution? [More…]
I ask him to take into consideration the report of the Constitutional Review Committee of 1959 and to have a new committee further look at the subject in the light of changes that have taken place since that date. [More…]
However, if some effort is put into it and there is consultation at all levels it may be found that the task is not as large as it appeared to the Constitutional Review Committee in 1959. [More…]
Our constitutional system is quite different from that of the United Kingdom. [More…]
Sometimes I think that in some respects the States, with a certain amount of justification, complain a lot about the constitutional responsibilities which they are still asked to bear, and this is true in such significant fields as education, health, public transport, irrigation, electricity generation and so on. [More…]
Iti indicating their agreement to the Council, New South Wales stated its constitutional responsibilities. [More…]
Clearly, it would be inappropriate for me or officers of the Department to investigate specific environment problems which arise locally and exclusively out of activities within the constitutional responsibility of the States. [More…]
What action does he propose to take to see that Commonwealth constitutional power is not transgressed in relation to the statement yesterday by Sir Henry Bolte in the Victorian Parliament that his Government would freeze the shares of Ansett Transport Industries Ltd until an inquiry into the Ansett-TNT takeover is held? [More…]
However, its application has been limited to the prevention and settlement of disputes in an industry in the constitutional meaning of that word. [More…]
Thus, in light of its consideration of the decision in the firefighters case and the particular result that has flowed from that decision in the ACT, the Government sees no reason why the jurisdiction of the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission should be restricted in the Territories to dealing with industrial disputes involving only persons who are engaged in an industry in the constitutional sense of that word. [More…]
The Public Service Arbitration Act, as it has now been amended, will ensure that constitutional and legal means are available if and when industrial situations emerge in the Commonwealth area of employment. [More…]
The Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in 1959 advocated a widening of the economic powers of the Commonwealth. [More…]
But the Government did not proceed with what was suggested in that report on constitutional reform. [More…]
The conciliation and arbitration system was based on 4 fundamental principles which, to me, still appear to be valid - firstly, that industrial disputes can be settled most equitably and reasonably by a process of conciliation and, if that does not work out, by an independent adjudication based on the merits of the dispute and not on the parties concerned; secondly, it is a fundamental principle of conciliation and arbitration that neither side should be able to use superior bargaining or economic strength to coerce the other party in the dispute or in the arbitration; thirdly, it is held that, insofar as constitutional difficulties permit, the protection of the system should be available to all with impartiality and with equitability; and, fourthly, it is held that the community should not suffer through the inability of sections or groups to reconcile their differences. [More…]
As the Leader of the Opposition will know, Prince Sihanouk was removed by constitutional means, and constitutional authority was established in Cambodia. [More…]
The Press communique released at the end of the meeting stated that the Standing Committee had formed the opinion that the legislation to effect a uniform reduction in the voting age would present no legal or constitutional problems, but the Standing Committee was reported in the Press release as stating that the question of a reduction in the voting age was ultimately a matter of Government policy and not a matter to be decided by that Standing Committee of Attorneys-General. [More…]
In Papua New Guinea a constitutional committee presided over by the former Speaker of the House of Assembly, Dr Guise, has recommended the vote for 18 year olds. [More…]
The Government has created a constitutional problem. [More…]
And we must follow on with supplementary actions in the areas which, for economic or constitutional reasons, are beyond the scope of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act. [More…]
I think the provisions in the present Bill are the best that can be achieved within the constitutional and legal framework in which we must operate. [More…]
Honourable members know of the constitutional problems and realise that we have not constitutional power to do it. [More…]
I agree with the Government’s stipulation that the president ought to be a lawyer because there are legal questions to be determined and the constitutional authority of the commission has to be understood and only a lawyer understands it. [More…]
The honourable member adverted to this question of constitutional head of power. [More…]
Equally, I am sure that the honourable gentleman will not be unsympathetic to the problems which would be caused in seeking to cover that situation by virtue of a constitutional referendum or seeking a reference of power for the States. [More…]
One thing that does seem clear from the text - one would need to read it several times - is the need in Australia for something that the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review pointed to many years ago. [More…]
I should point out that there is not much point in giving the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission the power to certify an agreement which contains matters that could not be included in an award because this is beyond its constitutional power. [More…]
The aim of certifying an agreement is to give it the power of an award and if the agreement contains things which could not be included in an award constitutionally, the award obviously could not stand up to challenge. [More…]
Did the Minister pay any regard at all to what the Constitutional Review Committee had to say? [More…]
I draw the Minister’s attention to page 107, clauses 781 and 782 of the report of the Constitutional Review Committee of 1959. [More…]
In 1959 the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review advocated a widening of the economic powers of the Commonwealth, but here again the Government failed to act. [More…]
The Government shirked its responsibility by putting to one side that review of constitutional reform. [More…]
This supports what we have always said: It is not the union officials who cause strikes; the union officials merely react to the demands that come from the people at the factory floor level for strike action when those people feel that so-called constitutional means have failed them. [More…]
Will the Attorney-General also inform the State Attorneys-General that the Commonwealth Government agrees that there is a need for constitutional reform. [More…]
When I was interrupted I was referring to the overall situation and to the fact that the marketing of wool concerns both the Commonwealth and the States, because when a national marketing scheme, such as that which has been suggested for the wool industry, has been introduced it has been necessary for the States to become involved because of their constitutional responsibilities. [More…]
That is the constitutional arrangement. [More…]
Specific measures for the Newcastle area obviously come within the constitutional responsibilities of the New South Wales Government. [More…]
In the case of a federal state, where for domestic purposes supreme legislative and executive power is divided between the federation and its component states or provinces, the question frequently arises whether the control of off-shore resources is exercisable, as a matter of internal constitutional law, by the federation itself, or by its component states or provinces, or is shared between both. [More…]
In these circumstances, the Government feels that, without prejudice to the petroleum agreement and to the action that has been taken in pursuance of it, the constitutional issue should now be decided once and for all, and without delay. [More…]
the constitutional issue should now be decided once and for all, and without delay. [More…]
It is not in the national interest ultimately for questions of constitutional authority where uncertainty exists to be put aside in fact to the exclusion of the High Court which in the constitutional framework is charged with their determination and, in effect, as the Committee has indicated, to the exclusion of effective Parliamentary decision. [More…]
In these circumstances, the Government feels that, without prejudice to the petroleum agreement and to the action that has been taken in pursuance of it, the constitutional issue should now be decided once and for all, and without delay. [More…]
I repeat that the Minister said 2 years ago that the constitutional issue should now be decided once and for all and without delay. [More…]
I shall not attempt to emulate the coruscating wit of the honourable and learned member for Moreton (Mr Killen) but I want to say just this: One melancholy thought that obtrudes in my mind when I go back over 2 years - and we have lived with this problem of the Territorial Sea and Continental Shelf Bill for just over 2 years - is that if it had not been made, as much as it has been made, the plaything of party politics, I rather suspect that bv now we might well have had a decision from the High Court of Australia on the great constitutional issues involved. [More…]
I think it is a matter of very great constitutional and national significance. [More…]
Senate, Senator Murphy, Q.C., had made it clear to our committee that there was no constitutional power- [More…]
I did not know that the Leader of the Opposition had offered his opinion on the constitutional power to the Launceston conference. [More…]
The other day a question was asked in relation to insurance and the honourable member for Chifley took a point of order - I think it was the honourable member for Chifley who took the point of order - for the purposes of explaining that Labor Party policy in relation to insurance could not be carried out because there is a constitutional objection. [More…]
The honourable member for Hindmarsh today says: ‘Do you not know that although we adopted this policy at Launceston, for constitutional reasons advised to us by the Leader of the Opposition and by Senator Murphy we could not cany out our policy?’ [More…]
As far as the constitutional power is concerned, I would like to see the written advice of the Leader of the Opposition on the constitutional issue saying that the Labor Party does not have power mandatorily to require adequate representation of the trade unions in the management of such area as broadcasting and television, insurance and banking in which there is undoubted Commonwealth power to legislate. [More…]
As to whether the Constitution would prevent it being carried that far, I would like very much to see the written advice of the Leader of the Opposition on that constitutional question. [More…]
had made it clear to the committee recommending the proposal that there was no constitutional power to bring in such legislation as was passed in West Germany by the Christian Democrat Government there, 20 years ago or thereabouts [More…]
The Commonwealth Government believed that resolution of the constitutional issue as to where jurisdiction in off-shore areas lay, had become a necessity in the national interests. [More…]
The Commonwealth from the outset indicated to the States that it would meet the full costs of any legal challenge in the High Court of Australia which is the supreme constitutional tribunal designed to elucidate great questions of law of such a kind as must inevitably arise in a federation for decision from time to time. [More…]
You cannot have a federal policy without as a corollary of it the need to resolve great constitutional questions. [More…]
The constitutional history of countries other than our own proves that as an elementary truth. [More…]
This Bill is a casebook exercise of an attempt to implement a high constitutional principle, and it is a principle that does not involve any perversion of our federal system of government. [More…]
It is a principle that I would define by saying that it is the prime duty of a federal government, of a federal parliament, to explore by all legitimate constitutional methods the boundaries of federal power with a view to acting within the limits established by dint of the exploratory process and with a view, of course, to acting within those limits in what both the Government and the Parliament conceive to be the national interest. [More…]
I was trying to open up some of the darker corners of our constitutional fabric. [More…]
The vice of that sort of compromise is simply this: The basic conception upon which such mirror legislation rests ignores the proper constitutional relationship between Parliament and the Executive. [More…]
I am bound to say, however, that I would feel more comfortable in my mind if the negotiations were taking place against a background in which Commonwealth constitutional power, or lack of it, had been definitively established by the High Court. [More…]
In this attitude he was supported by the Solicitor-General of New South Wales who sought leave to intervene in the proceedings merely to agree with the submission of the Attorney-General that it was unnecessary in that case to decide the inner boundary of Australian waters to which constitutional power extended or the available inner limits fixed by proclamation. [More…]
That is typical of the mental limitations and the constitutional ineptitude of this Government. [More…]
I believe that all honourable members would agree that this issue is of great constitutional and national significance. [More…]
There may well be some constitutional deterrent that causes this inhibition. [More…]
It is also true that it is extremely difficult for the Australian Wheat Board to identify exactly where that wheat is moving and for the Board to contain within existing constitutional restraints the movement of wheat away from the obligatory point of delivery, the Australian Wheat Board. [More…]
Unfortunately, due to the present constitutional restraints it is not possible, even by including the specific clauses to which the honourable gentleman referred in his question, to restrain across the border trading or to enforce delivery of wheat to Australian Wheat Board. [More…]
Unfortunately it is not constitutionally possible to apply legislative restraints that are completely satisfactory, but it is very much in the interests of every Australian wheat grower to know that if he takes advantage of this constitutional situation he is doing himself a disservice. [More…]
This Agreement will come into force on the date on which the 2 countries notify each other that their respective constitutional and ‘Other requirements necessary to give effect to the Agreement have been complied with and, upon its entry into force, will terminate and replace the Treaty of Commerce concluded in 1936 between Australia and Czechoslovakia. [More…]
and (2) It is not normal constitutional practice to answer questions on such matters as these. [More…]
The Commonwealth must not opt out of the situation by claiming constitutional limitations. [More…]
Essentially we must recognise that this is a federation and in a federation it is not for a federal government to say what it is about to do without being sure that it is able to do so through its constitutional and legislative capacity. [More…]
By so doing the Australian Parliament became associated with a constitutional development of considerable magnitude and of great moment in the history of the monarchy. [More…]
The conflict between constitutional duty on the one hand and what King Edward VIII sought in human happiness was honestly faced and a brave decision was taken. [More…]
I think, honourable members will agree, that our constitutional relationship is such that the monarchy and all it stands for distributes considerable benefit to the working of public affairs in this country. [More…]
There have been constitutional developments since that time. [More…]
He said that he accepts - and rightly accepts - the constitutional position of the Australian Government. [More…]
Having asked a question of the Deputy Prime Minister on a constitutional matter, may 1 do so of the Prime Minister himself? [More…]
The right honourable gentleman recently, and I believe rightly, suggested that the Commonwealth needed constitutional powers over terms and conditions of employment in Australia. [More…]
Certainly we will make all the efforts we can to see that it is examined at the constitutional convention to be held early next year. [More…]
The next point I would like to make is that I do not believe that it is a common sense or sensible proposition that at a time when you are having an election and when the whole attention of the community should be directed to election issues you should attempt to confuse those issues by introducing such a matter as constitutional reform. [More…]
The Government has consistently maintained that the initiative for constitutional development should lie with the House of Assembly to which it looks to represent the views of the majority of the people. [More…]
The constitutional talks that I have been having with the Ministry in Papua New Guinea have related to the transfer of administrative and legislative functions leading up to self government in that country. [More…]
It was touched on in the recent constitutional talks and, as I said, we agreed to the appointment of a police spokesman. [More…]
If so, does the Commonwealth have the constitutional and legal power to take appropriate action? [More…]
Such an absurd situation in this country would mean the complete and utter destruction of arbitration as we know it - the destruction of an orderly, constitutional method of settling disputes between employers and employees. [More…]
There would be no constitutional barrier. [More…]
Notwithstanding this, whether or not the funds come from the Commonwealth or the States where the constitutional responsibility lies, local government authorities have reached a position where under the present rating system some ratepayers cannot pay their rates at all. [More…]
Mr McMahon backed the request by local government to be represented at the coming constitutional convention. [More…]
That being the case, and looking at the cost problem that faces Australia, particularly if a Labor government revalues the currency, I feel that we should make every effort to understand the facts of the argument and to understand our constitutional power. [More…]
To give democracy a chance, serious thought must be given to constitutional reform permitting governments to hold office for more than 3 years. [More…]
That solution was rejected in deference to the islanders’ known political and constitutional views, to obviate complications as regards social welfare benefits and to avoid imposing tax on the islanders in respect of genuine Island source income and foreign source income. [More…]
The Commonwealth Parliament has no constitutional authority to legislate for a 35-hour week for persons who are privately employed. [More…]
It has the advantage moreover of being a centre where not only 2 State Governments would have constitutional responsibility but the Commonwealth itself would have constitutional responsibility since it is on a State border. [More…]
Perhaps I would be prepared to accept some resolution by some sort of constitutional process in which the ordinances were validated for a fixed time. [More…]
In any case, I ask the Prime Minister: What response have the States made to the suggestion he put to the Premiers after the matter was raised at question time 6 months ago that local government should be represented at the forthcoming constitutional convention? [More…]
In view of this forthcoming convention, has his Government given consideration to any of the recommendations which the Committee on Constitutional Review, drawn from both sides of both Houses in this Parliament, unanimously made in 1958 and 1959? [More…]
As to another of the 3 complex questions that the honourable gentleman asked, I am a great believer in ensuring that the local government authorities are represented at the constitutional convention and I believe they will be represented. [More…]
We have not put substantive requests or substantive recommendations to that Committee, nor have we put to it recommendations dealing with the constitutional reforms that were suggested by the all-party committee. [More…]
Nonetheless, that part of the honourable gentleman’s question makes a lot of sense and I can assure him that, when we make our recommendations at least, we will very carefully consider the recommendations of that committee, and those parts with which we agree we will refer to the constitutional convention. [More…]
When one takes out of the total expenditure of $ 10,000m covered by the Budget the $2, 000m odd described as transfer payments - that is, cash payments via the social services stream - and takes into account the $ 1,200m for defence commitments, one finds that in many respects the States in aggregate have far more constitutional activity - if one likes to put it that way - to perform than the Commonwealth. [More…]
The Commonwealth does not wish to disturb the constitutional structure whereby the responsibility is placed on State governments and parliaments to determine the revenue raising powers that local authorities should have and to assess the extent to which the financial resources available to them should be supplemented and by what means. [More…]
The motion is deliberately limited to matters of Commonwealth responsibility, in that this Parliament has the constitutional power to make laws with respect to external affairs, emigration and immigration, and trade and commerce with other countries, for instance, civil aviation. [More…]
The Commonwealth has constitutional power in relation to interstate trade. [More…]
The proposals in themselves cannot alter the constitutional situation of the States having the authority and the powers to implement the physical aspects of the kind of programme we envisage. [More…]
As I have said, the primary civil liberties in the American constitutional context are freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the Press, freedom of assembly and freedom of petition. [More…]
There are other civil liberties in the United States of America which are guaranteed by other constitutional amendments - for example, the freedom from unreasonable searches and the freedom from seizures that are protected by the American Fourth Amendment, and the right not to testify against oneself that is protected by the Fifth Amendment. [More…]
Because of the differences between the Canadian Constitution and our own and because in particular the residual powers in the Canadian system rest with the Canadian Parliament, no constitutional amendment was necessary. [More…]
If we in Australia ever get to the stage of moving for a constitutional amendment to enact a Bill of Rights or to include one in our Constitution, I would hope that the same situation would apply here, I suggest that to argue against a Bill of Rights in such a situation would be something like arguing against the Ten Commandments. [More…]
For example, there could be a constitutional amendment guaranteeing protection of civil liberties within the areas of the Commonwealth’s jurisdiction only. [More…]
There could be a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the protection of the same civil liberties within both the area of the State parliaments and the area of the Commonwealth. [More…]
I put it to the Committee that a Bill of Rights not only would enlarge greatly the area of civil liberties in Australia, give protection and open up an imaginative new area for the development of Australian constitutional jurisprudence but also would be an important re-assertion of our belief in certain basic values that would have a great effect on the education of all Australians. [More…]
As the question has been raised, I think it is worth mentioning one or two things that have to be considered by anyone who wants to put constitutional guarantees into force in this country or in another country. [More…]
The American Constitution contains constitutional guarantees. [More…]
Our founding fathers had to decide whether, in drafting our Constitution, we would adopt constitutional guarantees similar to those in the Bill of Rights. [More…]
I think it needs to be shown by anyone who asserts that we should now have constitutional guarantees that they are the better system, because difficulties arise in practice with this type of guarantee. [More…]
Some countries which have adopted a Bill of Rights with constitutional guarantees have found that the number of cases in the courts endeavouring to enforce constitutional rights so guaranteed have accumulated to a point where it takes a very long time for the cases to come on. [More…]
There could have been a constitutional guarantee about that and that person could have brought an action to enforce a legal right. [More…]
People can then take action under their constitutional guarantee. [More…]
For example, under the American guarantee of the freedom of the Press and freedom of speech the person who relies on that constitutional guarantee might not be the one whom it was intended to protect. [More…]
There is the instance of the pressman in America who stole property and who, when he was charged with stealing, relied as a defence on the constitutional guarantee. [More…]
If we value our freedoms that have been referred to we should think about whether we will necessarily increase them or improve them by writing them into the form of a constitutional guarantee. [More…]
to his speech that we should remember that a Senate inquiry on constitutional and legal affairs is proceeding and the committee of inquiry is taking evidence on the question of family law reform. [More…]
I believe that we should have a Commonwealth constitutional amendment to provide for Aboriginal representation in the Australian Parliament. [More…]
But, meantime, despite this plenitude of constitutional power, we find that the takeover of Australian pastoral companies and the overseas ownership of Australian pastoral properties has proceeded apace. [More…]
This is the Commonwealth’s responsibility, as I see it, under the constitutional powers. [More…]
Through denying to the Statistician the proper resources to carry out his constitutional function there cannot be 10 members from Western Australia in the next Parliament. [More…]
For Heaven’s sake, can the Government not make one simple decision for once about a constitutional operation? [More…]
For constitutional reasons and because State government insurance undertakings are guaranteed by their respective States, State insurance, including State insurance extending beyond the limits of the State concerned, has been exempted from compliance with the legislation. [More…]
I have asked the Government repeatedly to exercise its constitutional power to give policy holders and insurers the protection and stability which the industry deserves. [More…]
A Labor government will make all impact statements available to the public and will require them not only where Federal money is involved but also where Commonwealth constitutional power is involved. [More…]
The constitutional power Includes the environmental protection of Commonwealth territory, the environmental impact of interstate or international trade particularly the export of natural resources, the regulation of corporations now that quite a few issues have been cleared up by the High Court in the so called concrete pipes case, and certain other areas. [More…]
The sincerity of the Government must be obvious to all in that the Commonwealth is moving ahead as quickly as its constitutional power permits into encouraging this great field of conservation. [More…]
Some minor amendment to the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act will be required before Australia under our constitutional procedure will be in a position to ratify the agreement. [More…]
by leave - Throughout the year this House has been kept informed of developments in Papua New Guinea, most recently when on 31st August 1972 I tabled 2 statements which resulted from constitutional discussions held with Papua New Guinea leaders in late July and early August. [More…]
Request thai constitutional changes necessary for internal self government be brought into effect on 1st December 1973 or as soon as possible thereafter; and [More…]
We agreed that important constitutional changes required a recorded vote in favour in the House of Assembly by a substantial majority of members, the majority being broadly representative of the country as a whole. [More…]
Along with everybody on this side of the House who has shown a keen interest in the development and the sane progress of Papua New Guinea and the announcements made tonight, I think I must agree that Australia and Papua New Guinea will have to look more towards the South Pacific area than they have as yet done, because the South Pacific area is part of an area in which the political and constitutional change is dynamic. [More…]
As to the 2 specific questions asked by the honourable gentleman, it has been made clear that with respect to State jurisdiction the Commonwealth has no constitutional power to intervene. [More…]
In speaking to the estimates for this Department I would first like to speak on the matter of constitutional development for the Northern Territory and the ‘transfer of responsibilities to a Northern Territory executive. [More…]
I want to speak briefly on the matters raised by the honourable member for the Northern Territory (Mr Calder) regarding constitutional reform in the Northern Territory and to refute his claim that the Labor Party has stated that the Northern Territory should have self-government immediately. [More…]
I have made it very clear over the years - and I used to speak a lot on the Northern Territory - that I believe there should be an accelerated programme of constitutional reform for the Nothern Territory and that that constitutional reform should proceed step by step in an orderly manner. [More…]
We want a step by step progressive and accelerated policy for the constitutional reform of the Northern Territory. [More…]
I hope that all members of the Australian Labor Party are saying what 1 have just put to the chamber - that what we want is a much faster appreciation of the need for progress in the Northern Territory towards constitutional reform. [More…]
If this Government had done half as much for the Northern Territory as it has done for Papua New Guinea constitutional reform in the Northern Territory would be much more advanced than it is at the moment. [More…]
I want to make it perfectly clear that I fully endorse the need for greater constitutional reform in the Northern Territory but this should be achieved step by step, taking into account the problems which the people of the Northern Territory appreciate and understand, and then leading progressively to selfgovernment. [More…]
After all, they are Australians, and the people of the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are fully entitled to take their place in constitutional government. [More…]
I remember also very clearly the occasion on which a delegation from the Legislative Council came to this Parliament in order to negotiate with the Minister for the interior in relation to future constitutional development in that Territory. [More…]
A matter which is much closer to my heart than even that constitutional change is the matter of greater autonomy within the Public Service in the Northern Territory to allow more decision making to take place in the Territory. [More…]
The honourable member for Dawson (Dr Patterson) spoke of the need for constitutional advancement in the Northern Territory. [More…]
I hope that the honourable member will spell this out in detail because it is no good saying that we are to have an acquisition scheme when, firstly, the constitutional problems are not taken into account and secondly there are 4 acquisition schemes with variations thereof. [More…]
He has been told time and time again that we have no constitutional powers to introduce an acquisition scheme. [More…]
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION [More…]
Has his Government reconsidered the decision or does it adhere to the decision of the Holt Gov.vernment to reject the unanimous recommendation of the joint all party committee on constitutional review that the Commonwealth should seek power at a referendum to permit the Commonwealth, and not just the States, to take steps to establish new States? [More…]
properly decided in a constitutional way, and that situation will be created by the passage of this Bill, which would open the way for a decision by the High Court of Australia in accordance with the Constitution. [More…]
In these circumstances, the Government feels that, without prejudice to the petroleum agreement and to the action that has been taken in pursuance of it, the constitutional issue should now be decided once and for all, and without delay. [More…]
One proposal pat forward was that a preferable method in the long term would be to determine the question by constitutional amendment. [More…]
There is a notion abroad, and I think it should be impeached, that this constitutional review convention will be a panacea for all ills, constitutional or otherwise. [More…]
There was never an issue considered by this House where so much was at stake either in terms of constitutional principle or in the value of the assets involved. [More…]
But having worn that hat of national sovereignty in respect of our transactions with another nation the Government then speaks within Australia in terms of Australian parochialism and as the subordinate, the junior constitutional partner of the 6 separate States. [More…]
Where before in Australian constitutional history has the Chief Justice said in advance what his decision would be in one of the most grave and important matters of constitutional law? [More…]
One proposal put forward was that the preferable method in the long term would be to determine the question by constitutional amendment. [More…]
It was suggested it might be one of the matters to be brought before the Constitutional Review Convention. [More…]
It was said, on his behalf, that the constitutional issue should now be decided once and for all, and without delay. [More…]
It will be remembered that in 1958, and then with full reasons in 1959, the all-party Joint Committee on Constitutional Review recommended that there should be Commonwealth jurisdiction over companies and also restrictive practices. [More…]
Undoubtedly we have the constitutional powers to do it because Palm Valley is on federal territory. [More…]
We will be on perfectly sound constitutional ground and let no-one in this House forget it. [More…]
The following comments appear to be justified by parliamentary practice and the observations of constitutional authorities, mainly though not wholly British. [More…]
I can well understand why the Prime Minister (Mr McMahon) feels some alarm at the way in which the constitutional powers and lack of powers of a Commonwealth Government can be abused and can be used to apply a squeeze on people when, in fact, the Government is doing exactly that with this proposal. [More…]
An interesting constitutional question is involved in all this: If this is an exercise of power over labour, where does the Commonwealth get the power? [More…]
The honourable member for Fremantle and the honourable member for Barton propose that it should be under the Department of Education and Science but I would have thought that from a constitutional point of view this would have been a far more dubious ground on which to rest. [More…]
As it is pointed out in .relation to South Australia that of the 2 friendly societies one specifically makes constitutional provision for the election of contributor representatives, does this mean that the other has contributor representation on its governing body as an act of grace. [More…]
When the sales pattern of an industry such as the wine industry is good and improving, but some sections are lagging, would he say that such an intrastate situation is the constitutional problem of the State Government concerned? [More…]
This seems to be one of the healthy lights thrown upon constitutional possibilities in Australia as a result of the Concrete Pipes case. [More…]
I refer honourable members to clause 5 which is the clause which establishes the constitutional power for the Bill. [More…]
The constitutional power for covering holding companies rests on the incidental power. [More…]
That constitutional power had not previously been invoked but we know that it is there. [More…]
(Mr Snedden) to prepare a paper on the parliamentary committee system which would give particular attention to the constitutional position and the provision of guidelines for the protection of witnesses. [More…]
If there is one thing which this Government has it is the constitutional power to act in this field. [More…]
and (2) During the period of my term of office as Prime Minister, the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review have not been the subject of formal examination by the Government. [More…]
Questions of Constitutional amendment, including the proposals made by the Joint Committee, would seem properly to be matters to be taken up at the Constitutional Convention next year. [More…]
They will not, however, permit any State Government or State agency to frustrate the clear will of the Australian people recorded so overwhelmingly in the 1967 Referendum that the national Government should assume constitutional responsibility for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. [More…]
My advisers will not hesitate to use these full constitutional powers granted by the Australian people in asserting and establishing the national will on this matter. [More…]
The Government will institute a program requiring environment impact statements for all major projects involving national funds and national constitutional powers. [More…]
The constitutional balance of legislative authority and administrative function in the Australian Federation is to be deliberately distorted without the approval of the people, notwithstanding the repetition of mystical invocations by the advisers to the GovernorGeneral of the ‘national will’, the ‘will of the people’, and a somehow perceived ‘instruction from the people’. [More…]
The only instruction for constitutional change can come from a referendum of the people held under the Constitution, and while this Government’s program is built upon the political foundation of the Constitution, ignoring its fundamental pillars of support, it can expect to be a ricketty structure for in the end the Government cannot be expected to have nor hold the goodwill of the people. [More…]
It may fairly be said that a constitutional convention is required to realign the responsibilities of State governments and local government with the available funds that they have to perform their tasks. [More…]
I anticipate that this House will be asked to elect 10 delegates to the proposed Constitutional Convention. [More…]
I imagine that 5 members of the Senate will attend the constitutional convention. [More…]
The referendum of 1967, in our view, gave the Australian Government absolute and unchallenged constitutional authority to deal with the Aboriginal people as it should, and directly at that. [More…]
But wherever there is a need - even if it is somebody else’s responsibility - this Government will still accept the responsibility because it does not believe that constitutional requirements should stand between people and their direct and human needs. [More…]
We have to understand, for example, that we have a new basic assumption in relation to constitutional matters which is that the outer limits of Federal power should be explored and not merely the safe inner core. [More…]
The Commonwealth has the constitutional power, through the Interstate Commission, to ensure that this disadvantage is reduced. [More…]
The whole constitutional system of the United States of America rests on the fact that the American people, not without the best of reasons, have the utmost suspicion of people who wield power. [More…]
politics, civics and constitutional subjects to deal with the teaching of young people who would very shortly, in a year or two afterwards, have the vote. [More…]
There are complexities and constitutional difficulties in the definition of adulthood about which the complex modern society is concerned. [More…]
Applying similar constitutional provisions, the United States Supreme Court has, for the last 9 years and more, declared any form of malapportionment within a State to be unconstitutional. [More…]
I ask honourable members to listen to what the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in 1959 described as a form of gerrymandering. [More…]
Thus the 1965 amendments were completely contrary to the 1959 views of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review. [More…]
The Joint Committee of Constitutional Review in its recommendations endeavoured to safeguard the people against gerrymanders either by lapse of time or distortion of population. [More…]
The Supreme Court of the United States and the Constitutional Review Committee are just 2 that come to mind. [More…]
It is very likely that when it has to hand Mr Justice Woodward’s report the Commonwealth will exercise its constitutional powers if need be by way of acquisition of these Aboriginal reserves and other relevant lands to which the Aborigines can reasonably claim title. [More…]
It is the firm view of the Australian Government that local government should be represented at any constitutional convention which meets. [More…]
On 4th January the Attorney-General and I assured representatives from all of local government in all the Australian States that we would press for representation by local government at the projected constitutional convention. [More…]
My view is that it would be a waste of time to hold a constitutional convention which did not consider this basic matter in Australian finance. [More…]
All I think I can say about the general matter which the honourable gentleman raised - I would like to praise him for his attitude throughout his life in this Parliament as well as outside for his many activities in this field - is that the Australian Government is resolved to press ahead by every constitutional method available to it - in particular since the 1967 referendum and under the external affairs power - to see that any traces of racism in Australia’s legislation or administration are expunged. [More…]
Such matters are the core of Cabinet responsibility and part of the constitutional practice in this country. [More…]
I am minded that, as far back as 1959, the Constitutional Review Committee, work of which had the unanimous support of both sides of this House, in its interim report pointed out the inability in Australia to pursue what could be called an integrated economic policy. [More…]
The constitutional position is very clear. [More…]
But on the question of the constitutional rights of the Aboriginal people there is no doubt that the Parliament has absolute and complete constitutional powers and an absolute mandate. [More…]
The constitutional right of the Commonwealth to legislate for the Aboriginal people was established in 1967 in a referendum in which the people of Australia voted overwhelmingly in favour of Commonwealth rights in this field. [More…]
the Commonwealth will exercise its constitutional powers if need be by way of acquisition of these Aboriginal reserves and other relevant lands to which the Aborigines can reasonably claim title. [More…]
It would be amusing and edifying and certainly would make a unique constitutional history, at the very least. [More…]
The second great claim was that it must be represented at the constitutional convention - and not only must it be represented but it must have a voice. [More…]
There has to be a constitutional change, or at least preliminary discussions on a constitutional change, which will make the fourth level of government, local government, effective and have the use of funds which are specifically granted to local authorities so that they do not have to go cap in hand to the State Government except for the specific and formal requirements of moneys. [More…]
I challenge him to look up the references, the constitutional authorities, to see what they say about the concept of a mandate. [More…]
Each of these Agreements is subject to ratification in accordance with the Constitutional requirements of each country. [More…]
Before Australia can ratify the Agreements it will be necessary, in conformity with Australian constitutional practice, to bring Australian legislation into line with the provisions of the Agreements. [More…]
The Minister for Services and Property relies on a report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, which, in 1959, recommended a tolerance of 10 per cent in the number of electors in electoral divisions. [More…]
It is a constant debating point to suggest that in Australia there is a constitutional guarantee underpinning citizen rights. [More…]
It is a pity that constitutional rights do not guarantee the equality of citizens in Australia. [More…]
We must concede, as the Minister pointed out, that the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in 1959 saw some merit in a one-tenth or 10 per cent tolerance. [More…]
Professional advice to the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review advocated its retention and a study indicates that the maximum variation has been used only rarely. [More…]
He then indulged himself in a touch of history, took himself back to 1902 and also reminded us about the Joint Com mittee on Constitutional Review. [More…]
The Joint Committee on Constitutional Review of 1958, with representatives from both sides of the Parliament, clearly supported the proposition which is embodied in this Bill, and this may well be the answer to the question that has been posed consistently by honourable members opposite while I have been speaking. [More…]
The Constitutional Review Committee in its recommendations was upholding a principle which is beyond dispute in any democratic system - the principle of equality of representation. [More…]
In this connection it is not without interest to note that the United States Supreme Court ruled in the case of Baker versus Carr in 1962 that if congressional electorates were unequally drawn the voters in over-sized electorates were being deprived of their constitutionally guaranteed ‘equal protection of the laws’. [More…]
Let us now have a look at the reaction of the various parties to the recommendations of the Constitutional Review Committee on which, as I have said, all parties were represented. [More…]
While the Liberal-Country Party governments have failed to act on the Constitutional Review Committee’s recommendations, the Labor Party consistently has supported this principle of equality of representation in this Parliament. [More…]
Whenever the matter of electoral redistribution has been under consideration, the Labor Party, as the Opposition, has moved appropriate amendments which attempted to give effect to the democratic findings of the Constitutional Review Committee. [More…]
Whatever tol erance is measured in the terms of this Bill, there are powerful constitutional reasons why the one vote one value concept just does not apply. [More…]
Again, do we find any proposal from the Government to reduce the number of electorates in Tasmania from the constitutionally guaranteed 5 seats? [More…]
Is it going to take seats away from Tasmania in a constitutional referendum? [More…]
Has the Minister sought to have this matter raised at the constitutional review conference? [More…]
I suggest that we should not consider departing from the latter provision until consideration has been given to the broader constitutional provisions. [More…]
But surely when the jobs of 1,500 men at Evans Deakin are in jeopardy, when 2 of the oldest companies in Australia are about to close their shipyards and when Adelaide Ship Construction has announced its intention to close, the Minister who claims to have the interest of Australian shipyards at heart would have had the constitutional fortitude to make a decision to consider this job for an Australian yard. [More…]
This Bill is a machinery measure which is necessary to meet legal and constitutional requirements associated with the Government’s end-of-year financial transactions. [More…]
Criticism has been levelled at the Government for adopting the suggestion of the Constitutional Review Committee for a 10 per cent variation. [More…]
Two members of the Country Party, the late Mr Drummond and Len Hamilton from Western Australia, sat on that Constitutional Review Committee. [More…]
Throughout this debate, particularly on the question of one vote one value, the silly argument has been raised about the constitutional position in the Senate. [More…]
Of course they do not, for the simple reason that our constitutional fathers made lt practically impossible to change the system that they established and they could never have achieved federation unless that system came about. [More…]
The Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in 1959 certainly saw it in this way for it regarded a tolerance for certain electorates of 10 per cent above or below the quota as sufficient to do justice to rural interests. [More…]
Any greater variation than 20 per cent would be in conflict with the constitutional requirement common to both Australia and the United States of America that members of the House of Representatives should be elected by the people. [More…]
Let me remind the Committee that some of it was also mentioned in the expert advice given to the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review which brought down a report in 1959. [More…]
Because a constitutional amendment was involved it was not just a question of the proposition put forward being passed on the voices. [More…]
The Labor Opposition always supported a general proposal for constitutional reform in the Northern Territory. [More…]
At theclose of the last Parliament the previous Government’s proposals for constitutional reform in the Northern Territory were being considered by the Legislative Council. [More…]
sought the present Government’s attitude to administrative and constitutional reform for the Northern Territory and there have been several discussions between members of the Legislative Council and myself. [More…]
Does this centre remain open in defiance of the Commonwealth Government which has the constitutional power to direct its closure? [More…]
My colleague the honourable member for the Northern Territory (Mr Calder) will later move an amendment on the grounds that there should be an advancement of political responsibility in the Northern Territory and that the Joint Committee on the Northern Territory should report on that advancement and on any constitutional reform, because one of the great problems in the Northern Territory is exactly where the Northern Territory Legislative Council fits into the whole set-up of government. [More…]
1 understand that my colleague, the honourable member for the Northern Territory (Mr Calder) will make a strong plea that the first work the Committee should be asked to consider is the advancement of political responsibility and constitutional reform for the Legislative Council of the Northern Territory. [More…]
In paragraph 1 after the words ‘report on’ insert the advancement of political responsibility and constitutional reform for the Legislative Council of the Northern Territory’. [More…]
That a Joint Committee be appointed to inquire into and report on the advancement of political responsibility and constitutional reform for the Legislative Council of the Northern Territory and such matters relating to the Northern Territory as are referred to it . [More…]
The disappointment may have been because of Australian Labor Party promises to the Northern Territory concerning political and constitutional reform, back in the days of Arthur Calwell who referred to a fully elected Legislative Council having referred powers. [More…]
They want some positive action by this Government to increase the political responsibilities of the Council, to increase its autonomy and to introduce constitutional reform. [More…]
I do not believe that there is any substitute for progress towards constitutional and political advancement. [More…]
I understand that there has been a growing fear since this Government has taken office that instead of there being progress towards constitutional advancement in the Northern Territory, there are indications of a more fragmented bureaucratic control from Canberra. [More…]
But to establish a joint committee in the terms of the motion, I believe - unless it is given a specific charter to try to achieve advancements in the sphere of constitutional and political reform - will not please the people of the Northern Territory. [More…]
I said at the time, and it was generally accepted, that this was a far reaching, genuine and historic proposal towards the advancement of constitutional and political reform for the Northern Territory. [More…]
I hope that the Minister will fight vigorously to ensure that his new Department is not eroded because of its establishment in Darwin until such time as he comes to an arrangement or agreement with the members of the Legislative Council of the Northern Territory and the people of the Northern Territory to transfer executive authority and constitutional authority over to the people of the Northern Territory. [More…]
If this amendment were passed the advancement of political responsibility and constitutional reform for the Legislative Council of the Northern Territory would be one of the main issues to be examined by the proposed Committee I feel that this is a very appropriate issue to be discussed; but it is not appropriate that it should go into a motion setting up the Committee. [More…]
This is only giving effect to what in other quarters would be called a constitutional convention. [More…]
If one sees it against the backdrop of Australian government as a whole, one sees it in the sense of the constitutional framework and one must ask oneself what should be the relationship between the Australian Government - this Parliament where we stand now and talk - and the various parts of Australia. [More…]
The Loan Bill 1973, as the Treasurer (Mr Crean) pointed out in his second reading speech, is a machinery measure required to meet the legal and constitutional requirements associated with the Government’s end-of-year financing transactions. [More…]
Because we are a federal system we have constitutional difficulties. [More…]
Even if there are constitutional difficulties in persuading the States to ratify this Convention, 1 would hope that in the near future the Commonwealth Territories will have legislation which does conform to the Convention and the Minister and the Government should take steps to see that ils contracts are directed towards the companies which abide by the provisions of the Conventions. [More…]
That Committee found that the constitutional concepts underlying the legislation were inconsistent with what should be the proper constitutional relationship between the Parliament and executive. [More…]
With the alleged dichotomy of constitutional powers, there is a lack of effective supervision and co-operation. [More…]
The committee will report on the need for constitutional reform including the delineation of Federal and State jurisdiction in labour relations and the limitations of Commonwealth power. [More…]
Constitutional Limitations [More…]
No single legislative body, Federal or State is capable of dealing with all the legal questions involved or of propounding a solution that Will hold in every industrial jurisdiction, under present constitutional arrangements. [More…]
I first wish to make a statement on certain legal and constitutional matters arising from my discussions in Britain. [More…]
That Bill in the Australian Parliament followed a discussion at a meeting in London in December 1952 on the Royal style and titles, having regard to the constitutional relationship then existing between the Prime Ministers and other representatives of Commonwealth countries. [More…]
Further it is our view that one of the ancient references - ‘Defender of the Faith’ - has no historical or constitutional relevance in Australia. [More…]
The Privy Council (Limitation of Appeals) Act 1968 abolished appeals from the High Court to the Privy Council in all constitutional, federal and territory matters. [More…]
This leaves aside questions as to the limits inter se of the constitutional powers of the Commonwealth and the States. [More…]
In the great tradition of British constitutional monarchy, we march still from precedent to precedent - albeit with a firmer, more selfconfident, more purposeful tread than ever before. [More…]
My talks with Mr Heath, Sir Alec DouglasHome, Lord Carrington, Lord Hailsham and other Ministers covered a wide range of matters of mutual interest in the foreign affairs, defence and constitutional fields. [More…]
In conclusion, I would inform the House that during the 14 days I was away, including Easter week, I believe I was able to emphasise our growing interest in regional co-operation in the South Pacific, to take steps to put our constitutional relationship with the Ignited Kingdom on a more mature and rational basis and to clear away any misconceptions that may have existed about our relations with the United Kingdom, to establish as Prime Minister personal contact with Her Majesty the Queen and the Pope, and to pay a goodwill visit to the small but important Commonwealth country of Mauritius. [More…]
the group entered yugoslavia from austria on june 20, 1972, with the intention of breaking up brotherhood and unity of the peoples and nationalities of yugoslavia and upsetting the constitutional order1 of yugoslavia by the means of terrorism, violence and murder. [More…]
The need for 5 separate Acts arises from a constitutional requirement that laws imposing taxes shall deal with one subject of taxation only. [More…]
Each of the agreements is subject to ratification in accordance with the constitutional requirements of each country and is to enter into force on the day on which the instruments of ratification are exchanged. [More…]
The Indonesian Government has in fact already taken the constitutional steps necessary for their ratification of both the 1971 and 1972 Seabed Agreements. [More…]
The Australian delegations to the 25th, 26th and 27th Sessions of the United Nations General Assembly did not comment on the constitutional situation in New Caledonia. [More…]
Information about the constitutional status of the French overseas territories in the Pacific, as it relates to the United Nations, is contained in the Repertory of Practice of United Nations Organs, Supplement No. [More…]
Discussions have taken place from time to time between British and Australian officials concerning constitutional advances in the New Hebrides. [More…]
The Australian Delegations to the 25th, 26th and 27th sessions of the United Nations General Assembly did not comment on the constitutional situation in the New Hebrides. [More…]
1 think it is fair to say that State governments have constitutional power over price control. [More…]
It is open to the Party of which the honourable gentleman is a member to take action in this matter because it has the constitutional power to do so. [More…]
The New South Wales Government has the constitutional power to take action but, as I have said, I am sure it will not do anything about it. [More…]
1 think it is time that State and Federal governments agreed to do something to take up the constitutional void which exists because of the changes which have taken place over more than 70 years since Federation, to ensure that one form of government or the other is able to and will legislate in fields such as price justification. [More…]
On 30th April 1 executed instruments under the Papua New Guinea Act to give effect to these changes and also to give effect to the devolution of authority to Papua New Guinea Ministers which had been agreed on in constitutional discussions last year. [More…]
These instruments devolve the authority of the Minister for External Territories upon Ministers of the House of Assembly over all aspects of government in Papua New Guinea except those matters for which Australia, by virtue of constitutional or administrative reasons, still retains full responsibility and control. [More…]
As the Chief Minister wished to refer the results of the talks to his Cabinet, to the Constitutional Planning Committee and to the Leader of the Opposition, it was not possible to reach any definite decisions. [More…]
As all constitutional and administrative decisions now made affecting Papua New Guinea must be decided in the light of the rapid approach of selfgovernment and independence the discussions were of value in helping to identify a number of matters requiring early resolution. [More…]
1 indicated my belief that responsibility in this field should be assumed by Papua New Guinea at an early date, and the Chief Minister agreed to refer the question of the appointment of a Minister for Justice to his Government after fully consulting the Constitutional Planning Committee and the Leader of the Opposition. [More…]
Mr Somare will put Australia’s proposition to his Government and the Constitutional Planning. [More…]
The talks isolated those areas of government which for administrative or constitutional reasons might not be transferred until after self government on 1st December 1973. [More…]
While matters such as defence and foreign affairs will not be transferred until independence for constitutional reasons, some other matters are under consideration by the Constitutional Planning Committee. [More…]
It has been a long time coming, but we now have a government which accepts no constitutional inhibitions and which will place our rights and duties to the citizenry of Australia before any theology, including State rights or constitutional precedence. [More…]
Our clear duty in our constitutional role as the Opposition and as the legitimate alternative government of this country is to safeguard that public interest. [More…]
The good intentions of our constitutional fathers are obvious. [More…]
The Conciliation and Arbitration Act today does not express any plain and unmistakable social policy for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes, and that is the constitutional charter given to this Parliament. [More…]
I personally doubt its constitutional validity, but 1 am not arguing that at the moment. [More…]
The doubt I have about its constitutional validity is this: How can the Commonwealth pretend, under an industrial relations provision, to deprive^ one citizen of his civil right against another citizen to be enforced in the civil courts. [More…]
What the honourable member does not seem to understand, although I believe he has had some legal training, is that there is no constitutional power to write into the Conciliation and Arbitration Act any international obligations under conventions of the International Labour Organisation. [More…]
The honourable member is wasting his time talking to the honourable member for Moreton (Mr Killen) about constitutional law. [More…]
If the honourable member is caught for drunkenness I suggest that he go to the honourable member for Moreton, but he will not help him with constitutional law. [More…]
It is not very efficient but it has constitutional coverage to deal with nurses, boilermakers, shearers, ex-members of Parliament, ex-Ministers and the like and we want the cover of registration for these kinds of people.’ [More…]
If it were a matter merely of the constitutional point that the Minister raised one could have some sympathy with it, but one has very grave doubts as to whether the explanation given by the Minister is in fact correct. [More…]
The Opposition believes that because of the strong historic and constitutional links between Australia and Britain - and the other factors I have mentioned - the preferment for British subjects should be continued. [More…]
The British system of a constitutional monarchy with its centuries of continuity was naturally and inevitably passed down to its colonial peoples. [More…]
We in Queensland, whilst upset at the cavalier attempts of the Prime Minister to downgrade in a rather facetious manner the forthcoming visit to the United Kingdom of the honourable Jo Bjelke-Petersen, the Premier of Queensland, know that our State will have its constitutional rights safeguarded by the appeal of our Premier to the authorities to have the rights of our federal system preserved. [More…]
Where before in Australian constitutional history could a government rely on a pronouncement by the Chief Justice on issues vital to proposed legislation? [More…]
I am perfectly well aware of the constitutional position. [More…]
I regret to say that the Minister, in speaking of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act, displayed a lamentable ignorance of constitutional and legal principles. [More…]
there is no constitutional power to write into the Conciliation and Arbitration Act any international obligations under conventions of the International Labour Organisation. [More…]
It is interesting to see in the Bill the sources of constitutional power that the Minister is endeavouring draw upon. [More…]
I would say that the Government is adopting the maximum provisions available to it within its constitutional limits. [More…]
In spite of all the talk we have heard, I challenge any member of this House to point to one constitutional authority who will give him support for that principle. [More…]
I mentioned the constitutional difficulties and 1 mentioned briefly in passing that the arbitration courts have just washed their hands of the problem. [More…]
One proposal put forward was that a preferable method in the long term would be to determine the question by constitutional amendment. [More…]
It was suggested that this might be one of the matters to be brought before the Constitutional Review Convention. [More…]
One of those could be a test case and another could be by constitutional amendment. [More…]
However constitutional draftsmen are not seers, and can only be expected to make allowances for conditions as they experienced them. [More…]
I have perhaps dwelt for too long on the problems of internal waters, but they are quite obviously very complex legal problems; and the considerations which I have canvassed will at some stage have to be faced by our courts because of the singularly unhelpful nature of our constitutional structure. [More…]
I draw the attention of honourable members to the recommendations contained in the report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review of 1960, in particular in the navigation section dealing with this aspect. [More…]
I can well understand their concern, and probably if I were a member of a State government I would be seriously concerned about these things as well, because we have all lived through a period in which the financial significance of the States has deteriorated while their constitutional responsibilities have remained very largely the same. [More…]
In fact, when we were negotiating with Indonesia over the dividing lines of the continental shelf between that country and Australia all States accepted the fact that the Commonwealth had legitimate and constitutional authority to do so. [More…]
Honourable members will see that these 2 Bills and the Bill we are now considering contain a vast extension of Commonwealth powers and that if the High Court upholds the constitutional validity of the Bills and there is any inconsistency between the Commonwealth and State laws then, to the extent of that inconsistency, the Commonwealth laws will prevail. [More…]
Even if this Bill were passed into law and the High Court ruled that every provision in it was both constitutional and valid a large residue of functions and constitutional responsibility would still remain under the jurisdiction of the State governments. [More…]
Surely the sensible answer is for co-operation and joint action in which neither the States nor the Commonwealth contests one another’s constitutional jurisdiction and in which joint arrangements on administration and sharing of returns are made on a mutually satisfactory basis. [More…]
In the Australian federal system, it is I think, clear that off-shore control is exercisable in accordance with the constitutional division of powers between the Commonwealth and States, the territorial sea being for this purpose treated as part of the territory of the State concerned. [More…]
When we talk about the boundary between Papua New Guinea and Queensland and about inland waters and historic bays, these are matters on which the Commonwealth has constitutional power. [More…]
I want to speak on the urgent need for constitutional change in this country, a subject which is, I think, rather appropriate having regard to what has gone on earlier this evening. [More…]
Therefore I greeted the news that a new constitutional convention was to be held with a great deal of satisfaction. [More…]
I hope that the constitutional convention which will be held late this month and in succeeding months will be able to do something about making sure that the needs of this country are properly planned for. [More…]
The State governments are, in constitutional terms, the governments of British colonies. [More…]
I told the British Government that in due course my Government would be seeking, through a Bill passed by this Parliament, a referendum to enable this Parliament to pass laws in respect of shipping and navigation as was recommended unanimously by members of the Australian Country Party, the Liberal Party of Australia and the Australian Labor Party on the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review which was set up on the motion of Sir Robert Menzies back in the 1950s. [More…]
These constitutional developments were in accordance with section 122 of the Constitution which provides, in part: [More…]
The term provided for each of these territorial senators is not 6 years, the constitutional period for state senators (except in the case of double dissolution - always likely to be on); the term for territory senators will be the life of the House of Representatives. [More…]
The Government has adapted the method which was unanimously agreed to 15 years ago by the Constitutional Review Committee, upon which all parties in the House were represented. [More…]
The decision to bring the elections of territory senators into line with those of the House of Representatives is in accordance with the Constitutional Review Committee’s findings. [More…]
As importantly, the Government believes that this legislation goes far towards achieving the basic principles of the Labor Party’s platform on constitutional matters which reads as follows: [More…]
for Papua New Guinea to be able to dispense on just terms with the services of overseas officers when they are no longer needed because of localisation, constitutional development or other reasons; [More…]
The bad features of the Bill, not that they will be realised immediately, but the way in which they can become bad, is by an erosion of the States, and if that happens the federal compact which we have and which is the basis of Australia’s constitutional structure will be destroyed. [More…]
If this Bill is wrongly used, it will result not only in bad constitutional practice but also in bad public administration principles for it will move to the centre all policy decisions and the States will cease to be involved with policy. [More…]
Whatever may seem attractive as a means of public administration or constitutional structure today will no longer be so in the year 2000 with a population of over 20 million. [More…]
It will be a major purpose of my Party to develop this full comprehensive policy which will fit local governments into their correct perspective consistent with the correct constitutional and political responsibility of the States in relation to the Commonwealth. [More…]
Firstly, the Australian Government sought and gained a voice for local government at the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
invited to attend the Constitutional Convention, the first meeting of which will be in September. [More…]
It clearly failed to face up to its constitutional responsibilities. [More…]
Therefore, the announcement made by the Minister is an essential step to safeguard the needs of the people of Western Australia and to satisfy the constitutional requirements of the Act. [More…]
Western Australia, of course, is entitled to an additional seat and quite obviously a redistribution is required to satisfy the constitutional requirements of the Act and to cater for the need of the people of Western Australia. [More…]
The late McMahon Government failed to carry out its constitutional duty, which it could have carried out, and it deprived Western Australia of the tenth seat to which it was entitled because of the voting pattern in the federal election of 1969 and the State election which followed. [More…]
So it is quite clear that the constitutional responsibility for local governments lies with the State governments and whatever we do as a Commonwealth Government has to take this aspect into consideration. [More…]
I believe that the appropriate place to do that would be at the constitutional review convention later this year, when we will have to consider what the relationship is going to be between the Commonwealth and local government authorities. [More…]
I suggest that the theory or the assumption that there is a mandate for everything mentioned in a policy speech is a false theory or a false assertion in terms of political science or in terms of our own constitutional conventions. [More…]
When the constitutional convention is held later this year there will be direct representation from local government and they will be asking for direct representation at meetings of the Australian Loan Council so that this inequity that has existed over all these years when councils have not been able to get proper loan money to carry out their functions and to provide for the needs of their areas will be removed. [More…]
That all words after ‘That’ be omitted with a view to inserting the following words in place thereof: whilst recognising the need for additional funds for local government bodies in Australia, the House is of opinion that the Bill should be withdrawn and redrafted to provide that the grants scheme is compatible with the Australian Federal system and safeguards the constitutional relationship between the Commonwealth, States and local government and also ensures (i) no opportunity for circumvention of the States and (ii) the grant of additional funds to local authorities throughout Australia to the extent of not less than five per cent of Commonwealth income tax revenue within 3 years, with lesser sums available each year before then, commencing during the year 1973-74. [More…]
Bill is too short a period to examine such farreaching financial proposals greatly affecting the Australian constitutional structure’. [More…]
This proposed legislation is the most striking method of taking away the powers of the States without direct constitutional change and to that extent it is dishonest. [More…]
Secondly, to bypass the State governments thus eroding their functions and, more importantly, their constitutional responsibility for local government. [More…]
On the contrary, it is evident that Commonwealth governments of all political persuasions, in the security of their control of the financial resources of the country, are coming more and more to recognise section 96 as the means of enabling them to overcome the constitutional limitations on Commonwealth power, and as a strong stick with which to beat the States into accepting the role of executive agents for Commonwealth-conceived policies. [More…]
The 3 tiers of government will be represented at the forthcoming constitutional convention. [More…]
Previous governments held the view that local governments are the exclusive constitutional responsibility of the States and that the States should include local requirements in their overall requests for Commonwealth financial assistance. [More…]
It is they which, with Her Majesty, are able to express in form of law the appropriate description of the constitutional position of the Queen. [More…]
The omission of ‘Defender of the Faith’, as I said on an earlier occasion, has the purpose of removing a reference which has no historical or constitutional relevance for Australia. [More…]
Though the constitutional link has not yet been severed, we shall increasingly consider our policies towards Papua New Guinea not in any nostalgic colonial sense, but as though we were already dealing with a fully independent state. [More…]
What a fantastic direction to be received from a Government that has no constitutional powers to direct us to do a thing but only has the power of the purse strings by which to try and call our bluff. [More…]
I believed that the constitutional convention to be held this year was to look at the powers of the States and Commonwealth and make recommendations where it felt changes were necessary. [More…]
But this socialist government in Canberra has seen fit to move quickly ahead of the constitutional convention and by using the power of the purse strings proposes an agreement which will mean a complete takeover in the housing field. [More…]
1 hope that in the near future we will be able to create administrative systems that will overcome the disabilities imposed by constitutional precedents and so on. [More…]
There is of course no constitutional bar to a change in the method of election to the Senate. [More…]
A constitutional conference of the Commonwealth and the States is fixed for September next. [More…]
We were told that talks on constitutional and political reform would be renegotiated by the incoming Government. [More…]
I see it as a very serious threat to the constitutional rights of the States. [More…]
I have 3 reasons for opposing this measure: Firstly, I believe that the constitutional validity of the proposal is, at best, very doubtful; certainly I believe it to be unconstitutional. [More…]
First of all as to the constitutional validity of the proposal, speaking as a layman on a legal matter, in contradistinction to my learned friends the honourable member for Parramatta (Mr N. H. Bowen) and the honourable member for Moreton (Mr Killen) who have put arguments to the House, as I read it section 122 of the Constitution allows the representation of a Territory in either House of the Parliament to the extent and on the terms which the Parliament thinks fit. [More…]
This is the fundamental constitutional law of the Senate. [More…]
