There are three levels of government in Australia - Federal (Commonwealth), State and Local.
In 1901, the six Australian colonies federated to form the Commonwealth of Australia. Most of the Commonwealth Parliament's legislative powers are listed in section 51 of the Constitution.
Areas of power not specified remain the responsibility of the States and Territories, although the Commonwealth funds many areas of State responsibility through States Grants Acts.
A system of local government, established under State legislation, creates a third tier of government in Australia.
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"Westminster System",2,"h\1\6_0068.jpg","c","0"
Both the State and the Commonwealth systems of parliamentary government derive from the British Westminster system, although many features of the Commonwealth Constitution (including federal structure) are based on the United States Constitution.
Generally, however, the main features of the Westminster system have been retained. Ministers are Members of Parliament, and are required to be accountable and answerable to it.
\BDescription:\b Parliament House \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Scheme of Parliamentary Government",3,"h\1\6_0061.jpg","c","0"
Under the Australian Constitution, the legislative power of the Commonwealth of Australia is vested in the Parliament of the Commonwealth, which consists of the Queen, the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The Queen is represented throughout the Commonwealth by the Governor-General.
One of the most important provisions of the Constitution is that the Commonwealth Parliament consists of two Houses - the Senate and the House of Representatives. This reflects the view of the 'founding fathers' (the representatives of the separate colonies who met in the 1880s and the 1890s to discuss federation) that there was a need for two Houses, each with its own distinctive basic role or function.
The Senate, known as the 'upper house', was to represent the interests of the States, while the House of Representatives, the 'lower house', was to represent the more direct will of the people of the nation as a whole.
\BDescription:\b Parliament House \I(DFAT)\i
#
"The Sovereign and the Governor-General",4,"h\1\1_0023.jpg","c","0"
The Queen plays a symbolic role in the Constitution, which vests legislative and executive powers of the Head of State in the Governor-General. This means that the Queen does not personally and directly exercise the functions of Head of State in Australia.
The Governor-General is appointed by the Queen, on the advice of the Prime Minister. The powers and functions of the Governor-General are laid down by the Constitution, by Letters Patent (the rules which go with the appointment of the Governor-General) and by Acts of the Commonwealth Parliament. In nearly all cases the Governor-General acts on advice of the Ministry.
\BDescription:\b The Queen and the then Prime Minister at the opening of the new Parliament House \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Role of the Governor-General",5,spread308.spr.jpg,c,0
The Governor-General has the power to:
ò appoint times for holding the sessions of the Parliament;
ò prorogue Parliament;
ò dissolve the House of Representatives, or both Houses under certain conditions;
ò cause writs to be issued for general elections of Members of the House of Representatives;
ò assent in the Queen's name to a proposed law passed by both Houses of the Parliament; and
ò appoint Ministers of State for the Commonwealth of Australia.
In addition, the Governor-General is Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Force.
The role of the Governor-General is to ensure that there is a government in being, guaranteed of support in the House of Representatives, and able to have necessary financial legislation passed by both Houses. The Governor-General may exercise the powers of appointment and dissolution to bring about this condition, if necessary without the advice of the Prime Minister.
The present Governor-General is Sir William Deane, appointed in February 1996. Sir William Deane is expected to be Australia's last Governor-General.
This table shows the Governor-Generals of Australia from 1901 to the present.
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"The House of Representatives",6,"0","g","0"
In the Commonwealth Parliament the lower house is known as the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives is sometimes called the people's house as the Members are directly chosen by the people, with each Member representing about the same number of voters.
The total number of Members in the House of Representatives must be as close as possible to twice the number of Senators; this is known as the 'nexus' provision of the Constitution. The reason for linking the sizes of the two Houses in this way is that the constitution-makers did not want the House of Representatives to become disproportionately large in relation to the Senate, as a larger House might claim the right to exercise greater powers.
In 1997, there were 148 members, with the State and Territory representation as follows:
New South Wales - 50
Victoria - 37
Queensland - 26
Western Australia - 14
South Australia - 12
Tasmania - 5
Australian Capital Territory - 3
Northern Territory - 1
The life of every House of Representatives is limited to three years from the first meeting after an election, but it may be dissolved sooner by the Governor-General acting on the advice of the Prime Minister.
The political party or coalition of parties holding majority support in the House of Representatives forms the Executive Government of the Commonwealth, with the leader of the party, or of the senior party, becoming Prime Minister.
In the twentieth century, Australia has been characterised by a strong party system and adversarial style of politics between the government and opposition.
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"Powers of the House of Representatives",7,"f\3\fed6.jpg","c","parl10"
The formation of the nation's executive government is the most important and the most distinctive role of the House of Representatives. The party, or coalition of parties, which commands a majority in the House, forms the Government of the Commonwealth. The leader of the party or coalition is commissioned by the Governor-General to form a ministry and becomes the Prime Minister.
Most ministers are members of the House of Representatives. The government is also represented by ministers appointed from the Senate. Ministers are accountable to Parliament for their policies, their decisions and their actions. They may be forced to resign if they mismanage their ministerial responsibilities.
The making of laws is one of the most important duties of the Parliament. Section 51 of the Constitution provides that the Parliament has the power to make laws for the 'peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth' with respect to specified matters, other matters being retained as State responsibilities. With some important exceptions, the Senate and the House of Representatives have equal powers in respect of legislation (law-making).
\BDescription:\b House of Representatives chamber \I(Garry Hanson, AUSPIC)\i
#
"Members of the House of Representatives",8,"spread300.spr","c","0"
This table lists the members of the House of Representatives as at July 1997.
#
"The Senate",9,"h\1\fed7.jpg","c","0"
In the Commonwealth Parliament the Upper House is known as the Senate. The Senate, or second chamber, is a house of review. The activities of the Senate in its review role are designed to ensure that legislation is examined carefully and, where the Senate considers necessary, amended.
At the time of Federation in 1901, it was felt that the Senate would be a protector of the rights of the States, in particular the rights of the less populous States against those which were more highly populated and wealthier. Hence the fact that all States, regardless of geographical size or population, are represented by the same number of Senators.
There are seventy-five Senators. Twelve are elected from each of the Australian States - New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania. Western Australia has twelve and two Senators are elected from the Australian Capital Territory and two from the Northern Territory.
All Senators are elected by the system of voting known as proportional representation, an electoral system which helps to ensure that political groups are represented in proportion to their share of the votes. This accounts for the fact that small parties and independents are better represented in the Senate than in the House of Representatives.
The Senate sits longer than the House of Representatives and its committees have an important legislative role. Because the government does not control the Senate, the government must negotiate its legislation with other parties.
\BDescription:\b The Senate chamber \I(AUSPIC)\i
#
"List of Senators",10,"spread394.spr","c","0"
The associated tables lists the Senators of the Commonwealth of Australia as at July 1997.
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"History of Representation in the Senate",11,"h\1\fed8.jpg","c","0"
From the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia until 1949 the Senate consisted of 36 members, six being returned by each of the original federating States.
The Australian Constitution empowers the Commonwealth Parliament to increase or decrease the size of the Parliament, and, as the population of Australia had more than doubled since its inception, the Parliament passed the \IRepresentation Act 1948\i which provided that there should be 10 Senators from each State instead of six, thus increasing the total to 60 Senators, enlarging both Houses of Parliament and providing a representation ratio nearer to the proportion which existed at Federation.
The \IRepresentation Act 1983\i further provided for 12 Senators for each State from the first meeting of the thirty-fourth Parliament.
The \ISenate (Representation of Territories) Act 1973\i made provision for two Senators to be elected from both the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. Elections for the Territory Senators are held at the same time as general elections for the House of Representatives.
\BDescription:\b The Senate \I(AUSPIC)\i
#
"Powers of the Senate",12,"h\1\fed9.jpg","c","0"
The constitution-makers who wanted a house of the Parliament to give equal representation to the States were also anxious to ensure that it had adequate powers to provide the smaller States with the protection which they demanded as the price of federation. The result of this is that the Senate is the most powerful second chamber of any legislature in the world, with the exception of the United States Senate.
In relation to legislation (the making of laws) the Senate has virtually equal powers with the House of Representatives. The Constitution (section 53) sets out certain minimal limitations on the Senate's legislative powers, and then explicitly states that, apart from these limitations, the Senate has equal powers with the House of Representatives.
All Commonwealth legislation must be passed by both Houses of the Parliament. The Australian Constitution, which established the Commonwealth Parliament, prescribes the legislative powers of the Parliament. The Parliament can make laws only within the limits of those powers.
The only restriction which the Constitution places on the Senate's powers is that it cannot initiate or amend proposed laws (bills) that appropriate money or revenue for the ordinary annual services of the government or that impose taxation. The Senate can, however, request that the House of Representatives make amendments to financial legislation and it can reject any bill.
\BDescription:\b Members of a Senate committee. \I(AUSPIC)\i
The associated table shows the name of each Commonwealth Government Ministry to hold office since 1 January 1901 and the dates of its term of office.
#
"Prime Ministers Since 1901",15,"spread399.spr","c","0"
The associated table lists the names of all the prime ministers since 1901.
#
"State of the Parties in the Commonwealth Parliament",16,"spread130.spr","c","0"
The associated table lists the current state of the parties.
#
"National Anthem and Colours of Australia",17,1_0004.jpg,g,0
On 19 April 1984, the then Governor-General, Sir \JNinian Stephen\j, officially named "Advance Australia Fair" as Australia's national anthem. The anthem is included below.
\IAustralians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free,
We've golden soil and wealth for toil;
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare,
In history's page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.
Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We'll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands;
For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share;
With courage let us all combine
To Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.\i
Australia's official national colours are green and gold (Pantone Matching System numbers 116C and 348C).
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Importance of Political Parties",18,0,g,0
Political parties are an important feature of parliamentary government. Most members of Parliament belong to political parties, they are elected to Parliament as members of parties, and their conduct as members, particularly the way in which they vote in Parliament, is largely determined by their membership of parties.
In Australia, after the granting of responsible government to the various colonies from 1855 onwards, parties remained fairly loose and unstable groups. The main line of division was between conservatives and liberals, the conservatives often wishing to restrict the right to vote and preserve the existing social order, and the liberals generally combining to extend the franchise and carry out reforms, particularly in relation to ownership of land.
It was only with the election of Australian Labor Party members in sufficient numbers to form a government in 1908 that Australian parties began to organise and become the disciplined and cohesive bodies with which we are now familiar.
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"Australian Labor Party",19,0,g,0
The Australian Labor Party is Australia's oldest party. It was formed as a federal party when the Australian colonies federated in 1901.
The party's democratic socialist principles include the political and social values of equality, democracy, liberty and social cooperation. And they set out a range of objectives, including:
* a fairer distribution of political and economic power;
* restoration of full employment;
* the abolition of poverty;
* greater equality in the distribution of income, wealth and opportunity;
* equal access and rights to employment, education, other community services and activities;
* more democratic control, ownership and participation in Australian industry;
* maintenance of world peace; and
* an independent Australian position in world affairs.
As a democratic socialist party, the Australian Labor Party believes in, supports and actively participates in the normal democratic political processes of our society, through the federal and State parliaments, municipal and other authorities.
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"Liberal Party of Australia",20,0,g,0
The Liberal Party of Australia was formed in 1944 when \JRobert Menzies\j, concerned at the then disunity amongst anti-Labor organisations, convened conferences in \JCanberra\j and Albury to form a united, federal political party.
The basis of Liberal thinking is its \Iphilosophy\i as enunciated in various texts and writings. The organisational wing of the party prepares a \Iplatform\i which is the statement of essential principles. The platform is based firmly on the philosophy.
The Liberal Party's central objective is to ensure a rising standard of living for all Australians within a framework which safeguards individual freedoms, encourages personal independence, rewards initiative and achievement, is tolerant, and establishes equality of opportunity. Liberalism is essentially a reforming philosophy rejecting privilege and demanding that all people be equal before the law, that all people have the same legal rights and responsibilities.
Liberals are committed to the democratic system because this is the system which best allows for the fullest and freest expression and pursuit of individual views, values, opinions and policies.
#
"National Party of Australia",21,0,g,0
The National Party of Australia began as an independent Australian parliamentary force when its first elected members entered the Western Australian Parliament in 1914, as members of the Farmers' Union.
The National Party has been a driving force behind moves to improve general conditions and services in rural areas, and the financial situation for rural industries and farmers. Ever since the formation of the party, the other major parties have been forced to pay greater attention to rural needs and policies.
The fundamental beliefs of the National Party are:
* maintaining Australia's security;
* promoting economic growth and stability;
* enhancing the trading ability of our major export industries;
* encouraging the growth of private enterprise, especially small business;
* ensuring adequate provision is made for those most in need;
* providing health and education services that are equitable and offer freedom of choice;
* upholding law and order, loyalty to the Queen of Australia and national flag;
* defending the family as the foundation of society;
* protecting Australia's rural producers and ensuring equality of opportunity for all Australians.
#
"Australian Democrats",22,0,g,0
The motivating force behind the formation of the Australian Democrats in 1977 was the desire for a party which was not obliged to represent specific economic interests; a party able to take political action on behalf of disadvantaged people and for the benefit of Australians as a whole.
There was also the wish to have a party where ordinary people could have a real say on policies and directions and where members could elect their leaders by a direct ballot and hold them accountable for their actions. To this end, the Australian Democrats are not a hierarchical organisation; rather they determine their policies and select their administrators, candidates, and parliamentary leaders by secret ballot of all members in that particular electorate.
Some of the major policy objectives include:
* to provide education for living, as well as for earning a living, throughout life;
* in social and health services, to emphasise prevention rather than cure;
* to enable people to pursue lifestyles of their own choosing so long as they do not interfere with the rights of others;
* to ensure that the basic needs of all people are securely met, and to improve the life opportunities of all Australians by promoting social and economic justice as the guiding principle for our society.
