Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
austalian law and constitution
THE CONSTITUTION
ACT CONSTITUTING THE CWLTH.
An Act to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia.
[9th July 1900]
WHEREAS the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South
Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of
Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal
Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established:
And whereas it is expedient to provide for the admission into the
Commonwealth of other Australasian Colonies and possessions of the Queen:
Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with
the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in
this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as
follows:—
Short title.
1. This Act may be cited as the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution
Act.*
Act to extend to the Queen's successors.
2. The provisions of this Act referring to the Queen shall extend to Her
Majesty's heirs and successors in the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.
Proclamation of Commonwealth.
3. It shall be lawful for the Queen, with the advice of the Privy Council,
to declare by proclamation* that, on and after a day therein appointed, not
being later than one year after the passing of this Act, the people of New
South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also,
if Her Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have
agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united in a Federal
Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia. But the Queen
may, at any time after the proclamation, appoint a Governor-General for the
Commonwealth.
Commencement of Act.
4. The Commonwealth shall be established, and the Constitution of the
Commonwealth shall take effect, on and after the day so appointed. But the
Parliaments of the several colonies may at any time after the passing of
this Act make any such laws, to come into operation on the day so
appointed, as they might have made if the Constitution had taken effect at
the passing of this Act.
Operation of the constitution and laws.
5. This Act, and all laws made by the Parliament of the Commonwealth under
the Constitution, shall be binding on the courts, judges, and people of
every State and of every part of the Commonwealth, notwithstanding anything
in the laws of any State; and the laws of the Commonwealth shall be in
force on all British ships, the Queen's ships of [next page]