This is a very restrictive and carefully drawn section of the Constitution and I think it makes it clear that this Parliament is constitutionally incapable of conferring on the people represented in the Senate - whether they represent the Northern Territory or the Australian Capital Territory in the Senate - the right to vote in the Senate or, indeed, to be senators. [More…]
This seems to be a matter of elementary constitutional law. [More…]
There is no constitutional bar to the representation with full voting rights of the Territories in this House but there is a constitutional bar, I would think, to the representation of those Territories in the other House. [More…]
Since members of the Territories are constitutionally capable of being represented in this House, they are capable also of voting in it. [More…]
I do not think that the Government really has turned its mind to the difficult constitutional questions involved in this Bill. [More…]
It has been misled by the fact that there is no constitutional bar or difficulty in putting members of the Territories as representatives in this House but there is a constitutional bar to putting them as senators in the Senate. [More…]
After all, the Constitution was drafted by lawyers but there were a lot of laymen present and I do not believe that we can entirely ignore the commonsense or the lay view of a constitutional matter. [More…]
So my first reason for opposing this Bill is the doubts - they are rather more than doubts, I am afraid - as to its constitutional validity. [More…]
While one would accept the principle of inequity in the representation of the small States as part of the price of the Federation contract and honour the contract which has been entered into, I see no reason why, when there is no constitutional need for us to do so, we should import this principle of tremendous inequity into the Senate. [More…]
Are we to have the constitutional position that the Northern Territory and Canberra can gang up together, join the majority in the Senate, and hold the rest of Australia to ransom? [More…]
Even then there will be the constitutional impediments to which I have drawn attention. [More…]
So do not let us talk about that as an episode in constitutional nicety on the part of the side of politics which the honourable gentleman supports. [More…]
That does not give you a constitutional argument at all and it would not have happened, as you very well know, if Mr Nelson had continued to be a member. [More…]
It knows that Labor is endeavouring to give the Australian Capital Territory representation on a constitutional basis. [More…]
There is to be no intention on the part of this Government to flout the constitutional advice that we have been given. [More…]
The honourable member for Moreton (Mr Killen) is again arguing what is a constitutional matter and a question of legal interpretation. [More…]
This would give an example to this Parliament of his consistency on great legal and constitutional matters. [More…]
The House of Representatives, recognising the desirability of a thorough review of the Australian Constitution in the light of experience since its establishment and of modern day requirements, welcomes the opportunity for the Australian Parliament to participate with the Parliaments of the States in the Constitutional Convention to be convened for this purpose in September of this year, and at such subsequent times as the Convention from time to time determines, and agrees: [More…]
The proper forum for the determination of these important questions of Australian constitutional law is the High Court of Australia. [More…]
There are constitutional limitations on the Australian Parliament’s power to legislate in relation to matters referred to in the honourable member’s question. [More…]
It should not be forgotten that he was also a political and constitutional nationalist. [More…]
This Parliament cannot properly perform its constitutional role without effective legislative programming by the Government. [More…]
If one reads a White Paper prepared by the Lord Chancellor in May 1967 on the legal and constitutional implications of the United Kingdom membership of European communities one is left with an overwhelming impression that British membership of Europe transcends completely any consideration of joining some tariff, some economic or some merchant operation. [More…]
Our Constitutional law must be rewritten so as to show that the sovereignty of these islands is not ours alone, , but shared with others. [More…]
I take it that the Minister means that the land will be acquired under the constitutional requirement of a just price. [More…]
Secondly, the amending Bill in the main merely enacts in formal legislative form the de facto situation which has already come about with constitutional development in Papua New Guinea. [More…]
This accords with the normal constitutional position of Papua New Guinea as a self-governing territory of Australia. [More…]
The second stage which will culminate in May or June next year will be the consideration and adoption by the House of Assembly of a constitution prepared by the Constitutional Planning Committee and the subsequent amendment by this Parliament of the Papua New Guinea Act to make the Act consistent with that constitution. [More…]
The June 1973 meeting of the United Nations Trusteeship Council endorsed the views of the Papua New Guinea and Australian Governments on the role of the House of Assembly in important constitutional decisions. [More…]
The Council noted the agreement between the Governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea that resolutions in the House of Assembly on important constitutional issues will be by a recorded vote and by a substantial majority representative of the nation as a whole. [More…]
All the Bills concern the constitutional development of another country which in the Government’s view is entitled to be given control over its own destiny. [More…]
This was a reference to the United States Constitutional Convention of 1778. [More…]
Soon after the Constitution was adopted, James Wilson of Pennsylvania, by then an Associate Justice of this Court, gave a series of lectures at Philadelphia in which, drawing on his experience as oneof the most active members of the Constitutional Convention, he said: [More…]
The reduction in tolerance not only is opposed by the Country Party on the grounds that it will not achieve equality of representation but also was opposed on very practical grounds by the Commonwealth Electoral Officer and the Surveyor-General in each of the States in their report to the Constitutional Review Committee. [More…]
It is true that for the future there is importance under our constitutional system in our maintaining a monarchical system. [More…]
For that reason I believe it is important that we translate into modern idiom a style and title which through our inheritance has been constitutionally significant but in practice deserves to be related more to the modern manner and to current practice. [More…]
If we have to make it so easy for migrants to become citizens of Australia and play their full part in the development of Australia and the constitutional processes of this country that, although not taking down all barriers, we have to belittle the ceremony, and make it of no importance at all, as though it is just like passing out through one’s front gate in the morning as one goes to work, we are belittling the importance of being an Australian. [More…]
In his speech on the Royal style and titles for Australia the Honourable E. G. Whitlam, the self-styled, courteous and dignified Prime Minister of this country, said in this chamber that the removal of the words ‘Defender of the Faith’ has no historical or constitutional significance for Australia. [More…]
Will the Minister inform the House of the steps that the Government will take to rectify this and other distortions at the constitutional convention to be held in Sydney next week? [More…]
One would hope that at the Constitutional Convention in Sydney there will be little grandstanding and little showmanship but a lot of objective appraisement and a realisation of the problems facing Australia in this day and age. [More…]
One would also hope, particularly when we get to the committee stage of the Constitutional Convention, that substantial reforms and recommendations will be made and implemented. [More…]
That Dr the Honourable A. J. Forbes, M.C., being a member of the Liberal Party of Australia, be appointed a member of the Australian Parliament’s delegation to the Constitutional Convention in place of the Honourable N. H. Bowen, Q.C., the latter member having ceased to be a member of the Parliament. [More…]
It is therefore necessary to appoint a member of this House to replace him as a delegate of this Parliament at the Australian Constitutional Convention, the first meeting of which will be held next week. [More…]
I have received a letter from the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Snedden) nominating Mr R. I. Viner, M.P., as an alternate member in place of Dr the honourable A. J. Forbes, M.C., M.P., during that part of the Sydney meeting of the Australian Constitutional Convention when Dr Forbes is unable to attend. [More…]
The comments I have just made should be considered in the context of the party system and the desirable role of the parties in concentrating policy to a point where it can be understood, voted upon at elections and presented under the constitutional understanding of responsible and executive government. [More…]
If so, have his statements on constitutional advancement been in accord with this precept. [More…]
various political parties to declare themselves on the Constitutional Convention? [More…]
Only the then Leader of the Opposition, now the Prime Minister, gave a direct undertaking that he would not participate in any constitutional convention unless local government were represented in its own right. [More…]
One of the limitations which all governments have in this place is the Australian Constitution and I would have thought it would have taken a lot more than an announcement in this House to change the present constitutional position of Australia. [More…]
In other words this Government is endeavouring to tell the States in minute detail how money should be spent in State constitutional fields. [More…]
It is not a bad idea and it is not a bad exercise for us in Australia in the 1970s to go back to the rhetoric of the constitutional debates - the Federation debates. [More…]
There is no doubt about the constitutional position. [More…]
But we have broken the ice; we have commenced the process; we have pushed aside the old constitutional barrier which has been invoked far too often by our predecessors. [More…]
We have commenced the assistance to the local government plan even before the constitutional convention which is to take place next week. [More…]
Next week we have the historic Constitutional Convention, a much awaited event. [More…]
These constitutional provisions were the basis of the tenure of the judiciary in the Australian colonies before Federation; that is, judges held office during good behaviour and could be removed by the Crown for misbehaviour without an address from Parliament, subject to appeal to the Privy Council. [More…]
However, in Australia, through no fault of our judges, they are asked to make political judgments in the constitutional sense and in industrial matters, and at times they are asked to act as royal commissioners. [More…]
If counsel has to advise if a certain action is constitutional, he is less concerned with the Constitution than with the composition of the Court. [More…]
In conclusion, as there is a Constitutional Convention next week, I suggest that delegates from the State and Commonwealth Parliaments give consideration to the system which is used to appoint judges to our High Court. [More…]
I see them as being a way around the constitutional limitations imposed upon the Australian Government which will enable it to get into the field of urban development. [More…]
Although the Premier of Western Australia, Mr Tonkin, has shown some desire to retain control over the constitutional rights of the States, he has obviously wilted under the pressure of the centralist Government in Canberra. [More…]
But I see this as a back door way for the Australian Government to take over the constitutional rights of the State governments to control the land resources within their States. [More…]
They grasp the formation of the Joint Committee on the Northern Territory as a means of helping them to achieve political responsibility and constitutional reform. [More…]
But this does not mean that members of the Legislative Council and the people of the Northern Territory accept that this Committee is the be all and end all of their aims which, as I have indicated, are political responsibility and constitutional reform. [More…]
The original amendment which was defeated in this House and agreed to in the Senate dealt with the advancement of political responsibility and constitutional reform for the ‘Legislative Council. [More…]
This will be the first step towards setting in motion in the Northern Territory discussion and investigation that we confidently hope will lead to constitutional reform in the Northern Territory. [More…]
It has since been leaked to the Press that legal experts are said to have told the Prime Minister that constitutional problems would prevent the successful exercise of controls over wages. [More…]
This matter was examined by the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
They relate to military offences largely categorised in the specifications that were referred to in the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
I was at the Constitutional Convention last week, as was the Leader of the Opposition. [More…]
It is a fact that our predecessors did use all the constitutional powers open to them to control, to restrict, to limit wages and salaries. [More…]
I said that the Australian Government could seek a Constitutional change by referendum, but I acknowledged that the process takes some months, the number of months depending upon the behaviour of the Senate. [More…]
This is the basic approach I took at the Constitutional Convention in Sydney a fortnight ago. [More…]
These are Constitutional matters in the strictest sense. [More…]
I can quote precisely from the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of a fortnight ago. [More…]
As I made plain at the Constitutional Review Convention - and the right honourable gentleman turned up at it from time to time - references by any State or States to the Australian Parliament can be in my view either permanent or for a limited term. [More…]
The New South Wales and Victorian governments have a majority in both their Houses so there is no constitutional, legislative or political barrier to the introduction of land stabilisation legislation in the 2 major States of Australia and, in particular, with respect to the 2 major cities of Australia. [More…]
I had several discussions with all the Premiers except one who were at the Australian Constitutional Convention. [More…]
He then unfolded proposals for a bevy of constitutional amendments. [More…]
I quote Sir Robert Askin at the Constitutional Convention: the Prime Minister has asked the States to give something - to wit, the power to control prices. [More…]
It is unnecessary when all State Liberal leaders have offered to transfer this same power by constitutional reference, subject to the conditions outlined by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Snedden). [More…]
All State Liberal leaders gave an unequivocal undertaking to meet the constitutional difficulties of this proposal by referring all necessary powers to the Commonwealth with conditions to ensure that that proposal would be implemented on the basis of equity and economic common sense. [More…]
Less than 2 weeks after that statement the Government has brought a Bill before this House designed to seek constitutional authority to control or freeze prices. [More…]
With the very limited constitutional power we have the Government has done a few things. [More…]
I brought into the chamber with me a book on constitutional law, only because it conveniently contains a copy of the Constitution. [More…]
The States have their constitutional powers also. [More…]
The concurrent use of power is, however, subject to one vitally important constitutional qualification, that when a State law is inconsistent with a law of the Commonwealth the latter shall prevail and the former shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be invalid. [More…]
Two separate conditions are necessary: Firstly, the constitutional power and, secondly, the exercise of that power by Parliament. [More…]
Mr Hawke had told him that ‘if the Government were able to moderate the rise in prices through the application of such constitutional powers as is obtains, the trade union movement would fully co-operate in restraining wages and incomes’. [More…]
With reservations of this kind how can he, with sincerity, now ask for specific constitutional powers to deal with the problems, knowing he now has the relevant powers if only he chooses to use them? [More…]
In other matters where we have the constitutional power but not yet the statutory power we are moving to bring in Acts which will enable us to tackle inflation. [More…]
As I see it, these Bills should be withdrawn and redrafted so that they can be brought back into this chamber in a constitutional manner. [More…]
That is the constitutional position. [More…]
But constitutionally in the way the Bill is drawn and the way the Act will stand there is no bar to the disbursement of the funds along the lines that I have indicated on behalf of the Minister for Primary Industry. [More…]
The Commonwealth would of course still be responsible for the exercise of its constitutional powers such as defence, navigation, customs, exports and imports, etc. [More…]
First, the Master looked to international law, and to United States policy on it, rather than to any common law or internal constitutional criterion. [More…]
The Master considered that: ‘On the question of constitutional law propounded I agree with counsel for the United States that when the action of a State is actually contrary to action by the Federal Government the action is invalid for the reason that it is in conflict with the superior authority of the United States’. [More…]
Again, however, it is submitted that in the Australian federation it is unlikely that a court will be able to incorporate current international criteria into the Australian constitutional structure. [More…]
Furthermore, it is doubtful whether the Commonwealth will simply be able to apply the Geneva Convention to the States because of section 123 and section 128 of our Constitution, and perhaps because of more general fundamental constitutional principles. [More…]
There are many factors which set the United States offshore resources legal controversy apart from the Australian constitutional situation. [More…]
Secondly, there are many more component States in the American federation, with far more variegated and even colourful constitutional histories, than in the Australian federation where by contrast constitutional development has been fairly uniform. [More…]
But I thought that, having displayed that erudition, he should at least have been aware for example of how the influence of the American Constitution upon Australian constitutional law was put to rest by Mr Menzies, as he then was, in the Engineers case in the early 1920s, when the decision of the United States Supreme Court in McCulloch v. Maryland - a decision delivered by one of the most famous chief justices of the United States Court, Chief Justice Marshall - was clearly decided by the High Court of Australia to have no relevance to the interpretation of the Australian Constitution. [More…]
I wonder sometimes at honourable members opposite when they talk about how the High Court is being denied the opportunity of resolving this great constitutional question of sovereignty because, in his second reading speech, the Minister for Minerals and Energy (Mr Connor) said: [More…]
In that year, on the recommendation of its Select Committee on Constitutional Development, the first House recommended that ministerial office holders be appointed from the House and that arrangements to allow for the development of a system of ministerial responsibility be provided for. [More…]
I will make some remarks tomorrow about the wisdom of continuing with a Westminster system in operation in Papua New Guinea notwithstanding the deliberations of the constitutional planning committee. [More…]
The previous Governments policy - regrettably it is not reflected accurately to date although it has been the aim yet not the result of this Government’s administration - that the initiatives for constitutional development should come from Papua New Guinea. [More…]
As I said continually last year, we would not impose constitutional change regardless of the wishes of the people. [More…]
This was done, and it was agreed last year after constitutional discussions between myself and the Government of Papua New Guinea that the aim for self-government would be 1 December 1973 or as soon as possible thereafter. [More…]
There is no hard and fast rule of constitutional practice, as I understand it, concerning the timing of the transfer of responsibility for internal security. [More…]
The Chairman of the Select Committee on Constitutional Development in a statement to the House of Assembly on 17 November 1970 outlined the Committee’s understanding of the sort of arrangements which might be likely to exist during internal self-government. [More…]
Constitutional responsibility still rests with the States. [More…]
He is too fond of coming into this House with a broad brush and slamming everybody in sight without having the constitutional, institutional or any other sort of fortitude. [More…]
In other words this Government is asking the producer to subsidise the consumer when it does not have the constitutional or intestinal fortitude to pay a consumer subsidy. [More…]
Regrettably, this reputation has been somewhat tarnished in latter years because of the exploitation of some of the provisions of the legislation and the constitutional weaknesses that presently complicate industrial relations through division of responsibility in State and Federal awards. [More…]
tralian Constitutional Convention held ii: Sydney a few weeks ago. [More…]
I agreed at the Constitutional Convention with the Leader of the Government in the Senate that that is necessary. [More…]
As was mentioned to some extent earlier today, I think it is important to look at the situation in Australia in relation to this matter of conciliation and arbitration from the constitutional point of view. [More…]
I think that as Australians we can all be proud that we are bringing Papua New Guinea to independence not through conflict or violence but through constitutional procedures in this House and in the House of Assembly of Papua New Guinea. [More…]
Discussions have been held not only with Government leaders and leaders of the coalition, party, but also with members of the Opposition, members of the Constitutional Planning Committee and town councillors throughout the length and breadth of Papua New Guinea. [More…]
We have agreed in consultation with the Government of Papua New Guinea that there will be a 2 stage development in Papua New Guinea in which the opportunity would be given to the Constitutional Planning Committee and, through it, the House of Assembly for a home grown constitution. [More…]
Fifteen years ago the Constitutional Review Committee, upon which all parties were represented, recommended that there should be an election for half the senators every time there was a general election for the House of Representatives. [More…]
The report I am tabling today goes beyond this request and includes an outline of the problem, the constitutional position, and statistical needs. [More…]
When honourable members read the report, they will find that the Committee has recommended that the Australian Government should take steps to examine the constitutional position in the light of the opinions received by the Committee from the Attorney-General and from Professor Howard, Hearn Professor of Law, University of Melbourne, with a view to removing any barrier to the implementation of recommendations of this Committee or any other duly constituted authority. [More…]
This is necessary because of the uncertainty in the area of constitutional powers on road safety matters, and much of the lack of direct action by the Australian Government appears to have stemmed from this uncertainty. [More…]
This legislation could result in a constitutional change. [More…]
Some mention has been made of constitutional inadequacies. [More…]
The Senate must go through certain constitutional requirements with respect to legislation proposing referenda. [More…]
The fact of the matter is that we see an opportunity io bring to the Austraiian people a right to make the choice whether this Parliament should be given power over prices and incomes and to extend our constitutional power to govern the national economy. [More…]
Who can argue that in a country like Australia with its enormous development the Australian Parliament should not have adequate constitutional power over the national economy? [More…]
This is the line I took at the Constitutional Convention earlier this month. [More…]
He has always claimed constitutional power for such justification. [More…]
I did have a conversation with the President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, a member of the Reserve Bank board, last Wednesday night, and in the course of a conversation on many matters he told me that if the Government were able to moderate the rise in prices through the application of such constitutional power as it obtains the trade union movement would fully co-operate in restraining wages and incomes. [More…]
In the 1959 report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, paragraph 765 quotes a statement by Sir John Latham, a former Chief Justice of the High Court. [More…]
It neglects the pressing need for consultation with the States concerning an urgent referral of constitutional powers. [More…]
I believe that the Prime Minister sought to mislead the Australian public by saying that the trade union movement would co-operate fully in the restraint of wages and incomes if the Government were able to moderate price increases through the application of additional constitutional powers. [More…]
In spite of this the Prime Minister has chosen to press on with proposals for constitutional change. [More…]
When the Government gets into constitutional difficulties its favourite tack is to say: ‘We will have a referendum’. [More…]
I shall deal briefly with the constitutional difficulty that lies in the way of this Bill. [More…]
This is another attack on the constitutional foundation of the Parliament of the Commonwealth. [More…]
For these reasons I tell the Leader of the House that we will not have a bar of this disguised attack on constitutional government and the constitutional balance in Australia. [More…]
At that point of time we were in the process of negotiations with Northern Territory Legislative Councillors on the question of constitutional advancement. [More…]
I felt as Minister for the Interior that it was for the local legislature and the local people to determine whether they should accept the package that was offered for constitutional advancement in the Northern Territory. [More…]
The Government has adapted the method which was unanimously agreed to IS years ago by the Constitutional Review Committee, upon which all parties in the House were represented. [More…]
We are giving effect to resolutions passed by the all-party Constitutional Review Committee to which every member in the House at that time, including those on the other side of the Parliament, subscribed. [More…]
The decision to bring the elections of Territory senators into line with those of the House of Representatives is in accordance with the Constitutional Review Committee’s findings. [More…]
It is true that there are constitutional problems in respect of these matter One honourable member raised the question of Norfolk Island. [More…]
That red herring that the Opposition has drawn across the path of this legislation will not bear constitutional investigation. [More…]
The honourable member for the Northern Territory asked what would be done about giving the people of the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory a vote at referendums on constitutional matters. [More…]
This is in accordance with the findings of the Constitutional Review Committee. [More…]
In each case the Crown is Queen Elizabeth II but for the purpose of constitutional requirement and probity the Crown referred to in Victorian Acts is an entirely different one. [More…]
The attitude of the Liberal Party of Australia to local government was well illustrated at the Constitutional Convention held in Sydney recently. [More…]
However, the Liberal Party speakers at the Constitutional Convention did not seem interested in the rights of the people. [More…]
Since hitherto the Arbitration Commission has always declared a minimum and not a maximum wage and, indeed, until the referendum is carried may have no constitutional power to declare other than a minimum, not a maximum, wage, does the statement by the Prime Minister mean that, if the referendum is carried, he will instruct the Arbitration Commission under his new powers to outlaw over-award wages and payments, or does the statement mean that he will instruct the Arbitration Commission to declare minimum, not maximum, levels for other incomes and allow those other incomes to have over-award incomes. [More…]
There are 2 instances where there have had to be ad hoc committees of inquiry because the Australian Parliament and the Australian Government did not have constitutional powers. [More…]
That was advice which a first-year student in constitutional law could have given to the Attorney. [More…]
Of course that is against the backdrop of our constitutional situation. [More…]
The Prime Minister had intended that this meeting with the Premiers be held tomorrow, which is a non-sitting day, but unfortunately not all Premiers were able to come to Canberra tomorrow and so the meeting for some very important discussions on Loan Council matters arising from the Constitutional Convention of 5 weeks ago has had to be put forward to today. [More…]
Indeed, under the present arrangements I do not think that the Commission has any constitutional power to declare maximum wages. [More…]
Or does he mean that he would use the new constitutional powers to direct the Commission to outlaw over-award payments, to put a real ceiling on them? [More…]
It will take away from the States much of their constitutional powers and, more importantly, the innovations that a variety of school authorities adds to our system. [More…]
Firstly, the Committee recommends that the Australian Government should examine the constitutional framework in which any road safety legislation would work. [More…]
States to agree quickly to the necessary constitutional changes. [More…]
I am not sure that all these constitutional changes are necessary in the first stage, but I think it would be a good idea. [More…]
It will certainly be looking at the institutional frame work, the proliferation of authorities and the constitutional power which has been mentioned. [More…]
There should be no constitutional barrier to setting up a central authority which could deal with road safety exclusively. [More…]
We will also take an urgent and thorough look at the Constitutional position. [More…]
The Government accordingly has decided to commission a thorough examination of the Constitutional situation so that we can remove as far as possible any barriers to effective action. [More…]
But why, when it had the constitutional powers and the financial resources available to it, did it allow this squalor to occur in the planning of Darwin? [More…]
We say that it should be done particularly in Darwin and also in Alice springs because they come under the constitutional control of the Australian Government. [More…]
However it will be apparent that constitutional power over land use rests with the States, some of which have in recent years been paying greater attention to this problem. [More…]
No one can compare the constitutional and social changes brought about by the liberal revolution and its peaceful triumph after centuries of feudalism and clerical government. [More…]
This, I believe, is beyond constitutional and legal power. [More…]
Under section 39 of the Pipeline Authority Act, we have broken new constitutional ground, having legislated without obtaining mirror legislation, under the arrangement on which the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act is based. [More…]
I invite the Opposition to attack the constitutional validity of this section. [More…]
He goes on to say that under section 39 of the Pipeline Authority Act we have broken new constitutional ground. [More…]
In view of the refusal by the New South Wales Government to exercise its constitutional authority to control prices, what action can be taken by the Australian Government to protect consumers until such time as the Australian people grant such authority to this Government? [More…]
Before there was any statutory obligation or machinery and still no greater constitutional jurisdiction in the Commonwealth we accepted the offer of BHP to justify its planned increases at that time. [More…]
He said that these statements will now be required for all departmental projects within Australia which have significant environmental consequences where Australian Government funds are involved or where federal constitutional power is involved. [More…]
Now he opposes the granting of constitutional powers which could be the basis for a just and rational policy. [More…]
State governments have been denied .an adequate level of funds with which effectively to carry out programs in their constitutional areas of responsibility. [More…]
This is not the responsible path of constitutional alteration but the irresponsible and dictatorial method of duress. [More…]
This House has not been able to operate according to its prescribed constitutional and democratic functions as a forum of legislative review. [More…]
He did not touch upon the Australian Parliament’s limited constitutional power to intervene directly in industrial relations. [More…]
Commission has any constitutional power to settle or intervene. [More…]
But neither the Australian Parliament, the Australian Government nor the Commission can take any constitutional action to intervene in disputes covered by State awards or agreements. [More…]
They challenge the spirit of the constitutional division of powers and call into question the efficacy of a framework which serves merely to limit the tendencies which have been developed and which demonstrably cannot check them. [More…]
But the flagrant determination of the present Labor Government to exploit the weaknesses in our constitutional framework in order to maximise the dominance of the central government clearly calls for a reappraisal of CommonwealthState financial arrangements. [More…]
It is to be hoped that the Constitutional Convention will provide a satisfactory response to the existing difficulties. [More…]
Consequently, any constitutional alteration which sought to diminish the efficacy of the Commonwealth’s economic management would also be unacceptable. [More…]
The financial and constitutional position which has developed in Australia is one of imbalance between the Commonwealth and the States in the allocation of revenue and responsibility. [More…]
The States have retained their constitutional responsibility for important services such as education, hospitals and roads and the control of leading public utilities such as railways and electricity. [More…]
However, the present financial relations are deficient in that the States’ constitutional powers and electoral responsibilities are not matched by financial independence and authority. [More…]
If it wishes to centralise power in Canberra, it should openly press for the constitutional amendments that are necessary to accomplish its purpose. [More…]
I believe that what must happen is that the States must be given the financial sinews with which to exercise their constitutional responsibility. [More…]
There are no constitutional limitations in this area because a block of land cannot be carried across a State border. [More…]
This Government secured the representation of local government at the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
The constitutional power of the Australian Parliament to enact legislation such as that contained in the Bill was clarified by the very important decision of the High Court in what is known as the concrete pipes case. [More…]
It was also an important vehicle for the development of constitutional law in this field and beyond it. [More…]
There is no way of legislating out of that constitutional provision. [More…]
It is now 15 years since the Constitutional Review Committee, which included, as you will recall, Mr Deputy Speaker, representatives from all parties, recommended unanimously that the Parliament should seek power by referendum to deal with restrictive trade practices including resale price maintenance. [More…]
The Industrial Court upheld their defence - their view - and the Commonwealth, to test the constitutional basis of the legislation, took the decision of the Industrial Court to the High Court. [More…]
It was an interesting development in constitutional history. [More…]
Of course, the upshot of it was if the corporalion power were to be reinstated the constitutional premise for the old Restrictive Trade Practices Act was such that the Act was completely and totally invalid except for the section dealing with resale price maintenance. [More…]
The Joint Committee on Constitutional Review was a Committee that was set up by this Parliament in 1958-59. [More…]
Of course, it is based now on much sounder constitutional premises. [More…]
Constitutional difficulties arise with the States, which are the sovereign bodies responsible for financing hospitals. [More…]
Also, it takes up the proposal I foreshadowed at the recent Constitutional Convention in Sydney. [More…]
And it takes up the unanimous recommendation, dating back as far as 1958, of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Review. [More…]
The other is a special provision for senators whose terms, as to half, commenced on 1 July 1971 and as to the other half will commence on 1 July 1974, each of whom would in accordance with the existing constitutional provisions have a 6-year term. [More…]
In normal circumstances, there will be elections for the House of Representatives in 1975, 1978 and 1981. lt is proposed under the transitional arrangement that a currently sitting senator, whose term began in 1971 and would in accordance with present constitutional provision expire in 1977, will continue in office until the second House of Representatives election after the constitutional alteration comes into force, that is, until 1978 unless there is a double dissolution or early election for the House of Representatives. [More…]
This will mean, in normal circumstances and, of course, excluding any senators elected to fill casual vacancies, that the senators serving when the constitutional alteration becomes law could have a term of up to about 7i years. [More…]
At the Australian Constitutional Convention held in September this year in Sydney, I said on behalf of the Australian Government that we would propose to the Parliament, for decision by the people, an amendment of the Constitution which would write into it the principle of substantial equality of electoral divisions for all the Parliaments of Australia. [More…]
Applying similar constitutional provisions, the United States Supreme Court has, for the last 9 years and more, declared any form of malapportionment within a State to be unconstitutional. [More…]
At the more recent constitutional convention in Sydney I said: [More…]
Honourable members will recall that at the recent constitutional convention I said perhaps the most important amendment that could be achieved for 1973 and beyond would be an amendment to do just this - make it possible for the Australian Government te borrow directly on behalf of local government bodies. [More…]
Firstly, we promised at the 1973 Constitutional Convention that direct representation of local government would be a condition of the Australian Government’s participation. [More…]
The Opposition is opposing the constitutional attempts to obtain power over prices and wages. [More…]
We do not have much concern for the protocols and precedents of the constitutional situation here; we are concerned with the rights of people. [More…]
As the honourable member is no doubt aware Constitutional responsibility for wildlife in the individual States rests with the various State Governments. [More…]
Adequate time will be available if members use it effectively to put every point of view on these 3 constitutional measures. [More…]
Whatever measure can be tested by reference to what should be done and what should be brought about in this House one can predictably gamble on opposition from the Libera] Party and the Australian Country Party These proposals for these constitutional- [More…]
The proposals for these constitutional reforms can be traced back virtually to the turn of the century. [More…]
All the Government seeks to do is to give the people of Australia at a referendum the opportunity to consider 3 propositions that have been put forward and argued about by writers on political science and by writers on constitutional reform virtually ever since this nation came into being. [More…]
The matter has been stirred up from time to time and was put forward and discussed as recently as a month ago in Sydney at the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
So I will not take up any further time in this debate except to put on record my utter disgust with the fact that these 3 important constitutional Bills will be considered in a matter of about 10 hours debate all finished in this House by 10 p.m. tomorrow night. [More…]
We are declaring these measures urgent Bills because of the constitutional position and the need to have them passed by the Parliament. [More…]
A constitutional referendum is not needed to ensure simultaneous elections. [More…]
There is no constitutional requirement for elections to remain out of phase. [More…]
Giving his reasons for the constitutional amendment, he said: [More…]
There was another curious litle part of the Prime Minister’s speech in which he said that another reason for the legislation is that it takes up the unanimous recommendation, dating as far back as 1958, of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Review’. [More…]
Further, the growing constitutional development of the right of Heads of Government to secure a dissolution of the popular House upon request, in my opinion, makes it imperative that the Prime Minister should not have the power to treat the States’ House as an appendage of the Popular House and take one-half of the Senate to election at the will of the Executive Government. [More…]
This proposal - that which is called the simultaneous elections proposal - should be rejected on 2 grounds: firstly, because it is unnecessary; and secondly, because its adoption would be dangerous in constitutional and democratic terms. [More…]
This constitutional amendment process is unnecessary because the power is in the hands of the Government. [More…]
The probability is that in constitutional terms that opportunity has now slipped from his grasp. [More…]
The 1959 report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Review noted that the existence of fixed senatorial terms had increased the number of elections and that the number of occasions on which there would have been separate elections for senators and members of the House of Representatives would have been greater unless the House of Representatives had been dissolved before the expiration of its full term. [More…]
The present Bill follows generally the lines of the proposals of the 1959 Joint Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Review. [More…]
It honours an election commitment made by the Australian Labor Party and it takes up the proposal of the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) to the Constitutional Convention held recently in Sydney. [More…]
In one case, the Senators whose terms began in July 1971 will continue in office until the second House of Representatives elections after the constitutional alteration comes into force; that is, 19.8, unless there is a double dissolution or an early House of Representatives election. [More…]
The Joint Committee on Constitutional Review of 1959 said, at page 36 of its report: [More…]
The subject matter of this Bill was dealt with in the report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, and I think that I ought to read into the record the names of the personnel who comprised that Committee. [More…]
I ask leave of the House to incorporate is Hansard the following sections: ‘Disadvantages of the Allotment of Fixed Terms for Senators’, Benefits of Simultaneous Elections’, and Recommendation and Draft Constitutional Alterations’. [More…]
As far as the passage of this legislation through this Parliament is concerned, I regard it as completely deplorable that the Government has so ignored the significance of constitutional change that it is prepared to introduce the guillotine in order to hasten the passage of each one of these constitutional referendum Bills. [More…]
Those were the matters which our constitutional fathers looked at quite seriously because our Upper House is different from other upper houses. [More…]
If the honourable member for Diamond Valley had cared I would have been only too prepared to have allowed him to have incorporated in Hansard not only those significant passages from the 1958 report of the Constitutional Review Committee but also the reservations that were expressed by Senator Wright. [More…]
Having heard the remarks of the 3 speakers from the Opposition side in this debate, and having attended the Australian Constitutional Convention in Sydney, I am convinced that all that honourable members opposite can present to the House is a whole series of cliches. [More…]
The major ground, apart from the fact that what was proposed was Labor Party policy and had been uttered at that Constitutional Convention so that plenty of notice was given of our intention, was that the legislation seeks to carry out a unanimous recommendation made in 1959 by the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review. [More…]
I suggest that the 1959 Constitutional Review Committee recommended what is in fact logical, that is, that the Australian Constitution should be altered to achieve the end which this Bill seeks. [More…]
The Commonwealth Bill, as it was In the year 1891, limited the duration of the House of Representatives to three years, but the Constitutional Committee, for some reason, have decided to extend that term to four years. [More…]
May I suggest to the honourable gentleman that that is precisely the reason, the essence and the kernel of the need for the constitutional amendment. [More…]
On page 12 in section 4, in relation to constitutional matters, it says that Labor’s way is to abolish the Senate. [More…]
There are precedents in May and other places, I understand, for legal rulings of that character, especially on a constitutional point. [More…]
There are proper procedures to go through if a matter of constitutional law is involved. [More…]
In the first place honourable members opposite are saying that unless somebody from the Opposition calls for a division on a constitutional amendment the vote cannot be counted. [More…]
It is the Speaker’s duty to ensure that the numbers are counted in accordance with the constitutional requirement. [More…]
They know that they have messed up what this afternoon was declared by them to be a most vital matter of constitutional importance. [More…]
No division being called for and there being no dissentient voice, Mr Speaker drew attention to the constitutional requirement that the Bill must be passed by an absolute majority and directed the bells to be rung. [More…]
No division being called for and there being no dissentient voice, Mr Speaker drew attention to the constitutional requirement that the Bill must be passed by an absolute majority and directed the bells to be rung. [More…]
Let honourable members look at the fourth edition of ‘Australian Senate Practice’ by Mr J. R. Odgers, an eminent authority, the Clerk of the Senate, one of our most notable public servants and a man skilled in the standing orders on constitutional matters. [More…]
Having given honourable members a lecture on constitutional procedure, let me take them back to the Standing Orders and remind honourable members opposite that the tools of trade of a parliamentarian are the Standing Orders. [More…]
Having completely demolished the spurious and delaying arguments of honourable members opposite, I mention before I conclude that these are the gentlemen who said that they had no time to discuss the measure; these are the time wasters who refused to debate great constitutional issues, who tried to embarrass Mr Speaker, who were educated at all the A grade schools in the country and who are behaving in the national Parliament like second class larrikins. [More…]
Having said so much and the time being so late and the Opposition not wishing to debate constitutional matters, I move: [More…]
Because I believe in what I do and because I heard what I heard, in my opinion it must be accepted by this House that there is a real doubt as to whether the constitutional provisions have been satisfied for this question to be put to the people. [More…]
He now argues: “There is a constitutional doubt about the passing of this Bill, but we will help to save the Government. [More…]
On a great constitutional issue earlier today the Opposition demanded more time for debate, for time to be made available right up till Christmas, but by acting in a completely unparliamentary way it showed it was not willing to debate this issue in the Parliament now. [More…]
Thus the constitutional requirement was fulfilled. [More…]
Those incidents have meant that there will be about an hour and three-quarters less debating time on the second constitutional Bill under guillotine than there would otherwise have been, lt might be well to recall that the whole fracas arose from the deliberate attitude of the members of the Liberal Party. [More…]
In an attempt to frustrate the recording of the constitutional vote required on these Bills, 2 devices were used. [More…]
Furthermore, there would have been much longer - about an hour - to debate the first of the constitutional referendum Bills under guillotine if the Opposition had not moved to discuss a matter of public importance yesterday. [More…]
I would recall to honourable gentlemen that the proposed Bills were mentioned at the Constitutional Convention at the beginning of September. [More…]
I mentioned that they were coming in on the first sitting day of the House after that Constitutional Convention concluded. [More…]
The constitutional measure presently before the House are the simple reason why the Opposition will find it difficult to get back into government again. [More…]
After exhaustive investigation, the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in 1958, and again in 1959, recognised the vital interest of the people in proposed constitutional al,tera.tions. [More…]
The Committee’s proposal would not disturb the federal fabric of the Constitution, inherent in Section 128, but its proposal would serve to lay more emphasis on constitutional change by the democratic process of majority vote than there at present exists. [More…]
But the two-thirds majority is unreasonably high and, given that we have not gone beyond the original six States, means in the elegant words of the Constitutional Review Committee that ‘for every State in which there is an adverse vote there must be a favourable vote in two States … a constitutional change has to be supported not only by a majority of States but by two-thirds of the States.’ [More…]
I believe that this change will bring the constitutional provisions more into accord with the spirit of the founders in 1901; more into accord with today’s mood of national awareness; and more into accord with democratic principles and processes. [More…]
It is designed to remove the anomaly that Australian citizens in our mainland Territories have no voice or vote in constitutional referendums. [More…]
The electors of the Territories may be thought to have an added claim to voting in national referendums on constitutional matters. [More…]
The electors of the Territories may in this sense be able to contribute their informed judgment on many of the matters likely to be the subject of constitutional referendums. [More…]
These four proposals will be joined later by a further proposal I foreshadowed last week and also in the week immediately following the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
This clause proposes a constitutional provision to make it ‘people’ instead of ‘electors’. [More…]
If the present criteria were removed or were enforced in terms of a constitutional amendment, the honourable member for Wakefield would represent about threequarters of the land mass of South Australia. [More…]
The Government is trying to hoodwink the people of Australia into unknowingly making this proposal a constitutional requirement when the Parliament, on examination of all the concepts, refused to accept it. [More…]
Therefore, why do we need a constitutional referendum to force the States to provide a vote for 18 year olds when the States have already given it? [More…]
One cannot help but react strongly to the storm-trooper tactics that are being used by the Government on this and another 2 constitutional issues. [More…]
I merely make the point of these variations in order to show the need under this legislation for something to be done in respect of these matters by the sort of constitutional approach the Government is now making. [More…]
This is precisely what the Leader of the Australian Country Party and other honourable members opposite will not do: They will not let the people pass judgment on a constitutional change. [More…]
That is, they ask you, the people of this country, in whom true sovereignty resides, to transfer from the States to the Commonwealth constitutional and legal power over a wide range of matters. [More…]
Before I turn to the Bills themselves, there is a threshold constitutional problem that should be considered. [More…]
That is the question of whether or not the Commonwealth has legal and constitutional powers to introduce such referendum legislation which touch and concern powers and functions that are clearly within and remain within the jurisdiction of the States, and are related almost exclusively to electoral matters involving the States. [More…]
It must be remembered too that whilst the High Court of Australia would undoubtedly consider the United States Constitutional and law, it would riot necessarily be found by it. [More…]
I repeat that this is a blatant attempt to gerrymander the electorate by a constitutional amendment. [More…]
I think the first point that ought to be made is that there is at present a Constitutional Convention being held in Australia. [More…]
There was a week of debate and discussion on constitutional reform. [More…]
One of the committees has as its specific task the examination of constitutional relations in respect of local government bodies. [More…]
The way in which it will achieve centralism is not by the proper and direct device of conducting a constitutional referendum which would have as it purpose the elimination of the States or the substantial diminution of the powers of the States, thus doing it directly. [More…]
These constitutional proposals do not in themselves represent a solution to the problem. [More…]
The amendments to the Constitution outlined in this Bill presuppose that existing constitutional procedures are incapable of effectively meeting the situation. [More…]
Adequate scope exists for an improved flow of resources to local government through existing constitutional channels. [More…]
It is only if the constitutional arrangements are unworkable that a basis exists for an alteration of the Constitution. [More…]
At the recent Constitutional Convention the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) said that the Loan Council should be restructured. [More…]
Firstly, it promised, and carried out the promise at the 1973 Constitutional Convention, that direct representation of local government would be a condition of the Australian Government’s participation. [More…]
Local government bodies are established under State statute, and are the constitutional responsibility of the States. [More…]
They possess no constitutional guaranteee of their functions or revenue resources. [More…]
Although the absence of constitutional rigidities might have been expected to make for greater flexibility and responsiveness to changing needs in Australia, local government seems to have been characterised by a high degree of conservatism and inertia. [More…]
I accept that this is the way in which our committees are constructed, but on such an issue as this I think the fact that there is a Government majority will not matter because the issue, I believe, is so important that all members of the Committee will approach this inquiry and investigation as members of a Parliament sworn to uphold the Parliament and knowing the importance of the Parliament to our constitutional procedures in Australia. [More…]
He knows, even though he gives no service to it, that this Parliament is the pinnacle of the protection of the citizens of Australia in every constitutional form. [More…]
You must listen to this because you may think that I am criticising you, but it is my honest belief - and it is the honest belief of honourable members on this side of the House - that a serious error was made in the procedures of this Parliament in relation to a constitutional Bill. [More…]
In an attempt to frustrate the recording of the constitutional vote required - [More…]
Then I proceeded to give an explanation of those Opposition attempts to frustrate the constitutional vote being recorded. [More…]
Such complexity is the result of the constitutional relationship between the 3 governments concerned and the role that each government has agreed to play. [More…]
The Minister has suggested in all seriousness that the growing of trees would aid in bringing about fundamental changes in these areas, and I would agree that if the Department of Urban and Regional Development had the resources and constitutional competence this would bring it about. [More…]
Firstly, at the insistence of the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam), for the first time local government was represented at the Australian Constitutional Convention. [More…]
That the Australian Government be formally thanked for its assistance in securing local government representation at the Australian Constitutional Convention. [More…]
It is for them to decide, subject to certain constitutional safeguards, whether they want any change. [More…]
The effect of such a proposed change would be that instead of the constitutional requirement that, before a referendum can be successful a majority of the electors in a majority of the States must vote in favour of the proposal - that is, that there must be a majority of electors in four out of the six States and also a majority of all electors - in its place there would be a requirement that there must be a majority of electors in only 3 States out of six and a majority of all electors before the proposed law can be presented to the Governor-General for assent. [More…]
These constitutional requirements both safeguard the Constitution itself and were designed to ensure that proper and mature consideration is given to the proposed changes and their effect on the people of this country. [More…]
In 1900 the great constitutional authorities of the day Quick and Garran - I hope the honourable member for Moreton (Mr Killen) will see that my legal knowledge is improving - had this to say at page 993 of their book entitled ‘Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth’: [More…]
The Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in 1958 and again in 1959 - as the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) stated - recognised the vital interest of the people in proposed Constitutional alterations. [More…]
The restriction of the right to vote in constitutional referendums to the citizens of the States is a consequence of the desire of the framers of our Constitution to protect the small States. [More…]
Further, it in no way infringes on the principle that the States have a separate interest to be protected with respect to constitutional change. [More…]
Not all Constitutional referendums directly involve the interests of the States, or the powers oi State governments. [More…]
The honourable gentleman cannot approbate and reprobate, and this is one of these severe disciplines that I suspect he will really have to turn his mind to in order to ensure that he has a clear approach to constitutional problems. [More…]
One may indulge in the luxury of seeking to agree with him in some respects, but what puzzles me on this occasion about the Government which the honourable gentleman leads is the impatience, having regard to the fact that a Constitution Convention was held in Sydney a short time ago and that at that Convention, with the agreement of all of the States and with the agreement of the Commonwealth delegation, of which the Prime Minister was the distinguished leader, committees were set up to investigate various areas of constitutional reform. [More…]
I would suggest that not only would it have been wise in terms of constitutional reform but also wise in terms of political procedure to have awaited the outcome of that committee’s report, and shall tell the House why. [More…]
But the simple fact remains that the difficulties about constitutional reform are substantial and one can achieve them only step by step, by a process of enlightenment and, I suggest, by a process of encouragement to ensure that those who serve in State parliaments are not consumed or overwhelmed with any sense of fear, that they are convinced as to the merits of the proposal that is put before them. [More…]
However, it is the third proposal that concerns me, and I suggest that what the Government has done now is to imperil the prospect of constitutional reform by seeking to thrust this proposal onto the States in particular and the people in general. [More…]
I feel that the tragedy in this situation from the point of view of getting constitutional reform is that the Government has been impatient. [More…]
There is a cultivated resistance in Australia to constitutional reform. [More…]
They considered overall that the matter should come before the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
Amongst the things which were brought out at the Constitutional Convention and referred to the executive and the standing committees to be looked at, there are some things which will be plucked out and dealt with by the Australian Government before the ordinary machinery of the Constitution deals with them. [More…]
So that we may get the full value out of the work of the Constitutional Convention, his matter of getting our vote recorded somehow in referenda is of prime importance and should be looked at as a matter of urgency. [More…]
I find it somewhat odd, in view of the fact that this provision in the constitution is to come under very careful scrutiny by the standing committee of the Constitutional Convention, that the honourable member proposes that we should ask the Commonwealth Parliament to put before the people a referendum in advance of the decision of the constitutional committee. [More…]
It was considered that the matter should be considered by the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
I think it anticipates a decision of the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
the Prime Minister, the Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Northern Territory, the State Premiers and the Executive Committee of the Australian Constitutional Convention, be informed of the disquietude of Northern Territory citizens at their inability to take part in referenda to change the Australian Constitution; and [More…]
the Executive Committee of the Australian Constitutional Convention be requested to give priority consideration to a means of providing citizens in Australian Territories with voting rights in referenda equal to those of their compatriots in the Australian States. [More…]
He was referring to Mr Withnall, who said he considered that the matter should go before the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
We certainly could not bypass in any way the Australian Constitutional Convention. [More…]
Undoubtedly the collective wisdom which will be brought together in the executive of the Constitutional Convention should arrive at a better and more balanced decision and one which will carry more force in an Australian referendum on the subject than a decision of one parliament or one man, the Prime Minister or the Federal Parliament. [More…]
When honourable members opposite talk of constitutional reform they obviously mean that they are all for reform providing it changes nothing. [More…]
Maybe we should and maybe we should not, but before we limit the discussion of constitutional reform to what the rights of the States ought to be, surely we should debate whether we want to preserve the federal system at all. [More…]
I was interested in what was said at the Constitutional Convention and in the reference ‘by the honourable member for Stirling (Mr Viner) to Sir John Cockburn, a famous South Australian. [More…]
In my view, the question of the procedures for constitutional amendment is the most fundamental issue. [More…]
I have said this previously, and I will repeat it: It is paradoxical to find that Switzerland, the country whose procedures most resemble Australia’s - that is, an amendment passed by Parliament, by a majority of votes, in a majority of cantons and a majority overall - has had, in contrast to Australia, the greatest number of constitutional amendments. [More…]
I can only reiterate the argument I advanced at the recent Constitutional Convention. [More…]
This stems undoubtedly from the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in 1958 and 1959. [More…]
To their credit they came up with a pretty good Constitution for their time, but surely they would have been the last people to argue that the result of their combined labours was to fix a codification of constitutional law which was to remain inflexible, immutable and binding upon all generations for all time. [More…]
But I am less convinced that all Australians would seek to alter the constitutional requirement in relation to a majority of the States. [More…]
Not only would this in my mind be a more reasonable way, a more honest way, a more direct way and a more clear cut way of presenting the alternative propositions to the Australian people but also it would probably have the very real effect of giving the Australian people the opportunity of voting in favour of the measure proposing a constitutional change to give electors in the Territories the opportunity to vote at a referendum and also to express their opinion on the second proposal contained in this Bill. [More…]
It is a very odd thing that in 1973 the constitutional safeguards of the federal system should take on a new significance, but they do. [More…]
It was of concern to me that the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) should introduce into this Parliament a number of significant Bills to initiate referendums to change the Constitution at a time when local government authorities, State governments and the Federal Government are meeting together in a constitutional review convention. [More…]
Irrespective of the merits of each one of the Bills that have been submitted to us, it is important that the constitutional review convention be allowed and be seen to perform the charge which has been given to it. [More…]
I mentioned before my belief that if this Bill were to come forward it would have been better had it emanated or evolved from the discussions at the Australian Constitutional Review Convention. [More…]
But that does not mean that, when a constitutional review convention is meeting and when the States are the principal participants in that convention, they should not have been given the first opportunity to say whether they really believed that this sort of change was in their interests. [More…]
I query the degree to which in this particular area there is a need for us specifically to change the Constitution to make constitutional change easier simply by the removal of the requirement that a majority of States should support the referendum. [More…]
The other thing that concerns me is the degree to which at this stage people within the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory are denied the opportunity to speak on a constitutional matter. [More…]
Of course there are particular problems in the constitutional relationship between the citizen of a Territory and the citizen of a State. [More…]
I believe that it reflects little credit on him and his Government that he has not been prepared to participate within that Constitutional Convention in a meaningful way. [More…]
This Bill, perhaps more than any of the others, demonstrates that the Prime Minister is not particularly concerned with the Convention; nor, indeed, would I suggest that he is really concerned with constitutional change, other than the extent to which it is going to enhance the powers which he and his colleagues will exercise. [More…]
I believe that the Australian people need to take note of the degree to which that is the significant motivation which leads the Government to present this Bill to the House at this time, rather than any genuine concern about making constitutional change simpler and easier. [More…]
He said that we are now in the position where a Constitutional Convention is under way and it is bad timing to step in now. [More…]
I have no doubt that they will have a long period of time in which to learn what it is like because the citizens of Australia will become aware of the pettifoggery honourable members opposite have introduced into one of the most considerable areas of Australian activity, that is, Australia’s own constitutional exercises. [More…]
Frankly, now is the time to launch into a constitutional change. [More…]
It is one of the miracles of Australian public life, considering the fact that there are still people like that here, that 80 years ago we were able to have Constitutional Conventions and to enhance the tremendous document that is the government arrangements of Australia, as a result of the vote of the people of Australia. [More…]
It may seem to be only a drafting amendment but it has a little bit of constitutional force behind it and I think the Government might seriously consider it. [More…]
In other words, if honourable members read Quick and Garran and understand the constitutional principles and the realities of a federal and democratic system that guided the fathers of the Constitution, they must come to the conclusion that before a referendum is put to the Australian people they must be informed of exactly what is involved in the proposed change. [More…]
Secondly, as I think my colleague the honourable member for the Northern Territory (Mr Calder) would point out, the representatives of the people in the Northern Territory, and particularly the representatives of the Labor Party in the Northern Territory, believe/ that this matter should be discussed by the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
I believe that this is a matter which could easily be considered by the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
This proposal is before the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
I do not understand that anybody at the Constitutional Convention - certainly not the representatives from the 2 Territories - had proposed that the people in the 2 Territories should be denied a vote in referendums any longer than was necessary. [More…]
None of them at the Constitutional Convention demurred at the proposition that a referendum to give the people in the Territories a vote in subsequent referendums should be held at the earliest possible moment. [More…]
This proposal has not been rejected by our 2 predecessors, and it has been adopted by my Government The right honourable member for Lowe (Mr McMahon) said in rather a high flown passage that high opinions of best constitutional view is that the position should remain as it is. [More…]
Let me then quote some eminent associates of the right honourable member for Lowe and, in the constitutional context, I am proud to say, associates of mine. [More…]
In 1958 and 1959 his fellow Ministers and my colleagues on the Constitutional Review Committee recommended this change. [More…]
The present provision means - I quote the report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review: for every State in which there is an adverse vote there must be a favourable vote in two States. [More…]
A constitutional change has to be supported not only by a majority of States but by two-thirds of the States. [More…]
The honourable gentleman expressed the view that it would have been much easier for me to carry out the administration of those 2 departments if constitutional changes had been made. [More…]
I remind honourable gentlemen that the purpose of the Bill in this respect is to carry out recommendations made 15 years ago by three out of the four Liberal members, both Country Party members and all the Australian Labor Party members of the Constitutional Review [More…]
The Government in fact has no appreciation whatever of the importance of the State governments, of their constitutional powers and of their rights. [More…]
The assumption by the Commonwealth of financial responsibility for tertiary education raises obvious and very real problems in relation to the constitutional position of the States. [More…]
I ask him further to indicate whether he is prepared to go on record as saying that in the field of education this Government is prepared to recognise that the various State Governments have constitutional authority and that that authority must be protected. [More…]
Finally I ask him, as I asked him last week, whether he will outline in some detail before 8 December in what areas and to what degree the proposed constitutional powers will be exercised and what supplementary measures will be adopted if those referendum proposals are carried. [More…]
If the Senate is to continue its path of flouting the will of the duly elected Government, the Constitutional government, it has only got - [More…]
However, when one looks at it closely one realises that it is a most significant Bill carrying some high constitutional implications. [More…]
If the theory that power corrupts is correct, I would hate to see such unfettered constitutional power corrupt the worthy Minister. [More…]
However, I would like him to consider these points carefully as great care is required in the exercise of what is an awesome constitutional authority. [More…]
We propose as an Opposition, because of the awesome constitutional authority contained in the Bill and because I am concerned that the Minister’s integrity should be, and should be seen to be– [More…]
Papua New Guinea has attained self-government and is moving to independence by orderly constitutional procedures. [More…]
A major step in this constitutional advance occurred in April 1972 with the election of the present House of Assembly and the exercising of increasingly greater responsibilities since then by Papua New Guinea Ministers. [More…]
I urge the Minister to look at the question of the provision of adequate compensation as if the constitutional requirement were there for the provision of just terms and a recognition of the importance of providing an increase in value to take account of the declining value of money notwithstanding an earlier decision of the High Court taken under different conditions and at a different time. [More…]
It is, in fact, quite indefensible to propose sweeping new constitutional powers and then to commission a 2 week report to determine how those powers could be used. [More…]
I repeat that what the Government is seeking is constitutional power over prices and constitutional power over incomes. [More…]
All we are wanting is at least to give this central Goverment - the only Government that can exercise such powers - the ability to produce in Australia what the Constitutional Review Committee said some time ago was an integrated economic policy. [More…]
Of course, something must be done about prices, but it is curious that, every time a Labor Government is in power in Canberra, it finds that its constitutional powers are insufficient for it to handle the economy. [More…]
Having regard to the promise of the Minister for Minerals and Energy to table in this House those opinions establishing the constitutional validity of the Pipeline Authority Act and having regard to the enormous national significance of the measures introduced by the Minister last night, is the Minister prepared to fulfil his promise to me, if possible before the House rises for the Christmas recess? [More…]
One is from the 1958 report of the Constitutional Review Committee. [More…]
A Constitutional change has to be supported not only by a majority of States but by two-thirds of the States. [More…]
For the reasons which the Committee gave in its reports of 1958 and 1959, the Government persists with the constitutional amendment which the Committee proposed all those years ago and which this chamber carried a fortnight ago. [More…]
Rightly, the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) has confined his remarks to one clause of the Bill, clause 2 (c), which proposes that section 128 of the Australian Constitution should be altered in order to make it easier for a constitutional change to be brought about in the manner set out in proposed new section 128 of the Constitution. [More…]
I have no doubt whatsover that if honourable members read the Constitution - particularly if they read the various debates that took place prior to the Constitution being accepted and, much more importantly, if they read Quick and Garran, the recognised authority on constitutional matters - they will find that there are various reasons why we should insist on the principle of a majority of people in a majority of States supporting a referendum. [More…]
Still, Mr Withnall, a leading lawyer in the Northern Territory, found it somewhat odd, in view of the fact that this provision in the Constitution is to come under very careful scrutiny by the Standing Committee of the Constitutional Convention, that we should be asking the Commonwealth Parliament to put before the people a referendum in advance of the decision of that Convention. [More…]
He said: ‘We certainly could not by-pass in any way the Australian Constitutional Convention’. [More…]