In accordance with the Constitution, the total number of State Members of the House of Representatives must be as nearly as practicable twice the total number of State Senators.
The representation entitlements of the States and Territories is shown in the associated table.
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"Government Leaders in States and Territories",24,"spread132.spr","c","0"
The government leaders in the various States and Territories, as at July 1997, are shown in the attached table.
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"Opposition Leaders in States and Territories",25,"spread133.spr","c","0"
The State and Territory Opposition Leaders, as at July 1997, are shown in this table.
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"State of the Parties",26,"spread134.spr","c","0"
The state of the parties in the different States and Territories as at July 1997 is included in this accompanying table.
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2#
13,0
"History of Government in NSW",1,"h\1\philip.jpg","c","0"
Although forms of Aboriginal tribal government had existed from time immemorial in New South Wales, government as we know it began in Australia in 1788 with Captain Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of the colony of New South Wales.
Phillip and his successors exercised extensive power over the early convict colony. It was not until 1823 that the first restrictions were placed on the autocratic powers of the Governors, when a nominated Legislative Council comprising the executive officers of the colony was appointed to advise the Governor. The Legislative Council was enlarged over the following years in an attempt to make it more reflective of the range of colonists' opinions. In 1842 the first Legislative Councillors were elected, however they were elected on a restricted property franchise and only made up two thirds of the Council.
The trend from 1842 onwards was for a progressive liberalising of the restricted franchise. In 1855 responsible government was granted to New South Wales, and for the first time the executive arm of government became answerable for its actions to the elected representatives of the people rather than to the imperial authorities in Britain.
By 1858 New South Wales had a two-tier form of legislature. The lower house, the Legislative Assembly, was elected on a universal manhood suffrage (women did not receive the vote in New South Wales until 1902). The upper house, the Legislative Council, remained a nominated house of review and a check on the lower house. The form of the Legislative Council remained essentially unchanged until 1978 when the Government of \JNeville Wran\j introduced a democratic franchise and the upper house became an elected arm of the New South Wales legislature.
\BDescription:\b \JGovernor Phillip\j \I(New South Wales Parliamentary Archives)\i
#
"New South Wales Constitution",2,constit.jpg,c,0
The Constitution of New South Wales is drawn from several diverse sources - certain Imperial Statutes, an element of inherited English law, certain Commonwealth and State Statutes, a large number of legal decisions, and a large amount of English and local convention.
For practical purposes, the Parliament of New South Wales may legislate for peace, welfare and good government of the State in all matters not specifically reserved to the Commonwealth Parliament.
\BDescription:\b Proclamation of the New Constitution in Centennial Park, 1901 \I(New South Wales Parliamentary Archives)\i.
#
"New South Wales Governor",3,macquar.jpg,c,0
As the Queen's representative, the Governor has all the powers and functions of Her Majesty in respect to the State, with the exception of the power to appoint, and the power to terminate the appointment of, the Governor. The Premier advises the Queen on the appointment, and termination of appointment, of the Governor.
In addition to exercising Her Majesty's powers and functions in respect to the State, the Governor is titular head of government of New South Wales and performs the formal and ceremonial functions that attach to the Crown.
The Governor's more important duties are:
* to appoint the Executive Council and to preside at its meetings;
* to appoint the Premier and other ministers of the Crown for the State from among members of the Executive Council;
* to summon, prorogue and dissolve the Legislature;
* to assent to Bills passed by the Legislature;
* to remove and suspend Officers of the State; and
* to exercise the Queen's prerogative of mercy.
The current Governor of New South Wales is the Honourable Gordon Samuels, AC.
\BDescription:\b Lachlan Macquarie, 10th governor of New South Wales (1 Jan. 1810 - 1 Dec. 1821). \I(New South Wales Parliamentary Archives)\i
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"Executive Government",4,"h\1\chair.jpg","c","0"
Executive government in New South Wales is based on the British system, known as Cabinet government. The essential condition is that Cabinet is responsible to Parliament.
One of the main principles of Cabinet government is that the Head of State, the Governor, should perform governmental acts on the advice of the ministers. The Governor should choose the principal ministers from members of the party, or coalition of parties commanding a majority in the lower house of Parliament (the Legislative Assembly). The Ministry chosen should be collectively responsible to that House for the government of the State and should resign if it ceases to command the confidence of the House.
\BDescription:\b Vice-Regal Chair \I(New South Wales Parliamentary Archives)\i
#
"Executive Council in NSW",5,chair.jpg,c,0
All important actions of State are performed or sanctioned by the Governor-in-Council (the Executive Council). Invariably members of the Executive Council are members of the Ministry formed by the leader of the dominant party in the Legislative Assembly.
The Governor presides at the meetings of the Executive Council, or in his absence the Vice-President of the Council or the next most senior Member. The quorum is two.
The meetings are formal and official in character. At the meetings the decisions of the Cabinet are given legal form, appointments are made, resignations are accepted, proclamations are issued and regulations approved.
\BDescription:\b Vice-Regal Chair \I(New South Wales Parliamentary Archives)\i
#
"NSW Ministry or Cabinet",6,ministry.jpg,c,0
While the formal executive power is vested in the Governor, in practice the whole policy of a Ministry is determined by the ministers meeting, without the Governor, under the chairmanship of the Premier. This group of ministers is known as the Cabinet.
The Ministry consists of those Members of Parliament chosen to administer departments of State and to perform other executive functions. Most ministers come from the Legislative Assembly. The Constitution limits the numbers of ministers to 20. The Ministry is answerable to Parliament for its administration. It continues in office only so long as it commands the confidence of the Legislative Assembly. An adverse vote in the Legislative Council does not affect the life of the Ministry.
\BDescription:\b The Holman Ministry, 1920 \I(New South Wales Parliamentary Archives)\i
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"Legislature",7,"h\1\legisla.jpg","c","0"
The State Legislature consists of the Sovereign and the two Houses of Parliament - the Legislative Council (the upper house) and the Legislative Assembly (the lower house).
All bills for appropriating revenue or imposing taxation must originate in the Legislative Assembly; any other bill may originate in either House.
Every member must take an oath of affirmation of allegiance and must declare their pecuniary or other interests. Disclosures are open to public inspection.
Both houses must meet at least once a year. The duration of Parliament is limited to four years.
The party system has become a dominant feature of Parliamentary government in New South Wales. Most Members of Parliament belong to one of the three main parties - the Australian Labor Party, the Liberal Party of Australia and the National Party.
\BDescription:\b Budget debate, 1958 \I(New South Wales Parliamentary Archives)\i
#
"Legislative Council of New South Wales",8,legcoun.jpg,c,0
The Legislative Council has 42 members each elected for two terms of the Legislative Assembly. The term of office of 21 members expires at each general election, at which 21 members are elected.
The executive officers of the council are the President and the Chairman of Committees who are chosen by and from the members of the Council.
\BDescription:\b Legislative Council in Session, 26 March 1930 \I(New South Wales Parliamentary Archives)\i.
#
"Members of the NSW Legislative Council",9,"spread289.spr","c","0"
This table shows the members of the New South Wales Legislative Council as at July, 1997.
#
"New South Wales Legislative Assembly",10,asschamb.jpg,c,0
There are 99 members of the Legislative Assembly - one member per electorate - who are elected on a system of universal suffrage. The term of office is for a maximum of four years.
A Speaker presides over the House and the election for the position is the first business of the House after an election. The Speaker presides over debate, maintains order, represents the House officially, communicates its wishes and resolutions, defends its privileges when necessary and determines its procedure. There is also a Chairman of Committees elected by the House at the beginning of each Parliament. The Chairman presides over the deliberations of the House in Committee of the Whole and acts as Deputy Speaker.
\BDescription:\b Legislative Assembly chamber, 1892 \I(New South Wales Parliamentary Archives.)\i
#
"Members of the NSW Legislative Assembly",11,"spread288.spr","c","0"
The associated table lists the members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as at July 1997.
#
"Franchise",12,"h\1\franchis.jpg","c","0"
The elections of both Houses are conducted by secret ballot. Only Australian citizens resident in New South Wales who are 18 years of age or over are eligible to enrol to vote. British subjects who were enrolled on a Commonwealth electoral roll on 25 January 1984 also retain enrolment and voting rights. Enrolment and voting are compulsory.
\BDescription:\b Ballot paper, 1848 \I(New South Wales Parliamentary Archives)\i
#
"Local Government Authorities",13,"0","g","0"
Since 1 July 1993, an area established for local government purposes is known as a council. A council may be proclaimed a city council if it has a distinct character and entity as a centre of population. At June 1995 there were 177 councils in New South Wales. In addition, there is one unincorporated area in the far west of New South Wales.
Each local government area is governed by an elected council. Each council has a chief executive and presiding officer - known as the Lord Mayor in Sydney, Newcastle and \JWollongong\j and as the mayor in all other local government areas.
Local government councils in New South Wales provide a wide range of services. The most important of these are the general services of administration, health, community amenities, recreation and culture, roads and debt servicing throughout the area controlled by the council.
Councils also provide a range of trading activities, mainly in country areas of New South Wales. These trading activities include water supply, sewerage services, gas services and abattoir facilities.
Local government's principal functions are to maintain public roads, operate garbage disposal services, run health services, provide recreation services, control building construction, and provide sundry other services of benefit to the local population.
County councils are constituted for the administration of specified local services of common benefit in districts which comprise a number of councils. County councils' responsibilities can include the supply of electricity or water, flood control and eradication of noxious weeds and pests.
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9,0
"Victorian Government",1,vic1.jpg,c,0
The system of government in Victoria provides for responsible Cabinet government based on a legislature of two Houses, the Legislative Assembly (lower house) and the Legislative Council (upper house). Both houses are elected by Australian citizens over the age of 18. Voting is compulsory.
Victoria's government is based on the British system of Cabinet government. This means that Cabinet, the group of senior ministers in the government, is responsible to Parliament.
Under the system of Cabinet government, the Head of State, the Governor, performs governmental acts on the advice of the ministers. The Governor chooses the principal ministers from members of the party, or coalition of parties commanding a majority in the Legislative Assembly.
Victoria's current Governor is His Excellency the Honourable Sir James Augustine Gobbo, AC, QC.
\BDescription:\b Parliament House, Melbourne, Victoria, circa 1910 \I(Parliament of Victoria Education Office)\i
#
"Victorian Constitution",2,vic2.jpg,c,0
From 1855 until 1975, the Constitution of Victoria was contained in the Schedule to an Act of the United Kingdom in 1855, but Victoria finally adopted a Constitution of its own with the Constitution Act 1975.
Under the Victorian Constitution, the ultimate executive power is vested in the Crown, and is exercised by the Governor as the Monarch's representative. The Governor is the titular head of the government, while the Premier is the effective head of government.
\BDescription:\b The Coat of Arms of Victoria. \I(Parliament of Victoria Education Office)\i
#
"Responsibilities of the Victorian Government",3,"h\1\vic3.jpg","c","0"
The Victorian government is responsible for such things as health, education, law enforcement, administration of justice and the control of resources. The government provides roads, water, sewerage, power and other services. The government has also established a complete system of courts, a police force, and a teaching service.
\BDescription:\b Class Parliament, Greenvale Public School \I(Parliament of Victoria Education Office)\i
#
"Commonwealth Representation for Victoria",4,"h\1\vic4.jpg","c","0"
The federation of the Australian colonies formally commenced on 1 January 1901.
The House of Representatives was seen as representing the people. It is directly chosen by the people for a maximum three year term on single Member constituencies.
The Senate was seen as representing the rights of the States. Senators are appointed for a six year term with half of them retiring every three years.
\BDescription:\b The opening of the first federal Parliament in Melbourne, 1901 \I(Parliament of Victoria Education Office)\i
There are currently 88 members of the Legislative Assembly. Each of these members represents a single Electoral District. Members are elected for a minimum of three years and a maximum of four years.
The Legislative Assembly is known as the seat of government. The political party (or group of parliamentarians) which controls the majority of support in the Legislative Assembly (lower house) can form the government. The Premier of the State is the leader of the majority of the lower house. The official opposition is the largest grouping or political party which opposes the government.
The Presiding Officer of the Legislative Assembly is known as the Speaker and is a lower house member selected by the government. The Speaker is responsible for the conduct of the lower house and along with the President, who is the Presiding Officer of the upper house, represents the Parliament on official and ceremonial occasions.
\BDescription:\b The Legislative Assembly chamber of Victoria \I(Parliament of Victoria Education Office)\i
#
"Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly",6,"spread290.spr","c","0"
This table lists the members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly as at July 1997.
#
"Victorian Legislative Council",7,vic6.jpg,c,0
There are 44 members of the Legislative Council representing 22 Electoral Provinces (two members for each province).
Members of the Legislative Council are elected for two terms of the Legislative Assembly. At any general election half of the Council members are required to face the electorate for re-election.
The Legislative Council (upper house) is often referred to as the "House of Review" and its primary role is to provide a "second opinion" or review to bills and measures proposed by the lower house.
The Presiding Officer of the Legislative Council is known as the President of the Council.
\BDescription:\b The Legislative Council chamber \I(Parliament of Victoria Education Office)\i
#
"Members of the Victorian Legislative Council",8,"spread291.spr","c","0"
This table lists the members of the Victorian Legislative Council as at July 1997.
#
"Local Government in Victoria",9,"0","g","0"
At 30 June 1993, Victoria was divided into 205 municipal districts and the Yallourn Works Area, which was severed from the municipal districts by the \IState Electricity Commission (Yallourn Area) Act 1947\i. Victoria was divided in this way for local government purposes.