Undoubtedly the collective wisdom which will be brought together in the executive of the Constitutional Convention should arrive at a better and more balanced decision and one which will carry more force in an Australian referendum on the subject than a decision of one Parliament or one man (the Prime Minister) or the Federal Parliament. [More…]
In other words, the Government wants to remove any sort of a block to constitutional change. [More…]
This is one of the reasons why I pointed out to the House that when there is a proposal for a constitutional change we must be certain, first of all, that the federal relationship is being maintained - unless the people who, after all, are the sovereign people of this country agree to a change - and, secondly, that the people have adequate time in which to bring their thinking to bear on the proposal. [More…]
It was put in 1958 and 1959 by a Constitutional Review Committee sponsored by Prime Minister Menzies. [More…]
This proposal is one which has been made since the Constitutional Review Committee report. [More…]
Perhaps I can conclude with this thought: This is one case where the Senate cannot prevent the people expressing their voice because if, after another 3 months, we put this Bill and the attendant Constitutional Alteration Bills through the House and the Senate again rejects them, shelves them or unacceptably amends them, then without any limitation of time the Bill can be put to the people. [More…]
As I understand the application of standing order 250 and the procedure which the Prime Minister is adopting, the Prime Minister is seeking to pre-empt any opportunity of parliamentary debate on an important constitutional matter on which the Government wishes the Australian people to vote at a Commonwealth referendum. [More…]
Is it not a fact that State parliaments already have the constitutional power to control prices but that to implement price control the State parliaments must assert their power by passing appropriate legislation? [More…]
The propositions were to alter the Constitution and those opposing my motion may argue that the choice of a national anthem does not need a constitutional alteration and, therefore, no referendum is required. [More…]
It is quite true that it does not need a constitutional alteration, but matters other than for altering the Constitution can be put to referendum. [More…]
But under the present constitutional position the States are self-governing British colonies with Governors who are agents of the British Government as well as formally representing the Queen. [More…]
But of course it comes back to the concept that Australia has a constitutional monarchy as in the United Kingdom. [More…]
Our head of state is a constitutional monarch and the national anthem is in fact an expression of goodwill by the people towards that constitutional monarch. [More…]
I do not particularly mind whether the majority of people think Australia ought to be a republic dr whether it ought to remain as a constitutional monarchy. [More…]
The Hayden scheme is the thin edge of the socialist nationalisation wedge, despite the Minister’s repeated and rather hysterical protests of constitutional impossibility. [More…]
In view of the decisive rebuff at the weekend to his request for constitutional power over prices and incomes, is he now prepared to make more intensive and more extensive use of powers already available to him to contain inflation? [More…]
I can remember that when I first came into this House back in 1951, when the House was discussing price control, it was said: ‘The Federal Government cannot do it; it does not have the constitutional power’. [More…]
If the Commonwealth did not have the constitutional power and presumably the States did, the States also have done precious little about the problem. [More…]
Let us recall that just prior to the Constitutional Convention the Prime Minister had a tea party at Kirribilli House and he told the Premiers on about 5 minutes notice that he wanted to talk to them. [More…]
In spite of the absence of constitutional power to enact the reforms as law, it is open to the Federal legislature to authorise the formation of a body for inquiry into law reform. [More…]
It is, however, the best that can be produced at this stage given the constitutional limitations and divisions that exist in Australia. [More…]
It is against this background of the constitutional position that this Hospitals and Health Services Commission must be considered. [More…]
There are constitutional barriers which would prevent the Tribunal from making determinations relating to remuneration of judges and salaries of Ministers. [More…]
Against that background one has to look at clause 9 of this Bill which seeks to invoke certain constitutional authority needs to be looked at. [More…]
That is the constitutional source of power upon which the Bill draws. [More…]
The proper way in which to look at this is to assume the constitutional validity of what is done and then to look at the full extent qf the operation of this Authority given the constitutional validity expressed in clause 9. [More…]
About that I say only this: I have grave doubts that it does validly draw upon the constitutional powers expressed in clause 9. [More…]
I venture to suggest that the quick and obvious answer is that it is a law with respect to mining and therefore it does not have any constitutional validity. [More…]
It has no lawful authority when it stands alongside the exercise of Commonwealth power, assuming, as I say, that the constitutional validity is there. [More…]
It must be understood by the whole of the industry and by the people of Australia that, given the constitutional validity of this Bill, this Authority will be put in a position of paramountcy over all the law that presently operates in Australia. [More…]
Of course, there must be some doubt as to whether the Government possesses the constitutional power to set up an authority to explore for and mine minerals and petroleum. [More…]
The Authority’s activities doubtless will be interrupted by legal contests over its constitutional validity and scope. [More…]
The intention may be honourable, but the safeguards are not there except for the ultimate constitutional guarantee of just terms. [More…]
It denies the principles of common justice and seeks to entrust to a small select group the awesome powers of Commonwealth constitutional authority and public revenue. [More…]
This was later changed to meet constitutional requirements and we propose to set that body up through this Parliament. [More…]
In his second reading speech the Minister said that the dichotomy by which the Commission would inquire into and recommend salaries as distinct from fixing them as a matter of determination is for constitutional reasons. [More…]
I am at a loss to know what are those constitutional reasons because as I recall the Constitution it provides for Ministers and members of Parliament in pretty much the same way - that is, that Ministers will be provided with salaries which, until the Parliament otherwise determines, shall be a given amount. [More…]
However I would be interested to know the basis upon which it is said that there is a constitutional difficulty about the Ministers. [More…]
That constitutional difficulty is probably fortunate because I think the provision for judges certainly ought to be before the Parliament as a piece of legislation. [More…]
In view of the disruption inflicted on those countries which have used direct controls on prices and incomes we regard Australia as fortunate in having a constitutional limitation on the powers of Federal Government to impose similar controls here. [More…]
I think we have to recognise that this is the Parliament of the Commonwealth and that those officers are carrying out an important constitutional function. [More…]
As you know, because of my constitutional duties which relate to the United Kingdom, I must, after opening our Parliament here today, return immediately to London. [More…]
However, I am particularly pleased that by opening this Australian Parliament I am able to perform personally an important constitutional duty as Queen of Australia. [More…]
It will use its constitutional powers resolutely to press its program to fulfilment. [More…]
My Government will also introduce legislation to fulfil its constitutional responsibilities with respect to banking, insurance and financial corporations. [More…]
In keeping with its constitutional responsibilities to provide hospital benefits and medical services, my Government is determined to act on a national basis to give all Australians access to high quality health careat reasonable cost. [More…]
In accordance with its declared policy my Government will assume the constitutional responsibility for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders given to the national government by referendum in 1967. [More…]
My Government will bring legislation before the Parliament early in the session to enable proposals for constitutional reforms on a series of matters to be put to the people at the same time as the forthcoming Senate elections. [More…]
In that regard I should mention that there is some spread-eagled constitutionality which could be brought together since the Commonwealth has the constitutional prerogative in regard to housing in the Territories and for such categories of people as Aborigines, students, public servants and a wider range of defence personnel than at present are covered by the Defence Service Homes Act and for certain recipients of social security benefits. [More…]
This is the piece of legislation which is subject to active and critical scrutiny by a committee of the Constitutional Review Convention. [More…]
How on earth will he secure a sensible, rational approach to constitutional reform in this country when he has such an asinine approach to it? [More…]
I saw it at a Constitutional Convention subcommittee meeting. [More…]
My regret is that the Labor Government has set back genuine constitutional reform in this country 25 years by the hamfisted approach that it is adopting to the problem. [More…]
A Constitutional Convention is in progress at this very moment and there are prospects of agreement by every major political party in a number of areas. [More…]
Bill 1974, passed on 15 November; Constitutional Alteration (Local Government Bodies) Bill 1974, passed on 15 November and Constitution Alteration (Mode of Altering The Constitution) Bill 1974, passed on 21 November. [More…]
On 4 December 1973 the Senate referred to the Senate Standing Commitee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs the Constitution Alteration (Simultaneous Elections) Bill, rejected the Constitution Alteration (Democratic Elections) Bill, rejected the Constitution Alteration (Local Government Bodies) Bill and amended the Constitution Alteration (Mode of Altering the Constitution) Bill, amendments which were rejected by this House. [More…]
The Government proposes that this Bill, along with several other proposals for constitutional amendments already submitted once to this Parliament, will be put to the people by referendum at the time of the forthcoming Senate elections. [More…]
Honourable members will recall that, during the first meeting of the Constitutional Convention in September last year, heads of delegations agreed in principle that the Constitution should be altered to allow for interchanges of powers and to remove the existing doubts about the operation of the present power. [More…]
The Bill has been settled in consultation with the Parliamentary Counsel of the States as I foreshadowed at the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
The relevant standing committee of the Australian Constitutional Convention was also given the opportunity of commenting on a draft of the Bill. [More…]
I hope that these provisions will encourage the States to refer to this Parliament powers such as family law, defamation and shipping and navigation which, in this context, have been raised at the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
If the Prime Minister claims that the Senate is obstructing him, there is constitutional power for calling a double dissolution. [More…]
The Government’s true purpose is to reduce from 4 to 3 the number of States that must support a referendum proposal for a constitutional alteration to be made. [More…]
The Constitution Alteration (Local Government Bodies) Bill seeks to take two constitutional proposals to the people for judgment. [More…]
It is not reasonable to propose fundamental constitutional amendments as being a necessary condition to do this. [More…]
This financial leverage will carry in its train, as a logical consequence, political control, yet the castrated State governments would retain the meaningless constitutional responsibilities of legal control over local government. [More…]
Not only do we seek a constitutional guarantee that State Houses of Parliament shall be directly elected by the people, but also it is proposed to guarantee the suffrage in State elections to Australian citizens on terms and conditions analogous to those operating for electors to this Parliament. [More…]
The second proposal is that electors in the A.C.T., including Jervis Bay, and the Northern Territory be given the right to vote at constitutional referendums. [More…]
All parties agree that the right to vote at constitutional referendums should be extended to citizens of the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. [More…]
As a general principle we believe that no proposals for constitutional alteration should be developed prior to the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
The Whitlam Government has effectively set back the course of constitutional amendment. [More…]
These Bills represent political expediency rather than a genuine desire to seek constitutional alteration in the national interest. [More…]
The Constitutional Alteration (Simultaneous Elections) Bill seeks to alter the Constitution to ensure that the Senate elections are held at the same time as the House of Representatives elections. [More…]
There is no constitutional constraint to the holding of simultaneous elections for both Houses of the Australian Parliament. [More…]
There is no reason to seek a constitutional amendment of this nature. [More…]
The Constitutional Alteration (Local Government Bodies) Bill seeks powers to make funds available direct to local government bodies. [More…]
But it is also a concept which is under rigorous examination by a Committee of the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
This is a set of circumstances which can be progressively rectified by a revision of the financial arrangements as between the Commonwealth and the States rather than the type of constitutional alteration proposed by the Bill before the House. [More…]
The reason for the proposed change is simply to make constitutional alterations more easily effected. [More…]
They are directed against the constitutional responsibilities of the State governments and against the concept of federalism embodied within the Australian Constitution. [More…]
This is a disgraceful procedure, and the prospects of the national Parliament ever coming to grips with the problem of constitutional reform is put off. [More…]
The people see it as the obligation and the responsibility of the Opposition to probe these Bills, to probe the arguments of the Government, to criticise, to condemn where that is necessary and to expose to the glare of public opinion and publice awareness just what the Government is about in the program of constitutional reform, as the Government calls it, represented by these 4 Bills. [More…]
Today the Government put aside all other government business so that the House might have full time for discussion of these important constitutional changes. [More…]
As one who for a long time has advocated rational change in the Constitution, as one who attended and supported the concept of the Australian Constitutional Convention - the first* since Federation - I think that this exercise in futility by the Government needs to be put into perspective. [More…]
It is an exercise which is inclined not towards constitutional change but towards denying the possibility of constitutional change. [More…]
It is an exercise which is designed only to enhance the power of this Government, to entrench it in the electorate of Australia by manipulating the electoral laws through constitutional change rather than through a meaningful examination by the Commonwealth and the States of those areas of the Constitution which might well be adapted to meet the needs of 1974 more fittingly. [More…]
Already, earlier this day, the honourable member for Moreton (Mr Killen), who is the only member of this House on the sub-committee of the Constitutional Convention examining this particular Bill, raised in this chamber the complexity involved in the original draft Bill. [More…]
So that in regard to the fifth Bill which is dealt with by this motion, the Constitutional Alternation (Inter-change of Powers) Bill 1974, we have a fairly solid body of opinion presented by the members of the Constitutional Convention at the executive level and at the sub-committee level suggesting that they do not agree with the actions of this Government. [More…]
It is no use the Prime Minister going along to a Constitutional Convention and saying there that the matter is predominantly one for the Federal Government to decide and to opt on the time when the matter is submitted to the people by way of referendum unless the Parliament is to be given some opportunity to discuss the measures. [More…]
So it tries - and this is the only way in which it can do it - to steamroll the measure through this House, thereby denying any effective democratic discussion on what are very fundamental constitutional issues to the Australian people. [More…]
I say that a Prime Minister who comes in with a constitutional Bill and makes a second reading speech such as our Prime Minister made this afternoon is virtually lying to the House and to the country. [More…]
Tonight we are considering a motion by the Leader of the House to guillotine through the House tomorrow constitutional alteration Bills that have been outlined to the Parliament. [More…]
It owes its existence to clearly stated constitutional provisions. [More…]
The argument in favour of this particular referendum proposal, which will be given to every elector, will be substantially the argument which was supported by 11 out of 12 members of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review which sat in 1956, 1957 and 1958, made an interim report in 1958, and repeated the report with fuller reasons in 1959. [More…]
He cited the instance of the United States of America where by its constitutional arrangements all elections are held in December of whatever year it might be. [More…]
This clause is put in this particular referendum Bill to ensure that every Parliament in Australia will have time to adjust itself to what will then be a contemporary constitutional electoral provision for Australia. [More…]
I put this at the Constitutional Convention in September. [More…]
At the Constitutional Convention in September I put this proposition. [More…]
My Government made it plain, as I had made it plain during the election campaign, that the Constitutional Convention would be quite futile if local government was not represented at it. [More…]
One such alteration was suggested in 1958 by the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review and, with fuller reasons, in 1959. [More…]
In 1958 the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review said: [More…]
I say with respect that I do not think this country is using his talents in the field of constitutional law as perhaps it could. [More…]
It came from the report in that year, repeated with fuller reasons the following year, of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review whose adviser was Professor Jack Richardson. [More…]
However, they have been denied a vote on constitutional amendments. [More…]
This has been my own experience from my own involvement since 1956 when I was appointed as one of the 6 Labor members of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review. [More…]
As I said before, he was the legal adviser to the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review and was the principal author of its report. [More…]
I was quoting - and I apprehend that I still have time to make the quotation - what the Constitutional Review Committee said in 1958. [More…]
I was interested to hear the Prime Minister relating chapter and verse the amount of correspondence and so on that he has had with the various State governments, the Australian Constitutional Convention, the Parliamentary Counsel and Attorneys-General. [More…]
So it is of importance that this Parliament be given time to consider a Bill of major constitutional proportions which can fundamentally change the structure of government in Australia by altering the balance of distribution of powers between the States and the Commonwealth. [More…]
When it can be seen that the traffic can operate in any sensible way only in one direction, it is obvious that the motive and the purpose of the Prime Minister in introducing this matter before the Australian Constitutional Convention last year was to provide a vehicle for State Labor governments to transfer powers to the Commonwealth and so, as I said in referring to another matter before this House, to fulfil the ambition of the present Government and to enable the Prime Minister himself to aggrandise the power of the Commonwealth at the expense of the States. [More…]
To try to exculpate the errors and ways of the Government and the Prime Minister by referring to correspondence with the State governments and by referring to the consideration of this Bill by a committee of the Australian Constitutional Convention in no way relieves this Parliament of its obligation and its duty to consider fully and amply the implications of this Bill. [More…]
I mention that not by way of dull complaint but merely to put on the record the approach of the Government to constitutional review. [More…]
It shows a curious, almost a mischievous, almost a reckless approach to the whole problem of constitutional reform. [More…]
It was in Sydney when the Prime Minister of this country tendered a reception for the delegates to the Australian Constitutional Convention. [More…]
The Bill has been settled in consultation with the Parliamentary Counsel of the States as I foreshadowed at the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
The relevant standing committee of the Australian Constitutional Convention was also given the opportunity of commenting on a draft of the Bill. [More…]
That all words after ‘That’ be omitted with a view to inserting the following words in place thereof: the Bill be deferred until after consideration has been given to its proposals by all State governments and by the Australian Constitutional Convention’. [More…]
This is the proposal presently before the Standing Committee of the Australian Constitutional Convention. [More…]
I come back to the words of Sir William McKell: If there is to be any prospect for genuine constitutional review in this country, there must be co-operation between the Commonwealth and the States. [More…]
I listened intently, waiting for a contribution on what is the defect in the Australian constitutional law today that this measure is trying to overcome, and I heard not one useful suggestion put forward by him. [More…]
This measure seeks to introduce some flexibility into Australian constitutional reform. [More…]
But some of the futures which the Constitution has and which are accepted by any writer on the subject are rigidity and legalism, and no one familiar with the Australian constitutional system would deny that these are the most outstanding features of our Constitution. [More…]
It honours a promise made by the Prime Minister at the Constitutional Convention that convened in Sydney in September last year. [More…]
This measure is honouring an undertaking that the Prime Minister gave at the opening session of the Constitutional Convention in September last year. [More…]
Mr Deputy Speaker, I was giving details of the various steps that have been taken to consult with the States on this matter through their representatives on the Constitutional Convention Committee. [More…]
On 20 November a letter was received from Mr Punch, the Minister for Works in New South Wales and chairman of Committee B of the Constitutional Convention, asking for copies of the Bill for consideration by the Committee as soon as possible. [More…]
Once anyone is heard to say anything at all against a proposal for constitutional change it invariably fails. [More…]
With the rate of change that is occurring in the world today, constitutional change must keep up. [More…]
The proposal has been put to Mr Punch at the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
All the reasons for not referring matters which have been put forward in the past such as suggestions referring to the weakness of the present constitutional system and the fact that the States are concerned about referring powers to the Commonwealth because they might not be able to get them back or to attach conditions to them, precedent or subsequent, surely are nonsense. [More…]
Let honourable members opposite pick up any book on constitutional law written by any learned writer anywhere in Australia in the last 40 to 50 years such as those written by Sir John Latham. [More…]
I hold strongly to the view that this matter of constitutional change is far too important a matter to be left to lawyers. [More…]
Let us add a new dimension to constitutional change, beyond the High Court and the referendum process which has proved so difficult. [More…]
Let us set up a system whereby people from the States and from the Australian Government can sit down together and negotiate the constitutional changes that are so badly needed’. [More…]
The 3 arguments of the Minister for Secondary Industry were: Firstly, that as a result of consultation with the States, this fifth of the guillotined constitutional amendment Bills has been presented to this Parliament for urgent passage so that the Australian people can take a vote. [More…]
This particular consultation with the States, of course, was set out in a recitation of events beginning with the arbitrary dictate by the Prime Minister (Mr Whitiam) at the opening of the Constitutional Convention of a range of matters which he said were going to be presented to the Australian people by way of referenda, irrespective of the Convention and the deliberations that were going to take place and irrespective of the concern of the States. [More…]
The Minister’s second argument was that the Constitutional Convention supported the presentation of this Bill. [More…]
It is true that the Convention supported the general concept that there should be a reference of powers and a change to this part of section 51 of the Constitution as to the way by which there could be a reference of powers but I would query quite seriously whether the Constitutional Convention, either at its opening session or in any other way, has given support to the measure before this Parliament. [More…]
The Constitutional Convention expressed general support for the introduction of a measure to permit the interchange of powers. [More…]
I believe it has no chance of passage when the Constitutional Convention, either through the committee which was charged with the responsibility of inquiring into its terms or through the executive which was charged with the passage of procedures of the Convention from time to time until the next plenary session, has not given its support to it. [More…]
I think the very fact that it is hastening its passage through this Parliament and the fact that it is not prepared to listen to the Constitutional Convention or to the arguments of those committee members who have been examining the measure in detail or to consider the measures that have been advanced by the States indicate that the Government is not really concerned with the passage of the Bill but rather is concerned to get a package that it can present at a Senate election - a package which, I submit, is designed to confuse the electorate. [More…]
The first is a letter by the Honourable Leon Punch, Chairman of Standing Committee B of the Australian Constitutional Convention. [More…]
They believe that this could best be achieved by having the proposal first considered at a full meeting of the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
There is no doubt that the States through the expression of the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Constitutional Convention and through the expression of their own concern at the urgent passage of this legislation are now casting reservations on the measure. [More…]
What this House must do, and I hope what the Constitutional Convention will do, is determine where the political responsibilities should lie and what constitutional powers should be allocated to deal with these responsibilities. [More…]
Apparently it is proposed that the constitutional alteration proposed in this legislation should be put with 4 other referenda at the Senate election which presumably will be held in May. [More…]
He knows that this matter was considered at a meeting of Standing Committee B of the Constitutional Convention in Sydney two or three weeks ago. [More…]
This matter has been talked about at length in various circles, including the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
Having said that and, I believe, responding in a responsible fashion to what the Leader of the House has just said - we seek to claim no political credit for the malfunction which has taken place - I want to go on record as saying that, despite the precedent to which the honourable gentleman referred, this situation is really a little different because it concerns 4 major constitutional Bills which the Government has put before this Parliament as Bills of fundamental importance which it intends to take to a Senate election. [More…]
Mr Speaker, as you would appreciate from the high office you hold in this Parliament, constitutional Bills are important. [More…]
I have no doubt that when the people of this country are required, as they may well be, to cast a vote on these constitutional amendments they will take note of the manner in which the Government has forced the legislation through the House, or sought to do so, but was so unable to direct the proceedings of the House that it could not front up to a debate at the required time. [More…]
I make it clear that the Opposition parties intend to ensure that the Parliament performs its constitutional and democratic functions. [More…]
My Government will also introduce legislation to fulfil its constitutional responsibilities with respect to banking, insurance and financial corporations. [More…]
The name will change to National Party when constitutional changes in both Party platforms have been approved. [More…]
To see the greatest nation on earth caught in the throes of constitutional and leadership crises is tragic, and it can happen here as easily as it has happened there because the reason for Watergate, the reason for the whole American turmoil, is the unbridled chase for power. [More…]
Our second move in the direction of putting local government on the constitutional map was to seek to give local government representation on the Loan Council. [More…]
The 5 questions obviously concern constitutional amendments for they deal with a Constitution which is more than 70 years old. [More…]
That is settled constitutional practice and it was the case in this instance. [More…]
As the constitutional monarch, the Queen presents the Speech for the Govern.ment. [More…]
that he cannot name one constitutional authority to support the view that in the last election he received any mandate in the way that he expresses it. [More…]
He cannot quote one constitutional authority to support the interpretation that the Government is entitled to have all its Bills passed and the policies contained in its policy speech agreed to. [More…]
He really is interested only in cutting some sort of international figure and, of course, his dignity allows him to deal domestically only with the great constitutional questions - not that that endeavour has been marked with much success. [More…]
There are very few ways in which one can devise an ideal constitutional system. [More…]
I should like to make a few brief references now to constitutional proposals for the future. [More…]
It will be very interesting to see the attitudes which are expressed and to see whether the Opposition parties are as vigorous in their opposition to this measure as they appear to be in their opposition to all the other constitutional changes that the Government has proposed. [More…]
As a matter of self-preservation, they will try to oppose these great measures which will bring our electoral laws to the point where they are democratic and constitutionally correct. [More…]
The Government brought in a Bill which would implement the unanimous proposals of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in 1958 and 1959. [More…]
If there are any disputes as to the application of this constitutional provision the High Court will be able to determine such disputes because any elector or any person who claims to be an elector will have the right to approach the High Court. [More…]
The Deputy Chairman of the Papua New Guinea Constitutional Planning Committee recently announced in the House of Assembly a revised timetable for the presentation of the Committee’s report. [More…]
He ignored the constitutional right of the Government of Queensland and he seemed to pay little heed to the nature of the requests made by the politicians in Papua New Guinea. [More…]
He was acting unconstitutionally. [More…]
I know that technical education falls within the constitutional or administrative responsibility of the States. [More…]
Last year when the Government announced its plans for the Pipeline Authority I invited the Minister for Minerals and Energy (Mr Connor) to tell me whether he was concerned by the references to the constitutional validity of the Pipeline Authority Act of 1973. [More…]
Through the constitutional referendum moves which this Government advocates it is seeking to usurp the sovereignty of the States. [More…]
At the same meeting the Liberals decided to oppose any move to change the Australian national anthem from ‘God Save the Queen’ because the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Snedden, explained to Pressmen after the meeting any move to change the anthem amounted to a move away from the ‘present constitutional structure’. [More…]
Such unity is far more important than any constitutional powers. [More…]
As Britain has recently found out, the possession of constitutional powers over prices and incomes is pointless without national consensus. [More…]
The Labor Party does get up to every kind of constitutional trick. [More…]
I have just tried to show to the House what the rather queer unforseen constitutional consequences of this could be. [More…]
Sometimes when he is putting forward in this artless way the possibility that for some other motive he might have the elections postponed until 29 June - this is what he said himself - one looks to the possible constitutional consequences. [More…]
Now that I have exposed the constitutional possibilities which are inherent in this situation it may be that even the Prime Minister would not be brazen enough to take this course. [More…]
There is another possibility, and on this I have some constitutional doubts. [More…]
I am not absolutely certain of the constitutional position here. [More…]
The proposals which are being made about the Senate in this referendum are substantially those which were made in 1958 by the Constitutional Review Committee appointed under Sir Robert Menzies as Prime Minister and composed of equal numbers of people from both sides of politics from both Houses in this Parliament. [More…]
I am particularly resentful that this should be done in regard to constitutional issues when we cannot put our point of view across to the Australian people. [More…]
This is an important matter because a constitutional matter is before the Australian people and the Australian people are entitled to have the points of view of the Opposition. [More…]
We have seen this suppression of expression right through the whole debate dealing with these constitutional questions. [More…]
The guillotine means that there is only a limited amount of time allowed for the discussion of each of these constitutional questions and the ludicrous amount of time that the Government allowed for discussion was half an hour on the second reading stages of the Bills, plus about IS minutes on the Committee stages. [More…]
Apparently the Government is hoping that in the ignorance of the Australian people, these constitutional changes might be made so that greater power will be in the hands of the central government and so that the Labor Government might entrench itself in office by a gigantic manipulation of the electoral laws, a gerrymander such as we have never seen before in this country. [More…]
Accordingly, if the Executive Government of any State, to use the constitutional term, proposes or desires to pay a bounty, say, on phosphate fertilisers, it can ask for the approval of the 2 Federal Houses to such legislation by the State parliament. [More…]
The Premier of Queensland was not informed because relations between Australia and other countries are completely the constitutional prerogative, the exclusive prerogative, of the Government of Australia. [More…]
I think that apart from the general aid that we provide for Papua New Guinea, meaningful financial assistance can be provided specifically in this field, in order to ensure that both countries understand their ocean resources and that both countries can utilise them in terms of the exercise of their own sovereign responsibilities - that which is about to be exercised as a result of the passage of this Bill and that which is still exercised and will continue to be exercised by Australian governments in the exercise of their residual fishing responsibility within our own constitutional responsibility and within our own territorial waters and proclaimed waters. [More…]
The Prime Minister is now desperately trying to extricate himself from the constitutional and political crisis he has created by attempting to appoint Senator Gair Ambassador to Ireland. [More…]
It has been expressed in committees of the Parliament - the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review- and on many occasions in the House itself. [More…]
That is a point of view which I have stressed in the Constitutional Review Committee which sat in 1956, 1957, 1958 and 1959. [More…]
I do not have the documents with me, but honourable gentlemen will remember the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention last September. [More…]
But more relevantly, on Friday, 22 March I attended a meeting - I chaired a meeting - of Committee A of the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
From all these proceedings - the minutes of these meetings, the agenda and the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention - it was quite clear that all the Premiers wished the Constitution Alteration (Interchange of Powers) Bill to be put to the people at the next Federal election. [More…]
The Prime Minister spoke of a meeting of Committee A of the Constitutional Convention which he said was attended by Mr Hamer, Mr Thompson, Mr Willis and Senator Greenwood and that that was on 22 March. [More…]
The point of my reference to the Constitutional Convention Committee A on Friday 22 March was that following the rejection by the Senate of the Constitution Alteration (Inter-change of Powers) Bill I reported to the other representatives from the State Parliaments that it would not now be possible for the Australian Government to put to the people at the forthcoming Federal election the Bill which last September at the Constitutional Convention and at the various meetings in between of draftsmen and Attorneys-General it had been agreed that the Australian Government should put to the people. [More…]
On that Friday, 22 March I pointed out that we would not now be able to proceed with that particular constitutional reform for which we had all been preparing. [More…]
When the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) speaks on this matter - of course it includes Western Australia - he often refers to the conclusions of the Constitutional Review Committee as contained in its 1959 report. [More…]
The constitutional provisions relating to an electoral redistribution are set out, in section 25 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act, which states: (1.) [More…]
Clearly the Government has a constitutional responsibility to provide for a redistribution in Western Australia prior to the next election, which we anticipate will be held on 18 May. [More…]
Within the framework of the existing electoral law Western Australia has been validly given its constitutional right to a tenth seat. [More…]
denied that constitutional right; it must have the tenth seat. [More…]
It is tragic that for the first time in the constitutional history of Australia there should be a necessity for the very severe action to be taken by us, in opposition here, and with our colleagues in the other place, to oppose an Appropriation Bill. [More…]
When one analyses this Bill even only quickly, once the constitutional implications are fully understood, one realises that it has been aptly described as a piece of diabolical legislation. [More…]
It is no wonder that the Minister for Minerals and Energy has never attempted to counter any of the arguments of the kind that I have just put forward or any of the arguments that have been put forward by other people, more expert than I in the field of mineral exploration and development, and more expert than I in constitutional matters. [More…]
It is not fully settled constitutional practice. [More…]
The point is that no constitutional authority will give support to such a doctrine as the mandate. [More…]
To quote constitutional convention appropriate to the House of Lords - a hereditary House of great honour and distinction but whose powers have been obviously and properly curtailed because it is a hereditary House - and to suggest that it is appropriate to Australia is to deal with a different set of circumstances. [More…]
It is unusual because it means that the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General - both senior legal men and both men who one would hope have some reasonable understanding of the law and constitutional practice - were prepared to condone the continued occupancy in the upper chamber of the Australian Parliament of a seat by a man who they now contend at the time of his occupying that seat was occupying an office of profit under the Crown. [More…]
By their acceptance and recognition of bis continued presence in the upper chamber they are culpable to the extent to which they sought to distort the accepted constitutional practice in order to gain control of the upper House of this Parliament and sought to defeat a constitutionally valid step taken by the Premier of a sovereign State. [More…]
The first was the Prime Minister stating in this chamber that he was not aware that the Attorney-General disagreed with his assertion relative to the timing and the manner by which the constitutional change should take place. [More…]
The Prime Minister quoted a Constitutional Committee A meeting which he attended. [More…]
This particular constitutional change certainly was discussed at the Constitutional Convention but I, as a member of Constitutional Committee C, attended a meeting in Melbourne on 15 March at which the Victorian Attorney-General, Mr Wilcox, said that he and his Government did not accord with the Prime Minister’s interpretation of their acceptance of the terms of this referendum. [More…]
New South Wales, and Mr Knox, the AttorneyGeneral for Queensland, have similarly disagreed with the Prime Minister’s assertion that they are all in accord with this constitutional amendment Bill. [More…]
Constitutional lawyers are indignant at the type of unprecedented action by which they seek to emerge. [More…]
I say to him that he stands in illustrous Liberal company because Sir Robert Menzies - the founder of the Liberal Party, the great white father and the highly respected former Prime Minister of this country who today writes articles in relation to constitutional reform - stands beside him in his attitude on this matter. [More…]
1 ask the Australian people to follow the line set down on constitutional issues by Sir Robert Menzies and others. [More…]
The way in which it will achieve centralism is not by the proper and correct course of conducting a constitutional referendum which would have as its purpose the elimination of the State governments or the sub- stantial diminution of their powers. [More…]
It is not reasonable to propose fundamental constitutional amendments as being a necessary condition to do this. [More…]
Is it a fact that due to the defeat of the prices referendum last year the constitutional power presently available to the Australian Government would not enable the effective enforcement of a price freeze? [More…]
I also mention that I attended a meeting of the Australian Constitutional Convention from 3 September to 7 September 1973, at which the Premiers of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia were present. [More…]
The Australian Government will in future take responsibility for constructing and maintaining a national roads system in those areas which fall within the Government’s own constitutional responsibility. [More…]
The Government will continue to improve the health care of Australians in keeping with its constitutional responsibilities to provide hospital benefits and medical services. [More…]
For over 3 years he and I served together on the Constitutional Review Committee. [More…]
Here, after a double dissolution, we are facing a unique constitutional situation with the probability of a joint sitting of the Houses for the first time in the history of this Parliament. [More…]
I might also remind honourable members that a one-tenth variation from the quota was recommended by the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in 1959. [More…]
The Constitutional position with regard to the power vested in this Parliament to provide representation for the 2 Territories as proposed by this Bill is clear. [More…]
With regard to the term of office proposed by the Bill for Territory senators, I would remind honourable members that 16 years ago the Constitutional Review Committee, upon which all parties were represented, recommended that there should be an election for half the senators every time there is a general election for the House of Representatives. [More…]
It is presented for a third time to meet the constitutional requirements for it to become law following the recent double dissolution of Parliament. [More…]
The whole purpose of this section, as one will see if one reads the Constitutional Convention debates of the 1890s, was that as a territory assumed new responsibilities and a new status it entered the Federation on a different basis. [More…]
The safeguards are not there, except the ultimate constitutional guarantee of ‘just terms’. [More…]
I do not know whether the constitutional forms have in this case been properly observed. [More…]
The Government, handicapped as it is by lack of adequate constitutional powers to combat inflation, is nevertheless determined to continue the fight with all vigour, with the aid of the instruments at its disposal. [More…]
The constitutional power of the Australian Parliament to enact legislation such as that contained in the Bill was clarified by the very important decision of the High Court in what is known as the Concrete Pipes case. [More…]
The Government believes that, notwithstanding the constitutional difficulties that may arise in determining the limits of jurisdiction of the new Court, the advantages to be derived from establishing a Federal court of unlimited jurisdiction are far greater than the disadvantages. [More…]
However, the answer to the essential question whether there should be a court created by the Australian Parliament under its constitutional power to deal authoritatively on an Australia-wide basis with questions of Federal law cannot be determined by reference to the prestige and status of State Supreme Courts. [More…]
Nevertheless, the original justification remains valid, notwithstanding that there may now be no particular burden of original jurisdiction, other than in constitutional matters. [More…]
The High Court will be left free to continue its great work as a constitutional and appeals court. [More…]
To continue those courts until then avoids any constitutional problem that might attend upon the abolition of a court created by the Parliament while there are still judges of that court. [More…]
It is clear that Greek officers in command of the Cypriot National Guard ousted the constitutional Government of Cyprus. [More…]
He is the head of the constitutional Government of the country. [More…]
The measure represents a major step forward in the constitutional development of the Northern Territory in conformity with Labor policy announced prior to the 1972 elections. [More…]
Anybody who knows anything about constitutional practice and precedent - the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) is a Queen’s Counsel, after all - knows that mandates are not a part of our electoral or democratic system. [More…]
If it has no constitutional powers, it has its organic links with the ACTU, and surely in the Labor movement generally and in the Australian Labor Party that means something. [More…]
Legal advice indicates that constitutional authority exists to support Australian Government construction of many, if not most, of the roads to be included in this scheme. [More…]
This Council, notwithstanding its expressed dissatisfaction with the extent of constitutional changes discussed in the recent conference between delegates nf this Council and Federal Ministers, asks the [More…]
Commonwealth Government to make a firm offer of the changes in form of the Government for the Northern Territory it is now proposed to make and of any other progressive proposals to which it is prepared to commit itself for future constitutional development. [More…]
The suggestion that the Northern Territory should have two 3-year senators in my judgment does not compensate in any way for the slowness in achieving a form of constitutional advancement for the Northern Territory. [More…]
The first of these was entitled ‘Road Safety: A National Authority, The Constitutional Position, Statistical Needs’. [More…]
The constitutional power of the Government in regard to these matters has been well established by the SolicitorGeneral of the time, who is now among us here in a different capacity as the honourable member for Wentworth (Mr Ellicott). [More…]
I would like the Minister to tell us whether he has sought a constitutional opinion - whether the way in which this land is being appropriated is in fact within the Constitution of the Commonwealth. [More…]
The Commonwealth of Australia does have constitutional power to legislate in respect of the off-shore, and we will assert that power through the Territorial Sea and Contitnental Shelf Bill’. [More…]
Of course, it will be recalled that immediately he made that assertion I interjected and that he then retreated and said that the High Court will be deciding whether it is constitutional. [More…]
Because the Bill that we now have before us relies on the very existence of sovereignty the constitutional validity of which the present High Court challenge will determine, its introduction is premature. [More…]
I said that, although Professor Hogan concluded that there was no alternative to a revision of policies towards financial intermediaries, he was constrained in reaching his conclusions in this regard by the constitutional difficulties which limited the Commonwealth prior to the Concrete Pipes case. [More…]
While Professor Hogan concluded that there was no alternative to a revision of policies towards financial intermediaries he was constrained, in his conclusions in this regard, by the constitutional difficulties which limited the Commonwealth prior to the concrete pipes case. [More…]
For the reasons I have given this is unmistakably the most important change in a constitutional sense not only to ensure control of the Executive by the Parliament as an essential ingredient of representative government but also to prevent abuse of Executive powers and to practise the policy of open and honest government with Parliament acting as the means by which the public is informed and protected. [More…]
It was also an important vehicle for the development of constitutional law in this field and beyond it. [More…]
The implementation of the existing law was impeded for a long time by constitutional challenge. [More…]
Honourable members will recall the Tasmanian breweries case, the concrete pipes case and the Mikasa case, each of which was won by the Government of the day and each of which represented a vital step forward in establishing the constitutional validity of the legislation. [More…]
Many industry groups have given up their price agreements following investigation and discussion with my office, and the tempo has increased as the constitutional position has improved and as experience of agreements and their operation has grown. [More…]
A sober consideration of this law throws up a spectacle of long hearings, lengthy pre-trial investigations, uncertainty on the part of business as to its provisions, procedural delays, long complex judgments and heavy constitutional challenge. [More…]
However, if he sues under State law the trader will have a constitutional defence. [More…]
The defence will be that the State law is inconsistent with the Federal law and so the consumer will be plunged into constitutional challenge. [More…]
In other words, we are adding confusion to confusion - not only the confusion of having State laws which operate in this area but also the confusion into which a consumer will be plunged because he will be faced by a multiplicity of cases of constitutional challenge. [More…]
So this Bill deprives consumers, because of the constitutional position in the Commonwealth, of the right to what is a very important and significant development in the law in relation to consumers, namely, consumer claim tribunals. [More…]
Constitutional cases which arise in this court can be transferred or removed to the High Court by the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth. [More…]
In the first place, it would provide for 2 systems which, quite frankly, are explicable in terms only by an expert on constitutional law. [More…]
As a matter of constitutional law, Federal jurisdiction does not necessarily arise when the case starts; Federal jurisdiction may arise when the case is half way through. [More…]
There is the very difficult constitutional problem as to whether Federal courts can exercise original Territory jurisdiction. [More…]
I have mentioned those matters because they only indicate that there are constitutional problems with this court as well. [More…]
Sir Owen Dixon in 1935 in criticising the constitutional concept of Federal jurisdiction said: [More…]
Constitutional questions should be dealt with in State courts unless they are of such significance that they should be removed into the High Court, and this can be done under provisions which ought to be inserted in the Judiciary Act by way of amendment. [More…]
In the Constitutional Convention we in this Parliament have an opportunity to work with the States to set up a system of courts in Australia which will enforce all law, State and Federal. [More…]
It is the opinion of the writer that section 51 (xx) of the Constitution will provide the requisite constitutional power so to do. [More…]
I mention too, and I believe this to be a critically important consideration, that at the time we were considering the charter, the Bill relating to the Australian Industry Development Corporation, we were conscious of the fact that there was limited constitutional jurisdiction. [More…]
Having looked at the changes that are now recommended in the Bill now before the House, the 1974 Bill, I believe that the same constitutional question will arise. [More…]
I have my doubts whether all the provisions of the clauses will stand up to a constitutional examination and a test to determine whether they are legitimate or ultra vires the Constitution. [More…]
Before discussing the points I have already raised I should like to refer to the proceedings of the 1973 Australian Constitutional Convention. [More…]
I suppose the Convention was of considerable significance and of tremendous importance to those who were seeking some constitutional progress in the Northern Territory. [More…]
the more the Territory is constitutionally developed, the less likely is that the Commonwealth will be able to retain it. [More…]
Mr Ward has incorporated in the record of the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention the preliminary submission of the Legislative Council for the Northern Territory. [More…]
Preliminary Submission (o the Australian Constitutional Convention [More…]
Each of these categories requires different constitutional support. [More…]
There are no constitutional guarantees applying to the territory. [More…]
Even allowing for other constitutional changes in respect of territories, section 81 needs reviewing if the present Northern Territory legislature is to use and control local revenue raising powers. [More…]
I am sure that the people of the Territory, particularly those who are to take part in the proposed election and who will perhaps sit on the first fully elected constitutional body in the Territory, are anxiously waiting for clarification from the Minister. [More…]
The only real steps in advancing the constitutional independence of the Territory were provided by our Government. [More…]
I was a member of a sub-committee of the Australian Constitutional Convention which visited the Northern Territory earlier this year to examine the constitutional implications of moves by the Northern Territory towards selfgovernment and possibly eventually towards statehood. [More…]
Before the luncheon suspension of the sitting the honourable member for Kennedy (Mr Katter) referred to a request made by Mr Ward when speaking to the Constitutional Convention on behalf of the Legislative Council of the Northern Territory. [More…]
In his submission to the Constitutional Convention Mr Ward said: [More…]
The honourable member for Kennedy raised the question whether the members of the Administrator’s Council would constitute the Executive in the future Northern Territory constitutional development. [More…]
I asked them about their priorities in the constitutional field. [More…]
They did not believe it was right that the present members should be the ones to negotiate the constitutional reform in the Northern Territory from the point of view of the electors of the Northern Territory. [More…]
Let me deal with the point made by the honourable member for the Northern Territory that the Government has produced nothing in the way of constitutional reform for the Northern Territory. [More…]
Yet the elected members of the Legislative Council, who represent the people of the Northern Territory, put that as their number one priority for constitutional reform in the Northern Territory. [More…]
This is not new in constitutional reform in Australia or anywhere in the world, for that matter, which has had this problem. [More…]
But, as honourable members will be aware, such penalties do not exist in the legislation because of the grave doubt that exists about the Australian Government’s constitutional power to require adherence to the Tribunal’s decisions. [More…]
Having opposed not only the local government referendum but also having opposed in this House the constitutional referendum Bills which would only enable us to ask the people- [More…]
Would he elaborate on his attitude towards the Australian Constitutional Monarchy and the position of the Crown in it. [More…]
On the dissolution of the 28th Parliament the Australian delegation to the Constitutional Convention lapsed. [More…]
That the House of ‘Representatives affirms the decision taken by resolution of the House on 31 May 1973 that the Australian Parliament join with the Parliaments of the States in the Constitutional Convention to be convened to review the Australian Constitution in September of that year, and at such subsequent times as the Convention from time to time determined, and agrees: [More…]
However, at subsequent meetings of the committees of the Convention the feeling has been expressed by those who are participating that they would like to see the conclusions of the Constitutional Convention presented to the people.They consider that in that way there might be some prospect of their success. [More…]
The constitutional provision under which the Act is set up establishes conciliation before arbitration. [More…]
This provision is very far reaching in the history of Australia in that it changes the constitutional responsibility of the different governments and reduces the ability of an elector to vote for a specific policy put forward at a State election, for such a policy can be negated by the deliberations of the Federal Minister for Transport or, as the Bills provide, even by a Commonwealth public servant. [More…]
There is a blatant attempt to ignore the constitutional responsibilities of the different governments and to place even minor administrative decisions on all road matters in the hands of the public servants of Canberra - good though they may be. [More…]
Redrafting is required urgently for the Bills violate State constitutional authority force substantial increases in State motor taxation reduce effective expenditures on roads ensure chaotic delays in road programs threaten to penalise States for possible actions by local authorities and place power to veto elected State government decisions in hands of Commonwealth public servants. [More…]
The election was caused by a gross abuse of the theory of constitutional government, a violent breach of constitutional practice. [More…]
There is simply no parallel between a Minister for Transport or his delegate granting a single voyage permit for a ship to sail up the coast and, as under this Bill, a Minister for Transport giving power to a delegate to override the authorities of other constitutional governments, either State or local. [More…]
There is no need for constitutional change to allow grants to local authorities. [More…]
It is, accordingly, an occasion of great constitutional significance in the history of this Parliament. [More…]
What we are now proposing- this reduction in the permissible variation between electorateswas first proposed 15 years ago by the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review established by Sir Robert Menzies in 1956. [More…]
That Committee- that all party Committee on Constitutional Reviewunanimously recommended exactly the measure that we are now putting forward, briefly at the end of 1958, and with full reasons at the end of 1 959. [More…]
This is the objective of the legislation now before this Parliament- to implement by law a proposal endorsed by the distinguished Committee of both Houses and all parties as a constitutional amendment 15 years ago. [More…]
We are resolved not to let legislation go through the House of Representatives and the Senate which we believe is bad in principle and which would detract from the constitutional principles of parliamentary democracy. [More…]
The Labor Party put forward a constitutional proposal which would have torpedoed any consideration of the principle of one vote one value. [More…]
The Constitutional Review Committee has been referred to. [More…]
The fact is that the Constitutional Review Committee ignored all professional advice. [More…]
The Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) lays great emphasis on the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review. [More…]
Not to do so would be to deny constitutional representative government in Australia and to set up a dictatorship in a House which is not based on that form of representation. [More…]
That is what the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review has described as a gerrymander. [More…]
The Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, the Supreme Court of the United States and the Federal Council of the Liberal Party of Australia, though that is not exactly a good recommendation, support equality of representation as well. [More…]
The Prime Minister quoted a section from the 1959 report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review but I believe that it needs to be said again. [More…]
So it was assumed that, consistent with the constitutional requirement, there would be equality of value of votes cast in elections for this Parliament. [More…]
Professional advice to the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review was that we need 20 per cent variation. [More…]
He would wish to be able to denigrate the Senate in carrying out its constitutional function which has just been reinforced by the people of Australia in a fully democratic vote. [More…]
In the Report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review he is reported in this way: [More…]
The measure which was debated earlier today by this Joint Sitting began in the minds of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, which was established by Prime Minister Menzies as long ago as 1958. [More…]
He is now turning to a device which will increase the number of honourable senators so that he will not have to rely on the normal constitutional process which has been with us since 1901, and although the number of honourable senators has been increased relying on section 7 of the Constitution and on the concept of the Senate as a States House, the Government has seen fit to enlarge the Senate not for the purpose of giving greater voice to the Territories of the Commonwealth but rather to give itself perpetual control of that place. [More…]
For instance, in 1957 the Select Committee on Constitutional Reform appointed by the Northern Territory Legislative Council included in its report a recommendation for Senate representation. [More…]
I recall that when the Senate debated this matter our Party in that place moved an amendment to have it referred to a committee for examination, particularly as to its constitutional standing and legality. [More…]
Either Government supporters are interested in the constitutional standing of their Government’s legislation or they are interested only in their own rhetoric. [More…]
These Bills therefore not only are called into question on constitutional grounds but also are substantially against the will of the people as expressed at 2 referenda. [More…]
Furthermore, on constitutional grounds the Senate was created on the basis of equality, originally with 6 senators for each of the States and then the number was lifted to ten. [More…]
Since when has a mere Act of this Parliament sought to put asunder and to disturb the entire constitutional structure of this country? [More…]
If the law of this country is to deteriorate into such a state that the entire constitutional structure can be broken down- chiselled here, modified here- by a mere wilful Act of Parliament, then the people of Australia will find themselves in a very sorry, desperate state of affairs. [More…]
In no way do I under-estimate the needs of constitutional advancement in the Northern Territory and in the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]
I am fully aware of the efforts that my friend and colleague, the honourable member for the Northern Territory (Mr Calder) has made to achieve constitutional advancement for the Northern Territory and Senate representation for that Territory. [More…]
It was largely due to the pressures applied by the honourable member for the Northern Territory and the elected members of the Northern Territory Legislative Council that the former Liberal Party-Country Party Government made a firm offer to the Northern Territory towards constitutional advancement and executive power. [More…]
In other words, it washed its hands of those proposals and has given that Joint Committee a charter to investigate a form of constitutional advancement for the Northern Territory. [More…]
It has pre-empted the constitutional review which is currently going on and in which both the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory are involved. [More…]
It is purely a political stunt that could well slow down the constitutional advancement of both the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]
Other speakers have pointed out that it makes a complete mockery of the Senate as a States House and there are all sorts of doubts as to its constitutional validity. [More…]
As the honourable member for Moreton (Mr Killen) said it shatters the constitutional framework of this country. [More…]
Some are: The Bill is not constitutional; it is doubtful whether the founding fathers intended that the people of the Territories should have representation; and the Territories are already over-represented. [More…]
There, in plain language, is the constitutional legitimacy for this measure. [More…]
We should seek to erect a constitutional edifice which shall be a guarantee of liberty and union for all time to come to the whole people of this continent and the adjacent islands. [More…]
I think it is for us, as members of Parliament, to remind ourselves that we are passing a day or two in resolving constitutional conflicts while outside in the nation those who are working are doing so under great tribulation. [More…]
While the Senate has constitutional authority and I have power to persuade in the country, I will use my vote in the Senate to establish the right of the people who voted for me. [More…]
But so far from contenting himself with a basis upon which to hold by-elections, which is the appropriate constitutional provision for the Senate, he provides also that every time the resignation of a Territorial senator is procured a by-election shall be held. [More…]
What sort of arguments have we heard today from some of the constitutional sages from the other side of the Parliament? [More…]
I thought the Government went to the people to seek a mandate for a constitutional reform at the last election to bring the House of Representatives and Senate elections always together compulsorily. [More…]
It must know that there are grave doubts as to the constitutionality of these Territorial representatives. [More…]
On the contrary I believe that the right course for this Government and this Parliament to follow is to take this matter to the Constitutional Conventions between the Commonwealth, the States and local government, to invite Territorial representatives to those conventions, and to have protracted discussion on the future nature and structure of the Territories, their movement into full statehood and their representation in this Parliament. [More…]
The Senate itself is performing its constitutional function. [More…]
I urge that these measures be put aside, that they be taken to the Constitutional Convention, that second thoughts be given to them so that we can move these Territories into full Statehood and real and proper recognition. [More…]
I could be marginally out in these figures, but I believe that at the 2 Constitutional Conventions the Labor movement had one representative out of 135. [More…]
That government introduced the Bill before it found out whether it was constitutionally possible. [More…]
We had the charade of having to have a constitutional amendment after we had actually enacted the BUI. [More…]
There was found to be no constitutional validity for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Acts of 1944 and 1945 of the Labor Government. [More…]
In 1947 we had a constitutional amendment. [More…]
It was one of the few constitutional amendments carried by the Australian people. [More…]
It was carried because it was put by both sides of the Australian Parliament to the people, as has any constitutional amendment which has been successful. [More…]
I wonder at the constitutional opportunities in the future for our High Court to deal with the implementation of the scheme as we are seeing it unfolding in this place. [More…]
The legislation in relation to the States onshore minerals stands on the basic constitutional powers of the Australian Parliament to regulate overseas trade and interstate trade, and also, at appropriate times, the general powers for the defence of Australia. [More…]
The Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) promised several weeks ago to table the advice that he and his Attorney-General (Senator Murphy) gave to the Governor-General that this Bill had failed to pass the Senate or had been rejected by it within the constitutional provisions. [More…]
As I have said in this Par.liament and will keep repeating for as long as that assertion about the Government having a mandate to do certain things is made: There is not one constitutional authority to which the Government can point- the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) is a Queen’s Counsel- who will maintain the mandate doctrine in our system of government. [More…]
I believe analysis shows, even if it should be that this BUI proves to be constitutional- that is a matter for the courts to decide, not for anyone to say what he thinks will happen- that it gives practically uncontrolled power to the proposed Authority and to the Minister and the Government and provides for practically no parliamentary oversight. [More…]
I think it is admitted by you all through another body engaged in this exercise that there is some doubt about the constitutional base. [More…]
Obviously he is the man with all the executive power while the Prime Minister is nothing more than a constitutional mark. [More…]
There have been constitutional challenges- they were necessary- and, may I remind the Minister, they were undertaken by the previous Government. [More…]
If it had not been for the fact that the previous Government persisted with the validity of that legislation and made it the basis of the Resale Price Maintenance Act, this Government would now be floundering in a constitutional bog instead of being in a position where it can go ahead with the feeling that this legislation has a great deal of constitutional validity behind it. [More…]
the ongoing function of dealing with constitutional and related aspects of the advancement of Papua New Guinea to independence for which the Papua New Guinea Office was set up from 1 December 1973; [More…]
However, the matter is so serious and in some ways the margins have been so great that the Government considers that it is justified in attempting to see whether an effective system of price regulation may be based on the constitutional powers that the Government has in relation to imports. [More…]
The need for 5 separate Acts arises from a constitutional requirement that laws imposing taxes should deal with one subject of taxation only. [More…]
I have pointed out that he has no constitutional right to do that, and I trust that he will not use any of this legislation as an argument against the government of Queensland. [More…]
This Government, of course, has been accused by the Constitutional Planning Committee of Papua New Guinea of forcing the pace of independence. [More…]
It is interesting that the Constitutional Planning Committee should accuse the Government of that, because it is described in the terminology of Papua New Guinea as a radical body, but it has felt that this Government has forced the pace somewhat. [More…]
It seems to me to be totally wrong both to deny the constitutional provisions of this country and to seek to act unilaterally, to find that you are bashing your head against a brick wall because the State Government of Queensland is vested with the right of an exercise of power in this area and to do little or nothing about this matter so soon before independence. [More…]
I put in the caveat tonight by indicating that the Constitutional Planning Committee itself was somewhat concerned last year about the pace that is being forced by the Commonwealth Government. [More…]
That phrase was used in the interim report last year of the Constitutional Planning Committee. [More…]
I am somewhat troubled by the way in which special committees in Papua New Guinea, particularly the Constitutional Planning Committee, have criticised that movement. [More…]
We do not want to see major constitutional issue develop concerning our relationship with Papua New Guinea in this matter. [More…]
Guinea Government, the Constitutional Planning Committee and the House of Assembly. [More…]
That may be the constitutional view which is takenthat if a register is to be set up it has to become the subject of legislation. [More…]
The report itself spends a lot of time in dealing with the constitutional constraints. [More…]
There is no constitutional obstacle to the Tribunal having power to determine salaries for these people but it is desirable for the sake of consistency that they should be considered by the Tribunal in conjunction with judges. [More…]
We recognise the difference between Commonwealth and State constitutional responsibilities and honourable members opposite do not. [More…]
1 ) Did he say in his television broadcast to the nation in support of the referenda proposals that it was the recommendation of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in 1959 that a variation of 10 percent above or below the average number of electors in the electoral divisions in a State was sufficient. [More…]
Will he familiarise himself with the matters set out on page 49 of the Report from the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, 1959, so that in making speeches on electoral changes a balanced view is put. [More…]
The honourable member can ascertain my views from my speeches on 8 November 1973,5 March 1974 and 6 August 1974 (Hansard, pp3055-3056, pp44-45 and pp4-6 respectively) and from the many speeches I have made over the years in an effort to have the Menzies, Holt, Gorton and McMahon governments carry out the unanimous recommendation of the all party Joint Committee on Constitutional Review (1956-59), of which I was a member. [More…]
The State Parliaments are still, in constitutional terms, British colonies. [More…]
The Corporation will have the initial funds of $25m and it will help home seekers who come within the Australian Government’s constitutional responsibilities. [More…]
The concept of a national conference is about as relevant to the control of inflation as a constitutional convention. [More…]
In truth he operates from a position of great constitutional weakness. [More…]
It was not a popular tax and, being a consumption tax, it was widely thought that it might be deemed to be a sales tax or an excise and hence not constitutional for the State to collect. [More…]
I suppose I can claim the credit, such as there is for it, for being one of those who converted the attitude of this Parliament on education from one of nonconstitutionality into a total acceptance of our national responsibility in education. [More…]
I can recall the distinguished predecessor of honourable members opposite, the Right Honourable Sir Robert Menzies, telling us that the Commonwealth had no constitutional authority in the field of education. [More…]
The report recommended the creation of a national authority on road safety and it commented on the constitutional position and statistical needs in the road safety field. [More…]
We also hear from the Opposition comments about what we should be doing about inflation, but when it had the opportunity to provide the constitutional authority for the Government to come to grips with prices and incomes it supported the opposition. [More…]
In putting many proposals for action by Government in the past, the trade union movement has repeatedly come up against the assertion of lack of constitutional po wers. [More…]
In the early part of this year, after 18 months of the Labor Government’s being in office and taking correct economic decisions, revaluing the Australian dollar, cutting tariffs, increasing imports, supplementing our own lagging domestic production, to try to beat prices, holding referendums on price control and on wages control and having them defeated, using every constitutional power available in this Parliament to this Government in the economic arena, introducing legislation for which we were given a mandate in 1972 and religiously carrying out the document that the Prime Minister read in his policy speech, the Opposition parties forced this Government to an election. [More…]
I have mentioned the constitutional difficulties. [More…]
A constitutional difficulty might be involved at the outset in relation to clause 4, which seeks to amend section 132 of the principal Act. [More…]
I have been advised that the wide amendment then- I am referring to the part of this amendment which relates to trade unions and not the extension of that part to employer organisations- which virtually made it possible for anyone to be enrolled as a member of a trade union so long as he was involved in the industry, was so wide that it was clearly unconstitutional. [More…]
I suppose that that limitation is in the hope that it will therefore bring the provision within our constitutional power. [More…]
The judgment of Mr Justice Fullager in the Hursey case some years ago, which is also partly quoted in the Sweeney report, might seem to indicate that clause 8, which seeks to amend section 139, could be of some doubtful constitutional validity. [More…]
I think that, in a sense, this is a fake provision because the judgment of Mr Justice Fullager would seem to indicate that no State law could modify a law passed properly by this Parliament and in accordance with this Parliament’s constitutional provisions. [More…]
From the opinions that have been given I should think that there will be very great doubts about whether that provision is constitutional. [More…]
That probably indicates only that there are going to be almost certainly constitutional challenges to this provision if it becomes law, which is all the more reason perhaps for having some agreement between the parties that the proposed law is in the best interests of all the parties concerned. [More…]
The honourable member for Wannon has referred to the constitutional problems which may arise, and it is important that those who have to operate the legislation have before them the legislation of the States which must be passed complementary to this Bill. [More…]
There is some doubt about the constitutional validity of the Bill. [More…]
So in answer to the interjection I cannot say that the clause will resolve any constitutional defect. [More…]
It may be that the Minister has a reason for taking out the words; it may be that he could not press this amendment to the Act, but I do suggest to him that because of the history of the constitutional interpretation of the industrial power those words are tremendously important and to omit them could lead to the invalidity of section 136 and therefore of a very significant section. [More…]
We can then have the High Court constitutional challenge after all that is done. [More…]
This has immediate practical consequences in a situation where 2 federal organisations have concurrent constitutional coverage over the same class of workers thereby enabling each organisation in its own right to apply for an award in respect of those workers. [More…]
I would not think that any union would agree to such a contention because in a situation where 2 unions have concurrent constitutional coverage over the same calling of workers or within the same industry each is entitled to obtain an award in respect of its own members. [More…]
Of course the honourable member for Wannon raised the old question about the constitutional power. [More…]
The first is by the extent of what is called their constitutional coverage. [More…]
What the Federal organisation which is trying to withstand the takeover bid by another Federal organisation does is to use its State union as the vehicle for preventing a takeover, the reason being that the State union already has constitutional coverage through its membership rules or award coverage by an award issued out of the State jurisdiction. [More…]
They want to see unions go on strike because there remains to them no other way of settling matters constitutionally. [More…]
The members of the Opposition do not want a constitutional solution to the problems because they feel that they gain some political capital out of having an inadequate law that can produce an industrial situation from which they can obtain some benefit. [More…]
Before his appointment to the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1958 he had had an extensive appellate practice before the High Court of Australia and the Privy Council, representing the Australian Government and various State governments in many important constitutional cases, including the uniform tax case in 1957. [More…]
He was formerly a lecturer in Australian constitutional law at the University of Sydney. [More…]
But it would seem there is also a possible constitutional barrier in the way of introducing negative income tax. [More…]
Accordingly, the advice I have is that there may be a very big and a very real barrier: There may be a constitutional barrier. [More…]
He was there as a former Prime Minister and constitutional authority. [More…]
In my view, and I believe in the view of the great majority of the Australian people, there is no better way of doing that than by having a system with a constitutional monarch as the head of state, as we presently have. [More…]
The other matter to which I should like to refer is this: The constitutional power to abolish the common law right appears to be open to considerable doubt. [More…]
It seems that this is beyond the constitutional power of the Commonwealth. [More…]
On present indications, it would only be after that that the constitutional question would be determined. [More…]
In the meantime while the constitutional question is under review claims will be made by people saying that they have a common law right. [More…]
When the constitutional question is decided and if it is against the Government, those claims would be viable. [More…]
If the scheme is to proceed on the basis of the elimination of that right it is on very shaky constitutional grounds. [More…]
The constitutional problem must be solved first either by obtaining co-operation from the States, something which this Government seems to be incapable of doing, or by having the constitutional question determined before the scheme comes into operation and before the insurance industry is dismantled as was done by the arrangement over the Marriage Act in the early 1960s. [More…]
It is perfectly true that a government is entitled to go right to the perimeter of constitutional power with respect to its legislation, and I do not quarrel with that. [More…]
I think the matter will be referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
I also agree with the honourable member for Wentworth on the proposition that if the elimination of common law rights is not upheld constitutionally as being one of the powers of this Parliament, then the whole Bill has little point to it. [More…]
I assume that the honourable member for Wentworth, who was at one time Solicitor-General, is correct in his assumption that the constitutional problem can be referred to the High Court of Australia before the provisions of the Bill are implemented and somebody is forced to take action. [More…]
I agree with the honourable member for Wentworth that it is a great pity that we do not set up this sort of committee consisting of members of this House, because there is no terribly good reason why the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs should be the only one that gets involved with the actual details of this legislation. [More…]
The honourable member for Wentworth (Mr Ellicott) spoke of the constitutional difficulties of this legislation. [More…]
I am worried that this piece of legislation will become the subject of a constitutional confrontation with the States. [More…]
Let me say right at the outset that the Government considers that this Bill should be referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. [More…]
Some mention has been made of the constitutional position of the Government on this matter. [More…]
I should think it would be proper to accept the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs as an appropriate committee to look at this matter. [More…]
It is not enough to leave it to the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs to look into the Bill, as the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) suggested. [More…]
There could be a constitutional challenge to the legal position, but is that not all the more reason to pass this Bill so that a challenge can be made? [More…]
It has been pointed out in this place that there is some constitutional doubt as to the validity of this Bill and that if the High Court decides that the Bill does not abolish common law rights and clauses 92 and so on of the Bill are therefore invalid, very grave consequences will occur to the Australian economy. [More…]
Those for whom the Australian Government have constitutional responsibilities will have a rare opportunity to own their own homes. [More…]
The corporation will cater for all persons who come within the Government’s constitutional responsibility, that is, the people who work for the Government, defence personnel and so on. [More…]
The Government proposes to introduce as soon as possible legislation to establish an Australian Housing Corporation to undertake all of those housing functions for which the Australian Government has constitutional power. [More…]
I will be having talks with him as soon as possible, probably next week, depending on whether the Constitutional Convention meets. [More…]
So, there is a very important role for this Department to play, namely, to act on behalf of the Australian Government, quite unapologetically and using all the constitutional powers which the Australian Government has in relation to imports and so on, to make sure that no projects are allowed to go ahead, no matter who is backing them and no matter whose money is involved, unless proper precautions have been taken. [More…]
This Government seeks to give effect to its policies of greater social justice, more expenditure of money on education and increased spending on welfare and social services, within the constitutional framework. [More…]
The Australian people on numerous occasions since have rejected constitutional changes. [More…]
The Australian Government wishes to lift the role of local government to its rightful level as a full partner in our constitutional system. [More…]
On 25 October the Minister wrote to me and said, that the Crown Solicitor’s Office had advised his Department that an inquiry into a State registered fund, such as the ‘Noongah* fund, may present constitutional difficulties. [More…]
As I said, the Minister advised me by letter that the Crown Solicitor’s office had advised his Department that an inquiry into a State registered fund such as the ,A’……….k’ fund may present constitutional difficulties. [More…]
Secondly, the letter to me from the Minister said that there would be constitutional problems in determining what payments had been made into or out of the fund. [More…]
Presumably those constitutional problems would be enduring problems and would therefore prevent the Minister discovering what payments had been made into or out of that fund. [More…]
On his own admission he said that there are constitutional problems in finding out what payments were made into the fund or out of the fund. [More…]
Of all the members of the House and of all the members of the Senate not in government the honourable gentleman is one who would be only too well aware that in the course of this year the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly has been occupied- some may say preoccupied- with the report of the Constitutional Planning Committee which was set up by the honourable member. [More…]
The Government has made no statement about its constitutional authority to purchase the land at Glebe. [More…]
Nor has there been an official pronouncement about the proposed acquisition of the Leyland land for the simple reason, I suspect, that the Commonwealth Government has no constitutional power to purchase either of those pieces of land. [More…]
I simply make the point that in that instance the Government bought the land without constitutional authority and that it is now advertising for people to be employed at a very high salary to run, maintain and manage the land. [More…]
We believe that the Australian Government is taking these actions without the constitutional authority to do so. [More…]
Unless an agreed system of revenue sharing on a fixed proportional basis is adopted, State governments will be placed in an impossible position; that is, they will have the responsibility for exercising clearly defined constitutional responsibilities without the necessary resources. [More…]
Financial arrangements between the Commonwealth and the States to provide adequate and assured sources of revenue with which to carry out their constitutional responsibilities, such sources to provide the States with substantial income under their own control. [More…]
The Banking Bill has four main purposes.The first purpose is to take full advantage of the constitutional powers of the Australian Government in relation to exchange control regulation of the financial aspects of overseas transactions. [More…]
(3) As the right honourable member is aware the Government proposes to introduce legislation in the current sittings of Parliament to establish an Australian Housing Corporation which will be empowered to cater for homeseekers within the Australian Government’s constitutional responsibilities. [More…]
I know the view has been held that the Australian Government lacks the constitutional power to invoke these recommendations of the Tariff Board. [More…]
In doing this it proposes to take full advantage of the constitutional powers of the Government to regulate overseas financial transactions. [More…]
Under this legislation the Government will be seeking to exercise its complete constitutional power over overseas transactions. [More…]
The first purpose is to take full advantage of the constitutional powers of the Australian Government in relation to exchange control regulation of the financial aspects of overseas transactions. [More…]
If the Labor Government tries to dominate the Queensland Government and tries to take away from a constitutionally elected State government its constitutional rights then, of course, the Federal Government cannot expect to get co-operation. [More…]
New South Wales, therefore, is the only State where there is any constitutional limitation on the term of office of a parliament. [More…]
The British Parliament, from which the State parliaments derive, has no constitutional limitation on the term for which it can last. [More…]
What is being done now by the Liberal Government in Victoria may be unconscionable or even monstrous, but it is perfectly constitutional. [More…]
I regret to inform the honourable gentlemen that the State parliaments, except that of New South Wales, can extend their lives for as long as they like and that there is no constitutional limitation on their capacity to malapportion or gerrymander the electorates constituting each State Parliament. [More…]
Constitutional development is a step by step forward movement and the next step in this process in the Territory is the granting of some executive responsibility to the Legislative Assembly. [More…]
This Bill is a machinery measure designed to meet legal and constitutional requirements associated with the Government’s financial transactions and accounting arrangements. [More…]
Thirdly, the requirement will be extended to encompass proposals which involve the constitutional power of the Australian Government. [More…]
These extensions merely use Australian Government constitutional powers which, because of the indifference of earlier government to environmental issues, were never applied. [More…]
There is an urgent need for the Commonwealth Government to recognise our traditional constitutional responsibilities and act accordingly to ensure that the resource of people and material is not wasted as at present. [More…]
We believe that this Government is not the slightest bit concerned about the niceties of proper constitutional behaviour. [More…]
Perhaps he could tell us when he sums up today what constitutional power the Government had to buy the Glebe lands. [More…]
I would suspect that the Leyland purchase is not constitutional. [More…]
Will you, as the custodian of the Standing Orders, give consideration to having them changed to allow members to enjoy their constitutional right not to engage in religious activities if they so wish? [More…]
As regards clause 16(2) I have already stated that because of the constitutional requirements this is a machinery amendment moved by the Opposition. [More…]
Its introduction was preceded by a detailed consideration of the law and administration of divorce, custody and family matters by the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, to which the topic was referred for consideration as long ago as December 1971. [More…]
The emergence of Sir Robert from that debate was of course one of the illuminating features, one of the great features, of constitutional history. [More…]
Australia’s foreign relations should today be considered not merely in terms of the legal and constitutional framework of sovereignty and statehood, law making and war making, but rather as a product of the complex interplay of international, transnational and domestic influences. [More…]
The Constitutional Planning Committee in Papua New Guinea last year said that. [More…]
But nothing has been done because the Prime Minister ignored the constitutional fact and the legal aspect that the Government of Queensland must be consulted as any State must be consulted if its border is to be changed. [More…]
But it has done nothing to implement the alleged aspirations of the southern Papuan people or to meet the Queensland Government which had every constitutional right to defend itself against the unilateral action proposed by the Prime Minister. [More…]
I think it was only this morning that the House of Assembly in Papua New Guinea was discussing one of the chapters of the Constitutional Planning Committee’s Report which also deals with defence. [More…]
-The Loan Bill 1974 is described by the Treasurer (Mr Crean) as a machinery measure designed to meet legal and constitutional requirements associated with the Government’s financial transactions and accounting arrangements. [More…]
At the same time he might tell us whether or not the action of the Government is constitutional. [More…]
Not to do so would be to deny constitutional representative government in Australia and to set up a dictatorship in a House which is not based on that form of representation. [More…]
I understand that the honourable member for Wentworth (Mr Ellicott) will deal with some of the constitutional factors that arise from the Bill and the honourable member for Parramatta (Mr Ruddock) will deal with the powers of rangers, etc. [More…]
The difficulty is that the only Federal Minister with any constitutional power in this field is not even a member of the Council. [More…]
It would appear that the constitutional powers relied upon to enable the Australian Government to achieve its objectives in this Bill are to be found in clauses 5 and 6. [More…]
However, I will leave matters relating to the constitutional aspects of this legislation to my colleague, the honourable member for Went.worth (Mr Ellicott) [More…]
However, uncertainty as to the extent of constitutional power should never of itself be a reason for opposing an otherwise worthwhile legislative exercise of power; nor should it prevent a government, properly advised, treading where angels of constitutional probity have formerly feared to tread. [More…]
The High Court, as we know, will readily give us the answer- not that the present measure lacks a degree of constitutional support. [More…]
To some students of constitutional law that may seem at first strange, but of course in the books there is some support for the view that because on Federation there was created a nation, out of that nation there springs implied power to do certain things. [More…]
Be that as it may, it is against this constitutional background, one assumes, that the Bill has been drafted. [More…]
Clearly enough the draftsman has cast his net as widely as possible and the result may be that the constitutional right of the national Parliament to participate in the field of nature conservation, both within the Territories and the States, will be substantiated. [More…]
I do not believe it is a desirable constitutional practice to implement conventions by regulation which have never been sighted by this Parliament. [More…]
There is no mention of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in the Bill, despite the fact that the report from the Joint Committee on the Northern Territory on the Constitutional Development in the Northern Territory states that there should be an official sharing of the remaining functions. [More…]
The report from the Joint Committee on the Northern Territory on Constitutional Development in the Northern Territory recommended that only one Minister should deal with the Legislative Assembly. [More…]
Indeed it is questionable whether there is constitutional provision to entitle the Government to make regulations in this regard. [More…]
whether the Commonwealth has either the constitutional right or the heed to be concerned about the environmental effects of projects financed from borrowings by the States or its instrumentalities as the result of an agreement on total borrowings at the Loan Council meeting. [More…]
There is no doubt that the Commonwealth has the constitutional right to insist on environmental satisfaction with respect to works- [More…]
There seems to be no disagreement that the Commonwealth Government is justified in seeking environmental satisfaction with regard to all projects for which it has some constitutional right to seek that satisfaction. [More…]
Broadly the Australian Government will be concerned with Australian Government projects where Australian Government funds are involved and where the Australian Government has undisputed constitutional powers. [More…]
The Bill’s provisions will apply to proposals which are being developed by Australian Government departments or instrumentalities and to situations where Australian Government money is involved or where Australia ‘s constitutional power is involved. [More…]
It is envisaged that proposals which could have a significant effect on the environment and which involve the Australian Government specifically or by use of grant moneys, or specified loan funds or projects which involve the constitutional powers of the Australian Governmentsuch as the woodchip industry and mining activities- will need to be examined before export licences are granted. [More…]
The States will not give up easily their constitutional responsibilities for soil control. [More…]
In opposing these Bills we are conscious of the constitutional possibilities our opposition raises. [More…]
We have checked our scheme with former experts in the Taxation Office, with constitutional lawyers, with State governments, with the professions and with the private hospitals, and although most of these people have slight criticisms and suggestions about our health scheme they are in fundamental agreement with it. [More…]
The Commonwealth Government has the Constitutional power to provide medical and hospital services for pensioners, and with it the responsibility to make a significant contribution towards the hospital care of pensioners. [More…]
They forced an election by violating an established accepted constitutional principle. [More…]
Every financial weapon, every constitutional power at our disposal has been used in our fight against inflation and unemployment. [More…]
In his statement the Prime Minister said: ‘Every financial weapon, every constitutional power at our disposal has been used in our fight against inflation and unemployment.’ [More…]
Papua and New Guinea Bill 1971- Papua New Guinea- Constitutional Development- Ministerial Statement- Motion to take note of paper. [More…]
Perhaps I should take the opportunity of saying that conservative forces in New South Wales are proposing to make another onslaught on the constitutional and political proprieties in this country. [More…]
In view of the fact that so many Darwin people are transient or are out of Darwin at the moment, the whole terms of reference given to the parliamentary Committee with respect to executive power and other important matters dealing with constitutional reform may have to be looked at again. [More…]
The Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) rants about constitutional proprieties. [More…]
It gives effect to the principle recommended by the all party Joint Parliamentary Committees on Constitutional Review in 1958 and 1959 that the terms of senators should be changed from fixed terms of 6 years to 2 terms ofthe House of Representatives so that the elections for both Houses of our Parliament would take place simultaneously. [More…]
That was the view of all but one member of the Joint Committees on Constitutional Review. [More…]
The constitutional amendment now proposed will give senators a term of service equal to 2 terms of the House of Representatives. [More…]
The Government would hope that on this occasion the Opposition will treat this Bill with the objectivity that marked the consideration of this difficult problem in the Joint Committees on Constitutional Review during the 1950s. [More…]
Before the Constitutional Review Committees recommended this reform there had only been 3 occasions on which an election had been held for one House alone- for the House of Representatives in 1929 and 1954 and for the Senate in 1953. [More…]
There is only one way in which simultaneous elections of the Senate and the House of Representatives can be assured at all times and that is by the constitutional amendment that is proposed in this Bill. [More…]
Appeals from the High Court in constitutional and other federal matters have been abolished. [More…]
Appeals from all State courts in constitutional and federal matters have been abolished. [More…]
Any dispute between the Federal Government and a State government or any dispute between any of the State governments in constitutional matters has to go to the High [More…]
The High Court was not confined, as is the Supreme Court of the United States of America, to federal or constitutional cases. [More…]
I have since had discussions with the United Kingdom Prime Minister and have decided that the best course to resolve these issues is to reintroduce the Bill, which I have now done, and to give every opportunity for questions as to its validity to be raised in the High Court of Australia, in accordance with proper constitutional processes. [More…]
I wish to speak on a most important constitutional issue, namely, the filling of casual vacancies that have occurred in the Senate. [More…]
I think it is of absolutely vital constitutional importance to distinguish between the case where a vacancy in the Senate occurs through the voluntary action of a senator and the case where it occurs through illness or death. [More…]
In 1956 Sir Robert Menzies, as he now is, established a constitutional review committee. [More…]
The Committee desired to recommmend a constitutional amendment whereby, if the senator for a State whose place has become vacant was a member of a political party, the Parliament of the State or the Governor of the State should be required, in filling the vacancy, to choose a person who was a member of the same political party as the vacating senator . [More…]
The Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Senator James McClelland, summarised the situation succinctly when he said at a meeting of the Committee on 11 September 1974: [More…]
The report of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs merely records that 2 of its members- Senator Durack and Senator Chaney- dissented from the majority recommendation on the grounds that one year is an inadequate period. [More…]
-The Minister for Tourism and Recreation (Mr Stewart) mentioned during his speech that at a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs held in Melbourne in September last year the Chairman of that Committee, Senator James McClelland, described this Bill as a ‘radical departure from previous matrimonial causes legislation’. [More…]
I look forward to this significant initiative being emulated by State Governments in respect of proposals outside the constitutional power of the Australian Parliament [More…]
The Australian Government is, as you are aware, committed to the principle of optimum public participation in discussions on environmental aspects of those projects in respect of which it has constitutional responsibilities. [More…]
It was the objective of the Opposition to flout every constitutional precedent that had been laid down so that it could grab the reins of government in this country, with complete disregard for what the people of Australia had decided before. [More…]
there is no question that what we call constitutional law is only half law and half philosophy, political philosophy, and therefore it, more than any other branch of law, changes according to the philosophical current in the minds of the people from time to time. [More…]
A lawyer of ability who has had some parliamentary experience and preferably, in addition, some ministerial experience is likely to have an especially realistic feel for the issues arising in constitutional cases. [More…]
The Australian Government does not have complete constitutional power to perform all housing functions, but it does have substantial powers. [More…]
In addition, so far as it can within its resources, the Corporation will make housing loans available to families, using the family allowance provisions in the Austraiian Constitution, and it will also make loans to those other specific categories of home-seekers for whom the Australian Government has a constitutional responsibility. [More…]
The attempt to cover marital relations from the time of marriage to divorce may meet constitutional objections. [More…]
It will not be possible for constitutional reasons to appoint to the Federal family court the type of judge regarded as ideal for State family courts by section 41 of the Bill, namely, those who cannot hold office beyond the age of sixty-five. [More…]
The importance of doing this will be more apparent when one bears in mind the constitutional problems which the Bill raises and to which I have already referred. [More…]
So much, Mr Speaker, for the constitutional and jurisdictional matters. [More…]
The Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) during the course of his prime ministership has sought to establish a reputation in the country as a constitutional reformer. [More…]
I do not seek to adjudicate on whether or not that record has been well founded but I would say that I do share with him an anxiety to see proper constitutional reform. [More…]
Indeed, some 18 months ago there were gathered in the city of Sydney representatives from every Parliament in Australia at a Constitutional Convention, when people sought to consider what were the deficiencies within the Australian Constitution having regard to the times in which we live. [More…]
To my astonishment the Prime Minister persisted and put to the Australian people 4 referendums in areas into which the various constitutional subcommittees were already locking. [More…]
Having said that, let me say that I would express the view that the Prime Minister’s anxiety to go about constitutional reform and the manner in which he has sought to prosecute what I regard as being strongly held convictions have been in the ultimate resulted in setting back genuine constitutional reform in this country by 20 to 25 years. [More…]
May I invite my friend the Attorney-General (Mr Enderby) to agree with me that we have our priorities with respect to constitutional reform dead wrong? [More…]
The proposal was one described by the authors of the Bill as Constitutional Alteration (Simultaneous Elections). [More…]
But to fail to acknowledge that the Senate has a character quite different from this is to ignore one of the facts of constitutional life. [More…]
Even my eloquent and learned friend, the honourable member for Moreton (Mr Killen), whom I usually listen to with great interest when he speaks on matters of law, and I hope I learn something from him, on this occasion disillusioned me, because even he, with his eloquence and with his knowledge of the Constitution and of constitutional law, could not show me a good reason why elections ought to be held on separate days, why one half of the Parliament ought to be treated differently from the other half. [More…]
That renders a fundamental alteration in constitutional terms of the system of government upon which our Constitution is based because our Constitution is based on the convention of the Westminster system whereby the House of Representatives may be dissolved at any time by the Governor-General, as the delegate of the Queen, upon the advice of the government of the day. [More…]
That constitutional convention is written into our Constitution by the operation of sections 5 and 28 of the Constitution. [More…]
That would bring about a fundamental change in the constitutional framework of this country. [More…]
If that be so, why does the Government- the Prime Minister in particular because he is the one who seems to be so anxious to bring forward these matters of constitutional reform- not at the same time seek to amend section 57 of the Constitution, which contains the double dissolution provisions? [More…]
I would not have thought that any parliament would want a Constitution which becomes something of a patchwork quilt of constitutional provisions, and this is what would happen if a proposal such as this altering just one part of the Constitution was not followed by complementary and necessary alterations to other parts of the Constitution. [More…]
I think it can be fairly said- this has been recognised by constitutional lawyers, politicians, and commentators on government- that the Australian Constitution is an extremely well written document. [More…]
If the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) is so fond of relying on the statements and actions of Sir Robert Menzies in justifying his own constitutional statements and the constitutional position that he so frequently adopts these days, let him do what Sir Robert Menzies did in 1955. [More…]
I am just extremely disappointed that a Prime Minister who professes such a commitment to responsible and reasonable constitutional change and reform should have concentrated his energies on the sorts of provisos for constitutional and electoral reform that his Government has sought over the past 2 years. [More…]
Professor Sawyer of the Australian National University has said that, in constitutional terms, Australia is the frozen continent. [More…]
No government can carry out its policies while the Opposition persists in this type of opposition to change- to ordered change, to constitutional change, to change that is designed to make the system work. [More…]
I do not seek to attack it in any shape or form other than to observe that it produces in terms of the United Kingdom and in terms of this country the most profound and far reaching of political and constitutional changes. [More…]
Government is of the opinion that this power should be exercised so as to make the High Court the final arbiter in all matters of Federal jurisdiction, that is to say, constitutional questions, matters arising under Commonwealth laws and the various other matters which the Constitution has, in sections 75 and 76, specifically recognised as being appropriate matters to be brought in the High Court. [More…]
… On all general questions, including even some questions of a constitutional nature having a general import … it must be recognised how much the tribunal has of late years done, and is daily doing, to stabilise and harmonise the fundamental law of the Empire, to find and enforce the basic principles of jurisprudence on which modern civilisation rests, and to assist the development of free institutions in the constitutional units of the British Commonwealth of Nations. [More…]
In his ‘Federal Story’ he recounted the events in London in 1900 when efforts were made to have the Commonwealth Constitution forward appeals to the Privy Council in constitutional cases. [More…]
The report suggested, however, that in some constitutional cases emanating from the States there might still be a case for appeals to the Privy Council. [More…]
But as the Privy Council showed in the decade or so before appeals in all Commonwealth constitutional cases were stopped, it often preferred to follow judgments of the High Court. [More…]
How could the position be otherwise when British judges, who have often found it difficult to follow the intricacies of Australian constitutional law, are faced with legal issues based on a system of government which is far from being a mirror of their own? [More…]
Although not openly recognising factors like these, even in the area of private law, as with Australian constitutional law before the abolition of Federal appeals, the Privy Council has begun to show signs of deferring to decisions of the High Court. [More…]
It is, as Lord Jowitt described it, ‘a Statute of stupendous constitutional importance’. [More…]
If it should develop such a conception of its obligations to the Dominions, a new means of overcoming constitutional restrictions would then be open to the Commonwealth. [More…]
Both sides of this House accepted the concept of a constitutional convention. [More…]
We were then in government, but it was under this Labor Government that the Constitutional Convention was initiated. [More…]
For that reason we strongly supported and still support the concept of constitutional change by a constitutional convention. [More…]
The prediction by the then Governor-General, Sir Paul Hasluck, that the Constitutional Convention might result in a monumental flop regrettably and tragically has come to pass as the product of this Labor Government being prepared to assert its interpretation of what should be the changes in the Constitution without reference to the Australian people and without their consent. [More…]
For that reason, I am concerned at the degree to which the Constitution itself is being avoided and the Statute of Westminister pursued in order to seek that constitutional change. [More…]
I believe that it is true that, within the Constitution, we should take cognisance of placitum (xxxvii) of section 51, being the reference of powers placitum, and section 128, that being the other manner within which there can be constitutional change within the Constitution, and determine the degree to which we see that as the fundamental basis by which the Constitution should be changed. [More…]
The Constitutional Convention did not suggest that those forms were unexceptional even to the present Government. [More…]
If this Government wished to introduce the High Court as being the ultimate court of appeal it was open for it to achieve that end through consultation and co-operation within that Constitutional Convention. [More…]
Finally he talked about the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
Those of us who have looked at the constitutional situationit does not really become relevant hereknow that when the Privy Council used to consider section 92 cases it openly confessed: ‘What do we know about section 92. [More…]
As distinct from the steps which have been employed to bring about- so that the Government hopes- the abolition of appeals from State courts to the Privy Council, the process which the Government has employed on this occasion is correct and constitutional. [More…]
Included in the constitutional history of Australia is not only the Act of the Imperial Parliament which became our Constitution but also the document known as the Statute of Westminster. [More…]
I suggest that it does violence to our constitutional history and to our understanding of the circumstances which produced the Statute of Westminster and, most importantly of aU, it does violence to the very thing that the Government has so often tried to assert since it came to government- to try to alter the Australian Constitution by any method other than that described in that document. [More…]
Yet we have the Constitution of Australia, which again he is so fond of using as authority for his stand on the constitutional proposition that he so often propounds before this Parliament, giving to this Parliament supremacy in respect of appeals to the Privy Council from the High Court; but it deliberately does not give that same supremacy in respect of appeals to the Privy Council from the State Supreme Courts. [More…]
Legality is the source of constitutional authority, and whilst the Government can find a source of constitutional authority for the Bill that we are now debating it is on dubious ground indeed to find a source of constitutional authority in seeking to abolish appeals from State Supreme Courts to the Privy Council. [More…]
Too often this House leaves constitutional matters to be debated by the other House of this Parliament and in other places outside this Parliament. [More…]
I also enter this debate because I feel that, having regard to what has been written in the Press, what has been said privately and what has been said in another place, much has been left to be desired with regard to the constitutional perspective with which this whole question must be approached. [More…]
It is not simply the constitutional practice, because that does not pay due regard to the principle; but the constitutional requirement is that the GovernorGeneral, being the delegate of the Queen, Will act on the advice of the executive government of the country. [More…]
Whatever I think of that is a private opinion; whatever any member of this House or the other place thinks about that appointment is a private opinion; and so I say nothing about that private opinion because I do not think it is appropriate to the vital constitutional question which we must aU ask ourselves. [More…]
In respect of the filling of the casual vacancy, again I do not express any personal opinion, because I do not think that is relevant to the constitutional propriety of what the Government of New South Wales proposes to do. [More…]
The important aspect about this provision is that, by the Constitution of Australia, the will of the people, if we wish to put it in those terms, is expressed in this vacuum of a casual vacancy by the Houses of the Parliament of the State constituted by the individuals elected to those Houses by the constitutional processes of that State, and those Houses of the Parliament then have entrusted to them in aU the acts that they perform the expression of the Will of the people. [More…]
The Constitutional assumption is that in the decision of those Houses the will of the people is expressed and thereby the trust of the people is put into effect. [More…]
The next constitutional process is that that decision imposed upon the Houses of the Parliament in trust for the people of the State must be put before a general election of members of the House of Representatives or at the next election of senators for the State. [More…]
Firstly, the people at the next election at which that person must be put forward can accept or reject the person chosen by the Houses of the Parliament of the State and, further than that, the people may, at the next election of the members of Parliament of that State, cast their opinion as to the constitutional propriety or, if we Uke to put it in rather baser terms the political propriety of what the Houses of the Parliament of that State did. [More…]
If Counsel has to advise if a certain action is constitutional he is less concerned with the Constitution than with the composition of the Court. [More…]
Not only was this convention established back in 195 1-52 by all the Premiers, it was also supported unanimously by the Constitutional Review Committee in 1958-59. [More…]
I was giving an instance where constitutional conventions are concerned. [More…]
The Commonwealth Government has the constitutional power to provide medical and hospital services for pensioners, and with it the responsibility to make a significant contribution towards the hospital care of pensioners. [More…]
-Last night during debate on the motion that the House adjourn I spoke of the constitutional propriety of the appointment by the Governor-General of Australia on the advice of the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia of His Honour Mr Justice Murphy to the High Court. [More…]
I also spoke of the constitutional propriety of the proposal of the Government of New South Wales to act in accordance with the requirements of section 15 of the Constitution in having a joint sitting of the 2 Houses of the New South Wales Parliament to select a person to fill the casual vacancy created by the elevation of His Honour Mr Justice Murphy. [More…]
There can be no doubt of the constitutional propriety of the actions of the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam), through his Government, and of the advice which his Government gave to the Governor-General to have the then Attorney-General appointed to the High Court. [More…]
Having regard to that, it is quite apparent that the Prime Minister was prepared to take every political advantage of his ability to act in strict constitutional propriety in this matter. [More…]
How much more necessary is it then for members of the High Court who have previously been members of a government which has been instrumental in the passing of a law to be so very careful in the stand that they take in the High Court when they are called upon to judge the constitutional validity of that law. [More…]
Sir John Spicer is in a totally different position from judges of the High Court because he does not have to pass judgment on the constitutional validity of legislation that comes before him. [More…]
If anyone wants to challenge the constitutional validity of any part of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act they have to take out a writ of prohibition and remove the matter into the High Court of Australia where the constitutional validity will be determined. [More…]
Let him not speak in terms of violence to democracy when he does not present in proper context his own arguments in justification of his own action because, as I have said, in appointing the then Senator Murphy to the High Court the Prime Minister undoubtedly took every political advantage at his command, acting as he did with strict constitutional propriety. [More…]
This raises the most crucially important question and constitutional issue of the separation of powers between legislatures Executive and judiciary. [More…]
In my opinion a new Bill should be drafted to fit in with the constitutional trichotomy. [More…]
It is true that I have come out strongly in favour of constitutional conventions. [More…]
My predecessor interjects because he knows and respects the constitutional convention in this matter. [More…]
I was saying that the convention for which I have been coming out strongly has been supported by the Federal Executive of the Liberal Party at the moment, by every Liberal Prime Minister, by every Liberal Premier before the present Premier of New South Wales, by every member of the Liberal Party who served on the Constitutional Review Committee established on motions by Mr Menzies, Mr Holt and Sir Garfield Barwick, and by every member of the Liberal Party who attended the Constitutional Convention, in September 1973 and has served on its committee since then. [More…]
He would be aware that there is an area of uncertainty as to whether the constitutional scope extends to them. [More…]
The first amendment is simply designed to ensure that the provision is clearly within constitutional power. [More…]
The Government claims it has the constitutional powers to do this and the Opposition makes no comment on this aspect of the constitutional powers with respect to the Bill. [More…]
Even if it were established that the powers asserted by the Government are constitutional, we reject the Bill because we believe that it is a retrograde piece of legislation. [More…]
Apart from the constitutional aspect. [More…]
They also are capable of challenge in the courts if they exceed constitutional power. [More…]
It is the constitutional power itself and not the provision in sub-clause (3) of clause 6 to which a court will look in determining whether any regulations actually made are valid. [More…]
For the first time we are invoking constitutional powers to provide a new and co-ordinated scheme for those people who are the responsibility of the Australian Government. [More…]
The administrative and technical expertise in the field of direct lending which the Corporation will possess as a result of employing the staff who have operated the defence service homes scheme will make it easy for the Corporation to develop procedures for making loans to home-seekers for whom the Australian Government has constitutional responsibility. [More…]
It could still pursue all its objectives in the field of providing finance under the Defence Service Homes Act, for homes for pensioners, for homes for Aborigines and for public servants and others for whom the Government may legislate under its constitutional powers. [More…]
What we can claim is that we have studied similar overseas schemes and have adapted them to a uniquely Australian corporation that fits in with the Australian constitutional system, the Australian housing practice as we know it and Australian housing needs as we perceive and anticipate them. [More…]
The Australian Government does not have full constitutional power to perform all housing functions, but the full powers - available to the Government for housing have never really been fully taken up. [More…]
I draw the attention of the honourable gentleman to the constitutional position. [More…]
On 18 March 1972- almost 3 years ago, before this Government came to office- advertisements appeared in the Australian Press asking interested persons and bodies to lodge submissions with the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
I recognise that there is room for argument that 2 years is more appropriate than one, but the one-year period is favoured by the majority of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
In evidence before the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs in September last year Mr Ray Watson, Q.C., stated: [More…]
Although I have no intention to canvass all the clauses in the Bill which have been well considered and looked after by our legal colleagues and by the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs which worked so hard, and received and considered so many written and oral submissions and evidence from so many individuals and organisations, I should like to give the reasons why I support the Bill. [More…]
They have ignored the part that churches, social groups, the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, and marriage guidance counsellors and social workers have played in producing this Bill. [More…]
The report of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs and the subsequent exhaustive but necessary debate in the other place on this Bill had, it seemed to me, covered every point of contention. [More…]
The Speaker of the House of Commons is so essential a piece of machinery that without him the House has no constitutional existence. [More…]
For the Leader of the Opposition there is no question of sound constitutional practice. [More…]
The kind of thing that we want to do under this legislation is to ensure that any family in Australia- not in certain constitutional limits as mentioned by the honourable member for Parramatta; we are not confining this to public servantsunder a certain income limit and which is paying an amount in excess of 25 per cent of average earnings for desirable and reasonably rented premises is assisted because that family is paying too much. [More…]
I am not a constitutional expert, but I do not believe that a clause that is meant to provide a form of social service can be extended in this way, and I think that it wil cause grave doubts as to the operation of this particular clause. [More…]
Commonwealth to enter into appropriate agreements with those States that have the powers and the constitutional competence to legislate in these areas and to develop programs which can give effect to them. [More…]
Is the Prime Minister aware of any recent developments which might impede the constitutional freedom of any Australian political party to organise and advance its policies in any or every Australian State and Territory? [More…]
It has also led to constitutional challenge which is not designed to stop the flow of money but to get sense and order back into the administration of these matters. [More…]
I note with some regret that the Constitutional Convention which was so widely lauded not so long ago has fallen by the wayside. [More…]
I use this as a vehicle to express my concern that this whole matter seems to have been dumped in considering the constitutional relationships and the desirable changes. [More…]
In spite of the minor nature of the error the Government considers that, in view of the constitutional significance of the Bill, it would be better if it were to express the intention exactly. [More…]
It follows from the constitutional position as we understand it that it is rather for the national Government to retain powers unto itself than to nominate a series of functions to be transferred to local control. [More…]
Because of the Constitutional prohibition on it, the Tribunal can only make recommendations in this matter. [More…]
As I indicated before, there has been long discussion of this Bill by the Senate and by the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
The Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs was formed on 7 December 1971. [More…]
The Minister can bluster as much as he likes, but the simple fact is that the States do have a constitutional place in this nation of Australia and he cannot ignore this whether he likes it or not. [More…]
It is important that this Parliament devote itself to the matters for which it has prime constitutional responsibility and to responsibilities which no State government or local government authority has. [More…]
-It will be remembered that about 9 or 10 months ago this House reiterated its view that there should be a delegation from this Parliament to the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
The Government takes the attitude that there would now be no good purpose in having a meeting of the Constitutional Convention until the High Court hands down its judgments in State challenges to legislation passed by this Parliament. [More…]
Secondly, the Government believes that there would be little point in coming to understandings or devising constitutional conventions in any meeting of the Constitutional Convention in the light of the disrespect shown for the only significant constitutional convention in recent times. [More…]
The honourable member will know that the Australian Government does not possess the constitutional power to control wages. [More…]
Constitutional Provisions [More…]
In fact, this constitutional power was availed of by our predecessors in a couple of instances, the Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1971 and the Companies (Foreign Take-Overs) Act 1972. [More…]
It is a democratic right and a constitutional right. [More…]
In any case there is a well established constitutional practice under our system, which we inherited from the British, for the outgoing government to continue to governperhaps it can get a new commission as a caretaker government; that can happen under certain conditions- until the incoming government is ready to take over. [More…]
It states: 5.1 The constitutional responsibility for technical and further education in the States rests with the State Governments and so also does the financial commitment. [More…]
From a paper I have received from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library on this matter it appears that clause 4 of the Bill has been drafted in such a way as to deny any attempt to exceed the constitutional powers and to make the fullest use of constitutional powers without attempting a complete statement of them. [More…]
These constitutional sources of power are in effect stated by some but not necessarily all the relevant sources, and the incidental power is not expressly mentioned. [More…]
I support this Bill because it will establish a formal relationship between the Minister for Transport (Mr Charles Jones) and the experts that the Commonwealth has managed to obtain and to put that relationship into a statutory framework whereby their experience can be shared with those States that have a responsibility at this time- a prime constitutional responsibility- for administering matters relating to road safety. [More…]
A constitutional provision precludes members of Parliament from any form of contractual arrangements which may in some way affect their veracity as members of Parliament. [More…]
If this Government is sincere about these matters of pecuniary interest I believe it is about time it started to look at ways and means by which those people who are being given great statutory powers in Bills such as this one ought to be required to meet the same sorts of standards that members of Parliament are being required at least to consider at this stage and which they already have imposed on them constitutionally. [More…]
We accept that local government authorities come within the constitutional responsibility of State governments, that they are the children of State governments. [More…]
1 want to refer to the constitutional situation. [More…]
The Australian Government has no direct constitutional power to interfere with internal mining. [More…]
He knows the constitutional position as well as I do in view of the former high office he held in the Australian Public Service. [More…]
The Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam), knowing the constitutional problems and the limitations on the Federal Government in respect of mining within a State and under State law, last year quite deliberately sought by successive correspondence to get the cooperation of the State premiers. [More…]
There is a ready made list of expendable programs- the programs imperilled by the High Court challenge by the Liberal Premiers on the constitutional validity of the Australian Assistance Plan and the Regional Employment Development Scheme. [More…]
There we have the constitutional provisions. [More…]
Supreme Courts of the States with Federal jurisdiction it rejects the Government’s policy of pursuing legislation of questionable constitutional validity and leaving it to be challenged before the courts. [More…]
It is part of the policy of the Government to undermine the whole constitutional framework of government as it exists in Australia. [More…]
One of the major ways in which the Bill would alter the constitutional balance of power is in its effect on the States. [More…]
At one stroke it would alter the entire constitutional balance and, indeed, the whole structure of transport, trade and industry as they exist in Australia at the present time. [More…]
Since the States have been left with control over intrastate trade and transport, a commission exercising power of regulation and advice would be a purely federal body in the sense that its functions would be to uphold the Constitutional provisions as they relate both to State and Commonwealth powers over transport. [More…]
Rather, it is an attempt to use the Constitutional provisions to create a commission which will be an arm of the central Government in its conquest not only of the States but also of all transport and trading activity in Australia. [More…]
A Federal Labor Government will promptly restore the machinery the Constitution intended and vest it with the Commonwealth’s full constitutional powers to plan and provide modern means of communication between the States. [More…]
However, in 1959-only 9 years after the abolition of the 1912 Act and during the administration of a later Menzies Government- the Constitutional Review Committee recommended the reestablishment of the Commission. [More…]
The editorial of the ‘Australian Financial Review ‘ of 8 April 1975 refers to the need for an authority clothed with unqualified constitutional powers to correct the many anomalies of the present transport scene and makes particular reference to the chaotic development of our ports that has occurred. [More…]
We have heard a great deal of reference by ‘ the honourable member for Shortland to the question of resolving constitutional doubts about the extent of the proposed Inter-State Commission’s powers. [More…]
I does not have to worry about whether there is any legal doubt regarding the constitutional scope of the legislation. [More…]
The royal commission in 1927 recommended the reinstatement of the Inter-State Commission with judicial powers provided by constitutional alteration, but it pointed out that even without those judicial powers the Commission would provide a valuable service. [More…]
Honourable members have already referred to the report of the Constitutional Review Committee of 1959. [More…]
If its activities were restricted to interstate trade and commerce then, of course, it might be able to stand consistent with constitutional history. [More…]
It is not a question of whether it is good or bad to have such a provision: The question is whether such a provision is constitutional. [More…]
A federal Labor Government will promptly restore the machinery the Constitution intended and vest it with the Commonwealth’s full constitutional powers to plan and provide modern means of communication between the States. [More…]
One can be excused for advancing the argument that this Commission is another 2-pronged attack on the constitutional rights of the States and private enterprise. [More…]
It is not necessary for me to repeat the history of the previous Inter-State Commission and the constitutional basis of it. [More…]
There has to be some shackling of control as advanced by the Australian Labor Party for otherwise the reins will be snapped from the hands of those who have the constitutional responsibility of holding them- the Parliament. [More…]
Transport charges are most important components of the States’ budgets and social policies and the Commission’s influence on these charges would be prejudicial to the States’ constitutional powers. [More…]
I am prepared to say that we should do nothing in the interim period, because I do not believe that the gentleman involved has committed any grievous offence; he has committed only a constitutional offence. [More…]
The reason why a pair would be given is to ensure that the member would not be subjected to the constitutional fine in respect of sitting days. [More…]
It would have been farcical and unjust if through the inattention of members of Parliament themselves a member sat for hundreds of day and became liable to a constitutional fine. [More…]
The recommendations made by the Committee in its 1974 Report on Constitutional Development in the Northern Territory which are now under review because of cyclone Tracy, were given due consideration before the creation of the Department of Police and Customs was announced. [More…]
That it is constitutional and agreeable to usage for the House of Commons to declare their sense and opinions respecting the exercise of every discretionary power which whether by Act of Parliament or otherwise, is vested in any body of men whatsoever for the public service. [More…]
However, the constitutional framework within which this function was exercised is explained by May in his ‘Constitutional History of England ‘. [More…]
On 16 August 1974 it was referred by the Senate to the Legislation and General Purpose Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
Governments, both Federal and State, have constitutional and legislative obligations in the area of insurance. [More…]
Quite obviously there is a deficiency in the State government insurance offices, obviously because of constitutional, legislative and geographical limitations. [More…]
There is, then, clear constitutional authority for this Bill and there are precedents already for the creation of a national insurance corporation by this Parliament, [More…]
I believe that we owe a great deal to the joint party Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs which has made the Bill essentially what it now is. [More…]
It has no constitutional standing. [More…]
This is what the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs had in mind. [More…]
The history of that sub-clause is that it was included, as I understand it, in the Senate Committee stage of this Bill as a brake on the Attorney-General in his appointment of judges, as the Senate Committee of the whole felt that the requirements of clause 41 should be adhered to and felt rather strongly that these family courts, both for constitutional reasons and for other reasons, ought to be established in all States. [More…]
They alone, in other words, can provide an effective family court system under the present constitutional structure. [More…]
This is a clause which was dealt with extensively by the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs which was charged with studying in depth the provisions of the original Bill. [More…]
Because we believe that, we are introducing a Bill tomorrow to exercise that constitutional power in respect to the seabed. [More…]
We all know the constitutional limitations of Tasmania. [More…]
But I can give the examples of Isaacs and the Tasmanian seats where constitutional problems are involved. [More…]
That is undemocratic, it is unjust and would not stand up to constitutional challenge. [More…]
The Australian constitutional fathers were very kind to Tasmania. [More…]
But the constitutional fathers, looking into the future, decided that Tasmania should have 5 electorates. [More…]
That was a decision of the constitutional fathers. [More…]
To criticise the Tasmanian situation in this debate and in any other debate on electoral matters is to criticise the constitutional fathers. [More…]
-I have seen a newspaper report that the Victorian Minister for Health has indicated that he considers that moneys to be paid to Victoria have no constitutional basis. [More…]
It has the constitutional facility to provide welfare opportunities to children. [More…]
For instance, the Bill now explicitly is made subject to various other Insurance Acts passed by this Parliament in pursuit of its constitutional power. [More…]
Revenue can only be redirected to local government if the constitutional authority for this to happen is given to this Parliament otherwise it has to go to the State governments. [More…]
The so-called mentors of the National Country Party adopt the tactic of advocating assistance for local government but when the Government seeks the constitutional power to enable it to give this assistance, it is opposed by the National Country Party. [More…]
The honourable member for Gippsland is as aware as we are that that is a constitutional requirement. [More…]
I suggest that the Constitutional Committee which the Prime Minister - then Mr Menzies- has promised for several years to appoint and the appointment of which he has consistently postponed, be appointed and that it consider means of ensuring that the Australian Constitution is altered in order that no gerrymandering shall be possible and that the principles enunciated in our electoral act shall be preserved and enshrined in the Constitution. [More…]
Indeed, before the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Review recommended this particular reform in 1958, and again in 1959, with only one member dissenting, there had been only 3 occasions on which an election had been held to elect members of one House only- those for the House of Representatives in 1929 and 1954 and that for the Senate in 1953. [More…]
The Constitution itself provides by section 74 that no appeal shall be permitted to the Privy Council from a decision of the High Court upon any question, howsoever arising, as to the limits inter se of the constitutional powers of the Commonwealth and those of any State or States or as to the limits inter se of the constitutional powers of any two or more States, unless the High Court shall certify that the question is one which ought to be determined by the Privy Council. [More…]
The Interim Committee recognises that the Australian Government has- the Territories apart- a limited constitutional power to legislate to protect heritage sites. [More…]
It is clear that the Australian Government has constitutional limitations. [More…]
-On behalf of the Joint Committee on the Northern Territory I bring up the Committee’s report on Constitutional Development in the Northern Territory, Second Inquiry. [More…]
I also agree that if constitutional reform is to progress in the Northern Territory there has to be co-ordination and co-operation between the Australian Government, the members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, the members of the Darwin City Corporation and, of course, the people of the Northern Territory themselves. [More…]
The principal comment I wish to make is that if the Northern Territory is to proceed to constitutional reform it has to be done in a co-operative, coordinated and calm manner. [More…]
The need for 5 separate Acts arises from a constitutional requirement that laws imposing taxes should deal with one subject of taxation only. [More…]
The Parliament has no constitutional responsibility for State courts and cannot, under the Constitution, intervene in the organisation of these courts. [More…]
I urge the members of the Liberal Party to uphold the principle put forward by the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review established by its founder, Sir Robert Menzies, in 1966. [More…]
From a constitutional aspect, a redistribution is unnecessary. [More…]
It is a deep constitutional principle that governments stand or fall on their support or otherwise in this House and not by what goes on in the Senate. [More…]
All the proceedings of this House are based on the procedure and constitutionality of what was developed in England over centuries of trial and error. [More…]
So we have an attack on many constitutional institutions in this country by the Prime Minister and his Government and this Bill is part of that attack. [More…]
The Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, which brought down its report in 1959 and which was composed of members of all parties, argued very strongly in favour of having simultaneous elections. [More…]
There are, to the Committee’s way of thinking, reasons why one-half the number of senators should retire at every general election of members of the House of Representatives which are sufficiently cogent to justify a constitutional amendment. [More…]
I ask honourable members opposite to have a look at the report of the Constitutional Review Committee. [More…]
The honourable member for Curtin ought to brush up on his law when it comes to constitutional questions, because section 57 of the Constitution has nothing whatsoever to say about or to do with the matters that he brought before the House. [More…]
The people just will not vote for constitutional changes that will have the effect of reducing the power of the Senate which will be to the Senate’s disadvantage and to the disadvantage of this country insofar as its administration and law are concerned. [More…]
As I looked at this proposal I had to ask myself, first of all, what explanation has the Prime Minister given when he has come to this House on 3 occasions and tried to persuade us and the people of the country to vote for this kind of constitutional change. [More…]
What he is doing is introducing a constitutional trick. [More…]
It is a trick to employ constitutional practices and procedures and an attempted alteration to the Constitution in order to persuade the people that he is a technical expert on the Constitution and is worthy of governing this country. [More…]
That expresses a constitutional concept in the clearest of language and means that the Senate is a State’s House and is intended to represent the States’ views, Changing this section necessarily means that the Prime Minister wants to whittle away the power of the Senate to reflect the views of the States. [More…]
It was to ensure that the Prime Minister or the Government of the day could not intimidate or blackmail members of the Senate by threat of a double dissolution or by any other means when exercising their constitutional powers, to ensure that the Senate is a States’ House reflecting the views of the States and a House of review having all the qualities and power that a House of review needs to express the mature view and the long term attitude of the Australian people to constitutional change and the business of government. [More…]
The Government is in a position, thanks to the constitutional powers that are accorded it by sections 12, 13 and 32, to ensure that House of Representatives and Senate elections are held at an identical time. [More…]
The Minister for Transport (Mr Charles Jones) pointed out in his second reading speech that there is a constitutional provision in relation to these measures, namely, section 5 1 of the Constitution, which gives the Australian Parliament power with respect to: [More…]
Certainly there are constitutional limits as to how far the Australian Railways Commission could go with such services. [More…]
The real solution in this matter is not to proceed with this court but to attempt basic constitutional reform of the judicature chapter of the Constitution and in the meantime, I suggest, to use what has been referred to by Mr Justice ElseMitchell, for instance, in an article that he had published in the Federal Law Review, as the autochthonous expedient- the use of the State courts as repositories of Federal jurisdiction. [More…]
We can do it only by constitutional amendment. [More…]
The High Court should have the primary function of dealing with constitutional matters. [More…]
I hope that the Prime Minister will go back to the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
Provision ought to be made within the constitutional framework for the establishment of a judicial administration- a judicial conference- that would enable judges to participate in law reform in this country. [More…]
It would redirect the bulk of matters within the original jurisdiction of the High Court into the Superior Court, leaving the High Court principally a constitutional and appellate tribunal. [More…]
The establishment of this additional federal court could well provide an unending incentive for backdoor attempts by a centralist government, such as the present one, to bypass constitutional heads of power and to expand its influence throughout the nation. [More…]
I have to advise that because of the Government’s action in requiring a constitutional majority, all pairs are cancelled for Monday 2 June 1975. [More…]
Bearing in mind what the Prime Minister said at question time, it appears that if what he said is to be pursued the Government would feel free to break the pair arrangements at any time it required an absolute majority for a particular purpose and that could be not only for a constitutional Bill of the kind that was under discussion last Monday but also in relation to the suspension of the Standing Orders without notice. [More…]
The Joint Committee on the Northern Territory, as a result of its inquiry into constitutional reform in the Northern Territory, has recommended many functions which should be taken over by that new legislative body which was elected on 1 9 October of last year. [More…]
One of the questions that has to be considered in relation to this measure and particularly clause 65 is whether it bases itself soundly in constitutional power, because it would be tragic if Australia and this Parliament had no power to control the marine environment of the Great Barrier Reef. [More…]
Once again we saw the flaunting of an established constitutional convention when the New South Wales Government refused to appoint a senator of the Government party to fill the vacancy caused by Senator Murphy’s resignation. [More…]
It is beyond the present constitutional and statutory authority of the Australian Government to stop sand-mining within the boundaries of any of the Australian States. [More…]
Was the phrase ‘for temporary purposes’ a deliberate subterfuge to avoid the constitutional requirement of the financial agreement? [More…]
It appears from the letters that apart from the Minister for Minerals and Energy the mastermind was the Prime Minister himself and that not only did he attempt to ignore the constitutional legalities but also adopted devious means to ensure that these negotiations were kept secret. [More…]
The second question is: Was the $4,000m of borrowing legal and constitutional? [More…]
The other method is to have a constitutional referendum. [More…]
There are good arguments for having a constitutional referendum. [More…]
If it is argued that we should have the High Court as the final court of appeal to establish law because of our independent status, is there anybody in this House who would support the Attorney-General (Mr Enderby) and the Government by saying that the way in which to do it is to establish our lack of independence; to establish clearly by an act of this House and the Senate that we do not have the full constitutional independence? [More…]
The constitutional change in this 4 decades has been immense. [More…]
Even at that time, it was undertaken by everybody who was concerned with the Statute of Westminister and the construction of it that there would be no interference in the States and that the House of Commons and the House of Lords would not be asked to do something which would alter the constitutional position of the States. [More…]