The 205 municipalities comprise 66 cities, 4 rural cities, 3 towns, 6 boroughs and 126 shires.
Local councils in Victoria may make by-laws on a number of specified subjects. They exercise functions relating to drainage, water supply, sewerage, garbage, parking areas, traffic engineering and roads and bridges, for which they have a construction and maintenance responsibility.
The councils are also responsible for building control and community welfare, including infant and pre-school centres, home help, elderly citizens, and meals-on-wheels.
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7,0
"Introduction to Queensland's Government",1,qldph1.jpg,c,0
Queensland is part of a federation of six States and two Territories which form the Commonwealth of Australia. Queensland's State government, like that of Australia, is modelled on the British Westminster system.
The State Parliament takes responsibility for domestic affairs and shares mutual responsibilities with the Commonwealth government. The \ILocal Government Act\i allows cities, towns and shires to provide a system of government in their local areas. Thus government in Queensland is exercised in the three jurisdictions of Federal, State and Local.
\BDescription:\b Parliament House, Queensland \I(Queensland Parliamentary Education and Protocol Office)\i
#
"History of Queensland's Parliament",2,"h\1\qldph4.jpg","c","0"
Queensland was considered part of New South Wales until 1859, so some 'Queensland' residents had enjoyed responsible government since the \INew South Wales Constitution Act 1855\i.
When separation between Queensland and New South Wales was effected by Letters Patent of 6 June 1859, an Order-in-Council of the same date gave Queensland a constitution similar to that of New South Wales. On 10 December 1859, the new Governor, Sir George Bowen, landed at Brisbane and proclaimed the separation of Queensland from New South Wales.
The Order-in-Council provided for a nominated Legislative Council of not less than five members appointed by the Governor of New South Wales for 5 years and such additional members as the Queensland Governor thought fit, to be appointed by him for life. In May 1860, 15 members were appointed, 11 for 5 years and 4 for life. There was also an elected Legislative Assembly consisting of 26 members returned by 16 electorates.
\BDescription:\b Speaker's Green, Parliament House \I(Queensland Parliamentary Education and Protocol Office)\i
#
"Queensland's State Government Today",3,"h\1\qldph3.jpg","c","0"
In Queensland, as in other States in the Commonwealth, executive government is based on the system which was evolved in Britain in the 18th century, and which is generally known as 'Cabinet' or 'responsible' government.
To achieve responsible government the following conditions should be met:
* the head of the State, the Governor, should perform governmental acts on the advice of ministers;
* ministers of State should be chosen from Members of Parliament belonging to the party, or coalition of parties, commanding a majority in the Legislative Assembly;
* the Cabinet should be collectively responsible to the House for the actions and administration of government departments and authorities which have been created to put into practice the laws made by Parliament;
* the ministry should resign or advise an election if it ceases to command a majority in the Assembly.
Today, Queensland's Parliament consists of the Crown, represented by the Governor, and the Legislative Assembly.
In 1922, Queensland abolished its upper house, the Legislative Council. Since then, the Queensland Parliament, in contrast to the parliaments of all other States, has comprised just one legislative chamber - the Legislative Assembly.
\BDescription:\b Legislative Assembly chamber \I(Queensland Parliamentary Education and Protocol Office)\i
#
"Members of Queensland's Legislative Assembly",4,"spread292.spr","c","0"
The associated table lists the members of Queensland's Legislative Assembly as at July 1997.
Her Excellency Mary Marguerite Leneen Forde, AC was appointed Governor of Queensland on 29 July 1992. She is the twenty-second holder of the office since Queensland was separated from New South Wales.
\BDescription:\b Queensland's Governor - Mary Forde \I(Government House Brisbane)\i.
#
"Voting in Queensland",6,"h\1\qldph1.jpg","c","0"
In 1872, adult male suffrage after a residence of six months was introduced and property qualifications were abandoned. Twenty years later optional preference voting was brought in and from 1905 women could vote.
In 1914, voting was made compulsory for the first time in Australia. Preferential voting was replaced by the relative majority ('first past the post') vote in 1942 but it was reintroduced in 1962 and made compulsory, which brought Queensland back into line with all other mainland States and the Commonwealth.
In 1973 the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18 years.
\BDescription:\b Parliament House, Queensland \I(Queensland Parliamentary Education and Protocol Office)\i
#
"Queensland's Local Government",7,"0","g","0"
There are three classes of local authorities in Queensland. From 30 June 1991, 20 city councils, including Brisbane, controlled the more important urban areas and three other urban areas were controlled by town councils. The rest of the State was administered by 111 shire councils.
Apart form roads declared under the \IMain Roads Act\i, local authorities are responsible for the construction and maintenance of all roads, streets, footpaths etc. within their areas.
In Queensland, local government provides water, sewerage and other cleansing services. Local government also maintains facilities for recreational activities, including public parks and gardens, sporting venues and libraries.
Local authorities are largely responsible for the control of building in their areas and are responsible for the administration of the standard building by-laws which specify certain minimum standards to be observed.
In recent years authorities have become increasingly involved in environmental problems such as town planning, beach protection and anti-litter measures.
#
!,!,!,!,!
5#
8,0
"South Australia's System of Government",1,"h\2\sa1.jpg","c","0"
South Australia is one of the six Australian States which at Federation in 1901 ceded many of their powers on matters of national importance to the Commonwealth of Australia. Matters of local importance are delegated to local governing bodies. As a result, the people of South Australia are subject to the laws of a three-tier system of government.
Both the Commonwealth and the South Australian Parliaments are bicameral (they have two Houses of Parliament). The leader of the government (the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth and the Premier of South Australia) are seated in the lower house, and the upper house has restricted powers concerning money Bills.
\BDescription:\b Sketch on the invitation to the opening of the new Parliament House, 5 June 1939 \I(Parliament House, South Australia)\i
#
"Governor of South Australia",2,sa2.jpg,c,0
South Australia's Parliament consists of the Crown, represented by the Governor, the House of Assembly (lower house) and the Legislative Council (upper house).
The role of the Governor has changed significantly over the past 150 years. Originally, the Governor of South Australia determined matters of policy, made laws and was responsible to the United Kingdom Government for the management of the colony.
Today, vice-regal approval is still required to give legislation. However, the Governor invariably relies on the advice of Ministers or follows established conventions and does not become involved in political debate.
The Governor is appointed by the Queen on the advice of the South Australian Premier. Essentially, the Governor exercises all of the authority of the Sovereign in respect of South Australia. The Governor's direct relationship to the Queen, which is independent of that of the Governor-General, reflects the sovereignty of South Australia within the Australian Federation.
The current Governor of South Australia is His Excellency Sir Eric James Neal, AC, CVO, sworn in on 22 July 1996.
\BDescription:\b Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II opening a session of the South Australian Parliament, 1954 \I(Office of the Clerk of the House of Assembly)\i
#
"Executive Government in SA",3,"h\2\sa3.jpg","c","0"
In South Australia, executive government is based on the system which was evolved in Britain in the eighteenth century known as 'Cabinet' or 'responsible' government.
The Cabinet system operates chiefly by means of constitutional conventions, customs or understandings and through institutions that do not form part of the legal structure of government at all.
The executive power of South Australia is exercised by the Governor who is advised by an executive council which meets only for formal purposes. The policy of a Ministry is determined by some or all of the Ministers of State, meeting without the Governor under the chairmanship of the Premier. This group of Ministers is known as the Cabinet.
\BDescription:\b Division sand glass in the House of Assembly - a gift from Westminster \I(Office of the Clerk of the House of Assembly)\i
#
"Legislative Council of South Australia",4,sa4.jpg,c,0
The Legislative Council is South Australia's upper house, or house of review. There are 22 members of this house, with half of the members retiring at each election.
At the first meeting of the Council in each Parliament, the members choose one from among their number to fill the position of President. The President is entitled to a casting vote only.
\BDescription:\b Legislative Council chamber \I(Office of the Clerk of the House of Assembly)\i
#
"Members of South Australia's Legislative Council",5,"spread294.spr","c","0"
The associated table lists the members of South Australia's Legislative Council as at July 1997.
#
"South Australia's House of Assembly",6,"h\2\sa5.jpg","c","0"
The Government of the day must maintain majority support in the House of Assembly (the lower house) to hold its position. When the government no longer controls a majority in vital issues, particularly 'money bills', the government must resign or go to the polls.
Once defeated in the lower house on a 'money bill', the government is unable to finance the administration of the State.
\BDescription:\b House of Assembly chamber \I(Office of the Clerk of the House of Assembly)\i
#
"Members of South Australia's House of Assembly",7,"spread293.spr","c","0"
This table lists South Australia's House of Assembly members as at November 1997.
#
"Local Government in South Australia",8,"0","g","0"
At 30 June 1997, there were 112 local government authorities in South Australia. Each local government area is controlled by a council consisting of members elected by residents and property owners and exercising powers under the \ILocal Government Act 1934.\i
While around 99 per cent of the State's population resides within the 112 incorporated areas, only 15 per cent of the State is covered by them - the remaining parts are served by the Outback Areas Community Development Trust.
Most council areas contain wards which are essentially electoral districts. Ward boundaries are defined by proclamation and must be reviewed at least every seven years to ensure that electors are adequately and fairly represented.
Broadly speaking the role of councils is to act as:
* an elected accountable decision maker for the local community;
* a provider, coordinator and information disseminator for facilities, programs and services at a local level;
* an upholder of standards set down in legislation, for example the \IBuilding and Planning Act\i;
* a catalyst, facilitator and coordinator of local effort and organiser for external resources; and
* an advocate and representative for the local community to other governments and the wider society.
Each council provides different services to meet the needs of its community. Providing these services is part of the council's duty of representing and making decisions for the community.
#
!,!,!,!,!
6#
8,0
"Overview of Government in Western Australia",1,"h\2\wahouse.jpg","c","0"
Western Australia is one of the six federated sovereign States which, together with the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, constitute the Commonwealth of Australia. Thus, in addition to having its own Parliament and executive government, it is represented in the federal legislature.
As well as government at the federal and State levels, there is a third system, that of local government, which functions through city councils, town councils and shire councils.
\BDescription:\b Parliament House, Western Australia \I(Western Australian Parliamentary Information and Education Office)\i
#
"History of Government in Western Australia",2,"h\2\walecgou.jpg","c","0"
Western Australia's first Legislative Council sat for the first time in 1832. It was non-elective and consisted of the Governor and four senior officials.
The \IAustralian Colonies Government Act\i of 1850 allowed for representative government in Australian colonies, however to qualify, a colony had to meet the costs of government from its own revenues. Western Australia was not able to satisfy this condition until 1870. A Legislative Council was established in 1870, consisting of 12 elected members, three nominees and three officials.
In 1890, an \IImperial Act\i granted responsible government to Western Australia. Two houses, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly, replaced the old Council.
\BDescription:\b Legislative Council chamber \I(Western Australian Parliamentary Information and Education Office)\i
#
"Legislative Assembly of Western Australia",3,"spread295.spr","c","0"
This table lists the members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly as at July 1997.
#
"Members of the WA Legislative Council",4,"spread296.spr","c","0"
This table lists the members of the Western Australian Legislative Council as at July 1997.
#
"Western Australia and Responsible Government",5,"h\2\wahouse.jpg","c","0"
On 1 January 1901, Western Australia and five other Australian colonies were federated under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia.
After Federation, the 'colonies' of Australia became known as 'States'.
Government in Western Australia is based on the British Cabinet system which observes the following conditions:
* the members of the Cabinet must hold seats in the legislature as elected members;
* the Cabinet is responsible to the Parliament and continues in office only while holding the confidence of the Parliament;
* all Cabinet ministers are members of the Executive Council, the supreme group of advisers to the Crown, and the Cabinet thus provides the executive government of the State;
* The Executive Council is presided over by the Governor of the State.
\BDescription:\b Parliament House, Western Australia \I(Western Australian Parliamentary Information and Education Office)\i
The Crown, represented by the Governor, and the Parliament, comprising a Legislative Council and a Legislative Assembly, constitute the legislature of Western Australia.
Executive government is based on the system which evolved in Great Britain in the eighteenth century, generally known as the 'Cabinet' system. The Cabinet consists of Ministers of the Crown chosen for the Ministry from Members of Parliament belonging to the political party, or coalition of parties, which is in the majority in the Legislative Assembly. The Constitution requires that at least one of the Ministers be selected from members of the Legislative Council.
In Western Australia, as in the other Australian States, the office of principal minister is designated 'Premier'.
\BDescription:\b Legislative Assembly chamber \I(Western Australian Parliamentary Information and Education Office)\i
#
"Governor of Western Australia",7,wahouse.jpg,c,0
The Governor of Western Australia is the personal representative of the Sovereign in the State and exercises the powers of the Crown in State matters.
The Governor is the titular head of government and performs the official and ceremonial functions pertaining to the Crown.
In the event of the Governor's absence from Western Australia, the Lieutenant-Governor of the State is appointed Administrator.
The present Governor of Western Australia is His Excellency Major-General Philip Michael Jeffery, AC, AO, MC.
\BDescription:\b Parliament House, Western Australia \I(Western Australian Parliamentary Information and Education Office)\i
#
"Local Government in Western Australia",8,"0","g","0"
The function of local government in Western Australia is performed by a number of councils (or, in special circumstances, by commissioners appointed by the Governor) exercising powers conferred by the Parliament of the State. Each council consists of members elected by the local community and is responsible for the provision of many of the services necessary for the organisation and welfare of the community which it represents.
The functions and powers of local authorities are extremely diverse in character. Some of the more important of them are listed below:
* hospitals and nursing services
* kindergartens
* hostels for school children
* community centres
* dental clinics
* infant and maternal health centres
* day nurseries
* control of dogs
* jetties
* swimming pools
* sanitation and disposal of refuse
* fire prevention
* eradication of noxious weeds and vermin
* aerodromes
* abattoirs
* quarries
* ponds
* cemeteries
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7#
9,0
"Tasmanian Government History",1,"h\2\tas1.jpg","c","0"
Tasmania has experienced several forms of government, beginning with autocratic rule. It graduated to responsible self-government as a British colony, and finally surrendered some sovereign powers to take its place as an original Australian State.
Tasmania was originally part of the colony of New South Wales. In 1825, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) was designated a separate colony with a nominated Legislative Council. By 1852, a new Legislative Council was established in which 16 members were elected and eight were nominees of the Lieutenant-Governor.
Tasmania's first bicameral Parliament sat on 2 December 1856 (also the first year in which the island was officially called Tasmania). The Parliament consisted of the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council, established as a result of the \IConstitution Act 1854\i.
In 1901, the Tasmanian constitution was limited by the establishment of the Commonwealth constitution. This means that the Parliament of Tasmania can make laws on all matters not within the exclusive power of the Commonwealth, however, these laws may be superseded by the passing of an Act by the Commonwealth Parliament.
\BDescription:\b Portrait of Queen Victoria \I(Legislative Council of Tasmania)\i
#
"Tasmania's Legislature",2,"h\2\tas1.jpg","c","0"
Tasmania's legislature consists of the Queen, represented by the Governor, and two houses of Parliament, the Legislative Council (upper house) and the House of Assembly (lower house).
\BDescription:\b Portrait of Queen Victoria \I(Legislative Council of Tasmania)\i
#
"Governor of Tasmania",3,tas3.jpg,c,0
The Governor of Tasmania is the representative of the Sovereign in the State and exercises the powers of the Crown in State matters. The Queen appoints the Governor on the advice of the Premier, generally for a five-year term. Powers and duties of the Governor are similar to those of the Governor-General.
On all official State occasions, the Governor performs the ceremonial functions as the representative of the Queen. Some of the Governor's duties include:
* opening and terminating parliament;
* dissolving parliament on the advice of the Premier, if necessary;
* assenting to bills which have passed all stages in parliament.
The present Governor of Tasmania is His Excellency the Honourable Sir Guy Stephen Montague Green, AC, KBE. He is Tasmania's 31st Governor.
\BDescription:\b Inspecting the Guard at the opening of Parliament \I(Tasmania's House of Assembly)\i
#
"Tasmania's Cabinet and Executive Government",4,"h\2\tas3.jpg","c","0"
In Tasmania, as in the other States and the Commonwealth, executive government is based on the system which was evolved in Britain in the 18th century, and which is generally known as 'Cabinet', or 'responsible' government.
The essence of responsible government is:
* that heads of the State (in Tasmania, the Governor) should perform governmental acts on the advice of ministers;
* that they should choose ministers of State from Members of Parliament belonging to the party, or coalition of parties, commanding a majority in the popular House;
* that the ministry, the Cabinet, so chosen should be collectively responsible to that House for the government of the country; and;
* that the ministry should resign or advise an election if it ceases to command a majority there.
The Cabinet system operates by means of constitutional conventions, customs or understandings, and through institutions that do not form part of the legal structure of government. In law, the executive power of the State is exercised by the Governor who is advised by, and appoints the Executive Council.
\BDescription:\b Inspecting the Guard at the opening of Parliament \I(Tasmania's House of Assembly)\i
#
"Tasmania's House of Assembly",5,"h\2\tas5.jpg","c","0"
The Tasmanian lower house, the House of Assembly, is made up of 35 members elected for a term of four years from five seven-member electorates.
\BDescription:\b The House of Assembly chamber \I(Tasmania's House of Assembly)\i
#
"Members of Tasmania's House of Assembly",6,"spread297.spr","c","0"
The associated table lists the members of Tasmania's House of Assembly as at July 1997.
The Legislative Council has the tradition of being a non-party house; in 1997 the composition of the Council was 15 Independents, one Liberal Party member and three Labor Party members. The leader for the government in the Legislative Council therefore cannot rely upon a vote taken on party lines to ensure the passage of any government bill.
Contrary to the House of Assembly where parties usually dominate to ensure the passage of government legislation, no such certainty exists with legislation through the Council. As a result it is not unusual for legislation to be amended or even rejected.
Where conflict occurs between the two Houses, 'managers' are appointed from each House to meet and attempt to resolve the dispute. Occasionally, even such 'Managers' Conferences' fail to resolve the differences.
\BDescription:\b Legislative Council chamber \I(Legislative Council of Tasmania)\i
#
"Members of Tasmania's Legislative Council",8,"spread298.spr","c","0"
This table shows the members of the Tasmanian Legislative Council as at July 1997.
#
"Tasmania's Local Government",9,"0","g","0"
Local government in Tasmania is mainly responsible for the maintenance of parks, recreational and sporting facilities, roads and cemeteries. Local government also provides town planning, sewerage, water, waste disposal and public health services.
In 1997 there were 29 local governments.
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8#
5,This is a null field.
"History of the Northern Territory Government",1,"0","g","0"
In July 1978 the Northern Territory became self-governing and under the \ISelf-Government Act\i many of the powers of the Commonwealth were transferred to the newly formed Territory government.
The development of the current structure dates back to 1825 when the Northern Territory became part of the colony of New South Wales and later, in 1863, of South Australia. Control over the Territory was not transferred to the Commonwealth until 1911. The powers of administering the Territory under the provisions of the \INorthern Territory (Administration) Act 1910\i, remained with the Commonwealth until 30 June 1978.
#
"Northern Territory System of Government",2,"0","g","0"
The Northern Territory employs a unicameral system of government, which means that there is only a lower house with no house of review or senate. Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory also have a unicameral system.
The Northern Territory government has some differences in the titles of jobs, for example it has a Chief Minister rather than a Premier and an Administrator instead of a Governor.
The Parliament of the Northern Territory, the Legislative Assembly, has 24 members who are elected for a period of four years. Ten members of the Legislative Assembly are appointed to a Ministry which acts as head of a number of departments and authorities which are responsible for the administration of all powers and acts transferred from the Commonwealth. The Speaker of the Parliament is elected by the members.
#
"Representation in the Commonwealth Government",4,"0","g","0"
The Northern Territory is represented in the Commonwealth Parliaments by one Member in the House of Representatives and two Senators in the Senate.
The Northern Territory Administrator acts in conjunction with the Commonwealth on matters for which responsibility has not been transferred to the Territory government. Two major matters still under Commonwealth control are the responsibility for Aboriginal land matters and the mining of uranium.
#
"Local Government in the Northern Territory",5,"0","g","0"
Local government was first established in Darwin in 1957 and subsequently in regional centres.
The structure of local government in the Territory is unique with provision for two forms - community government councils and municipal councils. The community government council structure has been adopted by people in smaller settlements and remote areas.
As at July 1997 there were 31 community government councils and 30 incorporated associations responsible for local government functions. Combined with the six municipal councils, 80 per cent of the population of the Territory is under the jurisdiction of a form of local government.
Municipal councils are elected at intervals of not more than three years but community councils have more flexibility over the electoral process.
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9#
3,This is a null field
"History of the ACT Government",1,"h\1\6_0061.jpg","c","0"
Although established as the Australian Capital Territory in 1904, the ACT was administered by the Federal government until 1989. The Federal Minister for Territories made all decisions relating to the ACT. Advisory bodies were set up to inform the Minister on matters of concern to the residents of the ACT. The first of these advisory bodies was the Federal Capital Advisory Committee, established in 1920. It initially consisted of three appointed officials with an addition of an elected member in 1928.
The ACT Advisory Council replaced the Advisory Committee in 1930. The Council consisted of four appointed officials and three part-time elected members. The number of elected members was increased to five in 1952.
In 1974, the Advisory Council was replaced by a fully elected Legislative Assembly consisting of 18 members. It was renamed the House of Assembly in 1978 and was eventually disbanded in 1986. The Federal Parliament was under no obligation to heed the advice given by any of these bodies.
In the late 1980s the Federal government decided that the Australian Capital Territory with a population of 270,000 needed its own system of self-government. The Federal Parliament passed the \IAustralian Capital Territory (Self Government) Act\i in 1988, along with other related legislation which established self government in the ACT. An election was held on 4 March 1989 and the first Legislative Assembly of the ACT sat on 11 May 1989.
"Structure of the ACT Parliament",2,"spread299.spr","c","0"
The Parliament of the ACT, the Legislative Assembly, consists of 17 full-time members who serve a fixed three-year term. They hold the responsibility in governing various State and municipal functions of the Territory. This makes it a unique government within Australia, acting at the State level (e.g. education and health), and at the local council level (e.g. waste management).
All members vote to elect a Chief Minister, who then selects a further three Ministers to form the Cabinet. The Speaker is elected by, and represents, the Assembly in all contact with outside bodies.
The \ISelf Government Act\i empowers the Assembly to "make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Territory". Such power is similar to that accorded to the legislatures of the States and is the most broad ranging power that can be conferred.
Similar to the Queensland and Northern Territory Parliaments, the Legislative Assembly has only one chamber. It differs from the Federal and other State Parliaments in that it is unicameral, that is, it has no equivalent of the Senate or Legislative Council.
The accompanying table lists the ACT's third legislative assembly members as at July 1997.
#
"Federal Representation for the ACT",3,"0","g","0"
The Australian Capital Territory is represented in the Commonwealth Parliaments by three Members in the House of Representatives and two Senators.
Unlike the States and the Northern Territory, the ACT does not have a Governor/Administrator. The ACT Executive undertakes this function. The Executive is made up of the four members of the Cabinet (the Chief Minister and the three appointed Ministers), whose function is to collectively govern the Territory, implement all Territory law, and develop and manage the Budget.
#
!,!,!,!,!
10#
32,0
"Cook Discovers Terra Nullius",1,"h\2\8730.jpg","c","0"
When Captain James Cook discovered Australia, or New Holland as it was then called, he thought nobody owned it. The Aborigines did not count in his eighteenth century mind, as they were nomadic and did not have fixed abodes. Although he said they had no possessions, he thought they were "far happier than we Europeans".
Nevertheless he and his fellow explorers referred to the new land as Terra Nullius or empty land - land without owners. As a result, Cook took possession of this new land which ipso facto became a part of Britain. As such it was just a part of the territory owned and governed by the British government.
The Aborigines of course had their own system of government, with 300 tribes speaking different languages, but all being responsible for different geographical areas of Australia. Unfortunately the Europeans did not know or take this into account.
\BDescription:\b \JCaptain Cook\j \I(RAHS)\i
#
"1776: American Declaration of Independence",2,"h\2\r2730.jpg","c","0"
The English added New Holland - as Australia was then called - to their territories from 1770 onwards, after Cook told them where it was on his charts. They claimed the eastern side of the new continent, because the Dutch had already visited the western side, and the English assumed the Dutch may want to claim and settle that part. So New Holland waited to be governed by either the Dutch or the English.
Then in 1776 when the American colonists rebelled against the British, declaring war on their former government, saying they would not pay taxation with representation in the London parliament, thoughts began to turn back to New Holland as an alternative prison colony to the one the British had just lost in America. When the War of Independence was won by the Americans in 1783, the English government began to look seriously at New Holland as an alternative - especially as Cook's botanist Sir Joseph Banks had recommended it so strongly at a parliamentary enquiry in \J1789\j.
\BDescription:\b \JCaptain Cook\j's chart, Botany Bay \I(RAHS)\i
#
"Matra - The New Yorker Who Invented Australia",3,"h\2\king0100.jpg","c","0"
Cook's midshipman, James Mario \JMatra\j, who had fallen in love with Botany Bay during his 1770 visit, and then been expelled from America in 1776 when he returned home - because he was a "loyalist" who had served in the British Navy - suggested Britain settle Botany Bay.
\JMatra\j, an American citizen from New York, suggested the Loyalists who had been expelled from America by the rebel colonists after the war, should sail down and set up a new colony in Botany Bay. He wrote a long proposal to the British government setting out his plan for settling the new colony with American Loyalists, which he said "would atone for the loss of the American colonies".
This blueprint for the colony and its proposed government became the document on which Australia was founded. It was the basis of the new government, and although \JMatra\j and the American Loyalists were excluded from the new colony, his ideas were accepted and the Sydney suburb \JMatra\jville was named after him.
\BDescription:\b James Mario \JMatra\j \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"Pitt Government Decision",4,"h\2\king0066.jpg","c","0"
When the young British Prime Minister \JWilliam Pitt\j made the decision to settle New Holland, he was desperate for somewhere to send the convicts that had been crowding the gaols since they stopped sending them to America in 1776. The British had investigated sending convicts to Africa - to Gambia, and modern day Namibia - and also South America, the West Indies and even Canada, but all schemes were unworkable.
Inspired by \JMatra\j's plan and with little option, the Pitt government passed an act in parliament setting up a colony in New Holland at Botany Bay which Cook had claimed for the British. This colony would be ruled by the British government at Westminster in London through its colonial department, known as the Home Office, with a governor representing them on the spot. To begin with, they selected a naval governor, Captain Arthur Phillip, as they needed a naval expedition to settle the new land.
\BDescription:\b Captain Arthur Phillip, first governor of NSW \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"Political Powers of the First Governor",5,"h\2\rsmh29.jpg","c","0"
The British government appointed Captain Arthur Phillip the naval governor, who led the expedition of the First Fleet of eleven ships to Botany Bay, as their full representative with absolute powers. They provided him with a Commission from King George III, which set out the rules for the government of New South Wales as the new country was to be called (because Cook said it resembled the south of Wales).