But I am not prepared to participate in any way in a method which emphasises the dependence of Australia instead of its independence and creates a precedent for further request and consent legislation which can seriously imperil the constitutional status of the 6 constituent members of our federation. [More…]
Why should the House of Commons in 1975 interfere in the internal constitutional arrangements of Australia? [More…]
The emptiness of that exercise is manifested by the unwillingness on the part of Great Britain to interfere in our constitutional affairs. [More…]
I recapitulate: If the Government wishes to have a referendum and to test the matter by constitutional amendment, I will support it because I very strongly believe that the final court of appeal should be the High Court of Australia. [More…]
The Australian Government takes the view that it wants to go to the limit of constitutional power because it has to change the absurd situation whereby an appellant in a State system of courts- in the New South Wales Supreme Court or the Victorian Supreme Court or the South Australian Supreme Court or the Western Australian Supreme Court or the Tasmanian Supreme Court or the Queensland Supreme Court- can bypass the High Court and go to the Privy Council, thus setting up 2 different competing lines of authority. [More…]
Yet here in 1975 the Opposition- the Liberal Party and the National Country Party- is able to say that a situation should exist by which the Privy Council located in England should rule on what is the law in, say, New South Wales, or what is the correct legal solution to a problem between 2 Australian citizens living in Hobart or Perth, merely because the Australian Government, according to one view, does not have the constitutional power to say what the Canadian Government said back in about 1933. [More…]
I am very sorry that the Attorney-General finds our constitutional setup so rigid and so frustrating. [More…]
I refer to constitutional development for the Northern Territory and the fact that 2 reports have been presented to the Government on this matter by the Joint Committee on the Northern Territory and that an inter-departmental committee was recently set up. [More…]
In consultation with the Majority Leader and other members of the Legislative Assembly it was decided that the Committee should again look at the constitutional reform problems in the Northern Territory and recommend again if necessary. [More…]
Maybe our constitutional powers were limited. [More…]
But I cannot, nevertheless, refrain from saying that I have the utmost doubt as to the constitutional validity of the purported conferment of the command in chief of the armed Services upon any person. [More…]
First of all he raised the question as to whether there was some suggestion of departing from the constitutional proprieties of this country by removing the word ‘Commonwealth’ and taking out the word ‘Royal’. [More…]
We need to debate the constitutional issue. [More…]
During the constitutional convention debates in Melbourne in 1898, an amendment was proposed that command-in-chief should only be exercised on the advice of the Executive Council. [More…]
The Minister’s constitutional authority and responsibility cannot be restricted by any departmental committee. [More…]
It will be remembered that at the Constitutional Convention in September 1973 I put the proposition that the aldermen and councillors in each State should be entitled to elect a person to speak and vote for them on the Loan Council. [More…]
It was agreed at the Constitutional Convention that the 6 Premiers and I should meet the following month- October 1973- to discuss an amendment of the Financial Agreement under which the Loan Council operates. [More…]
I am happy to say that over the last few months, as a result of the renewed effort to have the Constitutional Convention reconvened, it has been agreed that at next month’s Constitutional Convention, which will assemble in Melbourne on 24 September, 2 local government proposals will be on the agenda. [More…]
Those items will come before the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
It also might be discussed, to some advantage, at the Constitutional Convention meetings. [More…]
That the resolution of this House of 1 August 1974 concerning the participation by the Australian Parliament in the Constitutional Convention be amended as follows: [More…]
affirms the decision taken by resolution of the House on 31 May 1973 that the Australian Parliament join with the parliaments of the States in the Constitutional Convention to be convened to review the Australian Constitution in September of that year, and at such subsequent times as the Convention from time to time determined . [More…]
In order to take account of these changes I have therefore moved that the resolution of this House of 1 August 1974 concerning the participation by the Australian Parliament in the Constitutional Convention be amended as follows: [More…]
Mr Speaker, the Opposition Parties welcome the change in approach by the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) which enables the Constitutional Convention to be held in September, and welcomes therefore the motion that he has moved. [More…]
It is our hope that this Convention will be a useful forum in which State and Federal representatives may constructively consider constitutional reform in a way which will advance the good government of Australia. [More…]
The Constitutional Convention does present an opportunity to identify areas where change is needed. [More…]
It will provide a place where constructive efforts may be made to work out constitutional reform. [More…]
For all of these reasons, the Opposition is glad that the Constitutional Convention will be reconvened in Melbourne in September. [More…]
The Opposition of course recognises that the Convention itself cannot make any constitutional change. [More…]
The fact is that the Government has consistently taken the attitude that the Australian Parliament should participate in this Constitutional Convention. [More…]
Three of those referendums flowed directly and entirely from the recommendations- most of them unanimous recommendations- of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review that were made back in 1958 and 1959. [More…]
I speak now in the constitutional sense. [More…]
I do not take the view that this legislative flourish can put at nought the constitutional provisions which exist in section 68 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution. [More…]
There is also the question of whether the establishment of a pricefixing power by one, two or three people in a department is constitutional when this country has not accepted a referendum in favour of price fixing. [More…]
It is extremely valuable to us in Australia not only because of the fact that through the due constitutional process the United States would come to our aid or we would go to its aid in the event of an attack on our territory, or on our sea vessels, or on our commercial aircraft, or on our other aircraft for that matter, but also because of the intimate association with the United States which this Treaty facilitates. [More…]
Its continuation depends upon the Congress of the United States exercising its constitutional prerogative from time to time. [More…]
has been nominated as a delegate of the Australian Parliament to the Australian Constitutional Convention in the place of the Honourable Senator J. R. McClelland, resigned. [More…]
Indeed, if I may say so in using the first personal pronoun, I was fortunate enough to participate as Minister for External Territories in the first of the series of constitutional talks between Australia and Papua New Guinea in July 1972. [More…]
Throughout the constitutional process toward independence I have stressed that both the move to self government, which was agreed during our period in government, and this last step to independence were primarily motivated by decisions of the political leadership of Papua New Guinea and responded to by ourselves. [More…]
During the course of this examination several obstacles have been encountered which include the constitutional problem of Federal, State and Local power to administer such taxes and devising measures to ensure that the tax is not passed on to the final purchasers of the land. [More…]
In Victoria, because there are no constitutional requirements for boundaries of electorates, the members of the Parliament set their own boundaries. [More…]
I suggest that if the Constitution had been drawn up about 12 or 15 years later than it was the situation we have at the moment would not have occurred, because about 1910 or 1911 after a constitutional crisis in the United Kingdom the House of Lords had the power to refuse money taken away from it- or it agreed by virtue of the circumstances that it could not refuse money to the Parliament. [More…]
If this should happen in this Parliament we will be faced with a very serious constitutional crisis. [More…]
I remember that it was considered by the Constitutional Review Committee set up by the Parliament in 1956. [More…]
The Constitutional Convention which assembled in September 1973 also considered this matter and referred it to one of its committees. [More…]
I believe that committee has also recommended that it should be a matter of convention as distinct from constitutional amendment. [More…]
There are obviously difficulties in drafting any constitutional amendment which refers to political Parties. [More…]
The Constitution itself does not do that and while there has been some legislation introduced by the Minister for Services and Property which identifies political parties in the same way as political parties have been identified in much legislation in other countries, including federal countries, I believe there have not been any constitutional provisions of that character yet devised. [More…]
There is a proposal now to abandon this Constitutional Convention. [More…]
In May last year the Opposition parties went to the people on a published program to ‘support and work for the continuing examination by the Australian Constitutional Convention of the changes to the Constitution which 70 years experience has revealed as being necessary’. [More…]
The Federal Opposition wants the Constitutional Convention to continue its work. [More…]
It is our hope that this Convention will be a useful forum in which State and Federal representatives may constructively consider constitutional reform in a way which will advance the good government of Australia. [More…]
I naturally am incensed, as I hope are most honourable members, by these constant assaults on political and constitutional proprieties. [More…]
This is the kind of level to which constitutional practice has been brought in Australia. [More…]
The constitutional processes which the Queensland Premier aborted have been aborted here as well. [More…]
In the Australian Parliament there are strict constitutional restrictions upon things about which we can legislate. [More…]
The Australian States have the constitutional authority to impose royalties on the extraction of minerals within their boundaries. [More…]
In the application of the levy there is a constitutional responsibility on which Queensland producers have a legal opinion which suggests that the whole form of this levy might be as a result invalid. [More…]
There is a constitutional responsibility that there should be an equality of levy liability. [More…]
It is significant that last week the Australian Constitutional Convention had on its agenda items concerning local government, but because local government was put on the agenda the Liberal leaders, except those from the Parliaments of South Australia and Tasmania, boycotted the Convention. [More…]
It even opposed local government being dealt with by the .Constitutional Convention which was held last week. [More…]
I would like to examine some of the actions of our present Government and to compare them with their basis of power and their role as fitting within the context of a constitutional monarchy and the parliamentary democracy that we have. [More…]
Recently the Attorney-General speaking at the Constitutional Convention said that the Government is forced to break the law. [More…]
From the Attorney-General at the Constitutional Convention comes the statement that the Government is forced to break the law. [More…]
The House will be aware, and in particular my colleague the Attorney-General (Mr Enderby), who is sitting opposite, of the extent to which the High Court, as the only arbiter in Australia of the constitutional limits of the power of the Commonwealth Government, literally is bogged down in adjudicating on matters involving the constitutional power of Acts passed by this present Government. [More…]
Whilst I would never deny the proposition that it is the place of the High Court in the final analysis to determine whether or not a law of this Parliament is valid I put it to the Committee that any AttorneyGeneral of this country has an obligation to advise the Government that he serves whether or not Acts passed by this Parliament are within constitutional power. [More…]
I think it is a matter of real concern that the High Court of Australia should have so much of its time consumed with determining the constitutional validity of Acts of this Parliament. [More…]
I think it is a dismal commentary on the quality of the advice that has been given to this Government that the High Court is so occupied with constitutional cases. [More…]
The High Court is not exclusively concerned with determining constitutional cases. [More…]
-The Attorney-General interjects and says that we want the Privy Council to determine constitutional matters. [More…]
I remind the Attorney-General that it was Attorney-General Bowen of a Liberal-Country Party Government who introduced legislation in 1968 to determine for all time appeals from the High Court of Australia to the Privy Council in constitutional cases. [More…]
When one examines the history of legal advice tendered by the Attorneys-General under the Whitlam Labor Government since 1972 one finds that time and time again that advice has been found wanting, that this Government has been bogged down in a series of constitutional cases before the High Court and that this client, the Federal Government, has been involved in too much litigation. [More…]
That leaves really one instrument of constitutional change in this country. [More…]
There are no limitations on the Senate in the use of its constitutional powers, except the limitations imposed by discretion and reason. [More…]
This was a matter that Standing Committee ‘B’ of the Australian Constitutional Convention asked should be made clear. [More…]
Honourable members who were delegates at the first meeting of the Australian Constitutional Convention, which was held in Sydney in September 1973, will recall that the proposal arose from formal submissions made by New South Wales and Victoria. [More…]
It is considered that, by constitutional amendment, these uncertainties should be removed by providing, for example, that references of legislative power by States to the Commonwealth may be made for limited terms and that repeal of a reference act has constitutional efficacy, and also that the Commonwealth Parliament might refer to the States any legislative power of the Commonwealth. [More…]
He thought it gave emphasis to the central idea of the Australian Constitutional Convention, namely, that it would be possible for representatives of the States and the Commonwealth to meet for the purpose of reaching agreement on the reference of certain powers. [More…]
An earlier draft of the proposals was considered by standing committee ‘B’ of the Australian constitutional convention early in 1974 and the bill subsequently revised to reflect the principal concern of the Committee, which was that there should be no discrimination between States in any designation by the Commonwealth. [More…]
The Bill be deferred until after consideration has been given to its proposals by all State Governments and by the Australian Constitutional Convention. [More…]
It is important that some results in the way of constitutional alteration should be seen before that meeting is held. [More…]
I might add that 2 reports have been presented by the Joint Committee on the Northern Territory about constitutional development in the Northern Territory and the Government has so far done nothing whatsoever about instituting any constitutional development in the Northern Territory. [More…]
The plan of destruction is supported by a plan of obstruction, an obstruction in the way of a challenge by private lawyers in the High Court on constitutional grounds, grounds which mask the real objection by those conservative elements. [More…]
What is the High Court there for if it is not to deal with the question of whether a piece of legislation or an Act of the Government is constitutional? [More…]
Earlier this year- I have already spoken on it- we had the loans affair, which was a gross contempt of the Constitution and a gross abuse of the fundamental constitutional principle. [More…]
In the Bill, these terms are given the same meaning as in the Seas and Submerged Lands Act, and the provisions of the Bill relating to the off-shore industry are therefore placed on the same constitutional basis as the Seas and Submerged Lands Act. [More…]
-The unprecedented rejection of Supply by the Senate last year was the most serious assault on our constitutional system of government since Federation and the full impact of that unprincipled act by the Liberal-Country parties has not been realised by most Australians. [More…]
Will the Prime Minister assure the House and the nation that the Australian Government will press ahead with its antiinflation program despite the serious damage being done to public confidence and our system of constitutional government by election uncertainty? [More…]
The task that they are about in dismembering our federation can have one result only, that is, serious and irretrievable damage to our constitutional system and to our nation. [More…]
I would ask the Government to consider that in respect of this Bill there is a unique State involvement as the legislation deals with the constitutional balance between the Commonwealth and the States. [More…]
In the course of his second reading speech, the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) said that this measure had received the unanimous support of the meeting of the Constitutional Convention in Melbourne in September. [More…]
But, as the Prime Minister would know also, that Constitutional Convention was held in the absence of representatives of the governments of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia and also in the absence of representatives of the Opposition Parties in this Parliament. [More…]
But, having regard to the Prime Minister’s own remarks in his second reading speech, I think that the effect of the measure having received unanimous support at the Constitutional Convention ought to be seen in its true perspective. [More…]
For my part, on behalf of the Opposition, I welcome this acknowledgement from the Prime Minister, belated though it may be, that it is necessary in constitutional matters to have co-operation and goodwill between the Commonwealth and the States. [More…]
However, we would argue, and the House also should be reminded, that unless the legal and constitutional co-operation which is inherent in this proposal is matched by a financial partnership between the Commonwealth and the States, the objective of co-operative federalism of which the Prime Minister spoke in his second reading speech will not be achieved. [More…]
It is a measure which relates to the constitutional balance between the Commonwealth and the States. [More…]
A measure which might ultimately lead to a constitutional amendment is no ordinary measure. [More…]
But what I put to the Government and to the Attorney-General is that it is not unreasonable that a Bill that goes to the very essence of the constitutional relationship between the Commonwealth and the States should be considered carefully by the States. [More…]
This has not occurred as a result of any constitutional alteration, except in the case of responsibility for Aboriginal affairs. [More…]
Its supports in principle the removal of any doubt regarding the constitutional capacity of the State governments and the Federal Government to exchange powers. [More…]
I rise to support the constitutional amendment. [More…]
The nearest we have come to recognising formally a need to give additional constitutional sanction to power sharing between governments has been through the Commonwealth-State Financial Agreement and the subsequent inclusion of section 105a in the Constitution. [More…]
The ad hoc nature of many of these arrangements, the legal uncertainties arising from their lack of formal constitutional backing, the unnecessary and costly duplication of effort and the complications which may flow from this cry out for something to be done. [More…]
Whatever might be done in reordering and restructuring the division of power between the national government and the States, in my opinion it would be wrong to leave open still the question of recognising in the Constitution the need for giving formal constitutional authority to the interchange of powers between the Federal government and the States. [More…]
As Professor Geoffrey Sawer has said so cogently, beyond any doubt constitutionally Australia is a frozen continent. [More…]
If the experience of the past 75 years is any guide at all, the continuing change in our social, economic and political life can make a constitutional provision, previously thought to be inviolable, not only obsolete but also detrimental to the workings of good government. [More…]
The result has been that whatever the economic and social realities have been at a particular time, in terms of the allocation of constitutional powers, change can and may soon make them outmoded. [More…]
A very great risk to our society, arising out of the inability of the Constitution to move with the times, is that the nature of change and the speed of change may be such that all governments in our system may lose control of evolving situations unless our constitutional mechanisms have the adaptability and flexibility to meet them. [More…]
One of the difficulties which Australia faces today in relation to its constitutional crisis is not that we need to review the Constitution but rather that we need the mechanism to change it. [More…]
Jointly they did their best to torpedo any constructive or effective attempt to carry the much needed constitutional amendments. [More…]
These powers and others have been vested in this Parliament and despite rejection at the ballot box or at referendum, or confirmation if you like, the High Court has placed its imprimatur on the recommendations of the constitutional committees as set out in the 1929 and 1959 reports and in respect of which the Opposition in government over 23 years failed to act upon. [More…]
We as a nation ought to study and contrast, if you like, the people’s track record, that is, the ballot box, and that of the High Court in the field of meaningful, constructive, progressive and much needed constitutional change. [More…]
Let me wrap this up by indicating that I firmly believe that section 128 must be the most serious issue facing this country and is without question the major stumbling block in constitutional change. [More…]
What is needed is for the intergovernmental arrangements to be given suitable recognition in the Constitution to enable interchanges of constitutional authority to be achieved without the trauma of referenda or backdoor dealings between the Federal Government and the State governments. [More…]
Furthermore, such a change more clearly opens up possibilities for power sharing, backed by formal constitutional means, hopefully enabling us at least to minimise the duplication of effort which is now sometimes required. [More…]
To think otherwise would be to ignore the history of the past 75 years and would leave us in a situation which no one in this House who knows anything about constitutional law can deal with with any degree of equanimity. [More…]
I think it is desirable that we put the proposal in the context of constitutional development and the need for reform of the Constitution in Australia. [More…]
What was seen at that time was that there should be a whole package of constitutional amendments which would be put to the Australian people by referendum. [More…]
I believe that some of those constitutional amendments could have been successful if they had been separated and yet been put as part of a whole refurbishing of the Constitution. [More…]
Under the terms of this constitutional proposal it will be put separately again and for that I think criticism can be levelled at the Government and perhaps the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) directly, but there is no point in engaging in that sort of criticism. [More…]
It can be altered de facto by decisions of the High Court on constitutional cases. [More…]
But it is not proper that constitutional development in Australia should de facto rely upon judicial interpretation of the Constitution by the High Court. [More…]
So when the Constitutional Convention met in Sydney one of the first items that was listed was this very question. [More…]
The report of the Australian Constitutional Convention in 1973 shows that the list of topics for discussion included as the very first item: [More…]
The proposal was put to the meeting of the Constitutional Convention in Sydney. [More…]
After the dinner it was announced that there was agreement in principle to such a constitutional amendment to enable the transfer of powers both from the States to the Commonwealth and vice versa from the Commonwealth to the States. [More…]
In the 2 years since there has been a great deal of consideration of the matter by the Constitutional Convention Committees. [More…]
Proposed new section 108a (1) is quite clear as to what it means on its wording, but 108a (2) would present a great deal of problems to some people who are concerned that the Constitution is not changed from its basic federal concept to render it a more centralist constitutional document. [More…]
I think that if it is passed it will make a giant contribution to the future constitutional government of Australia. [More…]
I will not cover that ground again but I shall refer to one matter which is of considerable interest to me, and that is the question of road safety and the interchange of powers between the States and the Commonwealth in this matter.- The first report of the House of Representatives Select Committee on Road Safety, of which I was a member, made a recommendation to the Parliament that the constitutional position so far as road safety is concerned ought to be carefully examined. [More…]
These constitutional problems would, I believe, be largely overcome if this referendum is carried and the States can refer powers. [More…]
An important matter- this has been discussed before both at the Constitutional Convention and here- is whether the powers should be able to be revoked by either the Commonwealth or the States. [More…]
I think that I should read the letters which were presented at the first Constitutional Convention in Sydney in September 1973. [More…]
It is considered that, by constitutional amendment, these uncertainties should be removed by providing, for example, that references of legislative power by States to the Commonwealth may be made for limited terms and that repeal of a reference act has constitutional efficacy, and also that the Commonwealth Parliament might refer to the States any legislative power of the Commonwealth. [More…]
Before concluding I would like to say something about the role of the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) in pushing forward with these constitutional reforms. [More…]
I think constitutional reform is long overdue and the Prime Minister will be remembered in time to come for it. [More…]
It is a matter of record and a matter of fact that in many other countries which require constitutions to be changed the constitutional amendments have been carried much more frequently than they have here. [More…]
It can be said that some of the points that he made emphasise one of the difficulties and one of the problems of constitutional referenda. [More…]
That is why, as already mentioned on 2 occasions by the right honourable member for Bruce (Mr Snedden) and the honourable member for Diamond Valley (Mr McKenzie), there is a difficulty in having constitutional alterations passed and in fact in having any referenda passed by the people. [More…]
I mentioned earlier that one of the problems confronting the acceptance of constitutional alterations is the fear in the States, and sometimes even within the Federal sphere, of greater powers in one area reducing the powers and the capacity in another. [More…]
I refer to the report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review which was presented in 1958. [More…]
I would make only one comment following what was said by the honourable member for Hawker which shows possibly one of the problems and difficulties confronting constitutional alteration. [More…]
The Labor members of the Committee considered that full legislative powers should be vested in the Commonwealth Parliament with the duty and authority to create States possessing delegated constitutional powers . [More…]
So, it is for that reason that, as was pointed out by the honourable member for Bennelong, we in the Opposition support the constitutional proposals involved in the change which the legislation presented by the Prime Minister seeks to achieve. [More…]
But if a political power is fragmented in some form or another, in some constitutional or federal system, a confederate system or in some other system, so that political power is watered down to such an extent that we will find a concentration of that power of a different kind in a different area- say, the private sector- we will get for example enormous economic power, corporate power, which is not accountable to anyone. [More…]
On the other hand, we of the Australian Parliament have no constitutional power to make a law on the subject. [More…]
I conclude with these final words: I am not sure whether the germ of this idea of a mutual exchange of powers can be traced back to the 1957 Joint Committee on Constitutional Review of this Parliament. [More…]
I know that the Prime Minister has been very much attached to the idea of constitutional change for a great period of time. [More…]
The initiative in bringing this measure forward is largely a tribute to the Prime Minister’s persistent interest in constitutional reform and constitutional change and a recognition that this frozen, rigid Constitution of ours must somehow in 1975, and in 1985 and in 1995, be made capable of adapting itself to the changing world that it is intended to serve. [More…]
A few moments ago the AttorneyGeneral was extolling, in the constitutional context, the virtues of flexibility and of having an open mind on change. [More…]
We do not believe that the problems of providing an effective legal aid service will be solved simply by leaving the matter to the States- not because we believe that the attempts made by the States over the years have not contained a great deal of merit and have not contributed a great deal to the provision of legal aid services, but the fact is that the Commonwealth has a direct constitutional legal responsibility in a number of areas. [More…]
Firstly- I invite honourable gentlemen opposite to examine this- there must be serious doubts as to the constitutionality of the functions conferred by the Bill on the Australian Legal Aid Office. [More…]
Certainly the incidental power under the Constitution would be some help in providing a constitutional basis base for the provisions of clause 6 of the Bill. [More…]
Those words in themselves acknowledge the tenuous constitutional base on which this Bill rests. [More…]
For this purpose the Opposition believes that a joint committee of both Houses should consider the important legal, social and constitutional issues involved. [More…]
These raise numbers of legal, social and constitutional questions and the recommendations differ. [More…]
There is a constitutional limitation. [More…]
On the other hand, a State legal aid office can provide assistance right across the board on Federal and State matters for constitutional reasons. [More…]
Within that legal aid commission, which could be an independent commission supported by and set up under State statute and supported by State and Federal money, offices could be set up in which members of the public- our constituents as well as State constituents- could get the legal aid they want without any reference to the constitutional difficulties. [More…]
The Australian Government, therefore, from the outset, made clear its position that the location of the border should be determined by negotiation between the Australian and Papua New Guinea governments, with the Australian Government accepting the responsibility to take account of the constitutional and other interests of the Government of the State of Queensland and particularly to protect the interests of Torres Strait Islanders. [More…]
This is akin to the Attorney-General (Mr Enderby) advocating constitutional anarchy. [More…]
Do not tell me that one man like J.C. himself can walk into the position of Prime Minister and suddenly solve it, absolving himself of all constitutional requirements. [More…]
By following a course of constitutional anarchy he has jeopardised relations not just between a Labor Government and a Country Party-Liberal Party Government in Queensland, but between 2 countries, Papua New Guinea and Australia. [More…]
The effect of this Bill will be to give the Australian Legal Aid Office, which is already operating, a statutory status to enable it to withstand any assaults which may be made on it on constitutional grounds. [More…]
He says that this is clearly within constitutional power. [More…]
Intelligible political usage would show that it cannot be rejected in the Senate without bringing the processes of constitutional government into disrepute and disarray. [More…]
When it suits honourable members opposite they are the people who claim to be the espousers of sound constitutional principle and democracy. [More…]
At the moment, this nation faces a certain difficulty- a constitutional crisis, if honourable members like- and the question that arises is: Who governs Australia? [More…]
Surely everybody here respects constitutional usage. [More…]
I am firmly of the view that this very necessary need can only be achieved effectively if all its aspects are brought together under one authority which has the constitutional power to set and enforce these national standards. [More…]
He wrote: … the newspaper demand that you should dismiss a Premier on the ground that there was some reason for believing that he no longer enjoyed the confidence of the electors always seemed to me to be based upon an absolute misconception of the constitutional position of a modern Governor. [More…]
The constitutional authority of a Premier rests almost entirely upon his success at a general election, and upon his continued authority in the popularly elected House, and not upon irresponsible speculations as to whether he would have lost his majority if the Constitution had provided for annual and not triennial elections. [More…]
It would, in my respectful opinion (and in this I am expressing the majority view among reputable lawyers in this State), have been nothing short of a calamity if during the very great constitutional crisis, New South Wales had possessed a Governor who had subordinated the constitutional authority of a Governor to the purely opportunist demands of those who found the constitutional restrictions irksome. [More…]
The Minister then stated that the provisions in this Bill relating to the off-shore industry are thus placed on the same constitutional basis as the Seas and Submerged Lands Act. [More…]
I know that previously there has been a gap in the constitutional power relating to authority; in these off-shore waters. [More…]
The Royal Commission on the Constitution in 1928 recommended constitutional changes in this area and there was a full exposition of the difficulties in this area by the Senate Select Committee on Off-shore Petroleum Resources. [More…]
One of the reasons for the unfortunate legal state of affairs in which the Australian shipper finds himself is lack of clear-cut Constitutional division of power as regards shipping. [More…]
It is rather ironic that this Bill in respect of off-shore vessels and other structures should proceed upon the basis of the constitutional validity of the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973, which is presently under challenge in the High Court as being beyond the constitutional powers of the Commonwealth. [More…]
It is also ironic that this amendment to the Navigation Act proceeds upon the basis of the constitutional validity of the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act to which I have already referred. [More…]
But it does at least serve to reveal that even he is conscious of the gross violation of constitutional principles involved. [More…]
Because 2 State Premiers flouted another great constitutional convention, the Government now has only 27 senators. [More…]
The years 1975 or 1976 could see the first time in the 75 years during which Australia has had a national Parliament, the first of the 25 occasions on which a Governor-General has put such requests to the State Governors, that a Premier advises a Governor to disregard constitutional practice, to fail in the duty which the Constitution imposes on a Governor. [More…]
At this time particularly when constitutional issues are at stake it ill behoves any representative of the Crown to cast aside the traditions of his office and throw in his lot with one or the other of the political parties in dispute on national issues. [More…]
The House of Representatives is not only the national chamber; it is the democratic chamber; it is the grand depository and embodiment of the liberal principles of government which pervade the entire constitutional fabric. [More…]
The unbridled ambition of the Leader of the Opposition, a man who has destroyed two friendsone a Prime Minister and the other a Leader of the Opposition- has pushed this country to the brink of the most serious constitutional crisis since Federation. [More…]
There has been an assault on our constitutional convention and a corruption of our parliamentary system. [More…]
More violence has been inflicted on our parliamentary system by the Opposition in the last 12 months than in the rest of our constitutional history. [More…]
It is also coincidentally a constitutional requirement that half the Senate should go to an election some time between now and 30 June 1976. [More…]
Having created the greatest constitutional crisis in Australian history the Opposition has now unleashed forces that nobody can effectively control. [More…]
If ever there has been an outrage against any constitutional provision, this Government has outraged section 57 of the Constitution. [More…]
The last thing I want to say to the honourable gentleman is this: Yesterdy he cited to this House the authority of Sir Robert Menzies in 1932 with respect to the constitutional role of those who hold gubernatorial office. [More…]
Today we stand in the centre of a grave constitutional crisis that threatens to destroy the fragile fabric of the democracy that holds our nation together. [More…]
The forthcoming Senate election is more than a party political contest; it is an election which will call upon the electorate to decide whether a government elected for a constitutional term of 3 years should or should not be allowed to complete its constitutional term. [More…]
If an elected government is not to be permitted to govern for its full constitutional term, why have elections at all? [More…]
The people of Australia must speak out and they must say in a clear unequivocal voice that they want to preserve this system, they want the right to elect the government of their choice and they want that government to be given the specific constitutional tenure of office. [More…]
My final remark is again to express the concern that I expressed during the second reading debate regarding the tenuous constitutional right of the Australian Government to make provision for legal aid. [More…]
However, because of the constitutional limitations of this Parliament, clause 6 of the Bill must limit the granting of legal aid by the Australian Legal Aid Office to matters which come within the lawmaking powers of the Commonwealth or to matters incidental to those powers. [More…]
It is within the constitutional power of this Parliament to make laws with respect to banking. [More…]
Of course, the constitutional doubt over the validity of this legislation can be easily avoided by the Government, as the Attorney-General knows, by the making of grants under section 96 to the States in order to build upon that foundation to which I have already referred of the legal aid services provided by the States in co-operation with the law societies in each State. [More…]
As we know, many constitutional matters have been raised in recent days. [More…]
I do want to raise a matter which I think can throw very grave doubt upon the effectiveness of clause 26 of the Bill and that is the constitutional validity of this clause. [More…]
There can be no question about the constitutional validity of that provision with regard to federal courts or courts in a territory. [More…]
But I do seriously question the constitutional validity of it with respect to courts of a State. [More…]
It seems to me, Mr Chairman, that it comes back to this assertion of a constitutional power in the Commonwealth to be able to declare, notwithstanding the law of a State, that a person employed under Commonwealth law can practise as a solicitor. [More…]
With regard to that constitutional proposition I think there is grave doubt about it. [More…]
So desperate for power is the Opposition that it is prepared to plunge Australia into a constitutional crisis of frightening proportions. [More…]
They said the move was a constitutional impropriety of the first order. [More…]
Further, they said that the use of such power by the Senate would be deplorable and would debase the constitutional system. [More…]
Perhaps, after all, the members of the Opposition in this critical situation deserve to be named the political and constitutional barbarians of the 20th century. [More…]
If the Opposition was fair dinkum, it would remove that amendmentthat tag- and let the Senate go to the ballot box in normal circumstances with the normal constitutional steps being taken. [More…]
I challenge the Opposition to produce constitutional authorities with one-tenth of the authority of Professor Sawer, Professor Zines, Professor Castles or Professor Howard. [More…]
The reduction of an ultimate constitutional sanction- if indeed it should ever be used at all- to the level of a routine political tactic is a debasing of our constitutional system and the democratic values it is supposed to protect. [More…]
2) 1975-76 for the reasons given in the Senate resolution is not contemplated within the terms of the Constitution and is contrary to established constitutional convention, and therefore requests the Senate to re-consider and pass the Bills without delay. [More…]
The present crisis caused by the action of the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Malcolm Fraser) and those in the Senate who have been prepared to follow him is in the grand line of the great constitutional struggles of the past- of 1640, 1688, 1 832 and 1 9 10. [More…]
A constitutional principle of fundamental ‘ importance to the future of parliamentary ( democracy would be breached if the Opposition in the Senate were now allowed to reject these j Bills. [More…]
Like all truly great constitutional principles it is at heart very simple. [More…]
This must be emphasised: In this grave constitutional crisis, this crucial dispute between the 2 Houses, none of the electoral options available are in any way relevant to the issue at stake. [More…]
It would be surrender to the unconstitutional pretensions of the Senate to make or break governments formed in the House of Representatives. [More…]
We will not sell out the constitutional rights of this House. [More…]
It is the very definition of a constitutional monarchy that the monarch acts on the advice of the Ministers constitutionally assigned to him. [More…]
Nor is it the function of the constitutional monarch, or the viceroy, to act as arbiter between rival parties, still less to take advice from the leaders of both sides with a view to forming a conclusion of his own. [More…]
The Senaterequest me to do, I should reject their advice - The Ministers’ advicesupported as it is by the considered opinion of the House of Representatives, and should act upon the equally considered contrary opinion of the Senate, my conduct would, I fear, even on ordinary constitutional grounds, amount to an open personal preference of one House against the other- in other words, an act of partisanship. [More…]
To pressure a Governor-General to intervene for partisan advantage in a dispute between the 2 Houses and contrary to the advice of the Ministers constitutionally assigned to him would be to incite yet another constitutional breach. [More…]
A constitutional principle of fundamental importance to the future of parliamentary government is being violated by the blocking of Supply by the Opposition in the Senate. [More…]
I shall tender no advice for an election for either House or both Houses until this constitutional issue is settled. [More…]
Basic constitutional conventions, every bit as important as what is written in our constitution, would become meaningless. [More…]
Internationally Australia’s standing as a stable parliamentary democracy, as a constitutional nation would disappear forever. [More…]
The message from the Senate constitutes an act of constitutional aggression by the Senate. [More…]
In the words of Lincoln when he was trying to avert the greatest constitutional convulsion in the history of democracy, let me say to the Leader of the Opposition and his followers: [More…]
There are no limitations on the Senate on the use of its constitutional powers. [More…]
They did not deny the constitutional right to do it but they did make a political judgment. [More…]
We would be derelict in our responsibility to the people of Australia if we did not exert all the influence available to us through the proper constitutional processes not to say who will govern this country but to give the average men and women of Australia an opportunity to vote- a basic right of people in a democracy and a basic right that this Prime Minister seeks to deny. [More…]
It is his duty to get advice from the Prime Minister but it also is his duty to get advice from the greatest constitutional advisers of this country. [More…]
I wish I could join with the honourable lady in regarding this debate as a debate which were to be restricted solely to consideration of the constitutional structure of this country and the relationship of the 2 Houses one to the other. [More…]
If this were a matter of dealing with great constitutional principle that would be enough to attract our vigour and our attention, but the issue facing this country at this time is whether Australia can tolerate for another 18 months a government that is deeply steeped in dishonesty. [More…]
A Senate rejection of supply would place at risk the maintenance of constitutional government in this country. [More…]
He is a front bench member and one whom we thought had political integrity and who would stand up and support the constitutional process of Australia. [More…]
Outside Parliament House today they regimented them in their hundreds- or their thousands as they say- but when the Liberals got to the meeting they found that the people were all in support of the Labor Government and the constitutional stand we are taking. [More…]
This constitutional issue transcends all politics. [More…]
There is no constitutional crisis in this country at all. [More…]
What I am saying is that honourable members opposite have been creating fear in this community when there is no constitutional crisis. [More…]
If I wanted to I could quote 10 or 15 leading constitutional authorities. [More…]
It ill behoves those who tear up every constitutional convention and every tenet of political and constitutional decency to have the gall, the nerve and the colossal hide to talk about Labor larrikinism Surely if there is any larrikinism in this Parliament it has been shown every day of last week - [More…]
The most significant thing about his speech is that he left out the basis of constitutional precedent for his argument. [More…]
It is impossible and it is impracticable for the constitutional provisions for a double dissolution to be implemented in terms of a Budget. [More…]
I use for the basis of that view the fact that the original Constitutional Convention had before it a specific proposal that the Senate should have power to reject a Budget. [More…]
The Bill should be seen as a mechanical measure to meet the legal and constitutional requirements associated with financing the Government’s defence transactions. [More…]
Honourable members opposite talk about a constitutional crisis provided for by the Senate. [More…]
As is well known, I have for a long time abstained from entering into any current political controversy, but the circumstances today are such as to compel me to break that silence for, quite simply, I think more nonsense has been talked about the constitutional position of the Senate than I can comfortably listen to or read. [More…]
This is a constitutional crisis of the highest order. [More…]
A lot has been said about the constitutional background to this situation. [More…]
When we see an advertisement -obviously a political advertisement and a campaign advertisement- saying that the constitutional powers of this Parliament are being attacked, because the newspapers of Australia want it, we realise the need for legislation of the type about which the honourable member has spoken. [More…]
Even last night, I understand, because of the support given and because of the money being spent the Leader of the Opposition was on the telephone to a senior executive from News Limited giving that gentleman a personal account of his talks with the Governor-General on the constitutional crisis. [More…]
It is a notorious fact that the Senate is prepared to corrupt three-quarters of a century of constitutional convention and has now decided to block the passage of Appropriation Bill (No. [More…]
Not once did he discourage those reports; in fact by his behaviour and comments he gave every cause for journalists and the public to believe that he would not reject the Budget, that he was committed to a proper, upright and responsible course of conduct consistent with constitutional convention. [More…]
This constitutional convention has been clearly recognised and has been unbroken in Australian Federal politics since Federation. [More…]
No one should under-estimate the determination of the honourable member for Wannon to become Prime Minister, by fair constitutional means or foul. [More…]
It is to be sincerely hoped that when these Bills reach the Senate on this occasion they will be passed in accord with proper constitutional convention and a real sense of responsibility to the Australian community. [More…]
The Treasurer has now moved the weight of his mind from monetary to constitutional matters. [More…]
What are the fundamental constitutional principles to which the Treasurer sought to refer in brief? [More…]
In accordance with long established constitutional practice which the Prime Minister has himself acknowledged in the past the Government must then resign. [More…]
It is not a constitutional crisis that we face at the moment Let no one be misled by those who say that it is a constitutional crisis. [More…]
The constitutional position is quite clear. [More…]
There may be a political crisis; it is certainly not a constitutional crisis. [More…]
I heard a very virtuous speech last night or yesterday afternoon and I was rather surprised at the deliverer of it who paid no attention whatever to the constitutional issue, and he ought to be an authority on the constitutional issue. [More…]
Is there something unconstitutional already? [More…]
I still hope that there are some in this House who will assert the rights of this place and who will understand that the Opposition is bringing the constitutional arrangements into chaos. [More…]
If the Opposition brings chaos are things going to remain constitutional? [More…]
I found that one or two pious writers of leading articles and editorials took my two or three lines out of context and that is why today I have tried to suggest that it would have been better if I had said unusual, unconventional or unprecedented instead of unconstitutional. [More…]
Every member of this House and every student of constitutional and legal practice know that the House of Lords is an undemocratic, hereditary body, not elected. [More…]
I think it is of some significance that during the series of debates we have had in this chamber during the past week on a matter involving constitutional considerations to my knowledge we have not had one contribution in any of those debates from the Government’s principal legal adviser, the Attorney-General. [More…]
Yet the first item, the first Bill which the Opposition delayed in the Senate in respect to this constitutional crisis was a Bill the purpose of which is to provide finance for our defence expenditure. [More…]
(Quorum formed) As I said, the Opposition, which gives great lip service to the issue of defence, chose as the first item of legislation which it delayed in the Senate in respect of this constitutional crisis that we have today a Bill to provide finance for our defence expenditure. [More…]
We should look back to the original history of the Constitution and to the constitutional conventions during the 1 890s when this Constitution was founded. [More…]
But a solution to this dichotomy is not to be found either, as I said earlier, in the Commonwealth vacating the field or in the Commonwealth unilaterally adopting a position of doubtful constitutional validity which creates confusion by duplicating areas already covered by State law. [More…]
In the meantime they ought to face up to the real issue that is confronting this country- the constitutional crisis for which they are responsible. [More…]
The following restrictions will come into force forthwith and will apply for the duration of the present constitutional crisis. [More…]
It is one measure which is needed because of the unprincipled, unprecedented and unwarranted action by the leadership of the Opposition, who have made a grab for power, and of course by the change of events in Australian constitutional history. [More…]
The amendment goes further and charges the Opposition with putting the living standards of the needy in great jeopardy because of the constitutional crisis which it has promoted in this Parliament and in this country today. [More…]
To propose a resolution in this House stating that our problems of inflation are due to economic mismanagement is spurious nonsense, as it is nonsense for the Leader of the Opposition ( Mr Malcolm Fraser) to give as one of his main reasons for promoting the constitutional crisis from which we are suffering in this country today, the state of the economy of this country. [More…]
They would recognise not only the humbug of this motion but also the humbug of the excuses that have been used to promote this constitutional crisis- this crisis which is putting the living standards of needy people in jeopardy right now. [More…]
There is no constitutional crisis. [More…]
That there is no convention and never has been any convention that the Senate shall not exercise its constitutional powers. [More…]
f ) That the Senate affirms that it has the constitutional right to act as it did and now that there is a disagreement between the Houses of the Parliament and a position may arise where the normal operations of Government cannot continue a remedy is presently available to the Government under section 57 of the Constitution to resolve the deadlock. [More…]
The best answer that I think can be given to the honourable gentleman’s question about the capacity of Mr Gruzman to express the opinion that he expressed on the constitutional crisis was delivered in the Australian newspaper by Professor Blackshield who gave that answer in a very learned article published in the Australian newspaper this morning, I think, and who on Sunday gave a talk in the capacity of Guest of Honour for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. [More…]
Professor Blackshield went on to offer the opinion that a Senate refusing Supply or threatening to refuse Supply in these circumstances would be acting unconstitutionally. [More…]
It is of interest that in the last few days we have seen other correspondence on the same subject from eminent Australian jurists, eminent Australian academics and eminent Australian constitutional lawyers. [More…]
again asserts that the action of the Senate in delaying the passage of the two Appropriation Bills is contrary to established constitutional convention; [More…]
The Opposition in the Senate has failed to pass these Bills, notwithstanding that the nation is now entering the third week of grave constitutional crisis. [More…]
In the constitutional term, the amendment would then have passed in the negative. [More…]
Moreover, it violates an established constitutional convention. [More…]
At question time today, reference was made to the letter that Sir Richard Eggleston of the Australian Industrial Court, a distinguished constitutional lawyer, expressed on this matter. [More…]
The House of Representatives is not only the national chamber; it is also the democratic chamber; it is the grand depository and embodiment of the liberal principles of government which pervade the entire constitutional fabric. [More…]
It would be to reward the violation of the respective constitutional roles of the 2 Houses. [More…]
It would be to surrender to the unconstitutional pretensions of the Senate to make or break governments formed in the House of Representatives. [More…]
We will not sell out the constitutional rights of this House. [More…]
This question of principle, of constitutional propriety, is not a matter between the House of Representatives and the Senate; it is a matter between the rights of the electors of Australia and a government which demonstrably has failed to fill the trust placed upon it. [More…]
There is no need for me to go through the Constitutional argument. [More…]
The first is no less than Sir Robert Menzies, a distinguished former Prime Minister, a distinguished constitutional lawyer and a man who, on occasions as [More…]
It is important that we realise that Sir Robert is not the only constitutional lawyer to hold this point of view. [More…]
There are no limitations on the Senate in the use of its constitutional powers, except the limitations imposed by discretion and reason. [More…]
Mr Whitlam had spoken in this vein and in support of the constitutional power of the Senate at other times and in other places. [More…]
It is not a matter of constitutional propriety, for constitutional propriety is the maintenance of the right to vote. [More…]
If the Opposition is so convinced that it has public opinion on its side, why are the Liberal and Country Party Premiers falling over themselves to say that if the constitutional half Senate election is held a bit early- it is quite a constitutional time to do so- they will not issue the writs? [More…]
I stress that the Senate has carried out none of the constitutional functions which are legitimately reposed in it by the Constitution. [More…]
They are there because of a violation of a constitutional convention which began when proportional representation was introduced to the Senate. [More…]
There is only one way in which this constitutional problem can be resolved, and that is by the Senate being sensible. [More…]
If the constitutional travesty had not been perpetrated in Queensland by appointing to a Labor seat a nonLabor man, the Opposition could not have done what it is doing now. [More…]
In the name of political expediency, Opposition members are prepared to subvert the very constitutional framework that they claim to be seeking to preserve. [More…]
I would only add that the legal advice to which the honourable member’s present question refers, concerned a question of constitutional power. [More…]
But the question is why has this matter suddenly erupted in the Parliament at a time when the Parliament is in the grip of constitutional crisis, at a time when the Opposition has a special visitor- a privileged visitor; its star performer in Australia- Mr Khemlani. [More…]
In the meantime, while the Opposition is trying to evade the real issues which are convulsing this country- the constitutional crisisand while the loans affair drags on in its wearisome and uninformative way, the only casualties of the Opposition’s irresponsible behaviour are the ardours of people crushed by the false innuendoes of the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the loss of economic momentum which this nation is suffering. [More…]
Then, realising the determination of the Leader of the Opposition in casting aside proper conduct in the face of constitutional convention established over 75 years, the honourable member for Moreton jumped on the bandwagon because there was a purse of profit, as a possible Minister of the Crown, to be picked up there. [More…]
The real issue in this country at the present time is the constitutional confrontation which has been thrown up by the Opposition in the Senate and which, in its own way, is as powerful, as significant and as historically important as the confrontation between the House of Commons and the House of Lords over the Parliament Bill in 1911. [More…]
No one has corrupted constitutional convention more than it has. [More…]
There is only one way in which this issue can be solved and that is by the legal constitutional and logical way- an election of this House. [More…]
The real danger to Australian democracy does not come from the way the opposition in the Senate has decided to use its dusty constitutional powers. [More…]
-For the information of honourable members I present the minutes containing the resolutions agreed to at the meetings of the Australian Constitutional Convention held in Sydney from 3 to 7 September 1973 and in Melbourne from 24 to 26 September 1975. [More…]
The rates of salaries and allowances forjudges of the Family Court, which are prescribed by the Act in accordance with constitutional requirements, have fallen behind the rates for judges of Federal courts of comparable status. [More…]
Special grants will be used where necessary to initiate programs in agreed areas of national need, to encourage innovation and to meet special situations, but not to make inroads into the constitutional responsibilities of the States. [More…]
In his obsession to cling to power at all costs, the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) is willing to defy all constitutional processes, to wreck democratic institutions and deliberately to inflict unnecessary hardship on the community. [More…]
To argue that the use of this constitutional power to bring a government to the people will create unstable government for the long term future is deliberately to distort the issue. [More…]
The Senate not only has the constitutional power to refuse or to fail to pass a money Bill; it is, when circumstances justify it, the voice and instrument of the Australian people. [More…]
A government could not reasonably ask for Supply to cover a half Senate election for the following cogent reasons: It would be asking an Opposition, which has properly used its constitutional powers to bring about a general election, to support it in its gamble to avert such an election. [More…]
He has one constitutional course available to him- to seek a dissolution under section 57 of the Constitution. [More…]
If they reject the Budget other constitutional processes can flow. [More…]
There is no need for the community to suffer the disadvantages, discomfort and, in some cases, the quite serious financial penalties which are going to arise, especially in the corporate sector, if the Opposition in the Senate is to be reponsible and is to adhere to constitutional convention. [More…]
No lesser an authority than Sir Richard Eggleston, a very distinguished academic, constitutional and forensic lawyer has recently pointed that out in correspondence in the newspapersthat is, there should be no assumption that the Senate is entitled to do things which it is not expressly given the right to do under section 53 of the Constitution. [More…]
My one regret is that with his brilliance and his knowledge of constitutional law- he was a former Solicitor-General- he will probably not remain in that position when the Opposition Parties regain office shortly. [More…]
Under the normal sittings that were planned for the House the Bill would not have been dealt with until the week commencing 19 November, but because of the stupidity over the constitutional crisis the matters set down for later in the parliamentary session have had to be brought forward. [More…]
2) 1975-76 for the reasons given in the Senate Resolutions is not contemplated within the terms of the Constitution and is contrary to established constitutional convention; [More…]
In passing, I observe that one of the ‘constitutionalists’, the law and order men, the men of principle, in the Opposition demonstrated his fine appreciation of constitutional principle by saying that this Government’s term of 3 years is already up! [More…]
Opposition members are coming to the realisation that their carefully orchestrated attempt to subvert constitutional principles and propriety is not paying off as they expected. [More…]
To give in to this blackmail would be to abandon these constitutional principles. [More…]
I shall not advise the Governor-General to dissolve both ‘Houses at the behest of this tainted Senate in which the Opposition parties have a chance majority or can muster half the votes because of the death of Senator Milliner and the constitutional impropriety of the Queensland Government in failing to replace him with a nominee of my Party. [More…]
Behind the present constitutional struggle is the wider political question of the way in which Australia ‘s whole political future will develop. [More…]
279..In other words, the Senate is again asserting that it has the constitutional right to act in the manner in which it is acting; [More…]
I have already referred the House to a letter to the Age of 27 October from Sir Richard Eggelston, a distinguished and eminent member of the Constitutional Bar before his appointment to the Australian Industrial Court by the then Menzies Government in 1960. [More…]
Mr Whitlam and against all the constitutional authorities. [More…]
This statement was that I, the Minister for Health, had misled Parliament with an unfounded claim that quarantine services would be endangered should the constitutional crisis in Canberra remain unresolved. [More…]
The only ones that the Australian Government has created and which are not subject to all these mystic controls that the Opposition is always imagining are the Australian National University- which is as free and independent as any other university, except that it has considerably more money- and the Canberra College of Advanced Education, where we have direct constitutional power, none of which has been assumed to do any controlling. [More…]
The first function of the people who will form the Council whose constitutional membership we are now arranging, will be to administer Aboriginal land. [More…]
That is a very wide constitutional phrase although it may have some restriction in regard to land trusts and so on. [More…]
The Government is more and more characterised by efforts to throw off the constitutional restraints. [More…]
There has been a refusal to recognise the constitutional right and position of the Senate; a refusal to recognise that Australia is a federation and despite the best efforts of this Government will remain a federation. [More…]
Through the actions of this Leader of the Opposition, this nation has been plunged into an unprecedented constitutional crisis. [More…]
Yet through all the months during which he was working himself up to take the plunge, through all the weeks of the crisis he has created, he has never before taken the course which would bring on a debate of no confidence in or censure of the Government or on any Minister- on this issue, on the Budget itself or on any of the pseudo-issues which were to be used to justify the extraordinary conduct of the Opposition and the unconstitutional conduct of the Senate. [More…]
The issue at stake is the basic constitutional rights of this House. [More…]
We shall do all in our constitutional and legal power to do that- to prevent hardship, to protect the economy. [More…]
On the other hand, for as long as the Senate continues its strike, the Government will do all in its power- its legal and constitutional power- to ease the impact of the Opposition’s unprincipled, unprecedented and unconstitutional action. [More…]
2) 1975-76 in breach of constitutional practices which have endured throughout the previous history of the Australian Parliament, and [More…]
We are concerned about chaos being caused, but we believe that there is a constitutional process- a Westminster process- that has been accepted through British parliaments over the years; that is, once money is cut off, the Government goes to the people and lets the people decide. [More…]
Today we have a constitutional crisis. [More…]
It means that he will smash the greatest safeguard that we have against bad government, the only safeguard that we have under our constitutional set-up. [More…]
How can a perfectly legal, proper constitutional action cause financial chaos? [More…]
I want to say to begin with that this issue today is a constitutional issue of great importance. [More…]
When the Opposition brings that situation to be, where does the unconstitutionality or the illegality begin and where does the process end? [More…]
There have been occasions, unfortunately, in British constitutional history when Governors-General have sought to act beyong their power. [More…]
That is His Excellency- to find a democratic and constitutional solution to the current crisis which will permit the people of Australia to decide as soon as possible what should be the outcome of the deadlock which developed over supply between the two Houses of Parliament and between the Government and the Opposition parties. [More…]
Because of the federal nature of our Constitution and because of its provisions the Senate undoubtedly has constitutional power to refuse or defer Supply to the Government. [More…]
If a Prime Minister refuses to resign or to advise an election, and this is the case with Mr Whitlam, my constitutional authority and duty require me to do what I have now done- to withdraw his Commission- and to invite the Leader of the Opposition to form a caretaker governmentthat is one that makes no appointments or dismissals and initiates no policies, until a general election is held. [More…]
The general policy is that the Australian Government, in accordance with its constitutional rights in relation to property used for Australian Government purposes, does not pay rates on such property. [More…]
Can the Attorney give an undertaking that the Australian Legal Aid Office will not be abolished without there having been held beforehand an inquiry by a joint committee of both Houses of the Parliament to consider the important legal, social and constitutional issues involved? [More…]
There is no constitutional authority for the Commission to act as the executive arm in the economic policies of this or any other government. [More…]
Its constitutional authority begins and ends in the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes and any attempt to impose upon the Commission something beyond that is not only wrong but also unconstitutional, invalid and should not be tolerated. [More…]
I wonder how in the future constitutional usage and practice will be taught in Australia after what happened on 1 1 November. [More…]
I tried to suggest early in my speech that common sense- surely common sense is an essential part of the operation of constitutional governmentwould say in the latter quarter of the twentieth century that Senates cannot reject money Bills either. [More…]
He did not understand what ought to be the constitutional, commonsense working rules for a place like this. [More…]
It is outrageous because it strikes at the root of the whole of our constitutional system. [More…]
The Government apparently did not know or, as is more likely, did not care that the constitutional charter of the Commission is the -prevention and settlement of industrial disputes. [More…]
They cannot seem to drag themselves forward into 1976 and probably the next couple of years in this Parliament will be spent by these members continuing to bring forward the constitutional questions which arose towards the end of last year. [More…]
The entire constitutional upheaval that this country witnessed, the personal bickering between families and friends, was simply the result of a greed for power that could not wait 1 8 months for a legitimate election. [More…]
While I was there in the anteroom, waiting upon the Governor-General and the then Prime Minister who were having discussions, the GovernorGeneral ‘s private secretary, Mr David Smith, said in conversation to me that they already had a plan to solve the constitutional crisis. [More…]
A lot has been said over the months about the events prior to and on 1 1 November during a period when fundamental constitutional conventions which form the very framework of our democracy were broken. [More…]
Like it or not, no matter how honourable members opposite try to gild the lily, the facts are that a government was removed- picked off- right in the middle of its term by methods which are not in accordance with the normal requirements of the Constitution of Australia and certainly the constitutional conventions which apply in Australia. [More…]
Although I feel as strongly as any other objective and perceptive person in this country about the constitutional issue which resulted in my Party’s losing government, nevertheless I feel that, for obvious reasons, I should address myself mainly to that part of the GovernorGeneral’s Speech relating to our economy. [More…]
The recovery would be stimulated also by the improvement in consumer confidence consequent upon the resolution of the constitutional crisis, the impact of easy money and lower interest rates and the flow on of high levels of activity in housing to consumer expenditure on associated items. [More…]
They tend to side-step the issue and talk about some supposed constitutional crisis that is now in the past. [More…]
The Privileges Committee, in my view, should be asked to establish whether the Governor-General fulfilled the constitutional requirement of section 62 of the Constitution which says that there shall be a Federal Executive Council to advise the Governor-General in the Government of the Commonwealth. [More…]
It is said that the decision of the people on 13 December resolved the constitutional issue relating to the respective powers of the 2 Houses- the people ‘s House, or the House of Representatives, and the upper House, or the Senate. [More…]
People did not vote in the main on the constitutional issue. [More…]
The people were led to believe that the decision to sack the Whitlam Government was based on an impartial and proper interpretation of the Constitution and therefore the constitutional powers of the Houses were not an issue at the election. [More…]
Having made those comments I want to say very briefly- I do not claim to be a great constitutional lawyer- that 14 years in practice has persuaded me that the real lawyers in Australia are completely right when they say that the Governor-General’s decision was correct. [More…]
We have had enough of the claptrap and nonsense that he acted unconstitutionally. [More…]
But as things are I think it is incumbent on me, having sat here now for a couple of days listening to the vilest attacks I have ever heard on constitutional government, on the person of the Governor-General and on everything that we regard as important in this country, to say that I have not yet heard anything solid apart from the remarks of the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) who in answer to a question rebutted the attacks. [More…]
With few exceptions- I think the honourable member for Wills (Mr Bryant) is one- Opposition members have mounted a calculated and deliberate attack on constitutional authority. [More…]
It is faintly amusing to me, with my particular memories, to hear the death bed attachment of the Opposition to constitutional forms of Government. [More…]
Yet every honourable member opposite has devoted his time to being an amateur constitutional lawyer. [More…]
I shall deal later with the constitutional issues raised by the events of last November. [More…]
It is enough to say now that every act of this Government must be judged in the light of its record- a record of constitutional violence, of obstruction, of contempt for democratic principles. [More…]
Not one constitutional authority who has ever written on the subject would not conclude that in ultimate terms there is a reserve power of the Crown available and, I say to my honourable friend, available in the United Kingdom as it is here in Australia. [More…]
I feel humble because this House is part of our parliamentary institutions and system of constitutional government with foundations going back more than 1000 years. [More…]
I believe that the less our system of government, based on constitutional monarchy, is tampered with the better. [More…]
Stripped of all the constitutional requirements, stripped of all the clever terminology that lawyers produce- I say that as I look at the honourable member for Parramatta (Mr Ruddock)- that is the way that millions of Australians understood the situation. [More…]
It is almost as tiresome as the discussion on constitutional rights. [More…]
Despite all the red herrings about constitutional crises, the Australian electorate on 13 December judged it on its capacity to manage the economy. [More…]
After all, what difference would one more constitutional proposition by his Leader have made? [More…]
the Speech makes no reference to the need for action to ensure that there cannot be a recurrence of the Constitutional crisis which threatens the continuation of the Australian Parliamentary system and [More…]
What I do want to say is that there is an attitude amongst honourable members that this matter is over and done with, that a decision by the people electing a government is sufficient answer to the constitutional question and the question of how this Parliament should operate. [More…]