Phillip, as governor, had full legal and executive authority in the settlement. He made the laws, enforced their observance and directed all administration. Rarely had a governor enjoyed such wide sweeping powers.
The Marines, under the command of Major Robert Ross who supervised the convicts, only had authority over these felons.
Phillip answered to nobody in the colony, only to the Secretary of State for the Colonial Office in London, and through him to the Prime Minister and the King.
\BDescription:\b Captain Phillip entering Sydney Harbour \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
#
"1788: First Government - Governor Phillip",6,"h\2\king0066.jpg","c","0"
Fortunately the naval government under Governor Arthur Phillip was that of a benign dictator. Phillip was a compassionate humanitarian who respected his fellow man and treated all classes with fairness. He did not believe in slavery and planned for convicts to reform their ways and take leading roles in society.
He wrote a long blueprint for his government in which he laid down the first framework for the government of "Australia" and from which all other government has grown. Fortunately it was a good basis to build on.
Phillip led the expedition of eleven First Fleet ships to Australia successfully over an eight month voyage as a naval commodore, and then stepped ashore to begin in his role as governor. From 1788 to 1792 he established the first government of the new colony that enabled the colony to grow from nothing to a viable settlement by his 1792 retirement.
\BDescription:\b Governor Phillip\b
#
"1792: Military Government Setback",7,"h\2\king0091.jpg","c","0"
There were three years of military rule after Phillip left, during which the standards of the government deteriorated badly. This was because the military leaders of the New South Wales Corps were uneducated poor types, more interested in rum, corruption, and women than good government.
This period, known as the "Interregnum", was controlled by military leaders in turn, while the colony waited for the second naval governor to succeed Phillip. Major Francis Grose became acting governor. Grose helped the NSW Corps to trade in rum and increase its wealth and power - especially as rum was a major currency in the new colony. The New South Wales Corps became known as the "Rum Corps".
In \J1794\j, Lt. Governor William Paterson, also from the NSW Corps, granted more land and convict servants to the military, giving them great powers and undermining Phillip's good naval government.
The second naval governor finally arrived and took up office in \J1795\j - Governor John Hunter, who had sailed out on the First Fleet but gone home on other duties. But although Hunter did his best to re-establish naval power and good government, the damage had been done. Hunter tried during his five year term to stamp out illicit distilling of alcohol and curb the rum trade. But he was unable to stop settlers using rum as a currency for buying goods and services.
The military had gained such power under their own corrupt acting governors, Grose and Paterson, that Hunter could do little to reform society and get it back to where it had been under Phillip.
In fact Captain \JJohn Macarthur\j, a military leader and pastoralist, opposed Hunter and began to organise the first really effective opposition that eventually would depose naval government.
\BDescription:\b Governor John Hunter \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1800: Governor King",9,"g\2\r5524.jpg","c","0"
\JGovernor King\j, who had sailed on the First Fleet and governed Norfolk Island since \J1788\j on and off, was appointed to take over from the aging Hunter. The younger King attacked the rum trade with a Christian zeal and reduced the trafficking in spirits, significantly restoring something of Phillip's good government.
Working from Phillip's government blueprint, he began to expand the settlement, starting colonies in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and Newcastle. Both colonies were controlled directly from Sydney. King also developed a range of new industries and expanded the agricultural production as part of a self-sufficiency drive.
Locking horns with Macarthur in a battle for political control of the colony, King expelled Macarthur from the colony, sending the soldier back to England to be tried for anti-government activities. As Macarthur resigned on arrival in London, he escaped censure and returned to Sydney a free man, where he developed his pastoral business founding the wool industry.
\JGovernor King\j handed over to Governor Bligh in \J1806\j.
The second Australian state to be founded was Tasmania in \J1803,\j when \JGovernor King\j sent Lt. James Bowen to Risdon Cove near present-day \JLaunceston\j to found a colony to forestall the French, who King thought might take over Van Diemen's Land.
Although this second colony was totally controlled from Sydney as an extension, it grew into a separate colony, and then eventually, state.
After Bowen established this colony in the north, in \J1804\j Lt. Colonel David Collins established a colony further south on the Derwent River, at present-day Hobart, after failing to establish a colony in Port Phillip Bay in 1803.
The two colonies co-existed independently until \J1813\j when Colonel Thomas Davey became Lt. Governor for the whole of what became known as Tasmania.
\BDescription:\b Tasmanian colony founded \I(Pioneers Club of Australia)\i.
#
"1804: The First Political Revolt Irish Rebellion",11,"h\2\king0112.jpg","c","0"
Although the military had opposed the naval governors, the first real political rebellion against the government was in \J1804\j when Irish political prisoners rebelled against \JGovernor King\j's British government.
The Irish claimed they had no representation and were not allowed to conduct their own church services and were being discriminated against. Believing they could overpower the government, they gathered as many weapons as they could, ranging from stolen guns to pitchforks, and began marching on the government representative in Government House at Parramatta, after which they planned to march on Sydney and storm Government House there. \JGovernor King\j rode through the night to crush the rebellion, and after defeating the makeshift army in battle, hung the ringleaders.
"1806: Governor William Bligh",12,"f\8\r6120.jpg","c","0"
The fourth and last naval governor, Captain \JWilliam Bligh\j, had already achieved fame by surviving a mutiny, when Fletcher Christian had taken over his ship, \IBounty,\i and cast him adrift in \J1789\j.
Bligh continued King's campaign against the corrupt Rum Corps and the increasingly powerful military still dominated by \JJohn Macarthur\j, now a wealthy pastoralist.
\BDescription:\b Governor Bligh \I(RAHS)\i
#
"1808: First Successful Anti-government Coup",13,"h\2\r2512.jpg","c","0"
After nearly two years of vigorous reforms, Bligh's dictatorial style of government upset the pastoralist \JJohn Macarthur\j and his military allies including Major Johnston. They organised a military coup to depose Bligh on the grounds of bad government, claiming he was unfit to rule.
Bligh, who tried to escape capture by hiding under his bed in Government House according to the military leaders who arrested him, was reported to have said "damn the laws of England, I make the laws here and you will all obey me".
The military placed Bligh in confinement for a year, while their leader Major Johnson took over as Lt. Governor ruling the government of the colony, pending London sending a replacement for Bligh.
This coup was the culmination of years of fighting between the naval and military officers, and proved once and for all the red and blue coats could not get along with each other. Something had to be done.
\BDescription:\b Governor Bligh \I(RAHS)\i
#
"1810: First Military Governor",14,"g\6\govern.jpg","c","0"
At last the British government realised the problem and worked out the solution - they sent a military governor with his own loyal troops. Governor Lachlan Macquarie restored legitimate government when he arrived in Sydney with his own 73rd regiment.
With total control and his own troops to enforce his rules, Macquarie was able to restore order and carry out government reforms, which other naval governors had failed to achieve since Phillip's day. Macquarie expanded the settlement, built roads, hospitals, factories, banks, agricultural industries, schools and established a wide range of new industries. He also helped former convicts to succeed and, because he was in office for ten years, had a real reformist impact on the colony.
\BDescription:\b Government House Sydney \J1809\j \I(Mitchell Library)\i
#
"1819: Bigge Report Into NSW Government",15,"h\2\rsmh88.jpg","c","0"
The British government, alarmed at the problems of governing the new colony, sent Commissioner J.T. Bigge to visit New South Wales and report on the government and recommend changes.
Bigge studied the government for some time, then published a report which claimed the free settlers arriving had changed the character of the colony, and the government must now change to reflect this change. He recommended many reforms, including the creation of a system of sharing power. Bigge was critical of Macquarie's strong rule, and he said the days had long gone when one governor representing England could run the colony as a dictator. Despite all the benefits he had provided for the colony, Macquarie was recalled to England to justify his actions.
Bigge recommended the creation of a governing Council, so in \J1823\j the British parliament passed the Act for the Administration of Justice in NSW and Van Diemen's Land, and the start of more democratic government began.
\BDescription:\b Sydney from east side of Sydney Cove (c. \J1810\j) \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
Governor Macquarie was replaced by Sir Thomas Brisbane in 1821 when the population was 24,000. Brisbane was the first governor to lose the unlimited powers that Phillip and others after him had enjoyed. He was the last of the powerful autocratic dictatorial governors; during his term of administration, the government of the new colony changed because of the Bigge Report handed down from 1822 onwards.
Nevertheless, Brisbane was able to expand the colony still further, founding a settlement at Moreton Bay in \J1824\j which became known as Brisbane in his honour. Brisbane sent Hume and \JHovell\j south to explore new grazing areas towards what became Victoria, encouraging settlement at Western Port Bay. He inspired settlements in the Northern Territory at Melville Island.
Brisbane also developed sugar and other agricultural industries, encouraged the first newspaper and the first free land sales, strengthening the economy.
\BDescription:\b Sir \JThomas Brisbane\j \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1823: Bigge Reforms",17,"0","g","0"
The biggest change to government in Australia after the transition from naval governors like Bligh, to the military \JGovernor Macquarie\j with his own loyal troops, came with the reforms introduced as a result of the Bigge Report from \J1822\j onwards.
* The NSW Judicature Act was passed creating the new authority.
* A Legislative Council was established with five to seven nominated members selected by the governor to advise the governor. This council could make laws for the "peace, welfare and good government of the colony" once these were initiated by the governor.
* NSW was constituted a Crown Colony instead of a penal colony.
* An Executive Council was formed.
* A Supreme Court was established introducing trial by jury for civil cases.
#
"1824: Bigge Report - Early Legislation",18,"f\8\mattf.jpg","c","0"
The first laws passed by the new government body reflected the change in administration procedures as they immediately assisted the Australian colony. These early laws included:
* the name Australia was adopted, having first been suggested by explorer \JMatthew Flinders\j
* the first Australian bill of legislation was passed by the Council (the Currency Bill).
In \J1828\j the new government moved further towards democracy by introducing two radical changes:
* it increased the number of nominated advisers to the governor to 15 instead of seven; and
* these members could outvote the governor as they had the power of veto.
So the government of New South Wales changed. Forty years into the settlement it changed from a one man dictatorship to a more representative system of government - that would one day give rise to full democracy.
\BDescription:\b \JMatthew Flinders\j first suggested the name Australia \I(GBRMPA)\i
#
"1826: Governor Darling and Moves Towards Democracy",19,"f\9\king0093.jpg","c","0"
\JGovernor Darling\j was the first governor to have to deal with really limited power and the emerging opposition from democratic elements in society.
By the time \JGovernor Darling\j succeeded Brisbane, the government of New South Wales had become far more representative with nominated members of a governing council influencing decisions in the colony. \JGovernor Darling\j also had to cope with a critical newspaper founded by emancipist \JWilliam Charles Wentworth\j, called the \IAustralian.\i
Darling reacted against this, escalating democratic tendencies, and tried to have the newspaper restricted by increasing taxes and imposing licence fees - but the now independent legal system protected the new newspaper, saying it had every right to exist and be critical. Democracy had taken root. This newspaper then attacked Darling for punishing two soldiers, who had tried to leave the service, to such an extent that one died.
As a result of his inability to cope with increasing liberal demands, the British government recalled Darling in \J1831\j.
"1829: Western Australian Colony Founded",20,king0040.jpg,c,0
The fourth colony to be founded that was to become a state was Western Australia. Initially, a whaling settlement was established at Albany on the south coast of Western Australia in \J1824\j, then in \J1826\j Major Lockyer claimed the whole of the western half of Australia. In \J1829\j Lt. Governor Stirling established a settlement on the Swan River - thus founding Perth - the future capital of the state of Western Australia.
Now New South Wales had colonies in all corners of the island continent pulling against it, and it would only be a matter of time before some of these infant colonies would want to break free.
\BDescription:\b The founding of Western Australia \I(Jonathan King)\i
Governor Sir \JRichard Bourke\j took over from Darling for six years as governor of New South Wales.
The British government had now chosen a leader who reflected the new democratic mood of the colony, as Bourke had worked in South African colonies and Ireland, and sympathised with the Emancipists led by \JWilliam Charles Wentworth\j against the Exclusionists.
Bourke also presided over the first assisted immigration of free people to NSW, encouraging free settlers whom he helped to settle. Bourke also stopped religious discrimination in education and introduced the first regular sales of land instead of grants.
Bourke retired in \J1838\j.
\BDescription:\b Sir \JRichard Bourke\j \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1834: South Australia Founded",22,03250058.jpg,c,0
London settlers anxious for new land, formed the Wakefield Settlement Scheme and then created the South Australian Association to settle present-day Adelaide. The British Parliament approved the scheme, passing an enabling act, and in \J1836\j army surveyor Col. Light sailed to the colony and laid out the plans for this new colony which once again would require its own government - this time under \JGovernor Hindmarsh.\j The settlement was called Adelaide after the King's wife.
\BDescription:\b The foundation of South Australia \I(Pioneers Club of Australia)\i.
Although Lt. Col. David Collins, who had sailed out on the first fleet in \J1788\j, had tried to settle in Port Phillip Bay at Sorrento in \J1803\j, he had been forced to abandon this in \J1804\j as he could not find water and good soil. Thus the settlement of Victoria was delayed until settlers \JJohn Batman\j and William Fawkner arrived in \J1835\j to take up land and begin farming on the banks of the Yarra River.
This settlement was initially governed from New South Wales. In \J1837\j Governor Bourke visited the new settlement, authorised free land sales and appointed a representative. Victoria was governed from New South Wales until \J1851\j when the new state separated.
\BDescription:\b Sir \JRichard Bourke\j \I(Jonathan King)\i
Sir George Gipps, who became the governor of New South Wales succeeding Bourke, had the biggest challenge since Governor Brisbane (who had to cope with the introduction of the first nominated Councils that took a lot of Brisbane's power away from him). Gipps had to introduce the first elected governments, rather than just nominated, in \J1842\j - which saw the beginnings of democracy.
Lord Durham visited Britain's colony, Canada, during Gipps' term of government and recommended responsible government for Canada - so Gipps could see the writing was on the wall for governors representing the British government. It was now only a matter of time.
\BDescription:\b Sir George Gipps \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1842: NSW Starts Real Democracy",25,"g\3\king0079.jpg","c","0"
In \J1842\j the British government gave way to the demands of Australian Emancipists and allowed the first elected government representatives. This was the first breakthrough to real democratic government as ordinary people were now able to elect ordinary people to govern.
The British Government Act allowed for:
* enlarging the Legislative Council from 15 to 36 with the governor appointing twelve;
* male freeholders who owned houses or land could elect 24 members to the Council;
* any man could be elected to the Council if he had land worth 2,000 pounds a year;
* Port Phillip Bay was given six seats on the Council; and
* smaller District Councils were established for local government.
No women could vote or become members of the Council. Then in \J1843\j the first elections were held, and as people took to the streets to celebrate, their first representatives were elected to government in the new Australian colony. Voting was not compulsory and not secret.
Democracy had almost arrived.
\BDescription:\b Sir George Gipps \I(Jonathan King)\i
The last of the governors with any power was Sir Charles Fitzroy, who succeeded Gipps as the incoming British representative in the twilight years of British rule of the colonies.
During his period of rule, democratic fever gathered momentum. He tried to hang on to remaining control of government, tried to control Crown Land and the education system, introducing two types of schools to cope with conflicts (church-run and government-run), but time had run out and now the people were about to take control of their own government.
Fitzroy had the unenviable task of handing over power to the people when free and democratic parliaments were created in \J1850\j.
\BDescription:\b Sir Charles Fitzroy \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1850: Australian Colonies Government Act",27,"h\2\rsmh49.jpg","c","0"
In \J1850\j the British government passed the Australian Colonies Government Act designed by Colonial Secretary Earl Grey and aimed at providing responsible government in Australia at last.
The Act provided for:
* all colonies to create their own constitutions for responsible self-government as soon as they wished;
* Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania to have Legislative Councils like New South Wales;
* Western Australia to have a Council when two-thirds of its households requested one by petition;
* Victoria to separate from New South Wales; and
* Queensland to separate from New South Wales when Queenslanders submitted a petition.
Unfortunately as part of this democratic package, the colonies were expected to go their separate ways - which given the impending move towards federation, was going to make things difficult in the future for those who wanted a united nation. The year after \J1856\j, when the main colonies won self-government, the first committee on federation was formed in Sydney.
\BDescription:\b Sydney Cove \J1850\js \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
In \J1855\j NSW was granted responsible government after an \J1849\j British Privy Council Committee report had recommended self-government for the Australian colonies.
This report had been supported by W.C. Wentworth's Select Committee on the constitution which recommended self-government as soon as possible.
Free settlers who had come to Australia for the goldrushes also campaigned for self-government, and so Australian colonies moved from convict to free status.
\BDescription:\b Sydney Town Hall \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
By \J1856\j all colonies had drawn up their constitutions except Western Australia and had began the transition towards self-government.
The first free elections were held for the NSW Parliament, and the Conservatives formed the government initially before being displaced by the Liberals, and then returning to power again under \JHenry Parkes\j - who would later lead the movement towards federation.
In \J1858\j, the Parliament passed the Electoral Reform Act creating manhood suffrage - enabling all men to vote, no matter how rich or poor they were, as long as they had been in NSW for six months.
This democratic breakthrough was a world first. Australia was leading the way with democracy.
In \J1859\j, Queensland won its freedom as a separate colony from New South Wales and established its own self-government. In \J1863\j South Australia took over the administration of the Northern Territory from New South Wales.
The Victorian government voted to pay members for the first time in the history of the world, confirming Australia's leading role in establishing democracy. New South Wales followed in \J1889\j and other states then fell into line.
This meant that ordinary people could now afford to enter parliament.
In \J1890\j, Western Australia won responsible government and began the transition to full self-government.
\BDescription:\b Imperial conference of self-governing colonies \I(Mitchell Library)\i
#
"1891: Labor Party Wins Seats",30,"h\2\r2326.jpg","c","0"
In March \J1891\j, the Trades and Labor Council fielded candidates for the elections for members of NSW Parliament who would for the first time be paid. The Labor candidates won 35 seats giving Labor the balance of power.
A new era of politics had arrived.
\BDescription:\b Political cartoon - 'Wanted - the Labor Vote' \I(RAHS)\i
#
"1894: Women Get the Vote in South Australia",31,"h\2\rsmh80.jpg","c","0"
The South Australian Government created female suffrage in \J1894\j, becoming the first in the world to give women the vote. This liberal attitude confirmed Australia's leading place in establishing democracy. Women in Western Australia got the vote in \J1899\j. Women in other states had to wait until \J1902\j when they got the right to vote in Federal elections. Aboriginal women and men in Queensland and Western Australia were excluded from the franchise until the 1960s.
\BDescription:\b Oxford Street Sydney \J1890\js \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
The period of colonial government then came to a close when the federal movement succeeded in creating a constitution for the nation as a whole. The colonies joined together sacrificing their new found freedom to become subservient states in a wider Federal Government - the Commonwealth of Australia, which came into being on 1 January \J1901\j.
\BDescription:\b Commonwealth celebrations in King Street Sydney \I(RAHS)\i
#
!,!,!,!,!
11#
36,0
"1901: Birth of Australian Federal Parliament",1,"h\2\46smh.jpg","c","0"
On 1 January \J1901\j in Centennial Park Sydney, the Governor-General Lord Hopetoun read the Proclamation that created the Commonwealth of Australia. This new Commonwealth was made up of all the former colonies on the Australian continent - New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia. These colonies that had been founded from \J1788\j onwards, with the arrival of the first fleet of convicts, now all became states of Australia with their own constitutions and self-government within the federal union.
This activated the Federal Constitution that had been developed by the different colonial governments, and this Constitution came into force immediately as the basis for all future Federal Government. The Governor-General appointed one of the architects of the constitution, \JEdmund Barton\j, as caretaker prime minister until the first elections. It was the first time that a continent the size of Australia had one government covering the whole land mass.
\BDescription:\b First sitting of Parliament \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
#
"First Elections",2,"h\2\invite.jpg","c","0"
The first elections were held on 29 March \J1901\j across Australia, where the population was only three million, but both men and women could vote - unlike most other electoral systems at the time. Candidates stood for two houses - the Senate which was a states' house with members representing states as a whole, and the House of Representatives, which was a house made up of members representing electorates.
\JEdmund Barton\j won the election with Liberal Protectionists, ahead of the Free Trade Party and the Labor Party.
To start with, the political parties that held power were unstable because their ideological basis was changing all the time. It was not till many years later that two ideological groups formed - Left and Right - and this gave the elections more stability. In the early days, prime ministers also kept resigning over issues, necessitating constant leadership changes.
In \J1903\j, \JAlfred Deakin\j replaced \JEdmund Barton\j as leader of the Liberal Protectionists and Prime Minister, when Barton resigned. Then the following year, \JJohn Watson\j became
Prime Minister, leading a Labor government when Deakin resigned. Later that same year, Free Trade leader, \JGeorge Reid\j, became Prime Minister when Watson resigned - so Australia had four prime ministers in the first four years.
\BDescription:\b Commonwealth of Australia Inaugural Celebrations invitation \I(Mitchell Library)\i
#
"First Federal Parliament",3,"h\2\rsmh66.jpg","c","0"
As a site had not been chosen for the new parliament, and the founding fathers had agreed to locate the first parliament in Melbourne, it was established in Melbourne on 9 May \J1901\j and opened by the Duke of York and Cornwall in a grand ceremony captured by the painter \JTom Roberts\j.
After many years of searching for the best location, \JCanberra\j was selected over Dalgety in \J1908\j, and work commenced on the first parliament house in \J1914\j when the foundation stone was laid.
By \J1927\j, Parliament House had been completed and the Duke of York (later King George VI) opened the Federal Parliament in \JCanberra\j - the federal capital.
\BDescription:\b Arrival of Duke and Duchess of York to open Federal Parliament \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
#
"1904: World's First Labor Government",4,"f\9\king0111.jpg","c","0"
Although \JJohn Watson\j only led a minority Labor government in \J1904\j when elected prime minister, this was the first time a Labor leader ever led a country. The next time a Labor leader was elected as prime minister was in \J1908\j, when his successor \JAndrew Fisher\j became prime minister. Even though Fisher was in office for less than a year, he was elected prime minister again in \J1910\j consolidating the Labor Party leadership of the new Australian Federal Government. In \J1914\j, this support was confirmed even further, when Fisher and the Labor Party were elected with sweeping majorities in both houses, to lead Australia as it began to fight World War I. This was another first in world history for Labor.
\BDescription:\b The first Labor Government \I(Jonathan King)\i
In \J1911\j, enrolment was made compulsory, and absent and postal votes were allowed in an attempt to increase the number of Australians participating in the political process.
In \J1918\j, with the population now at five million, the government introduced the preferential system of voting for the House of Representatives, enabling voters to express preferences for second and third or fourth candidates, which helped the smaller parties gain more power. In \J1924\j, voting in all federal elections was made compulsory.
#
"1914: World War I",6,"f\3\1910sb.jpg","c","0"
When World War I broke out, Australia sympathised with Britain and declared she would support her in her war against Germany, but as Australia was not being attacked, the government did not order conscription for overseas service.
Many men enlisted to help Britain, but war service was not compulsory. However, as the war developed, the terrible slaughter of Australians inspired the more conservative Australian forces to call for more men to help win the war. These deaths, however, inspired some radical Labor forces to warn men against enlisting.
Thus a debate broke out in Australia between the conservatives who wanted Australians to fight and so advocated conscripting them, and the Labor forces who wanted Australia to withdraw from the war. This debate went on all through the war.
The conservative elements in the government tried to force men to enlist by holding a referendum on two occasions, in 1916 and in 1917, but the people rejected it both times. So the only soldiers who fought in World War I were volunteers.
"1917: Billy Hughes Creates the Nationalists",7,"h\2\king0096.jpg","c","0"
In an effort to increase his chances of persuading parliament to conscript troops for World War I, Labor Prime Minister \JBilly Hughes\j resigned from the Labor Party which disagreed with conscription, and formed a National Labor Party. He then merged this with the Liberals to form the Nationalists, coming to power as Prime Minister leading the Nationalist Government.
Hughes asked Australians to agree in a referendum, which suggested conscription for the European War, but despite all his political wheeling and dealing and two attempts at the referendum, the people voted NO.
Nevertheless, Hughes created a record for leading different parties and organising the merger of different political forces, a feat that has never been repeated in Federal Parliament.
\BDescription:\b \JBilly Hughes\j (centre) with a group of Australian soldiers \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1920-1923: New Political Forces",8,"h\2\sydmail9.jpg","c","0"
In \J1920\j, the Country Party was formed at a Melbourne meeting, and in the next elections the first representatives were elected for country districts. The new party elected Dr Earl Page as leader, who then created a blueprint for the Country Party, giving birth to a new force in Australian politics that remains strong today - especially in its association with the conservative forces like the Liberal Party.
In \J1923\j, the Country Party founder, Bruce Page, formed the first of many coalitions with the conservative Nationalists under him, creating the first of many coalition governments that continue on and off to this day.
Inspired by the Communist Revolution in Russia in October \J1917\j, when Lenin had led the Bolsheviks to power, the Communist Party of Australia was formed in \J1920\j. The Communist Party was dedicated to the overthrow of the existing established order, believing that private property should be confiscated and put in the hands of the government. Not surprisingly, its support has never been strong in Australia, where citizens believe in private enterprise and all the freedoms that go with a democratic society like Australia.
The first woman elected to Federal Parliament was Mrs \JEdith Cowan\j in \J1921\j, who represented a Western Australian electorate. Mrs Cowan also created a world first for Australian politics, as women were still waiting to get the vote in many other countries.
\BDescription:\b Country Party advertisement \I(Random House)\i
#
"1927: Federal Parliament Moves to Canberra",9,"h\2\53smh.jpg","c","0"
On 9 May, the Duke of York, later King George VI, opened Federal Parliament in \JCanberra\j, in a federation-style building by Lake Burley Griffin. This served the Federal Parliament until the \J1988\j bicentennial year, when a new building was built on the hill overlooking the lake and \JCanberra\j as a whole.
\BDescription:\b Plaque commemorating opening of Parliament \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
#
"1929: Labor Elected During Crisis",10,"h\2\41smh.jpg","c","0"
Just as the electorate turned to Labor during World War I, hoping for strong united people's leadership, they turned to Labor again as the Great Depression struck, voting \JJames Scullin\j into office as Labor Prime Minister. This pattern of selecting Labor in times of crisis was repeated in World War II and during the Vietnam War, which had become very divisive by the early \J1970\js.
Governing Australia proved difficult for the Labor government during the Great Depression, which lasted until \J1933\j, as this economic collapse was far worse than the economic crash of the \J1890\js.
"1929: The Great Depression - The Problems",11,"g\4\6smh.jpg","c","0"
When the stockmarket crashed in Wall Street, New York in October 1929 it sent shockwaves around the world that brought the economies of other western countries down as well.