Other questions, I believe, need to be asked with regard to the constitutional requirements. [More…]
But, with respect, it does seem to be yet another instalment of the continuing whinge about the great constitutional issue that rocked Australia last year. [More…]
That is what the constitutional issue is and that is where the breach of the Constitution by the previous [More…]
I want to refer to an extract which seems to me to sum up the whole constitutional issue. [More…]
Before one can discuss the argument contained in the amendment, one must understand that they are the basic principles upon which the Australian constitutional and parliamentary system exists. [More…]
In his amendment the honourable member for Scullin went on to say that: … the speech makes no reference to the need for action to ensure that there cannot be a recurrence of the Constitutional crisis which threatens the continuation of the Australian Parliamentary system . [More…]
This is one of the reasons why an early election was forced by the misuse of the Senate, by the abuse of constitutional conventions. [More…]
The constitutional crisis led to its achievement of government. [More…]
I do not intend to canvass the activities of the GovernorGeneral but I want to say in all sincerity that somebody somewhere along the line, whether on this side of the House or on the Government side, will have to face up to their constitutional responsibilities. [More…]
Much has been said about the constitutional crisis and, whilst I do not intend to spend much time on it, I certainly endorse what has been said by my colleagues about what happened in Australia on 1 1 November. [More…]
I come back to the constitutional crisis that erupted following deferral of the Budget. [More…]
At this moment I beg all members of the Rhodesian Government to try at once to solve the constitutional problem because there is very little time left. [More…]
The undertaking- I have not got the precise words- is that both sides will consider their constitutional processes if a threat develops. [More…]
It was a very illuminating study of United States constitutional processes in foreign policy. [More…]
But there was one other factor that France had to face, and it comes to this constitutional process. [More…]
But statements still tend to be completely overdrawn about the nature of the guarantee that we have from the United States when all that we have is an undertaking to consult the constitutional processes. [More…]
For all those who wish to be too dogmatic about consulting the constitutional processes, I can do nothing better than to recommend my youthful textbook Treaties Defeated by the Senate. [More…]
Every constitutional convention by which parliamentary democracy can function has been broken. [More…]
As a member State of the Federation which he helped to safeguard against the constitutional violations of the previous Government, Western Australia is grateful and would welcome and honour a vice-regal visit at any time in the future. [More…]
But we do not have that right, and it is only because of the constitutional restrictions that are placed upon the Parliament that the sole right to determine industrial relations resides with the Arbitration Commission. [More…]
It knows that it is only because of a quirk of fate that it is in the position of being the sole arbiter and that the Government has no constitutional right. [More…]
the Speech makes no reference to the need for action to ensure that there will not be a recurrence of the constitutional crisis which threatens the continuation of the Australian parliamentary system and [More…]
I do not presume to be a constitutional lawyer and I do not pretend to speak as one. [More…]
I now refer to the second part of the amendment to the effect that the Governor-General’s Speech makes no reference to the need for action to ensure that there cannot be a recurrence of the constitutional crisis. [More…]
Either those on the other side believe that there was no constitutional crisis; either they believe that the GovernorGeneral at any time can willy-nilly dismiss the government of the day- a government properly elected, properly in office, never having acted illegally- or they must concede that there was a constitutional crisis that had to be resolved by the Governor-General. [More…]
If they believe- from the words of my friends in the National Country Party, or whatever that party calls itself this week- that there was a constitutional crisis, it seems to me that they ought to set about doing something to correct that situation. [More…]
Part of the burden of the amendment is associated with the financial preeminence of the House of Representatives, the recent constitutional crisis and the events which led up to it. [More…]
The constitutional procedures which led to the events of 11 November make this Parliament redundant. [More…]
However, for a long while my view has been that in respect of our relationships with the other place we should have amended the Constitution so that the other House can defer matters only for a period of time, such as is the case in Britain, I understand, or more appropriately in view of the relationships inside the constitutional processes so that there could be joint sittings as the honourable member for Burke (Mr Keith Johnson) mentioned this afternoon. [More…]
Just as we find ourselves bedevilled by the constitutional processes of the last century now, it will happen to everybody else in the long run. [More…]
I suggest that we get together on the questions of constitutional reform, the supremacy of this Parliament and the pre-eminence of the House of Representatives. [More…]
So I assume now it is not so much the procedure, it is not so much the intent behind these Loan Bills as the Party which happens to be in government at a particular time and we having been in government for 3 years had had a fair share of government after 23 years of opposition and it was appropriate to abuse, misuse, distort, destroy and subject to the most grave violence the constitutional and parliamentary conventions and procedures of this country to grab at office resolutely but corruptly. [More…]
I point out to members of this House quite seriously that if we continue with a situation in which the authority of this House on financial matters is non-existent, or is so flimsy that it can be overcome not by the defeat of requests for funds but by the refusal to consideror, to put it in terms which members on the other side of the House would use in respect of employers or employees, if the Senate goes on strike and refuses to carry out its constitutional functions- and the person who for the time being happens to be the Governor-General of Australia is brought on to the Senate ‘s side of the argument, the power of this House disappears. [More…]
I know that paragraph (b) of the amendment does refer to the constitutional crisis, but I suggest to the honourable member for Melbourne that he is covering and canvassing what happened in the debate which took place in this chamber today. [More…]
The situation is that so long as you do not refer to the debate this morning you can refer to the subject of the constitutional crisis. [More…]
Honourable members opposite will have to examine their consciences to determine how much and for what reasons they have had to modify over the past couple of years their previous understanding of accepted constitutional practice in Australia. [More…]
Constitutional amendment is an urgent necessity in Australia so that unwritten conventions are spelt out and dubious discretions removed from our Constitution. [More…]
I notice that in all the speeches that have been made by the new members and by the older members, no reference has been made to the constitutional crisis and the role of the Governor-General. [More…]
We have not said that in future as a result of the actions that the present Government took in 1974 and 1975 and inherent in all the threats since January 1973 we in the Labor Party are going to change our approach to constitutional issues and say that both Houses are equal. [More…]
Clearly they want to forget their acts of constitutional violence and their action in discarding the conventional rules of political behaviour in this country and, more especially, they want the Australian people to forget them too. [More…]
The first, in 1973, Road Safety, a National Authority, The Constitutional Position, Statistical Needs, highlighted the national nature of many aspects of road safety. [More…]
The Constitutional Position. [More…]
The Constitutional Position. [More…]
The reason for that is that there was another committee which virtually duplicated the movements of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, and that was the Committee on the Constitutional Development of the Northern Territory. [More…]
I was a member of the Committee on the Constitutional Development of the Northern Territory and I used to find that both bodies were operating in the same area, covering a sixth of Australia, at the same time. [More…]
But the Assembly has not yet been granted any constitutional responsibility. [More…]
Let us face it: The Assembly had been elected for 13 months during the term of the Labor Government and it did not give the Assembly constitutional responsibility either. [More…]
Certain constitutional difficulties are involved because this chamber just cannot keep on increasing by one or two members at a time. [More…]
Will he have discussions with officers of his Department about the ways in which the constitutional powers of this Parliament relating to corporations can be used to establish standard accounting procedures throughout Australia so as to restore the confidence of investors for which the Government constantly professes such concern? [More…]
I and other Opposition speakers pointed out during a recent urgency debate on the economy that all the measures taken by this Government have imperilled- severely jeopardisedthe recovery planned in the 1975-76 Budget, which plans were seen to be working in spite of the hampering of the constitutional crisis. [More…]
The Speech makes no reference to the need for action to ensure there cannot be a recurrence of the Constitutional crisis which threatens the continuation of the Australian Parliamentary system, . [More…]
I do not want to get too far into the whole question of the constitutional crisis but what I should like to deal with is the question as to whether there ought to be a threat against persons who wish to discuss the need for action. [More…]
I think it is important that if there is to be discussion of the constitutional crisis which occurred last year, that discussion ought to be allowed to range as widely as possible. [More…]
Paragraph (b) reads: the Speech makes no reference to the need for action to ensure that there cannot be a recurrence of the Constitutional crisis which threatens the continuation of the Australian Parliamentary system. [More…]
Surely, if nearly 50 per cent of the people in a democratic country are not only hopeful but also adamant that another constitutional crisis will not occur, then it is reasonable that a government should acknowledge and dispel such fears. [More…]
the Speech makes no reference to the need for action to ensure that there cannot be a recurrence of the Constitutional crisis which threatens the continuation of the Australian Parliamentary system; and [More…]
I urge our Government to press on with the constitutional reform for the Northern Territory which was offered by the Liberal Party Government in October 1972 and about which there was much pressure by the Labor Party when it was in Opposition. [More…]
Before we get to the aspect of the amendment dealing with the constitutional crisis, I think it is important to mention that the Australian Parliament has an important place in the world of defence and foreign affairs. [More…]
Unless we get it from the point of view of financial resources or financial clout we will not get any other development in respect of legal reform, constitutional reform, foreign affairs policy, trading policies or in any other areas. [More…]
I have learned that a constitutional convention is to be held in Hobart. [More…]
If there is to be a constitutional convention we hope and urge that it will receive support from the Fraser Government because we are aware that the previous convention held in Melbourne last year was boycotted by the present Government. [More…]
That, of course, would require a constitutional amendment. [More…]
That means nothing unless we have constitutional reform and can say: ‘Yes, section 53 really means what it says; you cannot get a double dissolution unless you are talking about delays in legislation other than money Bills, according to the present interpretation of the Constitution’. [More…]
Since Federation the forms, practices and patterns of the Parliament have been built around and founded on the acknowledged and constitutionally prescribed fact that in regard to financial matters the House of Representatives is predominant over the Senate. [More…]
Indeed, it was a widely held belief by eminent constitutional scholars that as the Constitution forbade the Senate authority to amend Bills relating to financial matters this was tantamount to a prohibition on its authority to defer or reject such Bills. [More…]
The conservative parties, only a few months ago in a series of machiavellian manoeuvres, viciously attacked and destroyed, for their own political ends, the equilibrium of the relationship of constitutional convention which for almost 75 years had been maintained between the House of Representatives and the Senate. [More…]
Responsible government is well defined by Professor Geoffrey Sawer, one of Australia’s foremost constitutional authorities. [More…]
He was further denigrated by direct insults to the effect that he was more intent on safeguarding his own future than on exercising his constitutional powers. [More…]
However, the exercise of the power will always be in the discretion of the court and will, of course, be subject to the restraints imposed by the constitutional requirements of the judicial power of the Commonwealth. [More…]
The way things are going on the benches opposite, if the honourable members over there continue to talk about constitutional crises, if they continue to talk about violence which they bring up regularly, and if they continue to knock the farmer, I am afraid they certainly will stay exactly as they are, which is with very small numbers sitting over there on the Opposition benches. [More…]
Does he include amongst them Japan with its constitutional restrictions on the possession of atomic weapons? [More…]
the Speech makes no reference to the need for action to ensure that there cannot be a recurrence of the Constitutional crisis which threatens the continuation of the Australian Parliamentary system . [More…]
the Speech makes no reference to the need for action to ensure that there cannot be a recurrence of the Constitutional crisis which threatens the continuation of the Australian Parliamentary system . [More…]
The time is well and truly overdue to make sure that the constitutional convention of filling a casual vacancy in the Senate with a person of the same political background as the senator to be replaced is not broken. [More…]
That would mean that the constitutional crisis which this country suffered last year could never recur. [More…]
The GovernorGeneral ‘s Speech makes no reference to the need for action to ensure that there cannot be a recurrence of the constitutional crisis which threatens the continuation of the Australian parliamentary system as we know it. [More…]
Yet the constitutional crisis shook the very foundation of the people’s form of government. [More…]
One might have thought he was a better constitutional lawyer than he turned out to be. [More…]
-Well, he has had some experience in government and he is always telling us how he was on the Constitutional Review Committee in the late 1950s and how much he learned about the Constitution. [More…]
In March 1974, Her Majesty was to have made visits to South Australia and Western Australia and was greatly disappointed when her constitutional duties in Britain brought about their cancellation. [More…]
This meant, in effect, that Rafferty’s rules would be observed in all constitutional measures in Poland and that the Polish people would be put formally as well as in fact under the complete domination of the Polish Communist Party. [More…]
He will go out to his residence this afternoon and pay his respects to him, instead of starting to look at the constitutional situation and seeing what has been imposed upon the Australian people. [More…]
The second reading speech states that the Bill is similar in some respects to the Bill introduced last November which lapsed because of the Constitutional coup. [More…]
The most they could do- and this can be done only by ad hoc committees without any constitutional basis- would be to delegate the day to day powers of operation in respect of off-shore exploration and production. [More…]
All it has done has been to remind this House again just how implacably opposed is the Federal Labor Party, and in particular its leader, to decent revenue sharing arrangements between the Commonwealth and the States; how irrevocably committed the Federal Labor Party still is to policies of centralism; how absolutely blind it is to the developments that have occurred in the Australian community over the past 10 years; how absolutely insensitive it is to the need of State and local governments to have the financial capacity to discharge their legal and constitutional responsibilities. [More…]
I agree with the honourable member for Grayndler that it is not an enormously farreaching provision because of the nature of the interpretation that the courts have placed on it which is in part due to the constitutional limitations on the judicial power. [More…]
What is more important, it continues to grow in volume and, I should add, difficulty with the marked upsurge in constitutional work. [More…]
The Australian Parliament, as the High Court has been careful to point out, has no constitutional responsibility for State courts and cannot intervene in their organisation. [More…]
The House will be well aware that the constitutional and, flowing from that, the financial relationship between Canberra and the Northern Territory on the one hand and Canberra and the Australian Capital Territory on the other are both different in quality and in time from the relationships between the Commonwealth and the States. [More…]
There are too many validation Bills- an excuse for lazy officials; a device which prevents this House from discharging its constitutional duty of initiating changes in the tariff. [More…]
The Australian Government has Constitutional authority to introduce a scheme similar to the New Zealand scheme only in the A.C.T. [More…]
Our constitutional monarchy in Australia is no exception. [More…]
That was a political act which has irreparably damaged not just tolerance in our community but the fragile fabric of our constitutional monarchy. [More…]
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the decision itself, namely the forcing of an election by the Head of State- I do not go into the constitutional details but I concede the point that that could well have been an inevitable outcomethere is no visible excuse for the way it was done. [More…]
That excuse for committing outrageous and damaging acts of destruction against the fragile fabric of our constitutional monarchy just will not wear. [More…]
This happens because of the different constitutional relationship between central, State and local government as regards public sector borrowing. [More…]
Neither of the agreements can enter into force until all necessary constitutional processes are completed both by Australia and the other country. [More…]
As will be seen from a perusal of Part IV of the Act, for constitutional reasons its provisions are not applicable to intrastate services, except in the case of those operated by Trans-Australia Airlines. [More…]
Before I go on to other matters, I should like to touch on the constitutional questions which have been raised, and which one could say have been done to death. [More…]
The vast majority of constitutional lawyers of any standing whatsoever in this country now recognise- not all of them recognised it beforethat the Senate has the power under section 52 of the Constitution to defer or reject Supply. [More…]
I mention this on the basis that Australia as a nation has a constitutional power to enter into international conventions and by so doing obtain a legal power by which it might be able- I say this with respect- to use the power more intelligently than perhaps to have this disparity of use between various States. [More…]
In a later decision, the Federal Constitutional Court reduced to 0.5 per cent the percentage of votes needed to qualify for subsidy, and in early 1974 the subsidy itself was raised to 3.50 DM for each vote polled. [More…]
And the Premier of Queensland was very willing to do what investigations he could because he had a constitutional right of doing this and he was pursuing it and naturally we were interested. [More…]
As promised, this Government, immediately on being elected, began moves towards executive responsibility for the Legislative Assembly based on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Northern Territory which inquired into constitutional development in the Northern Territory- recommendations which were available to the previous government for 12 months. [More…]
That report, which was presented to the Parliament by the honourable member for Hunter (Mr James), as Chairman of the Committee, has made a valuable contribution to the Territory’s constitutional development. [More…]
It is tangible evidence of the Government’s determination to give effect to its election undertakings on the constitutional development of the Northern Territory. [More…]
For the first time in its history it will be a responsible legislature in the constitutional sense. [More…]
The need for 5 separate acts arises from a constitutional requirement that laws imposing taxes should deal with one subject of taxation only. [More…]
I am sure honourable members will agree the Government would be negligent in its duty if it did not take action to ban the advertising of such products in areas where it has constitutional power. [More…]
In this connection the Government has agreed that the Minister for Health should pursue with State Health Ministers their proposals to work towards uniform legislation to control cigarette advertising in areas where the Commonwealth has no constitutional power. [More…]
Under present constitutional limitations, this concept can be realised only through a system of State family courts exercising State and federal jurisdiction covering the whole area of family law. [More…]
As a result of this disequilibrium, the fact that they have not had matching fiscal powers to what has been their constitutional political responsibility has resulted in a centralisation of decision making in the hands of the government that has had the fiscal power. [More…]
Local government can never have any constitutional part to play in federalism. [More…]
I want to speak about the recent constitutional amendments imposed upon the people of Poland, which is a matter of great importance to many thousands of Polish people now living in Perth. [More…]
This is no time for federalism; it is time for the exercise of the constitutional power that devolves upon us. [More…]
Since the House will today determine its participation in the work of the Constitutional Convention, what negotiations has the Government had with States since coming to office on the proposed interchange of powers referendum? [More…]
Has the Government considered holding an interchange of powers referendum before the next meeting of the Constitutional Convention in 5 months time as a demonstration of the Federal Parliament’s willingness to promote constitutional reform? [More…]
However, my recollection is that this question is on the draft agenda for the Constitutional Convention which will meet later this year. [More…]
The 5 Bills are a consequence of constitutional requirements that laws imposing taxes should deal with one subject of taxation only. [More…]
That the House of Representatives agrees that the Commonwealth Parliament participate with the Parliaments of the States in the continuing work of the Constitutional Convention established to review the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution and accordingly resolves: [More…]
The first is that all Australians, I think, saw the Constitutional Convention when it first convened as holding some significant hope for modification in areas of the Constitution- which have arisen either because of the changes that have occurred since 1 90 1 or because of the financial problems that beset individual State governments as a result of the passing to them of the tax powers during the war years- and of perhaps modifying the balance or powers between the Commonwealth and the States in a way which might make the business of government at Federal and State levels more workable. [More…]
It is important that there is, however, an acceptance that it is not just a product of a decision of this session of the Convention whether or not there will be constitutional change even in those matters which are recommended and accepted by the Convention. [More…]
However, it is important that all the people of Australia accept that our federalist program approaches in an entirely different way the principal issue on which the Victorian Parliament first initiated the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
Distribution of finances between the Commonwealth and the States was the catalyst which prompted the then Victorian Attorney-General to recommend to his Government, and for his Government to recommend to other States, the setting up of the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
Therefore we believe that it is not appropriate for this session of the Constitutional Convention to come to conclusions on matters pertaining to the distribution of finances between the 3 levels of government. [More…]
With those views, I commend to the House the motion which seeks to ratify the continued participation of this Parliament in the work of the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
I would have found it exquisitely ironical to have him suggesting that the Australian Parliament should participate in the next meeting of the Australian Constitutional Convention since he led the boycott by Liberal Party members of the last meeting of the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
Until recently, the Convention seemed likely to meet without any mention on its agenda of the most pressing constitutional issues confronting the nation. [More…]
The last meeting of the executive committee of the Constitutional Convention did not deal with any of those matters. [More…]
Never before has constitutional reform been more important and more urgent. [More…]
The survival of parliamentary democracy depends on an urgent reaffirmation of the great conventions which provided the framework of constitutional government in this country, conventions struck down by the conservative forces in their pursuit of power. [More…]
If Australia is not to become a second rate democracy, these conventions must be reaffirmed and given constitutional protection. [More…]
The course of constitutional reform is extraordinarily leisurely. [More…]
that this Convention approves in principle the amendment of the Constitution to make provision for the inter-change by reference or designation of legislative powers between, the Commonwealth and the State Parliaments and further resolves that the precise form of the constitutional amendment should be settled by the Commonwealth and State Governments in consultation and when so settled presented to the electors at a referendum as soon as is reasonably practicable. [More…]
I believe that it would be a very great earnest of this Parliament’s determination to promote constitutional reform. [More…]
The next meeting of the Constitutional Convention will not take place for another 5 months. [More…]
At the first meeting of the Constitutional Convention in Sydney in September 1973 it was agreed that there should be a [More…]
Accordingly, a constitutional amendment is now required. [More…]
I believe that no constitutional amendment is more necessary. [More…]
When the proposal to hold a constitutional convention was first made in 1972 I made it plain, on behalf of my Party, that if it were elected to government in 1972 it would participate in the Constitutional Convention on condition that local government also was able to participate in the Convention. [More…]
We are handicapping ourselves by not giving local government constitutional rights in Australia. [More…]
I believe, as regards financial matters which to many minds are all that matters constitutionally in Australia, it is more necessary even than it was when the Constitutional Convention was first mooted in 1971-72 that there should be amendments of the Constitution to permit local government to have the recognition and the role which all of us now would recognise that it must have in a contemporary community. [More…]
I am asked what this has to do with the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
Local government must be represented at the Constitutional Convention and must be given a more equitable membership on the proposed council for intergovernmental relations. [More…]
Let us compare my actions as against those of a certain group of Ministers in the previous Government who approved the right to go overseas and raise $4,000m in loans contrary to the constitutional requirement. [More…]
This Parliament has not the constitutional power to enforce a hot line, but when we set up this body none of the motor car manufacturers were game to buck it. [More…]
Even though we did not have the constitutional power to do it, we got away with it. [More…]
Following that decision it became apparent that, whilst the Family Law Act as we know it is a valid exercise of constitutional power in the majority of its clauses, there are various aspects which are deemed to be ultra vires the Constitution. [More…]
In the decision of the Chief Justice he said that there was constitutional power under Chapter III, there was constitutional power under section 5 1 placitum (xxi) and under section 5 1 placitum (xxii). [More…]
It was decided that we could not direct State courts to have closed courts because they are autonomous and that would be outside our constitutional power. [More…]
I do not want to argue the constitutional merits or otherwise of that but nevertheless the fact is that there is a problem in people having to establish that they made an effort to get the maintenance before they received assistance. [More…]
One lesson that we learn from the High Court decision- indeed we suspected when we were debating the Family Law Bill last year that we might learn it- is that in Australia under our Constitution the Federal Parliament does not have power to legislate with respect to matters relating to the family and that therefore under our constitutional set-up the only type of court that can deal with all matters relating to the family is a family court set up under State law which is invested with the necessary State and Federal jurisdiction. [More…]
The High Court occupies a position of special importance under our constitutional framework. [More…]
It is vital to the working of the High Court that it should be left free to concentrate on constitutional issues and on the fundamental issues of law that come before it in the exercise of its appellate jurisdiction. [More…]
The High Court is empowered to order the removal into the High Court from a State court of any proceedings involving constitutional issues. [More…]
Where a constitutional issue before a State court involves an inter se question, it is automatically removed into the High Court. [More…]
An inter se question is one involving the mutual limits of the constitutional power of the Commonwealth and the States. [More…]
This provision was inserted in 1907 to prevent the Privy Council from dealing with constitutional questions of an inter se character. [More…]
Appeals in constitutional matters can no longer be taken directly from State courts to the Privy Council. [More…]
Because section 40 a operates automatically in cases involving inter se questions it can cause inconvenience and sometimes can cause insignificant constitutional and other questions to be sent to the High Court. [More…]
The provisions for removal of constitutional issues to the be High Court by order of the High Court are to extended to federal and Territory courts as well as State courts. [More…]
The Attorney-General of the Commonwealth and the States are to be given a right to intervene in proceedings in all courts involving constitutional issues. [More…]
A new provision is to be inserted requiring notice to be given to the Attorneys-General of the Commonwealth and the States of proceedings involving constitutional issues in courts other than the High Court. [More…]
The existing provisions forbidding State courts from dealing with inter se questions have operated to prevent State courts from making a substantial contribution to the interpretation of the Constitution, since most constitutional issues involve inter se questions. [More…]
My concern is to restore to this House its rights, indeed its constitutional duty under section S3 of the Constitution, to initiate changes in the taxation laws. [More…]
If our laws are to be changed at the behest of an international organisation, it is for this House to fulfil its constitutional duty in relation to the imposition of taxation, not to follow blindly international practice, or, as in the case of the mysterious protocol on value for duty, possible future international practice. [More…]
This measure flows from the recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Constitutional Development of the Northern Territory, known as the James Committee, which was chaired by the honourable member for Hunter (Mr James). [More…]
I, of course, do not assert- it would be most uncharacteristic of me to assert- that the Australian Government did not have constitutional authority in matters of the environment arising out of defence or trade with other countries. [More…]
If this proposal has received consideration can he (a) give details of the possible purchase price and feasibility of the amortisation proposal, (b) indicate whether the proposed level of equity is in fact available for purchase and, if so, on what terms, (c) advise if any inquiries or negotiations have been instituted and the progress made, (d) say if the proposal is constitutional and (e) predict the benefits which could accrue to the Aboriginal people. [More…]
I cannot honourable members opposite to know that point of constitutional law. [More…]
The constitutional position is quite clear. [More…]
I want to make the clear point as was made by the Rae report that there is constitutional power, confirmed by the High Court in the concrete pipes case which was the subject of a decision reported in volume 124 Commonwealth Law Reports at page 468. [More…]
It is far too late for us to deal with the bankruptsbankruptcy is our constitutional responsibilitywhen we could have prevented the bankruptcies. [More…]
It is interesting to note that the provision relating to the right to sue for the recovery of gifts may attract a view that it is not a constitutional power. [More…]
The honourable member for Kingsford-Smith also mentioned that he doubted whether the Parliament had the constitutional power to legislate in relation to clause 21 (2) of the Bill. [More…]
As we know, the Parliament has constitutional power to legislate in respect of marriage. [More…]
I doubt very much whether, either now or in the future, any constitutional question would arise in relation thereto. [More…]
The question which must arise is whether or not the Attorney-General can be satisfied that it is an incidental provision because unless it is an incidental provision to the constitutional power I would have some doubts whether State law will be affected. [More…]
From the day this Government aborted our already conservative constitutional conventions so as to steal office, there has been no doubt that the Liberal-National Country Party alliance is one of political reactionaries; that the FraserAnthonyLynch triumvirate is the political wing of the capitalist class. [More…]
We have a rather complicated constitutional system, of course. [More…]
In fact the present Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) is reported in the Age of 1 3 September last year as saying what should happen if supply was cut off by a house of parliament with constitutional power to do so. [More…]
It was an important undertaking and one which should have been made mandatory upon all Prime Ministersremembering that the Prime Minister has no constitutional power himself to recommend anything- by the Governor-General’s insisting that recommendations by the federal Executive Council relating to such matters should be adopted at a meeting of the Council fully summoned for that purpose. [More…]
I am not prepared to enter into public discussion relating to those negotiations other than to say that the constitutional position regarding the specific question of islands is well known. [More…]
Beyond answering in those general terms and beyond a reference again to the constitutional position of the Islands mentioned by the honourable member, all I can say is that at this juncture the negotiations are proceeding well. [More…]
In fact, we saw a situation developing in which the Australian Government in Canberra did all in its power to remove many of the sovereign and constitutional powers of the States as part of an insidious campaign, a declared campaign, to destroy the functions and powers of the States. [More…]
We cannot achieve that in the Federal area because of the lack of constitutional power. [More…]
The Secretary of State ruled that the action of the Governor was opposed to constitutional practice. [More…]
The Commonwealth does not really have the constitutional power to deal with ex-nuptual children and others, and that is certainly going to affect the efficacy of the family law jurisdication. [More…]
It flowed from a High Court decision as to our constitutional powers. [More…]
I think it is appropriate at the Constitutional Convention for persons to give their views on the matter raised by the honourable member for Kingsford-Smith (Mr Lionel Bowen). [More…]
-The Governor-General ‘s action of dismissing the Whitlam Labor Government was right, proper and constitutional and of that there can be no doubt. [More…]
Let me make these constitutional points quite clear. [More…]
Let me turn to another constitutional point. [More…]
I now put a constitutional point which I have put before as a member of the Library Committee of this House and which I believe is a proper constitutional point. [More…]
Let me come back to this quite important constitutional point: I believe that the position in which Mr Speaker or Mr President was put is utterly and completely indefensible. [More…]
I put it to the House as a matter of quite high constitutional importance that what has happened to Mr Speaker- he recounted it to the House yesterdayshould never have been allowed to happen. [More…]
I quote from the Australian Labor Party Platform Constitution and Rules as approved by the Thirty-First National Conference, Terrigal, 1975, which under the heading Constitutional Matters states in clause 2: 2. [More…]
The actions of the Senate had caused a constitutional crisis and one man made a decision to dismiss the duly elected Government. [More…]
It was removed at the last minute as a drafting amendment by the drafting committee and accepted without debate by the Constitutional Convention on the understanding that no substantial alterations had been made to any section. [More…]
I was attracted by the arguments of the honourable member for Mackellar (Mr Wentworth) about constitutional amendments, because it is a fact that as the Constitution was written the Senate effectively has more power than the House of Representatives. [More…]
The reason that it got into the Constitution was that the Constitutional Convention never debated the possibility of the ordinary annual services of the government being rejected by the Upper House. [More…]
The Constitutional Convention did not debate the other possibility because at that stage it had not occurred. [More…]
The Constitution has to be looked at in the light of the time it was framed and the constitutional understandings of the time. [More…]
If we are thinking of constitutional amendments we should look very carefully at the provision that gives the Prime Minister power to dismiss the Governor-General. [More…]
The Queensland Government asked the Labor Party to nominate 3 people acceptable to that Party from whom the Queensland Government, using its undoubted constitutional power, would make a selection. [More…]
By asking the Labor Party to nominate 3 people from whom the Queensland Government would exercise its undoubted constitutional power to make the selection, the Government of Queensland was following that convention exactly and the Labor Party, refusing to co-operate, brought the thing down on its own head. [More…]
The constitutional question comes in under the estimates for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. [More…]
These statistics show that there arc 3 States which do not at present have the constitutional numbers in this House to which they are entitled. [More…]
As every student of our constitutional history knows, after somewhat tedious debates the Founding Fathers seemed to decide that wherever the federal principle collided with the responsible government principle, then the responsible government principle must take precedence. [More…]
It is just because the Governor-General used his constitutional powers- those powers most people thought belonged to the days of yesteryear- to serve the interests of the Liberals rather than Labor that the men of good-will, men who may have been bothered by all those errors human frailty and folly had caused Whitlam and Co. to fall prey to, were filled with a righteous indignation. [More…]
Any attempt to fill this office with a person who would be, by virtue of background, constrained not to act in a constitutional crisis would be to place this nation in a dangerous situation. [More…]
Unfortunately we have inherited a continent which is strangled by constitutional principles, precepts and writings. [More…]
In view of the moves towards constitutional development that have taken place in the Northern Territory, and the responsibility which shortly will be shouldered by the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly compared with the responsibility being shouldered by the NACC, I say to the honourable member for Wills, who was a Minister in the former Labor Government, that I consider his remarks to be quite quaint. [More…]
I should also like to commend the Minister for his persistence in getting finance for the Darwin Reconstruction Commission, for home loans, for local works, etc, and also for pushing through the constitutional development program for the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. [More…]
I took note of the remarks of the honourable member for the Northern Territory on constitutional development of the Northern Territory. [More…]
We have had, of course, to consider the source of constitutional power to enable the Parliament to enact the legislation and to confer the jurisdiction on the High Court. [More…]
In the present case, I believe that the external affairs power provides a sufficient constitutional basis for the Bill. [More…]
The Agreement recognises, in Article 5, that the signatories will need to pay regard to constitutional and other requirements, such as the enactment of enabling legislation, before the Agreement can come into force. [More…]
At their conference in February this year the Premiers decided that no resolutions on financial relationships, including those affecting local government, should be submitted to the Constitutional Convention which is due to meet in Hobart this month. [More…]
That is, the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
It was only on the insistence of my Government that local government was able to participate in the Constitutional Convention in the first place. [More…]
At the meeting of the Constitutional Convention in Melbourne a year ago the proposal was put that there should be a referendum to amend the Constitution to provide that the Parliament may grant financial assistance to any local government body constituted under the law of a State or Territory on such terms and conditions as the Parliament thinks fit, that is, to amend the Constitution to make it plain that this Parliament could grant assistance to local government bodies in the same way as it has always been able to grant assistance to State governments. [More…]
There is nothing surprising in the fact that local government was ignored when the first constitutional conventions were held in the 1 890s, but there can be no excuse for ignoring local government today. [More…]
Yet at the Melbourne meeting of the Constitutional Convention a year ago when the proposition came up for a vote that the Constitution should be amended by holding a referendum to provide for the borrowing of money by the Com- monwealth for local government bodies constituted under the law of a State or Territory, there again State Liberals who attended- the 8 from South Australia and Tasmania and the Liberal Movement representative from South Australiaall voted against the proposition. [More…]
One has only to read the recommendations of the Constitutional Review Committee on regionalism to see the stand which he took. [More…]
I have already quoted from the proceedings of the Premiers Conferences in February and April last to show that those Conferences, maybe only by majority, did their best to ensure that the Constitutional Convention which will meet in Hobart later this month will not consider matters of local government finance. [More…]
The Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) expressly wrote to the Chairman of the executive committee of the Constitutional Convention to say that the Convention should not have matters of local government finance on its agenda. [More…]
The executive council of the Constitutional Convention accepted that ukase- that decree- from the Premiers Conference. [More…]
-To be precise, the Federal Liberal and Country Party members boycotted the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
What I wish to emphasise is that we know from the experience of the Premiers Conference this year that the Premiers did their best .to see that m the context of the Constitutional Convention there could be no discussion of local government finances. [More…]
It is true that as the Bill would stand with the adoption of the amendment I have moved, the Premiers Conference could still overrule it just as it did in February and in April last in relation to the proceedings of the forthcoming Constitutional Convention. [More…]
One of the great reasons the Liberal Premiers and the Liberal Prime Minister did not want the question of local government finances to be discussed at the Constitutional Convention is that they would have to declare themselves. [More…]
It was as a result of an initiative of the McMahon Government, not of the Whitlam Government, that local government was included in the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
One of the remarkable things about this legislation is that it mentions 2 bodies which have no statutory definition or in fact any constitutional definition. [More…]
There is no such statutory or constitutional body. [More…]
Earlier today the Leader of the Opposition told us of the constitutional decision about the Australian Assistance Plan programs. [More…]
A constitutional challenge was brought by certain States and the High Court of Australia ruled that the Australian Government could make direct grants to local government. [More…]
There is no legal or constitutional obstacle to the Australian Government or one of its authorities making direct grants to individuals or organisations in the States; this has been established. [More…]
The initiative in the formulation and selection of particular measures to be submitted for Commonwealth support in respect of individual disasters has rested almost entirely with the State concerned, reflecting the States’ Constitutional responsibilities in this area as well as the priorities of the individual States with regard to particular situations. [More…]
The fact that Lord Novar called in aid two ‘outside’, though very distinguished, authorities on constitutional practice illustrates the difficulties- [More…]
The fact that Lord Novar called in aid two ‘outside’, though very distinguished, authorities on constitutional practice illustrates the difficulties confronting a King’s representative who is not himself expert in a very difficult topic. [More…]
Believing therefore that such a fortunate historical accident may not always occur, this house considers that the people should be asked at a constitutional referendum to approve the principle that, when the Senate refuses to pass the Budget, there should forthwith be a dissolution of both Houses and an immediate election, and that, in the meantime, provision should be made for finance to carry on the administration of the Commonwealth. [More…]
In the meantime, the constitutional crisis blew up. [More…]
The Constitutional Convention will be taking place in Hobart next week and I do not wish to canvass in detail what will be the problems in a legal sense of trying to get agreement as to how best we should amend the existing Constitution. [More…]
I want to take up first of all the remarks made about the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
Before I get off the point about the Constitution, I am delighted to see that in at least one item appearing in these estimates there is a reduction in cost, attributable no doubt to these constitutional affairs. [More…]
There may be some sort of an argument that there is a constitutional deficiency in some place or another in the Constitution which needs looking at. [More…]
One matter which needs looking at from the point of view of constitutional amendment relates to the tenure of office of the GovernorGeneral. [More…]
I do not want to deal with individual cases but, with the greatest respect, I thought that under our constitutional system, including the conventions under the Constitution, the judiciary was independent. [More…]
The suggestion that the Chief Justice should seek the permission of the Prime Minister to carry out some act is totally at variance with 2000 years of British and subsequent Australian constitutional history and development. [More…]
It is totally at variance with the independence of the judiciary which has been sustained and supported over many years of constitutional endeavour. [More…]
These people have not the first, second or last notion about constitutional proprieties or about how our system has developed, how it has served the people or how to obtain a proper system in the future. [More…]
He said: ‘It is no use having a constitutional convention. [More…]
It is elementary constitutional law. [More…]
There is a constitutional limitation. [More…]
There is a constitutional problem. [More…]
I hope that when constitutional conventions and similar bodies are meeting they give some consideration to what I think is essential, and that is that paramountcy in financial matters should reside in this House, the [More…]
We had no constitutional basis except in regard to shipping or navigation. [More…]
As the concept of a superior court was developed by the Labor Government from the original proposal by Sir Garfield Barwick, it was found to involve not only technical constitutional difficulties but it was opposed by some of the States and many members of the legal profession. [More…]
Needless to say, the course of constitutional development for the Northern Territory may eventually require that the Supreme Court of that Territory have its own internal system of appeals and the Government recognises this. [More…]
The Court now proposed will not, as would previous Bills to establish a Superior Court that have been introduced into the Parliament, perform judicial functions that can better be performed by State courts or create jurisdictional problems of a kind that might delight constitutional lawyers but only add to the hazards of litigation for the parties concerned. [More…]
The constitutional requirement, that a judge may be removed from office only by the GovernorGeneral on an address from both Houses of Parliament in the same session praying for his removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity, is contained in clause 6 of the Bill. [More…]
The Judiciary Amendment Bill now before the House, together with other measures yet to be introduced, will give to the State courts new jurisdiction in constitutional matters and in tax and industrial property. [More…]
The High Court itself will be better able to concentrate on its role as a constitutional court and the final appellate court in Australia. [More…]
The High Court itself will be better able to concentrate on its role as a constitutional court and the final appellate court in Australia. [More…]
That day commemorates one of the most shameful days- 11 November 1975- in Australia’s constitutional history. [More…]
I hope that, in what he said, he was talking about constitutional government in other countries. [More…]
I want to talk about constitutional government in Australia. [More…]
I was fortunate early in the year to be able to speak and express my concern at the recent constitutional amendments in Poland and to applaud the efforts of Cardinal Mindszenty and the people of Poland who showed great courage in standing up in public and expressing their concern at the continuing decline of their freedoms in Poland. [More…]
This Agreement shall come into force on the date on which the two Governments exchange Notes notifying each other that their respective constitutional and other requirements necessary to give effect to this Agreement have been complied with. [More…]
We agree with the AttorneyGeneral (Mr Ellicott) that the external affairs power provides a sufficient constitutional base for this Bill. [More…]
At the recent Constitutional Convention there was a move to try to write it down and a suggestion that it should be limited specifically to matters which are deemed to be basically external, of an international nature. [More…]
The power in the Constitution to legislate with respect to external affairs and also with respect to relations of the Commonwealth with the islands of the Pacific would enable the Parliament to enact the Bill so there is no doubt about the constitutional validity of this Bill. [More…]
The matters left outside the arrangements for appeal to the High Court are, for example, constitutional questions relating to Nauru, entitlement to sit in the Nauruan Parliament and land ownership. [More…]
-Will the Prime Minister now take the opportunity to expand on his comment, made following the Constitutional Convention, that he will take steps to see that all future Senate and House of Representatives elections are held simultaneously? [More…]
I remind the House that a select committee of the House of Representatives revolutionised the constitutional status of Aborigines. [More…]
The purpose of the Bill is to facilitate the transfer of Australian Public Service staff to the Northern Territory Public Service as a further step in the constitutional development of the Northern Territory. [More…]
It was confirmed by the report of the joint parliamentary committee appointed to inquire into the constitutional development of the Northern Territory. [More…]
This Bill is an essential component of the new and expanded constitutional status that we are seeking to confer on the Northern Territory. [More…]
To try to make political capital out of matters which are presently before the judiciary is, of course, in keeping with the total lack of knowledge of the constitutional independence of the judiciary of this country which honourable members opposite display. [More…]
In December 1975 the Industrial Court called upon the parties in that case to bring forward schemes for the reconstitution of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association in accordance with section 17 ID of the Act but the national president, Mr Maher, challenged the constitutional validity of that section in the High Court. [More…]
The High Court having upheld the constitutional validity of that section the Industrial Court could now order elections of whatever type it thought appropriate if it so decided. [More…]
Equally, the Government does not believe in the sledgehammer approach adopted by the previous Government when it was in office, an approach which denied any involvement by State administrations in the administration of legislation and the reform of the law and an approach which could have provoked a number of years of constitutional argument and conflict. [More…]
It wants to see local government have greater autonomy and independence and I draw the attention of the House to a resolution supported by all parties and all governments at the recent Constitutional Convention. [More…]
What we need to do now is to ask all those Premiers and Ministers for local government who have called this legislation centralist whether they will respond to that invitation and give local government constitutional guarantees within the constitutions of the States. [More…]
-The honourable member for Sturt (Mr Wilson) has quoted a resolution of last week’s Constitutional Convention. [More…]
The Convention was precluded from dealing with any financial matters concerning State governments or local governing bodies because in February and April this year the Premiers Conference, under the incitement of the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser), had requested the Executive Council of the Constitutional Convention to leave any financial matters off its agenda. [More…]
Nevertheless, the best that could be done concerning finances at the Constitutional Convention last week was to pass the resolution which the honourable gentleman has quoted and which arose from an item put on the agenda by my colleagues and me. [More…]
We now know that the High Court believes they are constitutional. [More…]
Few measures demonstrate more vividly the grand socialist design that drives the Austraiian Labor Party than its objectives in the field of financial relations between the traditional and constitutional tiers of Australian government. [More…]
Of all the assaults that the Labor Party mounted against established and respectable national purposes in its 3 years nothing compared with its assault on the nature and basis of constitutional federalism. [More…]
But more importantly we are setting the basis for the maintenance of financially independent State and local governments and for re-defining certain proper and constitutional duties to the 3 established tiers of government- Commonwealth, State and local. [More…]
I believe that the sensible path to socialism is to say honestly that at the moment federally we have not got the constitutional power to bring about socialism. [More…]
Later he said in the same speech that he had ‘an honest and constitutional way of going about his ambition’. [More…]
It denigrated the role of local government in the recent Constitutional Convention. [More…]
They saw it again when the conservatives prevented local government from being represented at the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
They provide for an effective role- a constitutional rolefor the States and an effective and responsible role for local government under the 3-tier system of government in this country. [More…]
They reaffirm the constitutional fabric of this country, protect the sovereignty of the States and allow local government to be a completely effective partner in our federal system. [More…]
It was the Whitlam Government that proposed that local government be represented at the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
This action was considered appropriate by Labor because the Australian Government is prevented from acting on many aspects of the environment by constitutional limitations and by the reluctance and in some cases the refusal of our State counterparts to co-operate with us in these matters. [More…]
There is to be a repeal of provisions for automatic removal to and exclusive jurisdiction of the High Court in matters involving the limits inter se of the constitutional powers of the Commonwealth and the States. [More…]
There is to be complete revision of the subject of removal to the High Court by order of the High Court of cases commenced and pending in other courts, extending the power of the High Court to order such removal beyond the existing category of constitutional cases to cases in Federal or Territory courts and cases where a State court is exercising Federal jurisdiction, and giving the High Court increased power over the removed causes, increased powers or remittal of the whole or part back to the original court, and entirely new powers to direct the further conduct of the cause in the original court. [More…]
I am advised that this could be of some doubtful constitutional validity but since it is well known that the High Court has sought this power for some years it is thought that the High Court is unlikely to hold the new section invalid should there be any test of that position. [More…]
Generally the two new matters of importance are the conferring upon Commonwealth and State Attorneys-General of a new power in constitutional cases in any court of intervention in the suits of private parties, and provisions conferring new rights on legal practitioners of one State to appear m courts of other States. [More…]
We are advised generally that at the present time section 38a of the Judiciary Act has the effect that only the High Court may decide questions as to the limits inter se of the constitutional powers of the Commonwealth and those of the States, and that present section 40a provides for automatic removal to the High Court of cases commenced in other courts which raise such a question. [More…]
Thus it is now up to the High Court to decide whether it will hear a case which otherwise it must have done under the constitutional legislation. [More…]
The proposed new section 78 B contains provisions to facilitate the intervention and obliges the court in which the constitutional question arises not to proceed with the case unless and until reasonable notice is given to the Commonwealth and each State Attorney-General. [More…]
It appears, therefore, that the Bill goes a far as is possible within the present constitutional limitations towards providing for the age of 70 years to be the age at which judges ought to become less active in their judicial offices. [More…]
Conservative members have been forced at last to place on the agenda of the Australian Constitutional Convention the question of the retiring age forjudges, and it is to be hoped that the Attorney-General pushes the Government to produce a proposal for a referendum on that question. [More…]
The Parliament has no constitutional responsibility for State courts and cannot under the Constitution intervene in the organisation of those courts. [More…]
I have mentioned those matters because they only indicate that there are constitutional problems with this court as well. [More…]
He reached the true part in the last sentence when he said: ‘I only mention that because there are constitutional problems’. [More…]
He knows that there are constitutional problems that Sir Garfield Barwick did not think were insurmountable back in 1964. [More…]
He urged the Prime Minister to place it on the agenda of the Australian Constitutional Convention. [More…]
I was at the Australian Constitutional Convention and so was the present Attorney-General and neither he nor any of his co-delegates from his side of the House sought to place those questions on the agenda or in any way to have them discussed, not even laterally in relation to the retiring age of judges. [More…]
In the course of my speech during the second reading debate I mentioned the necessity, in our view, to retain the High COUrt as the court in all constitutional matters. [More…]
I think it underlines the constitutional character of the High Court. [More…]
Division 1A- Provisions relating to Constitutional Matters ‘78a. [More…]
On 11 November 1975, the Governor-General of this country carried out such a breach of constitutional propriety, supported by the people who are now on the other side of this House and in particular by those who were sworn in as Ministers, that their actions offer a threat to the continuance of democracy in Australia. [More…]
So, if we transfer the present reading of the constitutional powers of the Governor-General to the other sections of the Constitution which deal with, for instance, the dissolution of the Parliament, the prorogation of the Parliament and the sending of messengers by the GovernorGeneral recommending appropriations, we find that a situation has been created in which there is one person with absolute authority in this country over this Parliament, over its governance and answerable to none. [More…]
Let me quote some constitutional experts with whom, of course, the honourable member would agree. [More…]
He was younger then and seemed to know his constitutional law at that stage. [More…]
Let us turn now to another constitutional expert. [More…]
There are no limitations on the Senate in the use of its constitutional powers, excepting the limitations imposed by discretion and reason. [More…]
Is it not amazing that in those days honourable members opposite, including the present Leader of the Opposition, saw with such clarity the constitutional principles involved? [More…]
The second approach is to review the events of that day in the light of their constitutional significance, to consider their implications for parliamentary democracy and for the future stability of our country. [More…]
Our objections to what happened are based on the oldest and firmest principles of constitutional law and parliamentary practice. [More…]
It seems to me that, notwithstanding legal arguments and constitutional precedents, the attempt to claim superior powers for the Senate over this House involves us in a logical contradiction. [More…]
The powers that were used to bring about that change of government were carefully written into the Constitution and any reader of constitutional debates will find countless references to the power to reject. [More…]
Deakin very carefully spelt out to the Constitutional Convention how that power would be used. [More…]
The Victorian Government, as a result of its constitutional position, probably has somewhat wider constitutional powers in relation to industrial disputes than does the Commonwealth. [More…]
Then we have other amendments relating to constitutional and official definitions, documents purportedly printed by the Government Printer, certain grammatical expressions, matters which arise where a department has been abolished and where the reference to the Minister or the department is not consistent with changed administrative arrangements. [More…]
I notice that the Attorney-General referred quite properly in his second reading speech to the decision of the High Court in the seas and submerged lands case where it was clearly spelt out that there is constitutional authority for this Parliament to legislate in respect of the area deemed to be the territorial sea which is the sea commencing at low water-mark. [More…]
As I understand it, the Australian constitutional power extends not only to supervision, which is the purpose of the 1973 Act, but could also extend to regulatory powers and to control. [More…]
There is only one method of achieving both uniformity and the ability to adapt speedily to ever changing circumstances; that is by the Commonwealth fully utilising its constitutional powers in order to enact a unilateral national companies Act. [More…]
While the constitutional position is not wholly certain it is fairly clear that section 5 1 placitum (xx.) [More…]
was to be interpreted liberally in line with the basic tenet of constitutional interpretation spelt out in the engineers case. [More…]
The small minority of companies beyond the constitutional reach of this Parliament will continue to fall under State and Territory company legislation. [More…]
As one who attended the recent Constitutional Convention in Hobart I would be surprised if the Queensland delegation of the National Country Party would agree to any change at all. [More…]
We can foreshadow many constitutional difficulties as to whether such an alteration would be deemed to apply when there has been no reference of powers. [More…]
I point out to the Minister that there was no matter at the Constitutional Convention in Hobart to which the Queensland Government’s delegation agreed- not one. [More…]
Secondly, there could be a lot of doubt as to their constitutional validity. [More…]
I congratulate the honourable member for Kingsford-Smith (Mr Lionel Bowen) on a very erudite speech, which he commenced by taking us through the constitutional basis of this legislation. [More…]
So often in this Parliament we have members of the conservative Parties denying that they have any opportunity to influence events because there is no constitutional power in this Parliament. [More…]
In effect, the Opposition is saying to this Parliament that there are no constitutional problems involved in this area, that the Commonwealth has such a totality of power that even if there are a few areas not covered by the Commonwealth that does not matter and they will be picked up by the State legislation. [More…]
I would not be so bold as to assert that the constitutional position is as clear as the honourable member for Kingsford-Smith thinks it is. [More…]
If one accepts the force of the argument put by the honourable member for Kingsford-Smith about the attitude of certain States, one must then recognise that if what he is saying is true the sort of action the honourable member has in mind would immediately invite and provoke a constitutional challenge. [More…]
My advice is that the Commonwealth’s proposals are within constitutional power and can be given effect to if they are accepted by the States. [More…]
One look at the authority on our Constitution, Quick and Garran, will convince most people with the barest understanding of constitutional law that it is based on the Dominion of Canada Act and 2 ideas taken from the Constitutions of Switzerland and the United States of America. [More…]
The business sector that believed the Prime Minister and planned accordingly has now learnt the lesson that all believers in constitutional conventions learnt last year. [More…]
His was the Government which sought to rob the people ‘s savings because the Parliament denied Supply, using the proper constitutional powers of the Parliament. [More…]
The particular definition is adopted on the advice of the Parliamentary Counsel as being the definition which conforms with the constitutional power of the Commonwealth to make special laws with respect to people of any race. [More…]
2), was introduced to facilitate the transfer of Australia Government Public Service staff to the Northern Territory Public Service as a further step in the constitutional development of the Northern Territory. [More…]
But if they are prepared to work through the constitutional system, the electoral system of this Parliament, they have the right to do that too. [More…]
I would attribute largely to the Council’s tireless efforts to go to the Aborigines and to listen to their own statement of their viewpoint and wishes the present healthy fact that everywhere within Australia Aborigines now approach Government without inhibition or hesitation, speak up for themselves in no uncertain way, and are quick to demand the full measure of their constitutional rights. [More…]
The Government believes that the Commonwealth has the necessary constitutional powers to legislate in this area and considers that it should introduce appropriate Commonwealth legislation into the Parliament during the current sittings. [More…]
Can a member of the Executive Council who has not been commissioned to administer a particular Department exercise any constitutional rights to personally override an administrative act by the Executive Councillor commissioned by the Governor-General to administer that Department. [More…]
Has his attention been drawn to the opinion submitted to the Coombs’ Commission by the Solicitor-General concerning the constitutional authority of Ministers vis-a-vis their departmental secretaries. [More…]
At the time we said that that was outside the constitutional power of the Government. [More…]
I again refer to this case of the Communist Party Dissolution Bill in which it is eloquently expressed that the validity of a law or of an administrative act done under a law cannot be made to depend on the opinion of the law maker or the person who is to do the act that the law or the consequence of the act is within the constitutional power upon which the law itself depends for its validity. [More…]
The constitutional difficulties are immense. [More…]
We cannot afford to have weaknesses in our judicial or constitutional system. [More…]
It leaves one with the clear impression that the sooner we get more constitutional powers in the judicial sense the better. [More…]
Without more constitutional powers being vested in the Federal Government, this situation will always exist. [More…]
The purpose of the Corporation was to strengthen AustralianGovernment machinery to perform those housing functions for which it has constitutional power. [More…]
The Corporation was primarily to be a lending institution to make housing loans to home seekers within the Australian Government’s constitutional responsibilities, including the categories of people I have mentioned. [More…]
It would not be easy in Australia because we have constitutional problems of division of responsibility between the States and the Commonwealth. [More…]
In the case of professional activities there is an obvious question of constitutional power. [More…]
Norman Parkes’ term of 5 years has been one of extraordinary political and constitutional significanceone might think turmoil- affecting this House and the Senate, this Parliament and State parliaments, this Parliament and the Government responsible to the House and the Viceroy. [More…]
When the Australian Constitutional Convention met in its 3 successive sessions recently we thought that we were examining history in retrospect. [More…]
Let me say in a more general way that the Opposition is concerned about the Government’s refusal to accept its constitutional responsibility for Aboriginal affairs which was overwhelmingly supported in the 1967 referendum. [More…]
During the great constitutional crisis in October and November 1975, a crisis - [More…]
I believe that a lot of the trouble has come about through a bad constitutional practice whereby the adviser to the Governor-General in terms of section 56 of the Constitution when Estimates are being put forward in regard to the Parliament is a Minister. [More…]
What has been happening over past years in this regard is entirely unconstitutional and entirely improper. [More…]
With reference to an interview given by the Queensland Minister for Justice on the ABC radio program AM on 22 November 1976, following his return from a visit to London where he apparently had discussions with British officials on constitutional matters, has the AttorneyGeneral’s attention been drawn to the statement by the Minister for Justice, during the course of that interview, that his visit to London would be most significant to all Queenslanders and possibly to all Australians. [More…]
Articles provide that there is to be no doubt about the constitutional aspects involved in the application of the Convention. [More…]
All these proposals stem from the Hobart meeting of the Australian Constitutional Convention. [More…]
The proceedings at Hobart have given the Government some basis upon which to determine what proposals for constitutional reform have a real likelihood of being approved by the electors. [More…]
If the relevant constitutional requirements are not changed there could be as many as 4 elections from 1978 to 1981 and as many as 14 elections over the 20-year period from 1961 to 1981. [More…]
The proposal is in accord with a unanimous recommendation that was made by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Review in its 1958 and 1959 reports. [More…]
It is one, moreover, for which substantial support was expressed from both sides of Aus.tralian politics at the Hobart meeting of the Australian Constitutional Convention held in October last year. [More…]
These were brought to attention by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Review in its 1959 report. [More…]
More recently they have been under consideration by Standing Committee ‘D’ of the Australian Constitutional Convention which noted that they would be cured by the simultaneous elections proposal. [More…]
The manner in which casual Senate vacancies should be filled was discussed at the Hobart meeting of the Constitutional Convention last October. [More…]
Doubt was expressed in the 1959 report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Review and in a report of Standing Committee D of the Australian Constitutional Convention whether the concept of a political party is sufficiently certain in its meaning to be written into a provision in the Constitution. [More…]
But the present constitutional requirements precluded similar provisions being included in relation to judges appointed to the Family Court of Australia. [More…]
The amendment provided for in this Bill is in accordance with recommendations made in October last year by the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs and by the Hobart meeting of the Australian Constitutional Convention. [More…]
The Committee considered that the Constitution itself should provide that High Court justices be required to retire on reaching the age of 70 years and that Parliament should be empowered to fix the maximum retirement ages of other Federal judges subject to a constitutional limit of 70 years. [More…]
The Constitutional Convention, by an overwhelming majority, adopted the Senate Committee’s recommendation in its own resolution. [More…]
There are 3 important safeguards embodied in the present proposal, all of which were contained in the recommendations of the Senate Committee and the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
As I have indicated, the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs and the Hobart meeting of the Australian Constitutional Convention have recommended this proposal. [More…]
The proposal to give electors in the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory a vote in constitutional referendums was also the first item on the agenda of the meeting of the Australian Constitutional Convention in Hobart last year and was overwhelmingly endorsed by that Convention, I think, by a vote of 81 to 10 [More…]