By \J1930\j, the Australian stockmarket share prices had collapsed, and many industries had either closed or slowed down because of the lack of demand. Workers had their wages cut, or were sacked by a wide range of employers, and had to collect their welfare from the government. The basic wage was dropped by ten percent. The demand for goods and services dried up, and house prices fell to an all time low. Australia's export prices dropped and the banks were frightened to lend funds. The New South Wales Savings Bank was suspended. Many breadwinners took to the track becoming swagmen outback, looking for work.
\BDescription:\b A hostel during the Great Depression \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
#
"Great Depression Attempted Solutions",12,"0","Sydney Harbour Bridge opening in 1932","mfilm4ii.avi"
In 1929, the Scullin Government introduced deflationary measures in an attempt to improve the economic situation. The government increased tariffs, imports were reduced, taxes increased, military training suspended and migration cut.
The British Government sent a financial expert from the Bank of England to Australia in 1930 to advise the government - Sir Otto Niemeyer.
Sir Otto told the government to cut spending and he told the people to stop spending money. He asked the government to cut wages further, reduce welfare and pensions, to stop spending as much as possible, and cut interest rates. He also asked the states to pay Britain back the debts they owed. His suggestions for getting out of the Depression lead to the Premier's Plan of 1931.
This angered the Labor Party. Although they accepted it, the Federal Labor Government did not support Sir Otto's plan wholeheartedly. Labor forces around the nation opposed the Premier's Plan, especially in radical New South Wales where \JJack Lang,\j who was "a law unto himself", did not like taking orders from an Englishman with a title. He claimed Sir Otto was a debt collector for the English Bondholders having advocated a policy of repudiation i.e. delaying repayment of overseas loans.
Political groups debated the solutions and fought each other on street corners. A new conservative force - the New Guard - created a private army and attacked Communist Party meetings as a mini civil war developed.
In \J1932,\j worried that \JJack Lang\j was becoming a communist, the New Guard refused to let him open the new Sydney Harbour Bridge by cantering a horse through the crowd in front of him, and slashing the ribbon before he could get to it. Lang was unimpressed, and later that year he refused to repay the debts outstanding to Britain, and the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Philip Game, sacked him and made the new premier pay back the debts. It was the first time the Queen's representative had sacked an elected Australian leader and it set a precedent.
In 1931 the Treasuer E. G. Theodore proposed an inflationary policy as a solution but was unable to get his measures through the Senate.
\BViddescription:\b Sydney Harbour Bridge opening (Film World)
#
"1931: Conservatives to Rescue Depression",13,"e\10\king0142.jpg","c","0"
The conservative forces claimed the Scullin Labor Government did not know how to solve the problems of the Depression - let alone the radical \JJack Lang\j. These conservatives formed a new party, especially to unite Australia and solve the problems of the Depression. They persuaded the electorate - who were already frightened of starving, to vote them into government.
Tasmanian conservative Joe Lyons, who had created the new party - the United Australia Party - became Prime Minister. Known as "Honest Joe", Lyons began to lead Australia out of the Depression. The Australian economy began to improve gradually as the world economy improved.
\BDescription:\b Joe Lyons \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1933: WA Tries to Break Free",14,"g\4\8smh.jpg","c","0"
In \J1933\j, the Western Australian Government was so disillusioned by the federal political process and worried by the effects of the Depression, that it thought it would do better alone. The Western Australian Government held a referendum in that state, and the people voted two to one in favour of seceding. Although 90% of the people voted, the British Government would not allow it, saying it was unconstitutional.
\BDescription:\b During the Depression years \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
#
"1934: The End of the Great Depression",15,"g\4\52smh.jpg","c","0"
By \J1934\j, the Joe Lyons conservative government had developed policies that helped end the Depression. With an improvement in the world economy as well, they were able to restore the basic wage which was then increased, and spend government funds on welfare to help people get back to normal.
Australia's exports increased, export prices began to rise, manufacturing got going again, and by \J1935\j economic conditions were almost back to normal.
\BDescription:\b The end of the Great Depression meant many more people had jobs \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
#
"1939: Menzies Makes First Appearance",16,"e\10\king0099.jpg","c","0"
When Joe Lyons died as United Australia Party leader and Prime Minister, the UAP elected a young politician who had served as the deputy leader since \J1935\j - \JRobert Menzies\j. This was the start of one of Australia's most long-lasting leaderships, as by the time he retired, Menzies had served an unprecedented and unrepeated 16 years in office, and presided over one of the most stable and prosperous periods of Australian political history.
But that would be after the war. This first period in office was a false start because World War II was about to start.
\BDescription:\b Robert Gordon Menzies \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1939: Beginnings of World War II",17,"f\10\king0113.jpg","c","0"
As soon as Britain declared war on Germany, Australian Prime Minister Menzies told the people of Australia on radio, "Britain has declared war on Germany, therefore Australia is at war".
He had not consulted his Cabinet, nor sought any second opinion, but as with the rest of his political life, Menzies was totally loyal to Britain - "British to the Bootstraps" some critics said.
Menzies introduced the National Security Regulations censorship, price control, and government regulation of Australia's way of life. He also introduced conscription for home defence and started to put Australia on a war footing. The following year Menzies took control of Australia's resources, manpower, production, and people for the war effort, and introduced petrol rationing.
\BDescription:\b World War II begins \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1940: World War II - Menzies Attacked",18,"h\2\king0178.jpg","c","0"
Unable to see the connection between future Japanese bombs, and the iron ore his government was exporting to Japan, Menzies continued to send "pig iron" to Tokyo, incurring the wrath of the unions who refused to ship the iron ore exports, saying the metal would come back as bombs as Japan had already attacked China and would attack Australia some day. The unions called Menzies "Pig Iron Bob".
Menzies also got it wrong in banning the Communist Party, as in a democracy all parties must be allowed to function.Yet in \J1940\j he outlawed both the Communist and the Fascist parties, incurring the wrath of the Left who believed quite rightly that the Communists would help the Allies win the war.
\BDescription:\b The unions called Menzies "Pig Iron Bob" \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1941: World War II - Labor to the Rescue",19,"e\7\king0135.jpg","c","0"
As the Labor Party under \JJohn Curtin\j had done so well in the \J1940\j election, and Menzies could not govern with his reduced majority, he resigned, making way for Curtin to form the Labor Government that would take Australia through the rest of the war.
Curtin soon took over complete control of the nation, imposing uniform taxation legislation and seizing control of the revenue raised through tax for the war effort. He also increased price control and rationing.
Curtin was more in tune with the war, realising that Britain was not going to save Australia and that America was now the "great white hope". On 26 December \J1941\j he said, "Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links of kinship with the United Kingdom".
"1942: World War II - Australia Attacked",20,"g\5\weekly.jpg","c","0"
Curtin appealed to America, as it was a long way from Britain to Australia, and when the Japanese attacked Darwin in \J1942\j, and then their submarines attacked Newcastle and Sydney the same year, it was the American, General Douglas Macarthur, who made Australia his base for organising the defeat of Japan.
These attacks on Australia made Australians realise their country was at risk and soldiers began to enlist in greater numbers.
By \J1943\j, Curtin introduced conscription for overseas service for the first time in Australian history, even though it was not Labor Party policy. But as Australia was under attack, the nation had to stop the Japanese before they got to Australia, and that meant sending soldiers overseas. Conscription was limited to soldiers for the Pacific area of combat.
In the \J1943\j election, Curtin was returned with increased majorities in both houses.
\BDescription:\b General Macarthur - Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in the South-West Pacific \I(Women's Weekly)\i
#
"1944: World War II - Liberal Party Created",21,"h\2\11smh.jpg","c","0"
Menzies convened an October \J1944\j conference of federal, state and other political and business leaders to create a new non-Labor political organisation to rebuild Australia after the war. The unity conference adopted the name Liberal, and the party was constituted at an Albury conference later that year, after which Menzies developed and published a set of policies.
This Liberal Party became the main non-Labor force in Australian politics, from then to the present day, representing the longest surviving conservative vehicle devised by the Right to this time.
\BDescription:\b Liberal Party advertisement \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
Although Curtin had steered Australia through most of the war and lived to see peace declared in Europe, he died before the end of the war against Japan.
Former engine driver \JBen Chifley\j then took over as Labor leader and Prime Minister to guide Australia into the post-war period.
After the war ended on 15 August \J1945\j, Chifley decided to increase social services to help people recover from the war years, but had to increase taxation to pay for these hand-outs.
Chifley ended wartime control by \J1946\j, abolishing the national security regulations. In the \J1946\j election he was returned to office with increased majorities in both houses, confirming the people's approval of Labor war-leadership.
"1946: Attempts at Socialist Reform",23,"h\3\chifley.jpg","c","0"
Inspired by socialist ideals, and "the light on the hill" that motivated Labor leaders, Chifley decided to nationalise the private banks to give the government and the people control over their funds.
However, the conservatives, not surprisingly, opposed this, and the High Court blocked the legislation, so Chifley failed to place the banks in the hands of the people. This made him and Labor unpopular and the conservatives campaigned to get rid of Labor saying they were really communists in disguise - a fifth column for the communist movement that would one day help the communists invade Australia.
Labor was voted out of office in the December \J1949\j election in favour of Menzies and the Liberal Party.
\BDescription:\b Prime Minister \JBen Chifley\j and Minister for Immigration, \JArthur Calwell\j greet first post-war migrants, a party of British building tradesmen for \JCanberra\j who arrived at Sydney on the \ILargs Bay\i in January \J1947\j \I(Department Immigration and Ethnic Affairs photograph)\i
#
"1949: Menzies - The 16 Year Term Begins",24,"e\10\king0099.jpg","c","0"
Menzies won the \J1949\j election by forming a Coalition with the Country Party, and this gave him the power base which kept him in office for the next 16 years. He had all the conservatives voting for his government through the Liberal Party, and the farmers through the Country Party, which was more than enough to outnumber Labor followers. He had found the secret of long life in government.
Menzies also developed a scare tactic that kept him in power. He told the electorate that Labor Party members were really communists and could not be trusted. He said the communists had taken over Russia and China and now Eastern Europe, and it was only a matter of time before they attacked Australia.
Menzies was also lucky that the economy boomed during his time in office, thanks to exports increasing and prices of exports increasing, such as wool prices. Oil, gas, and minerals were also discovered and exported at good prices to a post-war world needing assistance, benefiting Australia and the Liberal Party.
\BDescription:\b Bob Menzies \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1950s: The Red Menace",25,"0","Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov","film42i.avi"
Because Menzies believed the communists were a threat to Australia, he passed a bill in Parliament outlawing them - even though a democracy is meant to have all parties competing for power. The Communist Party challenged the bill in the High Court with an intelligent advocate, Dr \JH.V. Evatt,\j and won because the High Court said it was against civil liberties to ban freedom of speech.
In April \J1954,\j a Russian official, Vladimir Petrov, defected from the Soviet Embassy in \JCanberra\j and sought political asylum in Australia. His wife, Evdokia Petrov, also seeking political asylum, fought her way off a plane in Darwin as she was about to be escorted by Communist Party officials back home, after her husband's Soviet government duty was over in Australia. Their defection confirmed how terrible life was in Soviet Russia and helped Menzies in his fight against communism.
Menzies' fears were confirmed in the \J1950\js when the communists from the north attacked South Korea and then tried to take over Malaya. He was able to send Australian troops to Korea confirming the need to fight communism.
\BViddescription:\b Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov (Film World)
#
"Labor Party Split Then the Credit Squeeze",26,"e\10\king0099.jpg","c","0"
Menzies then had the greatest stroke of good luck, because his main opponent in parliament, the Labor Party, split into two groups - one supposedly sympathetic to communists and the other strongly anti-communists.
The more left-wing group was the main Labor Party, led by Dr Evatt, while the anti-communist group, led by Catholic activist B.A. Santamaria, and known as "the Groupers", became the Democratic Labor Party.
By \J1957,\j the anti-communist Labor Party had formally created the Democratic Labor Party and begun fielding candidates for elections. This played right into the hands of Menzies at the \J1958\j election, whose united Liberals won comfortably nearly all the seats, while the divided Labor Party and Democratic Labor Party fought each other and split their traditional votes, winning less seats than usual.
After the Federal Government developed polices for the Credit Squeeze to reduce inflation, the electorate reacted by voting against Menzies in the \J1961\j election and he only just retained office. Even though he eased credit restrictions to gain support of the business community, he lost a total of 15 seats from the Coalition and only had a majority of two.
Suddenly it was clear that despite his "divine right to rule", even "the Ming Emperor" was fallible. Labor began to try and bring the two sides of their party back into line to take on the Liberals.
"1965: Vietnam - Start of the End for Liberal",27,"f\10\13smh.jpg","c","0"
In \J1966\j, Menzies, in line with his anti-communist policies, committed Australia to help America fight the communists in Vietnam. This would turn out to be a mistake, because unlike World War II, Korea, or the Malay Insurgency, this was really an internal matter best left to the Vietnamese, and as such the Americans and Australians could do nothing and would lose the war.
In \J1966\j, Menzies retired after a record-breaking 16 years in office - handing over to an old Wesley school friend, \JHarold Holt\j.
\BDescription:\b Scuffles regarding the Vietnam War \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
#
"1966: Holt Goes ''All the Way With LBJ''",28,"0","James Dibble talking re Holt's death","hist6i.avi"
Menzies' successor was \JHarold Holt\j and, although he had been groomed to take over serving as treasurer for some time, he lacked the charisma and confidence, and soon began to attract the criticism that had been bottled up for so many years against the dictatorial and seemingly invincible Menzies.
Inheriting Menzies anti-communists policies, Holt said Australia would fight the war in Vietnam with great enthusiasm, and, "would go all the way with LBJ", the US President L.B. Johnson.