It may come as a surprise to many Australians that electors who are resident in the Territories are not at present entitled to vote in constitutional referendums. [More…]
But now that these Territories are rapidly growing communities with representation in both Houses of the Federal Parliament there is no sound reason to exclude them from participating in the process of constitutional reform. [More…]
The indications from the Hobart meeting of the Australian Constitutional Convention are that the proposal that Territory electors should be given a vote in referendums has overwhelming support. [More…]
This recommendation was made to the Parliament by the Constitutional Review Committee in 1958 and again in 1959. [More…]
The proposal was relevant when made by the Constitutional Review Committee in 1958 in the aftermath of the double dissolution in 1951, which produced separate elections for the Senate in 1953 and for the House of Representatives in 1954. [More…]
The Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in 1958 and 1959 unanimously endorsed that principle. [More…]
The Bill in fact is in the form moved by my colleagues at the Hobart meeting of the Constitutional Convention last October. [More…]
At the Constitutional Convention I said: [More…]
The third point, which I raised at the Constitutional Convention, concerns Australian citizens in the overseas Territories of Norfolk Island, Cocos Island and Christmas Island. [More…]
I have mentioned the desirability of amending the Constitution to permit this Parliament to set a retirement age for future federal judges, other than the justices of the High Court, and to make constitutional provision for retirement at 70 years of age for justices of that court. [More…]
None of the Bills, for instance, even deals with the interchange of powers between the Federal and State Parliaments although that was suggested in 1973 by the conservative governments in New South Wales and Victoria and applauded at the’ Sydney meeting of the Constitutional Convention by those States and by the representatives of South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, and was not even opposed there by the representatives of the Queensland Government. [More…]
When two of these matters were submitted last to the Australian people in 1974 they had not emerged as a result of the Constitutional Convention, although the Convention had its first meeting in Sydney on 3 September 1973. [More…]
Something like 20 resolutions were affirmed by the last session of the Australian Constitutional Convention staged at Wrest Point in Hobart from 27 to 29 October. [More…]
These 4 questions emerged not just as a product of a decision by this Government, not because two of them have been before the people before, but because the Australian Constitutional Convention on three successive occasions led towards an acceptance of these 4 resolutions, which was achieved finally at the Wrest Point convention. [More…]
In that sense there needs to be a recognition by those who might question these referenda that throughout the country there seems to be a universal accord that this type of deliberation on the Constitution is worth while; that if there is to be constitutional change it should not be just for the fulfilment of the political aspirations, desires or objectives of the Government for the time being in Canberra but it should be something that has evolved from the consultation at the Constitutional Conventions. [More…]
While there might be some question as to the age that is to be provided for, the age decided on is again a direct product of the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
The second question which I think is equally likely to be accepted without criticism, although I know that there were some people at the Constitutional Convention in Hobart who offered some views upon it, is the question of altering the Constitution so as to allow electors in Territories as well as electors in the States to vote at referendums on proposed laws to alter the Constitution. [More…]
At that time supporters of the present Government parties opposed the constitutional change for several reasons. [More…]
I believe it is necessary when filling casual vacancies that we recognise that there will be a prescribed procedure which will enable the State governments to determine the manner by which they will select persons to fill casual vacancies, and which will ensure that the rights of the States are preserved, as it shall be certified by the Governor of the State and not by the GovernorGeneral, and that Governor of the State will then be able to submit the name and the person will be appointed in accordance with a constitutional requirement which I believe will validly set out a fit and proper procedure. [More…]
Constitutional change is not something on which we should embark lightly, but when it has been ratified by successive Conventions and there has been an almost unanimous acceptance of those resolutions it is necessary that the Australian people have the chance to vote and endorse that decision. [More…]
I pay a tribute to a Labor man in Victoria, John Galbally, who had enough wisdom as Leader of the Labor Party in the Victorian Upper House to suggest that there should be another attempt by way of a Constitutional Convention to have change in Australia. [More…]
I think it is worth while paying a tribute to those many people who did assemble in Hobart last October to discuss quite fairly the problems of the nation and how best to solve them by constitutional change. [More…]
But when it comes to a suggestion that the people in the Territories should be permitted to have a vote on constitutional changes they are denied that right. [More…]
Secondly, I believe that the referendum proposals will at long last bring democracy into constitutional reform by giving the right to vote to over 300 000 Australians who happen to live in the Territories. [More…]
It is little less tha,n paradoxical that the situation does not apply with respect to Federal judges, including the judges who sit upon the highest court in this country determining the most vital constitutional questions. [More…]
In 1973-74 the Australian Constitutional Convention Standing Committee B looked into this matter. [More…]
I sought leave of the honourable member for Kingsford-Smith (Mr Lionel Bowen) to incorporate in Hansard a section of page 8 of the report of the Australian Constitutional Convention Standing Committee B which was published in August 1974. [More…]
I believe genuinely that the reason this proposal failed was that the people did not trust the then Government as it presented a package of constitutional referendum proposals. [More…]
I firmly believe that one of the major reasons this proposal was knocked back in 1974 was that the people did not trust the Whitlam Government and were not prepared to give it one inch on any constitutional referendum proposal. [More…]
The honourable member for Kingsford-Smith (Mr Lionel Bowen) paid this Government an enormous compliment when he said that as a prerequisite to constitutional amendment there had to be a Liberal-National Country Party Government in office. [More…]
I think the reason is very simple: We do have a good reputation, we can be trusted, we will not abuse the constitutional process. [More…]
Simultaneous elections were recommended by a constitutional joint party committee back in 1958 and 1959. [More…]
1 suggest that the referendum in 1974 failed for political and not constitutional reasons. [More…]
It had the support of a large number of delegates from both sides of the chamber- State and Federal; Liberal and Labor- at the Australian Constitutional Convention in Hobart last year. [More…]
It is rather pleasing to know that at last we have the chance for constitutional reform. [More…]
We will again give the people the opportunity to face up to their constitutional responsibilities rather than do what governments and people of this country in fact have done since federation, that is, to rely upon the High Court for any meaningful constitutional change by way of High Court interpretation rather than changing the Constitution by way of referendum. [More…]
But obviously one can be very cynical- I am, for oneabout the motives of this Government, particularly when one canvasses its record over the past half decade on either national or constitutional issues. [More…]
I had the honour of seconding a motion moved by the New South Wales Attorney-General, Mr Walker at the Australian Constitutional Convention in Hobart. [More…]
The clear intent of this constitutional amendment bluntly stated is to proscribe what scheming politicians and machinating governments cannot do and to prescribe what they ought and must do. [More…]
We are not dealing with a matter of constitutional law. [More…]
Furthermore, in 1958 the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review declared that all its members were strongly of the view that the principle of choosing a new senator from the same political party as the vacating senator should be observed without exception. [More…]
The Committee noted that it had not been able to draft a constitutional amendment to make this choice obligatory. [More…]
The 1959 report repeated its unanimous support cf the principle so that the matter may become the subject of a constitutional convention or understanding, which political parties will always observe’. [More…]
What is the real reason why this Tory Government is motivated to press these constitutional amendments, in particular this amendment dealing with casual vacancies? [More…]
This Tory Government has consciously and deliberately come to the stark reality that the constitutional poison which it prescribed and injected into the Federal Labor Government and which had such a devastating and fatal effect can be injected into this Government with the same devastating and fatal effect. [More…]
It would be another thing, I believe, to give formal constitutional recognition to the role of executive bodies of political parties. [More…]
It would, I think, be inappropriate to have a constitutional measure which leaves the power of appointment formally in the hands of some executive authority of a political Party. [More…]
Parliaments are identifiable constitutional entities. [More…]
I am suggesting that there should not be an automatic requirement on a State Parliament to accept the nomination of a State executive or some endorsing authority because I believe that it is difficult, in constitutional terms, to define the appropriate endorsing authority of a political Party. [More…]
I hope that regular constitutional conventions will be held and that parties will be sensible enough to reach agreement on the need for changes to the present Constitution, because unless this is done the parliamentary system will not survive. [More…]
The Government is to be congratulated for putting this legislation before the people following the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
So to that extent there will be some assistance to the overall constitutional position by the introduction of this proposal. [More…]
The Australian Constitutional Convention has looked into the matter in considerable detail. [More…]
-The 4 constitutional Bills represent a package which is derived from the determinations of the Constitutional Convention at Hobart, Sydney and Melbourne. [More…]
Does anyone suggest that State parliaments in the United States are less important in their constitutional structure or that they perform their functions less effectively because they are also elected on the same day as the Congress? [More…]
He voted for this proposition at the Hobart Constitutional Convention and therefore realises and acknowledges that his personal position is not as important as the long term position. [More…]
Perhaps one of the reasons why there are difficulties with constitutional amendments is that they are couched in legal terms which are sometimes difficult for the layman to understand. [More…]
Any constitutional amendment affecting the Parliament affects all members in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. [More…]
If one looks at these pieces of legislation one may see some disadvantages in them, particularly in the Constitutional Alteration (Simultaneous Elections) Bill, but in the total political situation they are of advantage to this Parliament and more importantly to this country. [More…]
In respect of the Constitutional Alteration (Senate Casual Vacancies) Bill, I believe everyone accepts that the vacancies should be filled by a person of the same political persuasion as the person who left the vacancy. [More…]
Many honourable members have spoken about the Constitutional Alteration (Referendums) BUI which relates to the Territories. [More…]
I want to speak fairly briefly about the Constitutional Alteration (Referendums) BUI which particularly concerns my constituency which encompasses the people of the Australian Capital Territory and of course the people of Jervis Bay which is a part of my electorate. [More…]
I hope they will continue with their efforts and at some stage it may be considered by a future Constitutional Convention so that this doubt is removed altogether. [More…]
Whenever we are debating Constitutional matters there is always a temptation to quote our founding fathers. [More…]
We should seek to erect a constitutional edifice which shall be a guarantee of liberty and union for all time to come to the whole people of this continent . [More…]
These proposals for constitutional change are contained within 4 Bills, relating to simultaneous elections, the filling of Senate casual vacancies by a representative of a political party of the same colour as that of the previous senator, the retirement of judges at the age of 70 years and the right of Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory electors to vote in referenda. [More…]
Already fallacious arguments are being thrown about by those who see the opportunity to do a bit of grandstanding or those who are such constitutional fundamentalists that they are opposed to any change. [More…]
Having read the Constitution thoroughly and having read a lot of constitutional debates, I do not believe that our founding fathers were a particularly brilliant group of men. [More…]
While I agree with some of the comments in the newspapers and the media that there is a certain hypocrisy and cynicism in the Government’s actions now, at least the Government has seen the light The Constitutional Convention saw the light and the Liberal and National Country Parties now agree that in the long-term interests of democracy and the nation the change is admirable. [More…]
If they do that we will get a very interesting start in constitutional change in Australia. [More…]
The proposal to be put to the country asks for a constitutional change which would mean that casual vacancies in the Senate are filled for the unexpired term of the former Senator by persons of the same political party. [More…]
Merely by putting the proposal to the electorate the Government acknowledges that the constitutional devices it employed to oust the previous Government were not entirely satisfactory. [More…]
I believe that there ought to be a bureau for constitutional consideration and change, a small unit somewhere in the Government, whose job it is to continually inform people what the Constitution is about. [More…]
We live under the most undemocratic constitutional document probably in existence. [More…]
It is hard to imagine any other constitutional document which would confer upon one person, an appointed official, the powers which now lie with the Governor-General. [More…]
I believe that our Constitution is the most undemocratic constitutional document. [More…]
Another matter that makes the simultaneous election proposal much more significant now is the fact that it was discussed and approved at the Australian Constitutional Convention in Hobart. [More…]
The Clerk has called on the second of the constitutional amendment Bills. [More…]
The honourable member for Gellibrand (Mr Willis) as the Opposition spokesman on these matters will be going into detail on what he sees to be perhaps the constitutional right of the Government to do so and the practical nonsense of the Government trying to use the Trade Practices Act to solve these problems. [More…]
In the first place, the Court looked at the constitutional provision in section 24, namely, that the number of members to be chosen in the several States shall be determined ‘whenever necessary’. [More…]
The Government believes that the procedures which I have outlined meet the constitutional requirements as interpreted by the High Court in its McKinlay judgment. [More…]
The Court held that the pre- 1964 provisions which reflected the constitutional position were the operative ones. [More…]
That report was received in July 1974 and tabled in the Parliament; legislation was introduced in this House on 3 October 1974; before it was given a second reading in the Senate it was referred to the Senate’s Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
It has the constitutional power. [More…]
In the same month the clauses of the BUI were referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
The States did not support all the proposals and the constitutional validity of the proposed authorising legislation was also in question. [More…]
It was a proposition which had been recommended to the Parliament in 1958 and again in 1959 by the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review composed, as I pointed out on the referendum Bills last week, of equal numbers of members from the then government, the Liberal and Country Parties, and the then Opposition, the Labor Party. [More…]
He went right back some 18 or 20 years by quoting some case put by members of the then Australian Country Party who were on the Constitutional Review Committee, namely the honourable member for New England and the honourable member for Canning, when he said that they agreed that no electorate should have a population 10 per cent in excess of or 10 per cent below any other electorate. [More…]
The other point I wish to make- and I think I have made it in this Chamber before- is that the Opposition, despite its criticism of these things and the numerical strength in country areas, has never been critical of the decision of the Constitutional Convention to alter the situation in Tasmania. [More…]
The first reason in my view is to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act and subsidiary legislation to take account of the decision of the High Court in the 2 constitutional cases decided in December and early this month. [More…]
It is apparent to those who attend Constitutional Convention debates that those who represent State governments feel that we should not have even the power we have. [More…]
If it means that we start to think about the constitutional structure of this country in the constructive way of some of my colleagues, particularly my friend, the honourable member for Kingsford-Smith (Mr Lionel Bowen) who spoke earlier this evening, it probably has been worth while. [More…]
So I am speaking this evening to suggest that we take a close look at the question of constitutional reform and consider why the march to constitutional reform has been a slow march indeed. [More…]
Subsequently a Joint Committee of Constitutional Review was appointed. [More…]
That is the only way that constitutional amendments will be passed. [More…]
I know full well that the great majority of worthwhile Australians, to whom I refer will be in favour of her and her family and of this country remaining a constitutional monarchy in the future. [More…]
There is a little constitutional significance in that proposition for honourable members opposite who consider themselves to be such experts. [More…]
As he began his rampage, his rape of this country, so he ended it, defying every accepted constitutional device which was being used to persuade him, not to force him, to make a simple move- to go to the people, to submit himself and his Government to our masters, the electors of Australia, for a verdict. [More…]
It came to office on 13 December 1975, almost 15 months ago, through one of the most disgraceful breaches of parliamentary convention and constitutional law in the history of the world ‘s democracies. [More…]
It is high time that those who believe in our form of constitutional monarchy spoke out loudly and clearly. [More…]
None of these, as far as I could see, offered a really satisfactory alternative to our form of constitutional monarchy. [More…]
It is regrettable that the issue of republicans versus constitutional monarchists is bound to be a political issue. [More…]
If this is so, those who support our present system of constitutional monarchy must speak out so that their voices are not drowned by those tasteless demonstrators whom we saw during the Queen’s visit and by the rantings and ravings of the rootless republican intellectuals. [More…]
Having declared myself as a believer in constitutional monarchy I would like to turn now to some of the problems in my electorate of Leichhardt in far north Queensland. [More…]
That is how this matter becomes relevant for this Parliament If those constitutional provisions had prevailed the sort of abuse, the sort of corruption, the sort of fraud and rigging which we see so constantly at the State level, would have been prevented from occurring in Australia. [More…]
The scheme is rotten, symptomatic of electoral corruption in this country and we ought to take steps in this Parliament to bring about a constitutional change to prevent it. [More…]
The adoption of a proposal for legislative uniformity which recognises that the States are not required to surrender or refer any constitutional power. [More…]
I would like to see support for such a proposal, but I understand that it is not constitutional. [More…]
Following the financial crisis of that year, which precipitated the fall of the Labour Government headed by Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald, the King followed strict constitutional practice and sought to determine a future government for Britain. [More…]
Nevertheless there was nothing unconstitutional in his decision, and he acted after taking advice from Prime Minister MacDonald and after consulting with the 2 leaders of the other political parties. [More…]
I believe our Governor-General could well have been praying during October and early November 1975 that the political and constitutional crisis which existed in this country would resolve itself at Parliament House so that he could avoid involvement in controversy, but when it did not, he was bound to act. [More…]
How one can say in one breath,’ Well may we say God save the Queen’ and in the next, ‘because nothing will save the Governor-General’ is beyond my comprehension as they are indivisible in a constitutional sense. [More…]
There is always the chance that the Monarch, through the Governor-General may be called upon one day to fulfill his constitutional role beyond simply giving royal assent to Bills. [More…]
The alternative to a constitutional Monarchy is a republic, oligarchy, anarchy or dictatorship. [More…]
The crisis that this country faces, irrespective of whether it has a monarchy or is a republic, without a vast constitutional amendment, is simply the question summed up so eloquently by Sir Robert Garran when he quoted what J. W. Hackett once said. [More…]
I think it ought to be noted that referendum proposal on the retiring age for Federal judges was recommended by the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, which is an all-party Committee. [More…]
At the Constitutional Convention it was supported by the Government, by the Opposition and by all State governments but one. [More…]
The battle is tradition and established constitutional procedures versus anarchy and republicanism. [More…]
I think that her visit should act as a timely reminder to us all in this House and to the nation as a whole of the significance to Australia of the constitutional monarchy. [More…]
The purpose of this Bill, which is a simple machinery measure, is to ensure that there is no legal objection to using for this poll, the same ballot-boxes and polling booths as will be used for the Constitutional Referendums. [More…]
It is also well known that saying this is no reflection on the Queen herself in the context of our constitutional monarchy. [More…]
As a result of the constitutional amendment carried out last May, the Commonwealth Parliament now has authority to do whatsoever it wishes in the field of Aboriginal affairs. [More…]
We in this country- and in particular, I as a member of this House- are pleased to support the system of a constitutional monarchy. [More…]
Active support for and participation in the Hobart Constitutional Convention; [More…]
This view was expressed in 1944 in an opinion of the then Attorney-General and former High Court Justice, Dr Evatt, when he stated that section 25 (2)- a section under which Permanent Heads derive their responsibilitiesmust be read subject to fundamental and overriding principles that the constitutional head of a department of the executive government of the Commonwealth is the Minister of State. [More…]
In addition, Mr Robert Parker, the recognised Australian expert on public administration wrote in 1960 that ‘at any level the Minister has the right and in constitutional theory the duty to know of impending decisions and actions and to have the last word in determining them’. [More…]
The Government began its starting point of this examination on the basis that for a referendum to be successful there would need to be substantial agreement at the Australian Constitutional Convention held in Hobart and that there would have to be substantial agreement between the parties represented in this Parliament. [More…]
Therefore we would want the process of constitutional reform to be successful and to go ahead on a smooth basis. [More…]
Because the Government wants constitutional reform to proceed, we sought to select those items which would have a wide degree of acceptance and which could be supported on a bipartisan basis. [More…]
Also in the light of history and in the light of discussions that have taken place at the Constitutional Convention, the proposal that there should be simultaneous elections for this House and the Senate again would seem to be practical, fair and reasonable. [More…]
His reply was: ‘Well, as a constitutional lawyer, I have to say there is no war in Vietnam’. [More…]
They of course were those who made the majority decision- appears to me to be a serious departure from the federal nature of the Constitution, becomes entrenched in constitutional practice by the mere passage of time. [More…]
As a result of discussions at the Constitutional Convention meetings it was virtually unanimously agreed that we should submit to the people of Australia a referendum on 21 May asking whether they would allow the people in the Territories to vote at future referendums. [More…]
Presumably they will go to the Constitutional Convention to try to get some arrangement agreed to in that forum, much as they have done with one of the referendum issues that is before the Parliament at the moment. [More…]
The answer to that is, I think, that all Australians are concerned with constitutional powers, State or Commonwealth. [More…]
We should seek to erect a constitutional edifice which shall be a guarantee of liberty and union for all time to come to the whole people of this continent . [More…]
In actual fact, it was a very important referendum for Territorians because it concerned the Constitutional change which gave the Commonwealth Government the right to make laws for all races in Australia, which of course, included Aborigines. [More…]
I presume that the Attorney-General, with his usual learned approach to these matters, has fully satisfied himself of the constitutional position in relation to extra-territorial legislation. [More…]
In seeking to seriously modify TUTA, the Government faces the same son of credibility problem it faces in seeking passage of constitutional amendments it opposed three years ago, and repeal of aid legislation it supported at about the same time. [More…]
Has the honourable gentleman seen a report that a law lecturer in Western Australia is of the opinion that the complement of the New South Wales and South Australian members to this House was unconstitutionally elected at the general election and that he is proposing to ask the High Court to declare those members’ election void and to order new elections in those States in elections to be held at large? [More…]
In view of the high constitutional importance of this issue and the need for the Parliament to be structured in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, will he be willing to meet the costs of the plaintiff if the action proves unsuccessful? [More…]
As the Leader of the Opposition would understand, the Australian Medical Association or the medical profession is not under any statutory obligation or under any constitutional obligation to have the Commonwealth interfere with its fee adjustments, but by agreement with several governments, including the government led by the Leader of the Opposition, the Australian Medical Association agreed to participate in inquiries. [More…]
The Government believes that the representatives of indigenous political forces in Namibia other than SWAPO should be included in the process of negotiation to determine Namibia’s constitutional future. [More…]
and (3) The question of the possible use of the Commonwealth levy powers to support the operations ofthe Australian Wheat Board has been given consideration upon occasions, but on examination some constitutional and practical difficulties have been evident. [More…]
The Federal Government alone can raise direct taxes on individuals and corporations in an efficient and equitable manner; it has a constitutional monopoly in direct taxes- customs and excise, including sales tax. [More…]
Second, the arrangements should be free of any significant constitutional or other legal doubt. [More…]
We also saw overwhelming problems because of constitutional and administrative considerations in attempting to impose mandatory controls. [More…]
However, two of those three relied solely on the Commonwealth’s Constitutional powers in relation to territories. [More…]
That this House notes that the agreement for a halt in incomes and prices, even for 3 months, must, to achieve whatever success is available to it, acknowledge the Federal nature of the Australian industrial system and that such an agreement involving the Commonwealth and the States was signed on 13 April 1977; however, having regard to the very significant constitutional and industrial powers that lie with States whereby some State commissions adjudicate awards for SO per cent of relevant workers, this House notes: [More…]
And therefore this House regrets that the Premiers of New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania broke their word and in doing so failed to abide by their essential constitutional and industrial responsibilities. [More…]
It has a legal- in fact, a constitutional- responsibility for immigration and the welfare of migrants and their families. [More…]
During discussion of an item dealing with ‘Methods Used in the States for consultation with the Ethnic Communities’, the New South Wales Minister, Mr Jackson, circulated to Ministers an extract from a High Court judgment that in regard to immigrants the Commonwealth had constitutional responsibility and power and that the States do not have it. [More…]
In seeking seriously to modify the Trade Union Training Authority the Government faces the same credibility problem it faces in seeking the passage of the constitutional amendments it opposed 3 years ago. [More…]
A constitutional court battle would result. [More…]
It is common ground that the Trade Practices Act does not have universal application because of constitutional limitations. [More…]
This is for the specific purpose of enabling all honourable gentlemen whose minds and hearts are devoted to constitutional reform to pursue these matters with a great deal of vigour. [More…]
They have been considered by the Constitutional Convention where people from this Parliament, State parliaments and local government bodies gave overwhelming support to the principles of the proposals. [More…]
I ask the Prime Minister whether he will give an assurance to the Parliament that he does not intend in any way to question the complete constitutional independence of the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission nor does he intend to treat it as another government department? [More…]
I should have thought that the constitutional position of the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission is very clear. [More…]
It is a big task because of the constitutional problems involved, particularly where some of the transport services are operated by the States, but it is a task that must be tackled. [More…]
In Australia, constitutional questions are put directly to the people, as was the question of conscription during the First World War. [More…]
During the referendums campaign the Premier of Western Australia complained that the Prime Minister had not answered his letters about arrangements to hold the next meeting of the Constitutional Convention in Perth next October and the Prime Minister responded that he had not yet replied because the future of constitutional reform might well depend on the answers given to the 4 commonsense and non-controversial questions. [More…]
I think the honourable gentleman is right when he indicates that Australians to a very significant extent have indicated support for sensible constitutional reform. [More…]
I hope that constitutional reform can continue in a constructive and proper manner and that the Convention will proceed. [More…]
-Of the 4 referendum questions put to the people last Saturday the most important one- the one for simultaneous elections for this House and the Senate- was lost, despite being unanimously endorsed by this House and, incidentally, endorsed at the Hobart Constitutional Convention by the Premiers of the 3 States which rejected it last Saturday. [More…]
It was produced by the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Review in 1959 and was endorsed by the 1976 Hobart Convention. [More…]
All that is needed is to have a constitutional provision that if a government cannot be formed in the House there should be an election. [More…]
The constitutional amendment could also conveniently cover another problem; it could provide for a double dissolution also if the Senate rejected Supply. [More…]
I commend this suggestion to the delegates to the Constitutional Convention to be held in Perth later this year. [More…]
The need for 5 separate Acts arises from a constitutional requirement that laws imposing taxes should deal with one subject of taxation only. [More…]
It is an interesting concept that under trade practices legislation, founded on the issue that the Government now has some constitutional power to deal with corporations and therefore that unions become part and parcel of the corporation power, the Government has decided to bring in this confrontation legislation. [More…]
I want to make the point that there is really a lot of doubt anyway as to the constitutional validity of clauses 4 and 5. [More…]
I want to make the point that there is a fair bit of legal authority to show clearly that great segments of this legislation are very much in doubt from a constitutional point of view. [More…]
They were upheld on the basis that the ensuring of authentic representation of an organisation was incidental to the constitutional power. [More…]
It is important to bear in mind that, under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act and almost certainly under the constitutional power, awards of compulsory unionism cannot be made; only awards of preference can be made. [More…]
In fact on almost any test these amendments would appear to go beyond the constitutional power. [More…]
Is this within the ambit of what could be called the Commonwealth’s constitutional power. [More…]
I make the point that if this is done it will certainly meet a constitutional challenge because we cannot possibly have a clause like clause 26 and say that it is within the ambit of the Constitution. [More…]
It is not the Government’s intention to set up a quasi-parliamentary body outside the constitutional parliamentary system, and the National Aboriginal Conference will be a non-legislative forum in which elected members will be free to debate and express, among other things, an Australiawide Aboriginal view on long term goals which the Government should pursue, programs which it should adopt and priorities for expenditure. [More…]
No number of authorities established by the Commonwealth, when they lack constitutional competence, can overcome the right of each State to set its own method of collecting information. [More…]
Honourable members will realise that there are constitutional problems in any area affecting the domestic maret. [More…]
Certainly there is a doubt about whether a clause, even one framed in the manner which the honourable gentleman proposes, would be constitutionally acceptable. [More…]
As there has been no acceptance by the State governments of this domestic selling proposal and with the constitutional difficulties which may well flow from an amendment of this type, the [More…]
Although we realise that there are constitutional impediments to such a provision, the Government could seek complementary legislation from the States, as it has done with the Australian Wheat Board, to enable the Australian Meat and Live-stock Corporation to trade within Australia. [More…]
As the Minister for Primary Industry (Mr Sinclair) has said, there are constitutional difficulties associated with the introduction of a domestic marketing scheme in this country. [More…]
In the meantime, the Opposition has moved an amendment to allow for what is, in effect, a domestic marketing scheme within Australia which obviously must be subject to constitutional difficulties. [More…]
As I said earlier, the Commonwealth Government does not have the constitutional power to establish a scheme to control the domestic marketing of meat and livestock. [More…]
We might run into constitutional limitations, but let us face facts. [More…]
The Australian Government should establish the Legal Aid Commission as a truly independent statutory body to plan and administer the expanded system of legal aid services, to the extent that the Commonwealth has constitutional power to do so. [More…]
It would not be going beyond any constitutional power so to do. [More…]
The fundamental aspect of this legislation is that it recognises the constitutional limitation on the functions that are available to the Commonwealth. [More…]
At that conference there was broad agreement on the following objectives which have been followed in the draft Bill: Firstly, there should be complete uniformity as between the States in all respects other than rates of any surcharges or rebates; secondly, the arrangements should be free of any significant constitutional or other legal doubt; thirdly, the scheme should be as simple and inexpensive to administer as practicable, consistent with legal requirements and the other broad objectives being followed; fourthly, the arrangements should impose the least inconvenience practicable on taxpayers and employers; and fifthly, the arrangements should be such as to avoid creating avenues for tax avoidance or evasion. [More…]
As he is well aware, the legal and constitutional requirements in respect of overseas borrowings were deliberately flouted by his Government [More…]
It will be apparent from this statement that the Government attaches considerable significance to the involvement of the Commonwealth in the orderly and efficient management of the nation’s water resources, having full regard to the constitutional responsibilities in these matters. [More…]
It was prepared to provoke the gravest and most divisive constitutional crisis that this country has seen. [More…]
The full ramifications of the moves towards constitutional development for the Australian Capital Territory should be explained to the people of Canberra. [More…]
The Treasury recommended that the new estimate not be published until the economic difficulties caused by the constitutional crisis of that month and the crisis itself were resolved. [More…]
In my view there is no basis within the present constitutional framework for the Government to rely on the Atomic Energy Act. [More…]
This Bill seeks to exercise that newly acquired constitutional authority to prescribe a maximum retiring age for judges of the Family Court of Australia of 65 years. [More…]
In 1974 the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs brought down a report on the Family Law Bill, then before the Senate, that was responsible for the insertion in the Bill of provision for the Family Court of Australia. [More…]
Further, the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs on a retiring age for Federal judges, which led to the Constitution alteration, specifically recommended 65 years as an appropriate age for judges of the Family Court. [More…]
Nonetheless, he is an experienced teacher of administrative and constitutional law. [More…]
We discover that the import bill for August is the highest for any month in the year and the balance of payments deficit the worst since the great constitutional crisis of December 1975. [More…]
I do not support the theory that people will not vote for constitutional change. [More…]
I think that while people are thinking about referendum issues and constitutional matters and have the memory of the recent referendums clearly in their minds it is a good time to run another referendum. [More…]
As the honourable member will know, the Government actively supported the four Constitution alteration proposals arising out of the Hobart meeting of the Constitutional Convention last year, and provided the referendum machinery which resulted in 3 of the 4 proposals passing into law earlier this year- that is, the Senate casual vacancies, territorial voting in referendums and retiring age for Federal judges proposals. [More…]
-Has the attention of the Minister for the Capital Territory been drawn to a statement I made on 18 August calling on the Government to explain the full ramifications of its proposals for moves towards constitutional development for the Australian Capital Territory and to ensure, following such explanation, that a suitable period will be dedicated to allow debate on those proposals by the community? [More…]
A great deal of work is being done through the Australian Constitutional Convention and through the Advisory Council for Intergovernmental Relations to place local government into the federal framework. [More…]
The Australian Council of Local Government Associations in its submission to the Australian Constitutional Convention in 1976 stated: [More…]
The local government proposals, therefore, seek to secure the constitutional recognition of local government; status to enable local government to work with the other two partners in government; and the creation of a sound financial structure to enable the fulfilment of local government’s responsibilities. [More…]
They also contended that the Federal Government should be able to provide funds without recourse to the middle man, the States, although it was acknowledged that the States had some constitutional prerogative in this area. [More…]
I am now able to confirm that the previously announced program for constitutional reform in the Northern Territory is acceptable to the new Northern Territory Executive and the Government will proceed with the implementation of that program. [More…]
The constitutional structure to be developed for the Northern Territory will be directed towards ensuring to the greatest possible extent that conterminality is achieved between responsibility, authority and accountability within the structure of government in the Northern Territory and as between the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory governments. [More…]
In accordance with the undertaking made in October 1976 the Government has now decided to release a proposal for the constitutional development of the Australian Capital Territory with the objective of encouraging widespread public examination and comment on the issues prior to a final decision being made. [More…]
After considering various reports on constitutional development in the Australian Capital Territory the Government indicated last year that there should not be any piecemeal delegation of functions. [More…]
The constitutional position of the Territory as the seat of government and national capital does not allow the Commonwealth to divest itself of responsibility for the government of the Territory. [More…]
Constitutional Development of the Australian Capital Territory- Ministerial Statement, 15September 1977. [More…]
This amending Bill follows the constitutional amendment that we were able to achieve earlier this year when a number of amendments to the Constitution were approved by the Australian people. [More…]
That is the constitutional background. [More…]
That step had to be taken at that stage because there was then no constitutional amendment of the type I have just outlined. [More…]
This leads me to this question: Now that we have this constitutional amendment and an ability to fix a retiring age, which has been fixed at 65 years, there is really no need to put so much emphasis, if any emphasis at all, on State courts. [More…]
If we could put another constitutional amendment and ask the people whether the family law court should have the ability to deal with all matters relating to the family, virtually unanimously all people in Australia would say yes. [More…]
The difficulty is that we cannot get that constitutional amendment so readily. [More…]
The proposals were supported at the Constitutional Convention and the legislation to alter the Constitution was introduced into Parliament by this Government. [More…]
The first method of overcoming this problem, as the honourable member quite rightly suggested, was to seek to have transferred from the States, by means of constitutional amendment, the powers that they now have in relation to maintenance, custody and property in a matrimonial causes situation. [More…]
I suggest that the honourable member for Parramatta (Mr Ruddock) attempt to become a member of the Constitutional Convention delegation. [More…]
I have attended Constitutional Convention meetings since their resumption in 1973. [More…]
It will remind honourable members, of course, that this Government promoted three successful constitutional amendments. [More…]
This particular amendment was promoted by the Government at the Constitutional Convention last October and was basically in the form of the amendment suggested by the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs in relation to this matter. [More…]
What happened here on 11 November 1975 was a tremendous reversal of sensible constitutional practice in the 20th century and I will yield to no one in my views on that. [More…]
In my view it does not require any constitutional changes to make it better; it requires changes in the institutional arrangements that currently exist. [More…]
In the latter year it did what to my mind was the graveyard of democracy in that a place other than this gained ascendency in regard to where the financial decisions of his nation are made, and the Government betrayed any respect that it may now claim for trying to defend things in terms of decent constitutional usage. [More…]
We must bear in mind that 20 years ago if one mentioned education in this Parliament it was deemed to be outside the ambit of the constitutional powers of this Parliament. [More…]
I refer to the constitutional provisions which require Cabinet solidarity and unity of purpose. [More…]
Does this not conflict with constitutional propriety? [More…]
I would remind him that there is a constitutional obligation on the Commonwealth, when it does step in and acquire land, that it do so on just terms not merely for the taxpayer but also for the owner of the property concerned. [More…]
However I do believe, and I said this the other evening, that we have to make certain institutional rearrangements, not constitutional changes, so that the system will work better than it is working. [More…]
Another area about which I wish to speak in closing is that of constitutional development for the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]
So we were associated not only with the grog problem of Aborigines but also with the implementation of further constitutional development for the Northern Territory. [More…]
It would have been, nevertheless, only a matter of time until agreement was ultimately reached on the log to be submitted to the SEC through constitutional trade union channels. [More…]
Apart from the fact that S. Armstrong’s committee is representative of only 11 of the unions with members employed in the SEC, shop stewards committees, which operate under an ACTU charter, have no constitutional authority to either engage in this type of industrial activity or pursue matters affecting wage rates or award conditions. [More…]
It would have been, nevertheless, only a matter of time until agreement was ultimately reached on the log to be submitted to the SEC through constitutional trade union channels. [More…]
If the Defence Force is used for fishery protection, we will run into the constitutional problem that the Commonwealth fisheries Act is applicable only outside the 3-mile limit At least, so far that is all that has been applied. [More…]
It is, in effect, part of Canada’s constitutional documents. [More…]
It could, in effect, be almost a constitutional document although one would have to agree it could be amended by parliaments or it could be departed from. [More…]
-The honourable member says that it is in the Constitution, but if the principle is so great, why do honourable members opposite not work towards constitutional change? [More…]
He at least might nave had the grace to admit that, in the Constitutional Review Committee’s report of 1958 and 1959, 1 was the one who insisted that the margin should be reduced to 10 per cent. [More…]
My suggestion was that we should hold a simple constitutional referendum to provide that there should be one member of the House of Representatives for every 100,000 people. [More…]
But we must look at the matter in the light of what is happening in Australia today, on a constitutional basis. [More…]
We are saying that the constitutional conventions in Australia at present are not in our opinion representative of the wishes of the people. [More…]
However, it clearly involved practical difficulties, including the vigorous opposition of the employers to nationalisation and the fact that although the external power would appear to provide constitutional power to nationalise the industry, the then Labor Government would have faced a very real difficulty in getting such legislation through the Senate. [More…]
The first one is the simple constitutional provision imposed by the taking of the census to alter the number of divisions in a State. [More…]
An election for the Legislative Assembly will take place in 1978 at which issues of future constitutional development for the Territory will be widely canvassed. [More…]
That this House requests the Government to urge the United States to amend its security agreements with Australia and to put them on the same footing as its NATO commitments, where a public pledge has been given that US constitutional processes will not operate to delay swift and necessary action to meet any aggression. [More…]
I think we have to instil in the States the same sense of direction, if one likes to call it that, the same sense of constitutional challenge in relation to primary and secondary education as we have been doing in relation to tertiary education for nigh on 20 years. [More…]
There is a lot of talk in Australia at the moment about the necessity for constitutional reform. [More…]
We know from history that the House of Commons is some six centuries older than we are, and during those centuries a constitutional practice built up surrounding the office of Speaker. [More…]
Last week I welcomed the largest gathering of government leaders ever to meet in this country to the first Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting; and today is the first occasion on which I perform my constitutional duty of opening this Parliament as the Representative of Her Majesty The Queen. [More…]
This process has begun, as may be seen in my Government’s reforms in the areas of taxation, social welfare and its constitutional and legal reforms. [More…]
He built up an extensive practice and appeared as counsel in several important constitutional cases. [More…]
Until 11 November 1975 a majority of our people always believed that social justice and reform could be won by constitutional means per medium of the Parliament. [More…]
The Constitutional point that the High Court would have to resolve- I am sure it would resolve it in favour of the Parliament itselfwould determine whether the Speaker is the person who recommends to us what we should spend on our Parliament. [More…]
The Australian Government has constitutional power to enact a Bill of Rights to give the Australian citizens judicial protection. [More…]
What we need is constitutional reform to enact a Bill of Rights in the Constitution itself. [More…]
I am talking about all Australian who are likely to have a violent outlet for their motivation to overthrow a constitutional government. [More…]
It was initiated by the then Prime Minister who forced the Governor-General to act in the only way that was proper within his constitutional powers and the only way that honour and the protection of the rights of the people of Australia could possibly permit. [More…]
If he would not resign what would happen in the British constitutional situation? [More…]
This will happen because what Sir John Kerr did in 1975, whether the Labor Party understands it or not- and perhaps it will never understand- was right, proper, correct, legal, constitutional, necessary and inescapable. [More…]
In 1974 they threatened to breach constitutional convention in their grab for power. [More…]
The main issue I wish to deal with tonight concerns a media release by the Department of Primary Industry dated Tuesday, 28 February 1978 dealing with an address by the Right Honourable Ian Sinclair, Minister for Primary Industry, to the Constitutional Association of Australia in Sydney yesterday. [More…]
However, the honourable member would know- indeed Mr Roper would know- that the Commonwealth Government has no constitutional power whatsoever to set doctors’ fees; the State governments do. [More…]
was right, proper, correct, legal, constitutional, necessary and inescapable. [More…]
The evidence that we now have suggests that, whilst Sir John Kerr, was acting legally, what he did was not right, proper, correct, constitutional, necessary, inescapable or even honourable. [More…]
Professor Geoffrey Sawer- given the illiteracy of Liberal Party supporters, they may not want me to quote a professorwho is regarded as one of the greatest experts on constitutional matters in this country, said: [More…]
In many other spheres such authorities have been thrust into the background, despite the outstanding recommendation of the Joint Committee on the Northern Territory following its inquiry into the constitutional development of the Northern Territory. [More…]
That is, in relation to constitutional development in the Northern Territory: . [More…]
The Minister tabled a paper entitled ‘Proposals for the Constitutional Development of the Australian Capital Territory’. [More…]
One proposal which was an election issue sought constitutional change to give added status to the coloureds and Indians of South Africa. [More…]
The saying of our time- ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’- is altogether pernicious so far as a constitutional democracy is concerned. [More…]
The terrorists can never win in a constitutional democracy, provided that the leaders of democracies stick to their lastthat is, behave according to the democratic mode of behaviour Never break its unspoken rules themselves and treat terrorists as criminals. [More…]
It is up to us to emphasise that we are living in a democracy, that we are living in a constitutional democracy and that people who take violent means to try to change the democracy- and we have no evidence that in fact that was the purpose of the bombing outside the Hilton, but let us assume it was- should be dealt with as common criminals. [More…]
I have not dealt with all the points with which I wanted to deal but let me just mention the socalled Constitutional Security Movement which was set up in New South Wales in order to defeat the referendum on the upper House. [More…]
So then he formed what he called the Constitutional Security Movement. [More…]
It is interesting to note that once the Liberal Party and the Labor Party came to a deal on the ques.ton of the upper House the Constitutional Security Movement went underground. [More…]
That Bill was referred by the Senate to the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs which furnished a useful and constructive report to the Senate on 26 April 1977. [More…]
The report of the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs recommended that the Bill be amended to ensure that persons serving with the armed forces of a government or a force approved by the Minister pursuant to sub-clause 9 (2) should not be liable to penalty for acts done during the course of their service with those forces. [More…]
I believe that he is one of the greatest constitutional lawyers and orators that the national Parliament has seen. [More…]
The Prime Minister launched into a military manoeuvre and by executive action of dubious constitutional validity called in the troops, and the troops responded in this dress rehearsal as it has been called. [More…]
By a ridiculous combination of constitutional politics we have got ourselves into the position where the [More…]
I have defended the right of Sir John to make the constitutional decision he did in 1973 but the government-inspired appointment to an ambassadorial post is to be deplored. [More…]
Despite the report presented by the Joint Committee on the Northern Territory into constitutional development for the Northern Territory, we have seen a constant disregard paid to the knowledge and experience of people in the Northern Territory. [More…]
In its report on the constitutional development of the Northern Territory the Joint Standing Committee on the Northern Territory urged this consultation and co-operation. [More…]
Has the Prime Minister noticed the constitutional debacle that occurred in South Australia yesterday when the appointment of judges, the sacking of Salisbury and the setting up of a royal commission were found to be invalid? [More…]
When will the Government exercise its constitutional power and legislate more effectively to protect Aboriginal rights? [More…]
How can the man who almost destroyed the system of constitutional government in 1975, the man who so divided this country, claim to govern for the benefit of the whole of the people? [More…]
If the present Prime Minister cannot recognise that something very squalid has taken place- if he remains impervious to the decencies and niceties of the constitutional democracy- then we are in for a very rough time indeed. [More…]
1) Is he able to say which federal States other than the United States of America and Australia have regarded International Labour Organisation conventions as appropriate under their constitutional systems, in whole or in part, for action by the constituent States, provinces or cantons rather than for federal action. [More…]
The scheme, because of constitutional requirements, will operate by means of grants made by the Commonwealth to the States pursuant to section 96 of the Constitution. [More…]
It is carefully designed to achieve that result within the constitutional power of the [More…]
What would happen if all the money that would otherwise be appropriated for programs for the Aboriginal people- housing, health or educationwere set aside to accept a constitutional obligation of providing on just terms for the acquisition of all those lands in Queensland to which one could effectively give control by legislation of this sort? [More…]
We have a clear constitutional duty to take up the challenge issued by the Queensland Premier and fulfil the aspirations of the Aboriginal people. [More…]
Are Puckapunyal and other military establishments of that sort, whether they be under constitutional or Commonwealth authority, which engage in Commonwealth services areas of this type? [More…]
I am reminded by my honourable friend that Queenslanders voted overwhelmingly in favour of that constitutional change. [More…]
There are serious legal defects in the argument which, if allowed to be carried, would throw into jeopardy the constitutional validity of this legislation. [More…]
In the course of the long history of this Bill, it was referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
That action has been taken as a result of the recommendations of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
When the previous legislation was referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs the Committee recommended a definition of the word ‘government’. [More…]
That was added as a result of the recommendation of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
Anything he said must not be taken to inhibit proper debate in this place where this Parliament has proper constitutional power to debate a matter. [More…]
I do not think he is questioning the constitutional power of this House to deal with matters of this sort. [More…]
Equally, I look forward to the constitutional development of the Northern Territory. [More…]
These shall also be furnished to the appropriate Minister of the Northern Territory, on or after 1 July 1978, in line with the constitutional development of the Territory. [More…]
It seems to me that now, when the Government seems to be intent on abrogating its constitutional responsibilities, would be an excellent time to enter into such a treaty of commitment with the Aboriginal people of Australia to ensure that such a depressing and demoralising episode as that which we have witnessed in recent days is never repeated. [More…]
It was also recommended in a report of the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. [More…]
To date this Parliament has chosen not to declare its privileges but rather to depend on the constitutional reference. [More…]
I do not wish to go through all the issues raised by the honourable member for Capricornia but I pose this question: I wonder whether he would be so vocal in seeking to have the Commonwealth exercise its constitutional power in relation to Aboriginals in all areas that is what he is looking at if, for instance, we had a Prime Minister of Australia called Mr John Bjelke-Petersen. [More…]
The share of any industry assistance programs that might be met by the Commonwealth could rather be determined for each program, its relationship to constitutional and other responsibilities of the Commonwealth and the relative priority of the Commonwealth’s and the States capacity to pay at the time. [More…]
The Government does not care that the Marcos regime, with which it is making bilateral arrangements, has already demonstrated total disregard not only for the protests of people of the Philippines who live near the reactor site but also for the democratic and constitutional rights of the entire population of that nation. [More…]
The Government’s response is to extend the constitutional base of the Atomic Energy Act to trade and commerce and to external affairs. [More…]
Would it be logical to expand the constitutional authority of the Army to cover trade and commerce and foreign policy? [More…]
The Federal Government should look at constitutional amendments, if it is necessary to go to that length, to ensure that State governments also will carry out the recommendations made 1 7 years ago by the all-party Committee of this House which, as I said, was chaired by my Liberal Party predecessor in Capricornia. [More…]
The need for five separate Acts arises from a constitutional requirement that laws imposing taxes should deal with one subject of taxation only. [More…]
The former raises jurisdictional issues with constitutional implications. [More…]
7 of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Development which stated, amongst other things, that the Australian Parliament should not legislate in respect of those functions, the executive responsibility for which has been transferred to the Territory Executive. [More…]
At a time when we are seeing the transfer of powers to the Northern Territory Executive, constitutional reform and self-government, we see the Commonwealth endeavouring to divide the Territory. [More…]
The power to make regulations which is conferred on the Governor-General is as wide as the matters which may be contained in a code and, that being so, the power is too wide and not within constitutional limits. [More…]
Alternatively, we might follow the procedure of passing the Bill, having it assented to by the GovernorGeneral, having it proclaimed and then finding that we are facing a constitutional challenge in the High Court of Australia which might delay the whole procedure for some months. [More…]
I believe this is a badly constructed Bill and that there are serious implications in it in that excessive power is proposed to be exercised on what is probably not a legitimate constitutional base. [More…]
Is the Deputy Prime Minister aware of the following statement reported to have been made on 1 8 February by Keicchi Ito Director of the Japanese Defence Bureau: ‘If in the future we should hypothetically, cease to be a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, then we can own nuclear weapons within the constitutional limits. [More…]
Whilst the Constitution makes specific provisions for the welfare and benefit of Aboriginals to be the responsibility of the Commonwealth there are many matters of a constitutional nature which have not been determined and there are many aspects of this matter which, if pursued to the final point of confrontation, would end with us in litigation in the High Court of Australia from which there would be no solution and no worthwhile result for the Aboriginal people involved. [More…]
From a constitutional point of view and assuming that the Government’s views about the historical position are proved to be correct in the legal sense, I make the following comments: The treaty to be agreed to by the governments of Papua New Guinea and Australia does not involve any transfer of land territory and does not involve the transfer of any territory from Queensland. [More…]
I think we also need to make the constitutional position quite clear because it could well be that the Government of Queensland, as is its wont, would want to have a good deal to say on many matters. [More…]
although the Commonwealth Parliament has legal power under Section 122 of the Constitution to impose taxes or other imposts on the people of Norfolk Island for whatever purpose it thinks fit, to do so could well be in breach of a well-entrenched constitutional convention. [More…]
This in our view is a further very significant matter to be taken into account in relation to the future constitutional relationship between Australia and Norfolk Island’, the learned counsel said. [More…]
In a very real sense, the constitutional history of the Northern Territory since that date reflects the endeavours of the people of the Territory to regain the rights which they lost in 1910. [More…]
However, there can be little doubt that, whilst not conferring statehood, the Bill now before the House will, when enacted, represent the most significant advance to date in the constitutional development of the Northern Territory. [More…]
Before directing my attention to the Bill, I would draw the attention of honourable members to the essentially bipartisan approach which has been adopted in this Parliament to the constitutional advancement of the Northern Territory. [More…]
The Bill now before the House represents in a very real sense, a continuation of the endeavours of honourable members on both sides of the Parliament to meet the legitimate constitutional aspirations of the Northern Territory community, indeed, although it has proved necessary for presentational reasons to repeal the Northern Territory (Administration) Act, this Bill seeks the re-enactment, in largely the same form, of a large number of the existing provisions of that Act. [More…]
As is appropriate in a measure of this type, the Bill commences with a preambular statement of the intention of the Parliament and the constitutional authority for giving effect to that intention. [More…]
The miscellaneous provisions in Part VI cover a series of constitutional type guarantees in relation to the freedom of trade and the acquisition of property on just terms. [More…]
It would be inappropriate for me to let this occasion pass without paying tribute to the people who, over the years, have made a significant contribution to the constitutional history of the Northern Territory. [More…]
They are people who, while holding divergent political views, have been united and tireless in working and pressing the case for constitutional reform. [More…]
If we were to apply to this Bill the reasoning that the Privy Council applied in deciding that case, it would mean that clauses 13 to 23 of the Bill were beyond the constitutional powers of the national Government. [More…]
There are constitutional difficulties involved but the problem is not insurmountable. [More…]
Within a remarkably brief period at the Victorian Bar in which his practice ranged over industrial, common and constitutional law Menzies built a formidable name as a brilliant legal intellect and an outstanding advocate. [More…]
After that historic case, in which he successfully stood alone against several notable King’s Counsel, he appeared in many famous constitutional cases before the High Court and the Privy Council. [More…]
This outstanding constitutional lawyer had few rivals and in 1929- at 34 years of age- he became Australia ‘s youngest King ‘s Counsel. [More…]
He saw clearly the place of the Crown in the Australian body politic, and stood by the principles of constitutional monarchy which are the fundamental base of our political life. [More…]
This chamber had a deep significance to him in the constitutional sense, in the political sense and in the national sense. [More…]
Some of the particular interests identified with Sir Robert Menzies and which might therefore be drawn within the purposes of the fund are the law, with particular reference to constitutional matters and Federal-State relationships, studies concerned with Australia ‘s role within the British Commonwealth and with Australia-Britain relations; studies of Australia and the United States; studies of relations between Australia and the Pacific nations. [More…]
Though some royalist emigres, in the context of the post war situation, advocated an independent status for Slovenia and described themselves as in favour of a ‘Free Slovenia ‘ as some form of constitutional monarchy, the only coherent war-time force dedicated to the liberation and reconstitution of Slovenia was the ‘National Liberation Anti-Fascist Front’. [More…]
It happened that the Minister coincidentally gave an opinion to the Norfolk Island Council about the problems associated with taxation laws applying to the Island and some constitutional difficulties involved. [More…]
I appeal to all honourable members on both sides of the House and to the Ministry to give serious thought to the future of the Parliament as a constitutional institution. [More…]
Many people in our community contended that there was dubious constitutional validity for that action. [More…]
The resolution of such a question should not be allowed to be impeded by purely domestic constitutional difficulties in Australia, which have nothing to do with Papua New Guinea and which Papua New Guinea can legitimately claim should not adversely affect her interest. [More…]
Because of certain Australian Constitutional difficulties (see clause 7) Australia may be restricted to a delineation of the maritime and seabed boundary. [More…]
AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTIONAL POSITION [More…]
Finally it is necessary to discuss the legal and constitutional issues involved in the changes that are proposed regarding Australia ‘s boundary with Papua New Guinea. [More…]
The resolution of such a question should not be allowed to be impeded by purely domestic constitutional difficulties in Australia, which have nothing to do with Papua New Guinea and which Papua New Guinea can legitimately claim should not adversely affect her interest. [More…]
To that extent it does not impinge at all upon the Australian Government’s constitutional responsibility, it does not contravene Queensland’s constitutional entitlement under the Constitution or under the Queensland Coastal Islands Act. [More…]
Equally, there is an obligation, constitutional at least, on the Minister to keep the Queensland Government fully informed of what may occur ultimately in this matter. [More…]
1 ) That the House of Representatives agrees that the Commonwealth Parliament participate with the Parliaments of the States in the continuing work of the Constitutional Convention established to review the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution and accordingly resolves: [More…]
The next plenary session of the Australian Constitutional Convention is scheduled to be held at Parliament House in Perth over the three-day period 26-28 July 1978. [More…]
The Government ‘s view is that it is desirable that at least one more plenary session of the Constitutional Convention is held so that the continuing work of the Convention in reviewing the operation of the Australian Constitution may proceed further. [More…]
Honourable members will recall that the original impetus for the Constitutional Convention came from Sir Henry Bolte ‘s Liberal Government in Victoria; and, particularly at the Hobart session in 1976, valuable work has already been performed by the Convention. [More…]
I believe we can all recall with some satisfaction the overwhelming approval given by the Australian electorate in May last year to the three referendum proposals, each of which had first been approved in principal at the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
The Convention provides a unique forum for discussion of fundamental constitutional issues. [More…]
I commend to the House this motion which seeks to ratify the continued participation of this Parliament in the endeavours of the Australian Constitutional Convention. [More…]
In responding to the statement by the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser), I wish to advise that the delegates from the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party to the Australian Constitutional Convention to be held at Perth in July will be, apart from myself, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition (Mr Lionel Bowen), the honourable member for Corio (Mr Scholes), the honourable member for Bonython (Dr Blewett), the honourable member for Lalor (Mr Barry Jones), and, from the Senate, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator Button, and Senator James McClelland and Senator Ted Robertson. [More…]
I think it incontestable, following the report of the 1 958 Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, that there are serious, and extensively serious, deficiencies in the Australian Constitution. [More…]
I believe that the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in its 1958 report made the point not once but many times that the inter-relationship of a national economy had developed far beyond what was conceived in 1901. [More…]
There is no question of constitutional or legal principle involved, since the change will make practice in this matter consistent with that in other situations where the Treasurer is empowered to authorise the issue of securities. [More…]
In referring to our own Government, it would be essential that the closest consultation with the States takes place, bearing in mind the dual jurisdiction that applies between the States and the Commonwealth under the constitutional rights in this field. [More…]
Are there any constitutional barriers to the establishment of a differential tax rate by means of this rebate. [More…]
The situation is that the Senate has used its constitutional powers and returned this Bill to the House of Representatives, requesting that certain amendments be made to it. [More…]
Clause 12 of the original Bill gives every possible conceivable constitutional reason for argument as to why the regulations and the legislation should be within the powers of the Parliament. [More…]
I suppose the Minister would have heard of the Constitutional Committee of Review which operated many years ago and which was set up by the Menzies Government to provide guidelines for future governments as to the need for constitutional review. [More…]
I think their parties chose them because of their constitutional capacities. [More…]
-I do not think the Committee needs to be reminded that we are talking about the constitutional obligations and the constitutional rights that the Commonwealth has in regard to nuclear codes. [More…]
I was simply making the point that just as civil aviation was not covered constitutionally in 1901- the time when the Wright brothers were experimenting with aeroplanes- neither was nuclear energy. [More…]
At clause 1 1 8 of the report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, brought up and ordered to be printed on 1 October 1958, the Committee said: [More…]
By reason of its various constitutional powers, notably with respect to defence and overseas trade, the national Parliament is not without some effective legal powers at the present stage of nuclear development in Australia. [More…]
So the Committee recommends that the Commonwealth Parliament should be empowered by Constitutional amendments to make laws with respect to the manufacture of nuclear fuels and the generation and use of nuclear energy and to iodising radiations. [More…]
I am simply saying to the Minister that these are the comments of a constitutional committee made up of the best legal brains in this Parliament, including the former Prime Minster, Sir Robert Gordon Menzies; the late Arthur Calwell; a former Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam and others, including some who are in the Senate at present. [More…]
This was a committee set up by a government of the Minister’s own political persuasionpeople of his own political ilk- who told the government of the day that it had no constitutional prerogative in this matter. [More…]
The report of the Constitutional Review Committee of this Parliament warned the Government that it would be stripped of its constitutionality on this matter. [More…]
Secondly, the arrangements should be free of any significant constitutional or other legal doubt; [More…]
In this country we have an excellent constitutional framework for settling disputes impartially through the processes of conciliation and arbitration. [More…]
The only way in which an authority such as the one suggested by the honourable member could be set up would be for the States to relinquish some of their constitutional rights. [More…]
One does not expect major constitutional changes to be made without a vote of the people affected. [More…]
This in itself is no reflection on the Government but it ought to be a warning that before a major constitutional change of this kind takes place the Government should not only consult but also clearly be seen to consult with the people of the Territory. [More…]
Financial arrangements ought to have been discussed and spelt out before the Government was asked to approve, in this rather blanket way, all the constitutional provisions for handing over so many functions to the Northern Territory. [More…]
That the Bill be withdrawn until a plebiscite has shown that voters of the Northern Territory approve the financial and constitutional provisions due to take effect on 1 July 1978. [More…]
It is not just the financial and constitutional provisions of the Northern Territory (SelfGovernment) Bill which exercise our concern. [More…]
This Bill is one that gives, we believe, undue constitutional power to the Administrator. [More…]
It is easy to understand why supporters of the Government may not be very sensitive about this constitutional issue. [More…]
When I was in London privately a couple of years ago it was brought home to me very forcibly that Britain in particular, and other countries in Europe at that stage still had considerable misgivings about what many of them saw as the misuse of constitutional power by the Governor-General. [More…]
He failed to take the advice of his Ministers before making a major constitutional decision. [More…]
That all words after ‘That’ be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: the Bill be withdrawn until a plebiscite has shown that voters of the Northern Territory approve the financial and constitutional provisions due to take effect on 1 July 1 978 ‘. [More…]
I cannot for the life of me understand why we should rely on the implicit significance of existing constitutional conventions and legislation to ensure that there is a limitation on the power of the Territory. [More…]
We should use section 122- other than in constitutional terms- in the most sparing fashion. [More…]
These chiefly operate in times of constitutional crisis. [More…]
I also support the full context of the Opposition’s amendment that the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Bill should be withdrawn until there has been a plebiscite, that is a referendum of the people of the Northern Territory to get their views in relation to the financial and constitutional provisions that should be applied to them. [More…]
This is the whole point of the Commonwealth itself having constitutional power in respect of a Territory- which it has under section 122 of the Constitution- to legislate in a fashion to enable a Territory to be able to govern itself. [More…]
I again advert to the fact that it is important when we are talking about self-government, which is the forerunner of statehood, that the Territory should have a constitutional approach to all the problems of the people of the Territory. [More…]
Apart from the question raised here of financial constitutional provisions, I do not think the people of the Territory should have placed upon them the stupidity of an apparent selfgovernment which can be denied in the exercise of one man being the Administrator, with all the powers to which I have adverted. [More…]
I hope that the Minister for the Northern Territory (Mr Adermann) will give serious and careful consideration to the legal and constitutional implications of the doubts and reservations that I have about the method being adopted to confer upon the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory a legislative capacity which exceeds the capacity that is in the hands of the States and makes no reservation in regard to the general powers of the Commonwealth, other than our capacity to refuse to give the Assembly either executive authority or our capacity to use the reserve powers of the Governor-General to veto Assembly legislation. [More…]
Where for reasons of constitutional development or national policy issues we are of the opinion that the executive authority should be limited, we should in those circumstances limit it specifically. [More…]
That would make quite clear to the elected representatives and the people of the Northern Territory the area of reserve powers of the Commonwealth, rather than confront them with a difficult constitutional situation where in respect of every piece of legislation they have to ask whether the conferral of executive authority is wide enough to enable the Assembly to execute the legislation which it has passed. [More…]
We should all be well aware that major constitutional changes should be decided by the people of the Northern Territory and not by this Parliament. [More…]
The additional amount would be allocated across the board on a uniform basis, in accordance with the constitutional requirements that bounties be uniform across Australia, to those factories which wished to receive an increased quota. [More…]
suggest that it does not have any constitutional validity. [More…]
Many times in the past when a major revision such as the one I now contemplate has been suggested, the custodian of the public purse, the Treasury, has annihilated all argument by putting up the constitutional difficulty. [More…]
Has the Australian Government received legal advice that it is within its constitutional power to introduce such legislation? [More…]
Indeed, it is paradoxical that the ruler of a country, with Islam constitutionally declared as its State religion, enabling the Muslims to order their lives in the individual and collective spheres in accordance with the teachings of Islam as set out in the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah as its declared objective, and guaranteeing to the citizens their life and liberty, should play with the valuable life of a citizen so whimsically and tyrannically. [More…]
The constitutional provisions presuppose that before a person ventures to seek election to the office of the Chief Executive of the Federation, he would order his own life in accordance with the law, injunctions and teachings of Holy Qur’an and Sunnah. [More…]
However, I do hope that in setting this path for the Northern Territory we are not creating more troubles inside the Australian constitutional situation. [More…]
The nine amending Bills are necessary because sales tax is imposed by nine separate Acts in order to meet the constitutional requirement that an Act imposing taxation shall deal with only one subject of taxation. [More…]
Now there will be consultation on both the legislation and the terms of the special lease and that the Commonwealth position is quite clear, that if those terms of legislation and lease are not acceptable then the Commonwealth will exercise its constitutional powers of acquisition. [More…]
I believe that there is only one action we can take- that is to acquire the land in accordance with our constitutional authority under the Commonwealth Lands Acquisition Act and to deed it to the people in perpetuity. [More…]
The constitutional position is quite clear. [More…]
The process is clear, the constitutional position is clear, the need is imperative and it is urgent. [More…]
Before that, the Bill had been examined by the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs as part of its examination of the reference on the then existing divorce law. [More…]
It was 10 years after the Matrimonial Causes Act commenced that the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs was given the reference on the state of the divorce law. [More…]
Until recently, it has been generally accepted that the Commonwealth constitutional power to legislate in respect of trade marks did not extend to marks used in relation to services. [More…]
I believe quite firmly that this would overcome the problem, if there be one, of the constitutional validity of this taxation zone rebate as we see it today. [More…]
Were there any discussions at the 1976 Hobart Constitutional Convention concerning the power of the Family LawCourt to assume responsibility for matters relating to illegitimate children. [More…]
Was the Queensland Government represented at the Hobart Constitutional Convention; if so, who were its representatives and what were their votes on this issue. [More…]
If this matter was discussed at the Constitutional Convention, is the Family Law Court assuming responsibility for illegitimate children as discussed by the Convention. [More…]
(Proceedings of the Australian Constitutional Convention: Hobart 1976, page 68). [More…]
Whether Federal law can invest the Court with jurisdiction over ex-nuptial children in the States depends on whether the Commonwealth acquires the necessary legislative power by Constitutional amendment or reference of power, as to which see my answer in (3) above. [More…]
In view of the recent decision of the High Court on the constitutional role and powers of the Australian Wheat Board, can the Minister say when the Government is likely to consider the report of the Industries Assistance Commission on wheat stabilisation? [More…]
I noted in paragraph 55 of the report that the Crown Solicitor had advised that the original defence acquisition was in 1915 and in 1917 was a lawful acquisition for a public purpose and that therefore there does not appear to be any constitutional or legal reason why the Commonwealth should not use the land for any purpose within its competence under the Constitution. [More…]
It says that there does not appear to be any constitutional or legal reason. [More…]
I simply do not think the Federation could stand the seizure by the Federal Government of Crown land belonging to a State and I do not think that the constitutional validity of the referendum is of any value. [More…]
The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs has already stated publicly that if the proposed legislation and the lease arrangements which will be legislated for by the Queensland Government are not satisfactory to the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth will use its constitutional powers of acquisition in order to ensure that the rights and interests of the people of the two communities are fully protected. [More…]
I think it is probable that the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, unless it is looking at so-called constitutional responsibility rather than combining it with the effect on the economic recovery and the future development of this country, would listen to and accept the views of these very talented men. [More…]
The Foot and Mouth Disease Act 1961 provided also for payment of compensation to stockowners in the Northern Territory, but the present Bill reflects the recent constitutional developments in the Northern Territory and thus relates only to the Australian Capital Territory. [More…]
Certainly, when the referendum on the subject of constitutional development is held later this year, some people will say that they would prefer to have other people pay their bills. [More…]
They oppose constitutional change. [More…]
By many it is regarded as a plaything of politicians of doubtful worth, and its importance as the constitutional, democratic instrument of the people themselves is not well enough understood. [More…]
Also, until recently it had generally been accepted that constitutional power to legislate in respect of trade marks did not extend to services. [More…]
In addition, partly related to that problem is the fact that there are serious inadequacies as far as the constitutional powers of the national Govern-, ment are concerned. [More…]
Is the Government under any constitutional obligation to accept as policy any report of the sub-committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence which is inquiring into implications on Australia’s foreign policy and national security of proposals for a new international economic order? [More…]
The Government is not under any constitutional obligation to accept as policy a report of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence. [More…]
We hope that the Government will reconsider the whole subject of Crown privilege in terms of what may happen to the freedom of information Bill, which has now been referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
They do not seem to be able to remember the details of constitutional conspiracy, deceit and deception, incompetence and irregularity. [More…]
Back in 1975 in what was a fairly heated campaign, if one might say so, in what was a campaign in which the Labor Party sought to generate a phoney constitutional crisis, the people of Australia were looking to real value. [More…]
Does it still abide by its policy to abolish State governments to the limits that the constitutional power will permit, or indeed without limits if its platform plank of giving all power to the Commonwealth Parliament should ever obtain public approval? [More…]
In some cases, such as the ones I have mentioned, it can be useful but if one looks at any of the utterances of my leader, even going back to his Fabian pamphlet of 1968, one sees that he talks about the constitutional impediments to nationalisation and quotes Aneurin Bevan, who described as sterile purists the people who would nationalise everything in theory and nothing in practice. [More…]
I ask the Minister for Primary Industry (Mr Sinclair), within the confines of his constitutional abilities, to try to do something about removing this anomaly that is costing the beef industry in particular so much money. [More…]
calls for the appointment of an International Constitutional Commission to re-write the paralysed and worn out Lebanese constitution to ensure that Lebanon becomes a confederate neutral state like Switzerland, and [More…]
That leads us to say that the Minister’s statement does not deal with two basic political issues which are, firstly, the constitutional future of Lebanon and, secondly, the relationship of the Lebanese problem to the wider Arab problems. [More…]
This separation is in order to meet the constitutional requirement that an Act imposing taxation shall deal with only one subject of taxation. [More…]
The separation is necessary in order to meet the constitutional requirement that an Act which imposes taxation shall deal with only one subject thereof. [More…]
I have noticed on some occasions that some Labor Party people are great ones for talking about constitutional reform and propriety in government. [More…]
Of course, the constitutional position of the Commonwealth here is that only in certain specified areas within the Constitution has the Commonwealth power to make laws which by virtue of section 109 of the Constitution prevail over any competing State laws. [More…]
Generally speaking, the Commonwealth does not have constitutional power in the area of freedom of speech or freedom of assembly over any such laws that are passed by the States. [More…]
That is the constitutional obligation of the Government. [More…]
However, in Queensland I must say that we have not adhered to our constitutional responsibilities. [More…]
Firstly, it is ludicrous that we do not have a constitutional requirement for simultaneous elections. [More…]
That is not in accordance with what I would call good constitutional practice. [More…]
The Commonwealth does not have constitutional power in the area of freedom of speech or freedom of assembly . [More…]
It is no answer to say that this matter should be considered by the Constitutional Convention. [More…]
The Convention does not have an exclusive right to consider constitutional questions. [More…]
We do not see the Constitutional Convention as being an adequate vehicle by which to achieve the major constitutional tasks ahead. [More…]
A proposition such as that contained in the fourth paragraph of this motion offers a solution to three serious and important constitutional questions. [More…]
The Australian people have demonstrated very clearly that they are not as negative about constitutional reform as is sometimes thought. [More…]
As I have explained, this proposal provides solutions to three important constitutional questions. [More…]
The amendments needed to achieve this are somewhat voluminous but this is mainly due to the constitutional requirement that an Act imposing taxation shall deal with only one subject of taxation. [More…]
Nowhere has their artful dodging been more blatant than in the rejection of their constitutional entrustment with Aboriginal affairs. [More…]
Act contained a process that allowed the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission within its constitutional authority to resolve disputes of an interstate character. [More…]
-Ten days ago, 1 1 November, was the third anniversary of what we would all agree was the most traumatic and divisive constitutional crisis in this nation’s history. [More…]
Firstly, why did he seek advice from the Chief Justice against constitutional precedent without the knowledge and in defiance of the wishes of his Prime Minister? [More…]
Why did he do that in defiance of constitutional precedent and the advice of his own Prime Minister? [More…]
Justice, equity and the proper performance of a statutory and constitutional role are not matters that impress these people. [More…]
It is the constitutional responsibility of the House of Representatives to oversee financial matters. [More…]
The Committee recognised the constitutional principle plus the implication of it. [More…]
Whilst the Committee acknowledges the general constitutional principle, it considers that the interests of economy and efficiency require the continuation of this established procedure of the Senate. [More…]
This was a triumph of expediency over constitutional principle. [More…]
Our constitutional purists might be horrified but given our numbers and the limited parliamentary and support services of the Australian Parliament and to avoid needless duplication in questioning it might well be worth considering joint parliamentary Estimates committees. [More…]
I do not think in any circumstance, in spite of the fact that Australia may be in a position to say that it has certain legal and constitutional barriers that prevents it from doing all the things that the ILO would like it to do, we want to be in the spotlight and the ILO saying that the Federal Government of Australia is introducing legislation which it finds contrary to the best interests of industrial relations. [More…]
The Trade Practices Commission, in its fourth annual report, attributes delays in investigation and prosecution of consumer protection matters in part to limited staff resources and to delays caused by constitutional and other challenges in the Courts. [More…]
that it was desirable to request the States to refer constitutional power to the Commonwealth to deal with those matters presently outside of the ambit of the Family Law Act; and [More…]
In 1975, South Africa officially recognised the international status of the territory and decided to initiate its own discussions in Namibia towards a constitutional settlement. [More…]
The five Western members of the Security Council (United Kingdom, United States of America, France, West Germany, Canada) in 1977 advised South Africa that its constitutional proposals arising out of these consultations would not gain international approval. [More…]
We would like some reassurances about the firmness with which the Australian Government is to demand certain constitutional safeguards to protect the people of Namibia and its constitution from any erosion or any attempt to subvert it for commercial purposes by the country of South Africa. [More…]
The nature and extent of the officer’s authority may be defined by constitutional practice or express instructions, or may be inferred fromthe nature of the office or the duties entrusted to the officer. [More…]
This would require an examination to be made of the constitutional validity of the proposal. [More…]
The Freedom of Information Bill 1978 is currently being examined by the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
As the scheme involves a levy it is supported for Constitutional reasons by Commonwealth legislation. [More…]
As the Minister will recall that the provisions in question were the subject of keen debate in this House and that one of the matters raised was the constitutional validity of these provisions because they seemed to be outside the terms of conciliation and arbitration, I ask what advice he has ever received from the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General or the Attorney-General’s Department that the legislation is within Commonwealth power. [More…]
Will he table that advice and also indicate what other advice he has received as to the constitutional validity of this legislation? [More…]
I believe that system would remove any constitutional doubt as to the validity of zone allowances or zone rebates. [More…]
When I asked the Minister today the legal basis of the constitutional validity of this matter he said that it had nothing to do with him. [More…]
It is not open to an officer appointed to administer legislation to determine whether that legislation is constitutionally valid. [More…]
Those people who were members at the time and those people who were interested in foreign affairs would know that that commitment was subject to the constitutional processes of the government involved. [More…]
The present Bill will correct that position, in situations coming within the Commonwealth’s constitutional powers. [More…]
May I say in conclusion that there is obviously a need to re-order the position on offences at sea as soon as possible, and in that regard for this Parliament to deal with those cases that come under the Commonwealth’s constitutional powers. [More…]
The High Court should be free to concentrate on its role as a constitutional and appellate court in matters of general importance. [More…]
Thus in some cases where a statute now confers a right to proceed against the Commonwealth in the High Court, repeal of the statutory provision would still leave intact the constitutional jurisdiction of the High Court in matters in which the Commonwealth is suing or being sued. [More…]
I resume the observations I was making by saying that this is in line with the policy of giving Territory Supreme Courts, within constitutional limits, a status equal to that of State Supreme Courts. [More…]
-The Patents Amendment Bill represents a further step taken by this Government in exercising its constitutional responsibility to provide efficient and effective patent laws for the protection of inventions in Australia. [More…]
Although the Federal Government does not have the constitutional power- I concede that it does not have it- and it cannot use the incidental powers as this would provide grounds for extensive litigation; this is not a viable option to a national solution to the problem, it does have the financial power to ensure that the problem can in fact be overcome. [More…]
Why is this Government so afraid to legislate in an area in which it has the constitutional power and national responsibility? [More…]
Rather than legislative confrontation whereby the Commonwealth, without seeking the approval and co-operation of the States, legislates and awaits the outcome of inevitable High Court challenges to settle the full extent of the Commonwealth^ constitutional power, this Government has followed a policy of co-operative federalism. [More…]
The adoption of a proposal for legislative uniformity which recognises that the States are not required to surrender or refer any constitutional power. [More…]
The main reason for this was not that the Government thought such a provision was undesirable, which was the reason advanced by the then AttorneyGeneral; it was that the provision made the legislation open to constitutional challenge and the Solicitor-General had advised the Government accordingly. [More…]
a Bill of Rights and Constitutional guarantees of human rights; [More…]
We desperately need a Bill of rights and a constitutional guarantee of human rights, a proper system of legal aid and reform of the law so as to better protect civil liberties. [More…]
One State should not unilaterally adopt its own harsh standards of emission control even though it may have the constitutional power to do so. [More…]
Australian participation in IEA activities will therefore proceed on a basis fully consistent with the Government’s policies and with the Federal constitutional system which governs the division of government powers that may be involved in relation to those activities. [More…]
This clause may also be open to constitutional challenge. [More…]
The Privy Council showed appalling ignorance of Australian constitutional law by saying that ‘The legislative power of the Commonwealth of Australia does not extend to criminal law ‘. [More…]
If that were true, this Act would lack constitutional validity. [More…]
It guarantees that we now have, by virtue of our own constitutional powers, the ability to confer final jurisdiction in our own court, the High Court of Australia. [More…]
The High Court, as the pinnacle of the Australian judicial system, should be free to concentrate on its role as a constitutional court, a court for settling intergovernmental disputes and an appellate court in important cases. [More…]
At the Constitutional Convention in Perth last year the entire Commonwealth delegation supported the idea of a unified system of courts to be created by agreement between the Commonwealth and the States. [More…]
However, such an amendment would provide a measure of ongoing flexibility which a fixed constitutional amendment based on some ultimate solution could not. [More…]
2701 (Hansard, page 139), I stated that this would require special enabling legislation and that this would require an examination to be made of the constitutional validity of the proposal. [More…]
The proposal of the Leader of the Opposition to use section 51 (xxix), the external affairs power, in relation to a Bill of rights not only raises some serious legal and constitutional problems but also is totally at odds with the philosphy and policy I have outlined, which is designed to work in harmony and co-operation with the States, and also in a way that protects the basic rights of the States to the extent that that is possible. [More…]
I have raised other questions relating to the rights and obligations of the parties involved in an abortion and they lead me to conclude that this Parliament has an obligation to act within its constitutional constraints to restrict the payment of medical benefits for unnecessary abortions as this is the only way we can challenge what has become a massive abuse of the sanctity of human life. [More…]
Secondly, basically the constitutional and legal responsibility for these problems rests with the State governments. [More…]
The need for five separate Acts arises from a constitutional requirement that laws imposing taxes should deal with one subject of taxation only. [More…]
So it is law within our concept of law which is the constitutional concept of the rule of law. [More…]
There is no doubt that this Parliament has the power to set the terms and conditions that it may wish to attach to the disbursement of the public funds for which it has constitutional responsibility. [More…]
The House must equally acknowledge that there is no constitutional right to medical benefits. [More…]
The constitutional position is clear. [More…]
He appears to be unaware that a constitutional problem exists. [More…]
Perhaps the Minister will advise me whether there are legal or constitutional difficulties which would preclude the Department of Housing and Construction entering the competition in the same way as architects registered in Australia may. [More…]
This is correct in a constitutional sense. [More…]
We acknowledge the reality that the Executive, and not the Parliament, governs, but the Executive must operate within the constitutional framework of the Parliament. [More…]
Let me reiterate: Over 70 per cent of the people covered by the awards for which the Transport Workers Union has constitutional coverage already have the $8. [More…]
We have been told in this statement that this Government is going to interfere with the proper constitutional prerogatives of our industrial tribunals. [More…]
There is no constitutional forum within Victoria in which an honourable member who feels like the honourable member for Isaacs can say his piece. [More…]
Deregistration can work only in situations such as we saw when the Building Workers Industrial Union of Australia was deregistered and the carpenters and joiners came in and picked up the constitutional rights which the deregistered union previously had. [More…]
As a result of its inquiry and following the recent referendum in the Territory on constitutional arrangements, the Committee believes there is a need for community organisations which can both represent the local community and act as a point of contact for planners and other government agencies. [More…]
It is a constitutional provision by which payment will be made- that is, section 96 of the Australian Constitution, or the ‘strings’ clause as some may know it- and, secondly, the form in which the payment will be made, that is, an interest bearing repayable grant. [More…]
On that point it would be in the best interest of the Treasurer (Mr Howard) to take note of that constitutional fact and to stop badgering and heavying the New South Wales Government on its decision to allow a 37’/2 hour week to employees of the Electricity Commission of New South Wales. [More…]
I defy anybody but a constitutional lawyer to explain what clause 18 (2) means. [More…]
The current state of conflict had its genesis in the decision of the Whitlam administration in 1975 to give Sir John Nimmo a Royal commission to recommend on the future status of Norfolk Island and its constitutional relationship with Australia and on other associated matters. [More…]
It should not be beyond our wit to work out a way in which their views can be adequately expressed in this Parliament without it disturbing the normal constitutional arrangements which exist in Australia. [More…]
We have to provide the appropriate constitutional changes to allow representation in this Parliament of its residents. [More…]
Over the last 12 to 18 months this Parliament has been involved in some unique constitutional development so far as parts ofthe Commonwealth of Australia that come under the designation of Territory’ are concerned. [More…]
of Southampton, 1952; Legal Practice, West Pakistan High Court, Karachi, 1953-58; taught Constitutional Law, Sind Muslim Law Coll., Karachi, 1956-58. [More…]
of Southampton 52-53; Teacher of Constitutional Law, Sind [More…]
In other words, many facts have been given to the Opposition and we have been asked: ‘How is it that when the Commonwealth has the legal and constitutional authority to protect and help these people it is unable to do so in Queensland?’ [More…]
It is the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs on that legislation. [More…]
I will refer to the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs on Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders on Queensland Reserves. [More…]
I can understand the Opposition saying that sort of thing, but the fact is that this provision is designed to give expression to an ordinary constitutional practice. [More…]
Therefore this is an essential part of the constitutional arrangements. [More…]
Sir Charles Court wants to abrogate the Commonwealth’s constitutional powers in the interests of what he calls free enterprise in respect of trade. [More…]
He wants similarly to abrogate the Commonwealth’s constitutional powers over off-shore waters. [More…]
The Commonwealth Government has constitutional authority to exercise control over exports. [More…]
There is no challenge either to the Commonwealth’s constitutional authority in export controls, or that they should be exercised in certain circumstances, for there can be important national interests at stake. [More…]
The Government has clearly refused to use the constitutional powers available to it against such oppressive legislation as that currently endorsed by governments in those States. [More…]
We would have to test in the High Court of this land the extent to which we have constitutional power over many incidental areas. [More…]
We would have to test our constitutional power to make laws in relation to hospitals, schools and education and in relation to whether we could take over the land and deal with it in a particular way. [More…]
Although the Carter administration opposes any broad investigation of such groups on constitutional grounds, some members of Congress favor inquiries into their activities abroad and into the tax-exempt status they frequently have at home. [More…]
Whether they were acting with constitutional propriety is obviously open to serious question. [More…]
My heart bled during the statements of the honourable member for Denison, when he spoke of people going on to the Bench of the High Court of Australia receiving a reduction in salary and I suppose it is perfectly true that prominent constitutional silks earning up to $100,000 or $150,000 a year receive a drop in salary on their elevation, but they know that when they take the job. [More…]
The reason given for a no-change situation is that it is doubtful constitutionally. [More…]
If this is so, why is this provision still in the Act or why can it not be examined or reviewed in order to make it constitutional? [More…]
I am fairly confident that if we had exercised our constitutional rights to take it over under just terms we could have done so. [More…]
Decision making: Decisions will generally be taken on the basis of simple majority but there will be requirements for two levels of qualified majorities (75 per cent and 66 twothirds per cent), for some decisions, with important constitutional and significant financial questions being determined at the higher majority. [More…]
However, we are at a point when it is essential that we focus our effort on convincing the United States to decide, in its proper constitutional process of Senate ratification of SALT II, to make the choice which enhances our national security. [More…]
Fourthly, he seemed to say that the Government should rush ahead, declare the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and totally ignore the complex constitutional issues involved and any rights and interests that the Queensland Government might have in the matter. [More…]
The joint nature of these arrangements is underpinned by the constitutional questions which are now being discussed by the AttorneyGeneral, Senator Durack, and with the Queensland Ministers. [More…]
It is irresponsible to suggest that the Government should ignore all these complexities- the scientific and constitutional issues- and press ahead to declare the marine park. [More…]
In Australia we have to design energy policies in the context of the world situation and with the constitutional limitations of the Australian Government well in mind. [More…]
The time has come when the Government ought to consider holding a referendum to gain constitutional power over resource-energy decisions. [More…]
Where is the constitutional validity of legislation which provides for penalties, deregistration and gaol sentences? [More…]
The constitutional validity of its legislation is now under attack as it should be, by the metal trades in the High Court in an attempt to justify the punitive powers of the Industrial Relations Bureau. [More…]
3 authorises parallel constitutional arrangements to be made for State or Territory magistrates to be used for the purpose of an order requiring an internal body search under proposed section 196 of the Act as amended by this Bill. [More…]
It appears to me that the aim of proposed new section 243D is really to give the legislation constitutional validity. [More…]
Provided the onus of proof will still be on the Government- in other words, the Government or the Crown will still have to prove to the High Court that the goods were imported and therefore the Government was acting within its constitutional powers- I do not suppose it matters much. [More…]
As the honourable member for Prospect (Dr Klugman) has said- although I did not mention it specifically, the honourable member for Hawker (Mr Jacobi) also picked it up- a very important constitutional question is involved in this section of the Bill because if this provision goes out the window, if the High Court of Australia were to hold it to be unconstitutional, the whole of the legislation goes out, lock, stock and barrel. [More…]
There is no doubt that one of the defects in the Australian Government’s involvement in education has been the question of accountability with the States, because they have jealously guarded what they see as their constitutional right. [More…]
At a later stage in the Press statement he went on to say: the main reason for Mr Justice Wilson’s appointment is that his conservative views, particularly on constitutional questions, are well known to, and appreciated by Sir Charles. [More…]
As Solicitor-General he has appeared in many major constitutional cases before the High Court. [More…]
He has also played an active role in constitutional discussions between the Commonwealth and the States in matters being considered by the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General. [More…]
There has been … a persistent sense that since Australia is a federation and since one of the most important aspects of the High Court’s work is the resolution of Federal Constitutional issues, it would be at least fitting that judicial representation on the court should be more widespread. [More…]
He said once again that the problem relates exclusively to constitutional difficulties which have arisen between the State Government of Queensland and the Federal Government. [More…]
The Capricornia Reef is not declared at the moment due to constitutional problems. [More…]
It is not just a matter, exclusively, as he said in the Senate, of a quibble on constitutional matters. [More…]
In the Senate he has consistently asserted that the reason for the delay is purely- I stress the word ‘purely’; exclusively, in other words- related to constitutional difficulties between the Queensland Government and the Federal Government. [More…]
He said this among other things: the Capricornia section of the Marine Park has not been declared because of consultations on constitutional matters that are to take place between the Commonwealth and Queensland. [More…]
Mark this, ‘constitutional’. [More…]
He said on other occasions it was ‘exclusively’, ‘purely’, entirely’ and ‘solely’- he has used variations of the ‘exclusiveness’ of the matter- a constitutional matter. [More…]
On 3 May, Senator Webster said that the delay was purely because of constitutional matters. [More…]
Just as it is dishonest for the Minister for Science and the Environment to say that it is purely a matter of constitutional difficulties, it is dishonest also for the Minister for National Development- who, in his first answer at least was honest in the sense of being consistent with what he said before- to come here and say that the answer in the Senate was entirely accurate, when he had been arguing quite the contrary four hours earlier. [More…]
He mentioned in passing matters associated with the Royal Commission, but they do not refer, as honourable members familiar with the report will be aware, to constitutional matters. [More…]
The Capricornia section of the Marine Park has not been declared because of consultations on constitutional matters that are to take place between the Commonwealth and Queensland. [More…]
The Government has made it perfectly plain time and again that it is the constitutional issue with the State of Queensland that has held up the declaration of the marine park. [More…]
Clearly, therefore, we wanted an examination of these total issues and resolution of a constitutional issue, and we did not want to pre-empt an appropriate agreed solution to that by a proclamation of the marine park that could have been premature as against the wider background. [More…]
That is the constitutional issue which has led to and is still responsible for delaying the proclamation of the Park. [More…]
The Government acknowledges that it has constitutional powers in this area. [More…]
The Government acknowledges that it has constitutional powers in this area. [More…]
Under the Seas and Submerged Lands Act it has constitutional power beyond the low water mark and, accordingly, I cannot understand why there has been so much temporising and so much delay on this matter. [More…]
I make it quite clear that we in the Labor Party recognise that the constitutional authority resides clearly and exclusively with the Australian Government. [More…]
It is not a time for pointing to constitutional rights or wrongs. [More…]
Another set of problems is posed by the High Court of Australia decision on the Seas and Submerged Lands Act, which clearly, as I indicated yesterday, gave the Commonwealth constitutional power. [More…]
Very real, practical problems have been flowing out of that High Court decision which gave the Commonwealth constitutional power. [More…]
At Question Time the Minister for National Development claimed that the reason the boundaries for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park off Rockhampton had not been declared was that constitutional questions had not been resolved. [More…]
I asked the Minister how he harmonised that statement with the acknowledgment last night in the House by the Prime Minister that the Government has full constitutional powers in this area. [More…]
He sought to assert that there were constitutional questions that had to be delayed, and the questions he enumerated were such crucial constitutional matters of principle as wharves and jetties. [More…]
They are administrative matters, not legal or constitutional matters. [More…]
Throughout the period of office of the Labor Government I was a member of the Caucus legal and constitutional committee which was largely responsible for the structure of the Australia Police Bill which we introduced on 30 October 1975. [More…]
The Bill of Rights in 1689 and the Act of Settlement in 1701 embodied in legal terms the settlement of constitutional government between Parliament and the Executive following the 1688 Revolution. [More…]
Let me say that I echo Sir Robert Mark on his views of the constitutional framework within which he has to work. [More…]
It is clearly an inappropriate constitutional framework for this country in the late 20th century. [More…]
We are all concerned with the problem of white collar crime in this country- a responsibility which because of the type of constitutional authority given to the Federal Government lies very much within the Federal sphere. [More…]
Secondly, there are the constitutional provisions which make it quite clear that there is minority white control over the affairs of the Government of that country, in the public service, in the police force, in the defence services, in the cabinet and so on. [More…]
The recommendation dealing with ratification of the International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage 1971 has a number of constitutional and financial aspects which need yet to be resolved. [More…]
1 ) Has the Minister’s attention been drawn to a report of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs recommending legislation to support each specific community in Queensland wishing to achieve selfmanagement because co-operation is unlikely from the Queensland Government to discharge Australia’s obligations to indigenous peoples. [More…]
The Government does not have the constitutional authority to control prices, and hence doctors’ fees. [More…]
The situation in Canada with regard to the Great Lakes is quite different in many respects to the River Murray both in terms of constitutional responsibilities and the magnitude and types of problems involved. [More…]
In view of the constitutional development of the Territory since then, including the creation of the Northern Territory Government as a separate legal entity from 1 July 1978, the Government has decided that the Supreme Court should be under local legislative and executive control. [More…]
I think that most Australians would agree that a formal document setting out constitutional powers is very difficult to design in such a way that it does not become irrelevant with time. [More…]
As one of those who was circumscribed in all sorts of ways between 1972 and 1975 by the constitutional processes that pertained between this House and the other place and between ourselves and the Governor-General, I think that it is folly to attempt to define the constitutional processes too narrowly in documented form. [More…]
While rejecting the validity of existing constitutional arrangements which allow a white minority to control the levers of power, he accepted that a democratic constitution was not incompatible with special provisions for the white minority in the form of reserves seats ‘even out of proportion to the numbers involved’, as he himself said. [More…]
We maintained that further constitutional changes in the direction of greater Africanisatior were essential. [More…]
Confirmed that they were wholly committed to genuine black majority rule for the people of Zimbabwe; recognised, in this context, that the internal settlement constitution is defective in certain important respects; fully accepted that it is the constitutional responsibility of the British Government to grant legal independence to Zimbabwe on the basis of majority rule; recognised that the search for a lasting settlement must involve all parties to the conflict; were deeply conscious of the urgent need to achieve such a settlement and bring peace to the people of Zimbabwe and their neighbours; accepted that independence on the basis of majority rule requires the adoption of a democratic constitution including appropriate safeguards for minorities; acknowledged that the government formed under such an independent constitution must be chosen through free and fair elections, properly supervised under British Government authority, and with Commonwealth observers; and welcomed the British Government’s indication that an appropriate procedure for advancing towards these objectives would be for it to call a constitutional conference to which all parties would be invited. [More…]
I hope that the Patriotic Front will take an active and positive role in the proposed constitutional conference in London on 10 September. [More…]
This Bill, more than most others, highlights the exceptional difficulty which results from the constitutional situation in Australia. [More…]
In view of the constitutional position of the Northern Territory now, it would seem appropriate to insert a provision based on section 1 18 of the Constitution in the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act. [More…]
However, in the Senate, when the Opposition moved that the matter be referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, the motion was opposed by the Government. [More…]
What the Labor Party proposes is that constitutional changes will be effected by a simple majority of voters. [More…]
If honourable gentlemen on the opposite side of the House, were for some reason unbeknown to me, given the opportunity of coming back into government, this is a resolution that they would putthat constitutional changes be effected by a simple majority of voters, which would leave the people of Tasmania with absolutely no protection under the Constitution. [More…]
A constitutional limit to federal spending has won approval from 30 States- only four short of the numbers for a constitutional convention. [More…]
I think we must all hope that that opportunity is built upon at the constitutional conference that is now being held. [More…]
by leave- On 2 June 1978 the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, in response to a reference to it from the Senate on 2 1 April 1 977, to review the right of priority of the Crown over other creditors in matters of bankruptcy, corporate liquidations or other cases of impecunious persons or corporations, tabled in the Senate its report, ‘Priority of Crown Debts’. [More…]
As Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs, the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs ‘Priority of Crown Debts’ falls within my portfolio and I now intend to outline the action the Government proposes to take in relation to the report. [More…]
I wish to advert to the fact that the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs has dealt with this matter. [More…]
The fundamental moral, political and strategic confusion of that action was to rebound into our own society, particularly in the problems of this country and the constitutional crisis of1 975. [More…]
activities that involve, will involve or lead to, or are intended or likely ultimately to involve or lead to, the use of force or violence or other unlawful acts (whether by those persons or by others ) for the purpose of overthrowing or destroying the constitutional government of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory: [More…]
I wonder whether a process of this description would be consistent with the constitutional assessment of the proper functions of the House of Representatives as such. [More…]
Clause 5 ( 1 ) (a) defines subversion as activities that are ultimately likely to lead to violence for the purpose of overthrowing a constitutional government. [More…]
That statement in so far that it seems to divorce duty to the Crown from a duty to the politically elected government suggests an absence of understanding of the constitutional system of South Australia or for that matter to the United Kingdom. [More…]
activities that involve, will involve or lead to, or are intended or likely ultimately to involve or lead to, the use of force or violence or other unlawful acts … for the purpose of overthrowing or destroying the constitutional government . [More…]
Everybody agrees that any act which has the intention of destroying the constitutional government is subversion. [More…]
The actions of people have to be directly related to overt activities from which one can form the view, with experience and appropriate intelligence gathering, that what is intended is the constitutional overthrow of the lawfully elected government. [More…]
We have no objection at all to defining activities that would involve or lead to the destruction of a constitutional government, but to use the word ultimately’ brings this mental decision by officers of ASIO as to how they think people or a number of persons may eventually act. [More…]
Since there has to be a judgment about an action which has not yet occurred- that is what we are talking about; the overthrow of a constitutional government- therefore there have to be difficulties. [More…]
If a series of actions take place, which on all accounts can be quite similar to one another, but one of which has an ultimate intention of bringing about the overthrowing or the destroying of a constitutional government of the Commonwealth or a State, that can be very different from a similar action whose ultimate aim is not to do that. [More…]
But the strikes in the 1890s were Australian strikes about Australian issues and there was no intention to have, as the final end of those strikes, a change to the constitutional process within the States at that time. [More…]
I suggest, therefore, that to take out the word ‘ultimately’ would destroy that capacity to make different judgments about those two events because different judgments were made by those in constitutional power and those events were blessed with authority at each time. [More…]
Without the word ‘ultimately’- to involve or lead to, the use of force or violence or other unlawful acts … for the purpose of overthrowing or destroying the constitutional government of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory; [More…]
The Government believes that anybody or any organisation which believes in and has a commitment to the use of force or violence at some future stage, even though it may not be engaged in such activities at the moment or may not even intend to engage in them in the near future, for the purposes of overthrowing the constitutional Government of this country should be regarded as subversive and should be kept under surveillance. [More…]
What honourable members opposite are suggesting is that, because we use the word ‘ultimately’ in relation to our definition of acts that might lead to the overthrowing of our constitutional government, that is an extension of a power which gives an organisation a significant control over the events of men and their lives. [More…]
That point of view certainly involves fundamental changes to the constitutional government of the Commonwealth and it might be seen by some people to be quite revolutionary. [More…]
From the very nature of the subversive acts intended to be kept under surveillance it must be a matter of judgment, both by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation as well as by society, because a mixture of social, political and constitutional elements of the framework of Australian democracy are involved. [More…]
One must be prepared to look at what is beyond that conduct, the end intention of that conduct, the belief which underlies the conduct, so that it can be said that whatever is happening, whatever is being done, has, or is likely to have, as the end result the overthrow of the constitutional government of the country or the destruction of the constitutional government of the Commonwealth, a State or Territory. [More…]
As he illustrated, a strike of one kind may have no subversive element in it at all but a strike of another kind, such as the great coal strikes of the late 1940s led and underwritten by communist elements in this country, had, one could say, as their ultimate intention the overthrow or destruction of the constitutional government of this country. [More…]
We believe, as the Hope Commission did, that any body or any organisation which believes in or has a commitment to the use of force or violence at some future stage, even though it may not be engaged in such activities at the moment or may not intend to engage in them in the near future, for the purpose of overthrowing the constitutional government of the country, should be regarded as subversive and therefore should be capable of being kept under surveillance by the ASIO. [More…]
What we are concerned about is violence, illegal acts and the possible overthrow of a constitutional government by force. [More…]
A person has to indulge in activities which will lead to the use of force, violence or other unlawful acts for the purpose of overthrowing a constitutional government. [More…]
Activities that involve, will involve or lead to, or are intended to involve or lead to, the use or violence or other unlawful acts for the purpose of overthrowing or destroying the constitutional government of the Commonwealth. [More…]
Was there not going to be violence and were not the whole constitutional foundations of our democracy threatened? [More…]
The first was activities which were deemed to have a likely result; the second was violence; and the third was the purpose of overthrowing a constitutional government. [More…]
What if we had asked this question: ‘Do these street marches constitute a threat to the established constitutional government of Queensland?’ [More…]
The question now is whether that act was carried out for the purpose of destroying the constitutional government of the Commonwealth or of a State. [More…]
The third element- of course, this is a fundamental and vital element- in the clause is: for the purpose of overthrowing or destroying the constitutional government of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory; [More…]
There is a clear distinction between activity intended to or likely to change the law or change a government at the ballot box on the one hand and activity which has as its purpose the overthrow or destruction of a constitutional government as we know it in Australia. [More…]
The States and the Northern Territory will continue to administer fisheries inside the 3-mile territorial sea, in accordance with and subject to the arrangements that have been agreed under the off-shore constitutional settlement successfully concluded with the States at the recent Premiers Conference. [More…]
They are the result of a declining commitment by State governments to meet their constitutional responsibilities to provide secondary education for the children in their States. [More…]
His attack on constitutional grounds was directed at the proposed bar on the Commission to order employers to make good wages lost during a strike. [More…]
The requirement of consultation raises problems of a legal, industrial and constitutional nature, all of which illustrate that the proposed amendment is ill-conceived and ought to be withdrawn. [More…]
There is also the question raised by Sir Richard Kirby- the constitutional problem. [More…]
There is scope for arguing that proposed new section 22A is invalid for constitutional reasons. [More…]
It takes away from the Commission one of the powers it has in order to carry out its constitutional function of settling industrial disputes. [More…]
He made the comment that some of the amendments proposed by this Bill could be brought under constitutional challenge. [More…]
So the position is that some senior constitutional legal advisers to the Government say that these amendments are constitutional while one person, who cannot be regarded as an expert on constitutional matters, tells the Australian Labor Party that what this legislation proposes is unconstitutional. [More…]
In the ultimate, I think the Parliament should accept that advice of the constitutional experts. [More…]
I remind members on the opposite side that we accept our constitutional responsibilities to make laws for good government and good conduct of this country and regardless of what members of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the trade union movement generally and members on the opposite side of this House say, we will not shirk those responsibilities. [More…]
No doubt, despite the protestations of those on the other side of the House, it will be challenged on constitutional grounds. [More…]
Finally, there may be constitutional problems with the proposed new section 143 A. [More…]
On the first matter it can be said with certainty that the High Court will have to stand all its earlier decisions on their heads to be able to uphold the power of the Parliament to direct the Commission on how it shall exercise its constitutional powers to prevent and settle industrial disputes. [More…]
The Opposition submits that the Government does not have the constitutional power to legislate as it has. [More…]
An appeal by the Amalgamated Metal Workers and Shipwrights Union over the constitutional validity of that legislation is now before the High Court of Australia. [More…]
That provision is fraught with the gravest of constitutional difficulties. [More…]
That is the principle which throws into doubt the constitutional validity of this legislation. [More…]
He questioned the constitutionality of what this clause aims to do. [More…]
I remind the Committee, as did the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, that the constitutional power given by section 51 placitum (xxxv.) [More…]
Judicial decisions in relation to the constitutional power are to the effect that the Commonwealth may not direct the Commission as to how it is to settle industrial disputes. [More…]
I emphasise what has been said before but needs to be said again, that is, that the Commonwealth’s legal advisers do not consider that the proposed amendments offend against the constitutional requirements. [More…]
The amendment will not thereby infringe the constitutional requirements. [More…]
I share the view of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition (Mr Lionel Bowen) that this is one provision that will be subject to constitutional challenge. [More…]
Accepting the Minister’s explanation to the Committee of the constitutional prerogatives of the Commonwealth in terms of industrial power, and if there is any section likely to be subjected to substantial challenge, it is important for us to ask whether it is consistent with constitutional principles for the Parliament to fetter the Commission ‘s power to deal with a dispute or a settlement function by preventing the Commission from considering or adjudicating on a particular type of industrial dispute. [More…]
I support my colleagues in the Opposition particularly on the basis of the constitutional position. [More…]
I again make the point that I think this clause goes beyond the constitutional power of this Government. [More…]
I say that it is ultra vires of the constitutional power of the Parliament. [More…]
To intrude by legislation to give a direction to the Commission and to admit in the marginal note on this clause that it is a limitation on the powers of the Commission makes it clear that this power is beyond the constitutional power of the Parliament. [More…]
The honourable member for Port Adelaide asked whether or not it was constitutional. [More…]
Nonetheless the honourable member spoke about constitutionality. [More…]
What would he know about constitutionality? [More…]
Has he had any constitutional experience? [More…]
-Well, I give him the credit for being a knight, but if he likes to have a look at the clause in question and cares to ring me, I will show him quite clearly how it is constitutional. [More…]
It has been constitutional since 1965. [More…]
Had they looked up the law or sought some advice from the Parliamentary Library they would not have made themselves appear- I will not use the word ‘fools’- to be totally devoid of knowledge of constitutional law and totally devoid of any knowledge of what was done in 1965 relating to deregistration of unions. [More…]
I think it is worth noting that at the biennial conference of the Labor Party held in Adelaide every member of the Labor Party, Federal and State, including the Federal President of the Labor Party, Mr Batt, who I understand comes from Tasmania, was committed to a change in the constitutional procedures so that a simple majority alone would alter the Constitution. [More…]
It is significant to note that the President of the Australian Labor Party, a senior Minister in the Government of Tasmania, Mr Batt, was a principal architect of this kind of constitutional change. [More…]
The Leader of the Opposition of course is well aware of the constitutional limitations on the powers of the Commonwealth Government in controlling fees, salaries and wages. [More…]
The Deputy Leader of the Opposition has demonstrated his incompetence on matters of international law, constitutional law and domestic law. [More…]
The matter of public importance is a smokescreen for the socialist, centralist attitudes that the Labor Party seeks to impose upon the whole of Australia by uniform laws and conditions which are totally contrary to the constitutional provisions of this country. [More…]
It shows the Deputy Leader of the Opposition’s complete incompetence on international law, on constitutional law and on domestic law. [More…]
This constitutional obligation gave rise to special funds being allocated in the 1950s and 1960s and I cannot see any reason why this Government, of the same political persuasion of governments in those times, has suddenly seen fit to change its attitude about this matter. [More…]
This is constitutional. [More…]
The next allegation made was that some of the proposed amendments were unconstitutional. [More…]
I emphasise again that the Government’s advice is that the amendments are constitutional. [More…]
If it did there might be some validity in the charge that the amendments were unconstitutional. [More…]
There is” nothing unconstitutional in that. [More…]
In view of the questions raised about the constitutionality or otherwise of the amendments, naturally I wanted the Attorney-General to look specifically at the points raised by Mr Justice Staples. [More…]
I have now received the Attorney-General’s comments and he has reaffirmed the advice which I gave earlier and which he gave to me; that is, that there is nothing in Mr Justice Staples’ comments in his letter which would lead the Attorney-General to change his advice to the Government that the amendments are in fact constitutional. [More…]
I come back to the constitutional issue that was raised by the Leader of the Opposition. [More…]
There are any number of cases which illustrate that as long as the amendments to the Conciliation and Arbitration Act are procedural in nature, there is nothing unconstitutional in them because no legislative controls are imposed over how a commissioner may exercise his discretionary powers to prevent and settle industrial disputes. [More…]
If the law is unconstitutional as the lawyer Leader of the Opposition seems to think it is, then the High Court of Australia is the place to test that law. [More…]
The Government believes the Bill is constitutional. [More…]
I think it is an attack on the rule of law itself, because the High Court is the place where these matters ought to be decided- whether things are constitutional. [More…]
I listened to the constitutional nonsense that is involved in his motion. [More…]
That is not only constitutional nonsense from the Minister. [More…]
He is a lawyer and he knows it is constitutional nonsense. [More…]
To say that what somebody did in the past is binding upon honourable members who were elected to this House at the last election is constitutional nonsense also. [More…]
We have a separation of powers under our constitutional system. [More…]
Chapter 2 of the report sets out the constitutional powers of the Commonwealth. [More…]
The second point I make is that I recommend chapter 2 of the report to the honourable members because I think it is the best explanation I have yet seen of the constitutional and legal position regarding the involvement of the Commonwealth in these areas. [More…]
I refer to the difficulties experienced last week at the Zimbabwe-Rhodesia constitutional conference in London over the Patriotic Front’s reluctance to accept Britain’s constitutional proposals. [More…]
In fact, the most serious difficulty so far encountered arose last week over Lord Carrington’s understandable ruling that the parties had to accept the British constitutional proposal before going on to the second stage of the conference, to discuss arrangements for the interim period before independence. [More…]
Although it continued to have reservations- and stated them- about certain aspects of the constitution, it said that it accepted the British proposal, also subject to the satisfactory negotiation of interim arrangements, and it then rejoined the constitutional talks. [More…]
expresses it concern at the Government’s apparent abdication of its responsibility to make national laws for corporations and the securities industry pursuant to the Commonwealth’s own constitutional powers, and in accordance with the recommendations of the Senate Select Committee on Securities and Exchange in 1 974 (the Rae Report); [More…]
Unilateral action by the Commonwealth was recommended in the areas in which it had constitutional power. [More…]
It has such constitutional power in this area. [More…]
But where there is constitutional power there is the obligation so to legislate. [More…]
However, in our view of the constitutional power, the area of any residual power is small and not of major importance. [More…]
If the Commonwealth has the constitutional power to legislate in any field, it should do so because that will give a national standard. [More…]
Secondly, doubt about the extent of the constitutional power does not justify inaction or weak, or half-baked action. [More…]
It certainly did not stop the Government ramming through its unconstitutional amendments to the Conciliation and Arbitration Act in recent weeks. [More…]
On the point of constitutional power the present Minister for Home Affairs (Mr Ellicott) said in 1974: . [More…]
uncertainty as to the extent of constitutional power should never of itself be a reason for opposing an otherwise worthwhile legislative exercise of power, nor should it prevent a government, properly advised, treading where angels of constitutional probity have formerly feared to tread. [More…]
The view that it would be beyond constitutional power to enact comprehensive companies and securities legislation is so restricted and conservative that it defies logic. [More…]
The United States, in fact, does not have the constitutional equivalent of the corporations power that we have. [More…]
The constitutional base on which this legislation depends is not, therefore, section 51 (xx) of the Constitution, but rather section 122, which relates to the Territories power. [More…]
Should this scheme founder, as it probably will, then a Labor government would have an obligation under its constitutional power to pass legislation on a national basis. [More…]
expresses its concern at the Government’s apparent abdication of its responsibility to make national laws for corporations and the securities industry pursuant to the Commonwealth’s own constitutional powers, and in accordance with the recommendations of the Senate Select Committee on Securities and Exchange in 1974 (the Rae Report); [More…]
The constitutional authority of the national Government to act in this way is not in question so far as the securities industry is concerned. [More…]
Clearly, the Federal Government does have some constitutional power in this area. [More…]
The first thing was that there was no doubt in their considered view, after extensive investigation and learned advice from several sources, that federal authority existed for the national government to initiate its own legislation and for that legislation to stand firmly on constitutional grounds. [More…]
The United States Government made full use of its constitutional powers to set up its own administrative agency- the Securities and Exchange Commission. [More…]
They therefore agreed on the need for projected additions to nuclear power supply to be realised in timely fashion and exceeded wherever possible, having due regard to legal and constitutional provisions. [More…]
It goes on to say that it will be running a program to ensure that there is no such thing as compulsory unionism and that it will be dealing with a number of constitutional matters that it hopes will be disseminated throughout the schools. [More…]
By requiring the process to be undertaken whenever a vacancy on the High Court occurs, this provision should do much to ensure that the Court continues to be truly national in character and fully equipped to discharge its constitutional functions as a federal Supreme Court. [More…]
The amendment arises from the expression by the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal [More…]
The report, prepared by the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, relates to Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders on Queensland reserves. [More…]
I suggest that the time is long overdue for there to be some positive statement and positive action taken in respect of that report of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. [More…]
Of course, as we all know, there are constitutional and practical barriers in the way of doing this. [More…]
We have therefore invited the public accounts committees of State parliaments to consider holding complementary inquiries as State authorities have a constitutional responsibility for the administration of tertiary institutions, including accountability for the distribution of funds to those institutions. [More…]
If Yarrabah is an example of some of the other problems in Queensland- and I believe it is- it is timely, appropriate and urgent that the Commonwealth Government assert its constitutional rights and take over the administration of the care and advancement of Aboriginal people. [More…]
It is in these terms: The Yarrabah Council had been advised of the findings and recommendations of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs in a report on Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders on Queensland reserves. [More…]
Of course it is well known that by an Act of this Parliament land rights by means of a particular form of land tenure were granted to Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory over which at that time the Commonwealth had exclusive constitutional control. [More…]
However, as is also well known, the constitutional position between the Commonwealth and the States is rather different from that which held between the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory. [More…]
The States have constitutional rights and jurisdiction within their own territories. [More…]
It has revealed the rather pathetic spectacle of an institution which has been incapable of living up to its rhetoric, of an essentially incompetent group of gummed-up gumshoes who, through a variety of constitutional administrative accidents, have been given responsibilities way beyond their powers to sustain. [More…]
There is one other item of international affairs that I would refer to before I conclude and that is the current constitutional Lancaster House talks taking place in the United Kingdom on the future of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. [More…]
I hope that Australia and other allies of the United Kingdom will support Britain in these constitutional talks. [More…]
In any case, Soviet citizens have no practical way of enforcing constitutional provisions. [More…]
Whether further legislation or a constitutional amendment is desirable would depend upon the outcome of the challenge in the Uebergang case. [More…]
It is ridiculous to think that when this matter was raised at the Constitutional Convention in Perth there was some suggestion that there had to be some obligation in this regard. [More…]
Thus, the fact that under the Australian Constitution the High Court may be asked to determine the constitutional validity of legislation passed by Parliament does not mean that the High Court will be usurping the role of Parliament or that Parliament is less independent or separated from the judiciary. [More…]
Therefore, anything that is done with respect to the High Court will have a very substantial effect on the constitutional future of Australia and, in particular, the federal system which is guaranteed by that Constitution. [More…]
If the High Court of Australia becomes remote and inaccessible to all the people of Australia, then I believe that the constitutional framework of this country will be weakened and the federal system will be endangered. [More…]
Within constitutional power- [More…]
It prevents the House from carrying out its constitutional responsibility to ventilate matters of public policy where the activities of Ministers and people acting under ministerial direction are concerned. [More…]
Honourable members will note the report’s proposals for legislative changes dealing with the use of the Defence Force in aid of civilian security raise very significant constitutional, legal, civil rights and practical issues. [More…]
They were to the effect that the Liberal-National Country Party Coalition in the Federal area did not accept that it had any constitutional prerogative in or responsibility for housing; that it was a matter for the States. [More…]
For constitutional reasons it is obvious that we could not take unilateral decisions to make those examinations. [More…]
The delegation was impressed with both the strength and unanimity of African opinion on the need for a just settlement which involved all the warring factions and which centred on a new constitutional agreement. [More…]
On 13 September 1979 1 outlined the Government’s response to the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs concerning priority of Crown debts. [More…]
The constitutional power over education lies with the State. [More…]
The Government cannot control them mainly because of constitutional difficulties. [More…]
With all due respect to the memory of Charles O’Connor, Sir Richard O’Connor can be remembered as being a member of the Constitutional Convention of the 1890s, a senator, a Minister of the first Federal Ministry, that is, the Barton Ministry, and one of the three judges of the first High Court of Australia. [More…]
Talking about constitutional development in the Northern Territory, he said: [More…]
On 5 April 1973, the first move was made in this House to establish a joint committee on the Northern Territory to report on Constitutional Development. [More…]
It was said that the Labor Government did nothing, but the report by the joint committee on constitutional development states: 1974 a fully elected Legislative Assembly of nineteen members was established. [More…]
inquire into and report whether in view of the devastation of Darwin caused by cyclone Tracy the Committee sees a need to vary any of the recommendations on constitutional development for the Northern Territory contained in the report presented to Parliament by the Committee on 26 November 1974. [More…]
But let me read from the report of the Joint Committee on the Northern Territory on constitutional development in the Northern Territory. [More…]
Whether it is constitutional vandalism, burglary or just plain criminal activity, nothing is too hot or too heavy for the Liberal Party. [More…]
In our submission we made the point that Labor policy is committed to legislation and constitutional reform to protect individual rights and the right to privacy. [More…]
by leave- I wish to make a statement to the House concerning developments at the London Constitutional Conference on Rhodesia, and concerning the nature and extent of Australian participation if the anticipated settlement is achieved at that Conference. [More…]
Do constitutional provisions impede the introduction of uniform load laws ii Australia; if so, in what way. [More…]
The constitutional framework in Australia means that progress towards uniformity in road laws must be made by way of consensus and the ATAC procedures provide the machinery through which the necessary consensus is established. [More…]
Do constitutional provisions impede the introduction of uniform regulations in Australia; if so, how. [More…]
The one-tenth variation in electoral quotas was approved in 1959 in the report by the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, an all-party Committee. [More…]
The one-year period is favoured by the majority of the members of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, by the special committee of the Law Council of Australia and by the Australian Council of Marriage Guidance Associations. [More…]
I ask in particular that in any information that is made available he include reference to the following matters: Firstly, the lack of constitutional authority for State designated authorities; secondly, the validity of exploration permits and leases granted by them to date; thirdly, the extraterritorial operation of State laws; and fourthly, the prior and future collection of royalties from present off-shore petroleum producers. [More…]