These sentiments were criticised by some of the press. Labor and anti-war critics began to hound the Liberal Country Party Coalition until they brought Labor to power in \J1972.\j
Holt disappeared while swimming off the coast at Portsea in \J1967.\j
\BViddescription:\b James Dibble on Harold Holt (ABC)
#
"1968: Liberal Party Loses Popularity",29,"e\8\gorton.jpg","c","0"
Following the death of Prime Minister \JHarold Holt\j in \J1967\j the Liberal Party chose a Senator, \JJohn Gorton\j, to replace him. Gorton became increasingly unpopular with the Liberal Party and with the electorate, even though he was responsible for the winding down of Australia's participation in the Vietnam War. The war had become more and more unpopular in Australia and the Liberal Party had become identified with the ongoing problems there.
In \J1971\j Gorton was pressured from within his own party and retired from the prime ministership. He was succeeded by \JWilliam McMahon\j who had previously been a Treasurer. In the \J1972\j elections the Liberal Party had been in power for 23 years and many in the electorate considered it was time for a change of government. The Liberal Party had been harmed by its support for an unpopular war and by infighting among party members for the leadership.
\BDescription:\b \JJohn Gorton\j \I(Gum Tree Graphics)\i
The tide had started turning against the Liberal Party years earlier, but with the unfair electoral system which favoured Coalition and/or minor parties, Labor had never been able to get a large enough vote. In \J1972\j after 23 years in the wilderness, Whitlam brought Labor to power with a campaign called "It's Time".
After years of promising to end the Vietnam War, Whitlam was swept into office with a comfortable majority and began the biggest program of political reforms in Australian history. He withdrew the final few troops from Vietnam, released draft dodgers from gaol, stopped all aid to South Vietnam, recognised China and started trading with it, dropped the voting age to 18 years, protested against French nuclear tests, and increased welfare and educational benefits.
Whitlam ushered in a new era of reform in Australian politics.
Unfortunately for Whitlam he moved too fast and ran out of funds for his reforms. The Liberals, now led by a tougher and much more impressive \JMalcolm Fraser\j, began to plan getting back into office.
Lacking experience in government, Whitlam's ministers caused some problems. Deputy Prime Minister Jim Cairns became involved in a sex scandal, and other ministers were accused of improper procedures - the worst of which was an attempt to borrow government funds from the middle-east financier Khemlani, in a scandal which was called "the Loans Affair".
Having lost seats in the \J1974\j election during which he only just held onto power, Whitlam was unable to persuade the Senate to pass the money bill he needed to fund his reforms. As he did not have a majority in the Senate, the Liberal Country Party Coalition was able to block the bill to supply Whitlam with the money.
With Whitlam unable to govern, Fraser asked the Governor-General Sir \JJohn Kerr\j if he would dismiss the Prime Minister, because he, Fraser, could form a government if an election were called. Kerr agreed and dismissed Whitlam. The nation was shocked. Whitlam called Fraser "Kerr's Curr" and campaigned on the slogan "Shame Fraser Shame". Under his constitutional powers the Governor-General had the power to do this. The dismissal caused a great deal of controversy and discussion about the role of the Governor-General.
\BDescription:\b The day of the dismissal - 11 November \J1975\j \I(Peter Luck)\i
#
"1975: Liberal Party Returns to Power",32,"e\8\fraser2.jpg","c","0"
Despite the feeling of outrage among the Left, \JMalcolm Fraser\j won the election in \J1975\j and resumed the business of running Australia according to the Liberal Country Party Coalition values that he had learnt under Menzies. For the first two years he succeeded well, but then decided to mine and export uranium, which the radical Labor-led protest movement opposed, and they campaigned against Fraser. Economic conditions deteriorated with rising inflation that led to a recession and the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.
Trade Union activist, \JBob Hawke\j, transferred from the union movement and vowed to get rid of the Fraser Government. The Liberal Party was again weakened by a leadership crisis in which Andrew Peacock challenged \JMalcolm Fraser\j for leadership of the party.
\BDescription:\b \JMalcolm Fraser\j \I(Gum Tree Graphics)\i
#
"1983: Hawke Brings Labor Back to Power",33,"f\10\16smh.jpg","c","0"
Former trade union leader \JBob Hawke\j then won the \J1983\j election for Labor with a convincing majority, and to begin a long period in office, determined not to make the same hasty mistakes made by Whitlam.
Hawke began by calling a National Economic Summit and bringing in as many experts to the process of government as possible. Popular with the journalists, Hawke's popularity continued for the first few years as he and his Treasurer \JPaul Keating\j improved the economy, lowering inflation and creating more jobs. As their policies were middle-of-the-road, they also attracted large numbers of conservatives, and Hawke won the \J1985\j election as well, becoming the longest serving Labor leader in history. He survived till \J1991\j when his Treasurer \JPaul Keating\j displaced him in a leadership ballot.
\BDescription:\b The Hawke Government \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
#
"1991: Keating Succeeds Hawke",34,"0","g","0"
\JPaul Keating\j brought a new style of leadership to the Labor Party that was different to the working-class emphasis of leaders like Curtin and Chifley, and in the process won the votes of many conservatives.
Well-trained in economics as a former treasurer, Keating was able to reduce inflation and eventually provide more jobs. He enjoyed the successes in office of a leader of an improved economy, but not without years of unemployment levels that were 11% - the worst since the Great Depression.
One of his aims was to create a Republic by the year 2001 for the 100th anniversary of the creation of Federation. Leadership problems continued to distract the Liberal Party for many years.
In March 1996, the Liberal Party, with \JJohn Howard\j as leader, won the federal election, ending 13 years of Labor Government.
When it came to power, the Howard Government was facing immediate battles inside and outside of Parliament. On the outside it was facing a union movement that appeared itching for a fight, if you believed some of the early comments from the ACTU Secretary, Mr Bill Kelty. The Union Accord, which was the backbone of Labor's industrial relations, had now disappeared. Wage demands of 15 and 20 percent were bandied around within the first week after the election, and Mr Kelty further signalled his intentions by immediately resigning from the Reserve Bank Board.
Initial reactions from Mr Howard and his Industrial Relations Minister, Mr Peter Reith, were muted and appeared to be awaiting responses from other major union leaders. Neither side would win by all-out confrontation, and it would make a lot more sense for both sides to sit down and talk things out.
Inside Parliament, the biggest problem facing the new government was the Democrats in the Senate. Senator Kernot, the Democrat's leader, had stated that her party would oppose the one-third sale of Telstra in the Senate, thus joining with the Labor Party to block an important part of the Howard Government's election platform. The Coalition stated that the money obtained from the Telstra sale would be used to fund a range of new environmental policies that would not have the funding to go ahead any other way.
The other big surprise for the government was the state of the treasury finances. The Treasurer, Mr Costello, was quick to release figures that showed that the 1996-97 budget would end up with a deficit of around $8 billion. Mr Costello indicated that the government would commit itself to $8 billion in savings over two years to bring the Budget back into balance. He ruled out any new tax increases, and said that most savings would come through reductions in expenditure.
All in all, it was an interesting start to the new Howard Government, which created a busy and interesting first year in federal politics. Notwithstanding the Republic debate!
The first Howard Cabinet in 1996 consisted of 15 ministers, with the ex-NSW Premier, Mr John Fahey, getting the Finance Portfolio. The full Cabinet list was as follows:
Tim Fischer, Deputy Prime Minister, Trade; Peter Costello, Deputy Liberal Leader, Treasurer; John Anderson, Deputy National Leader, Primary Industries and Energy; Robert Hill, Senate Leader, Environment; Richard Alston, Deputy Senate Leader, Communications and Arts; Peter Reith, Leader of the House, Industrial Relations; Jocelyn Newman, Social Security, Minister Assisting the PM for Status of Women; Alexander Downer, Foreign Affairs; John Moore, Industry, Science and Tourism; Ian McLachlan, Defence; Michael Wooldridge, Health and Family Services; Amanda Vanstone, Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs; and John Sharp, Transport and Regional Development.
The outer Ministry, consisting of 13 additional ministers, was as follows:
Philip Ruddock, Immigration and Multicultural Affairs; Peter McGauran, Science and Technology, Deputy Leader of the House; David Kemp, Schools, Vocation Education and Training, Minister Assisting PM for Public Service; Jim Short, Assistant Treasure; Warwick Parer, Resources and Energy; Geoff Prosser, Small Business and Consumer Affairs; Judi Moylan, Family Services; Bronwyn Bishop, Defence Industry, Science and Personnel; Daryl Williams, Attorney-General and Justice; Warwick Smith, Sport, Territories and Local Government; Bruce Scott, Veterans' Affairs; John Herron, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs; and David Jull, Administrative Services.
\BDescription:\b \JJohn Howard\j \I(Member for Bennelong Office)\i
#
"2001: Towards a Republic?",36,h\3\770021.jpg,c,0
\JPaul Keating\j created a Republican Committee under lawyer Malcolm Turnbull, with a Secretariat based in Sydney, headed by Michael Ward, dedicated to creating a new constitution for the republic to be created in 2001, and persuading the people of Australia to vote for a republic. Many politicians from all political parties support the concept of an Australian Republic but constitutional changes are difficult to achieve.
\BDescription:\b The Republican Movement \I(Waltzing Matilda Enterprises)\i
#
!,!,!,!,!
12#
35,0
"Centenary of Federation",1,jonhow.jpg,c,0
The story of Australian federation became increasingly topical as Australia approached the Centenary of Federation and developed plans to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the European founding of the Australian nation - 1 January 2001.
In 1994, the Federal Labor Government of Prime Minister Paul Keating published \IAustralia 2000 - A Report to the People,\i which reported the findings of a nationwide survey on the centenary undertaken by a committee, led by former Victorian Labor Premier, Joan Kirner. The booklet also proposed a series of recommendations for celebrating the Centenary of Federation.
In 1996, the Federal Liberal/National Party Coalition Government of Prime Minister John Howard announced the creation of a Centenary of Federation Council to review and then carry out the proposals of \IAustralia 2000.\i
Chaired by entrepreneur and adventurer Dick Smith, the Council included historian Professor Geoffrey Blainey, social commentator Most Rev. Peter Hollingworth, former Aboriginal tennis champion Mrs Evonne Cawley, relief aid worker Ms Phoebe Fraser, Professor Trang Thomas and former pop star and community activist Gary æAngryÆ Anderson. The Council was also joined by representatives from each state and territory and the Australian Local Government Association. In the lead-up to the Centenary of Federation, the Council developed a national program of activities in consultation with planning bodies in the individual states and territories, reporting progress to the Council of Australian Governments.
Prime Minister John Howard said "the celebration of 100 years of nationhood is a key national event for all Australians. It is a unique opportunity to take stock of our record as a nation and refresh our sense of purpose for the next century. We should recognise the successes, including the resilience of our democratic institutions, the growth of stable and prosperous communities and the great achievements by Australians in all fields of endeavour."
\BDescription:\b Prime Minister John Howard
#
"From Central Government to Independent Colonies",2,"h\3\windsor.jpg","c","0"
From \J1788\j, Australia, or as it was known then, New South Wales, was all governed by the one administration. It was controlled by one central government. For when the British settled the land in \J1788\j, they claimed the eastern half of the island across to the 139 parallel of longitude all as one large colony. When they claimed the rest of the continent in the early nineteenth century, the whole country then came under one rule from Sydney - until it was considered too big to manage under one administration and it was divided into separate colonies. By the second half of the nineteenth century, all these states had their own colonial governments.
But ironically, even as this was happening, the move to rejoin under the one overall federal umbrella government was gathering momentum, and, by allowing the colonies to become independent in the first place, the job of federation was made that much more difficult.
\BDescription:\b The settlement on the Green Hills \J1809\j \I(Mitchell Library)\i
#
"Early Sub-Colonies",3,"f\8\r4714.jpg","c","0"
In \J1788\j, New South Wales was founded as the first colony on the Australian continent, and was governed from Britain through the governor of New South Wales representing the Crown, Governor Arthur Phillip.
In \J1803\j, a settlement was established in Tasmania, or Van Diemen's Land as it was known then, in the north by Lt. James Bowen at present-day \JLaunceston\j, and in \J1804\j in the south at present-day Hobart, by Lt. Col. David Collins. These colonies were sub-colonies of New South Wales, which was then governed by \JGovernor King\j.
In \J1824\j, Queensland was settled near present-day Brisbane at Moreton Bay by Lt. Murray, and it too was a sub-colony governed from New South Wales, then governed by Governor Brisbane. The Melville Island settlement established that year in the Northern Territory.
\BDescription:\b Parramatta \J1812\j \I(RAHS)\i
#
"The Later Colonies",4,"h\2\king0040.jpg","c","0"
Then in \J1829\j, Perth was founded by Lt. Governor Stirling on the Swan River, directly from England under the Peel River Settlement scheme, which was too far from Sydney to control directly.
In \J1835\j, Melbourne was founded by a free settler, \JJohn Batman\j, the first time this had happened. Nevertheless, as soon as the governor of New South Wales, Bourke, found out about it, this colony came under the control of New South Wales, as he sailed down and legitimised the new colony through authorising land sales.
In \J1836\j, Adelaide was founded directly from England through the Wakefield Settlement under \JGovernor Hindmarsh\j, but this time not under the direct control of New South Wales.
Thus the seeds of the problems for future federation were sown in the very pattern of settlement, because these colonies were either too far away from Sydney to control properly - like Western Australia - or some like Victoria had been settled without authority by free settlers. Still others like South Australia were settled under different schemes controlled from England with nothing to do with Sydney.
\BDescription:\b The founding of Western Australia \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1850: Colonies Start Going Their Separate Ways",5,"g\3\horse.jpg","c","0"
After years of pressure from the increasing number of free settlers working with the Emancipists, the British government eventually allowed enough self-government to the different colonies for them to set up their own constitutions.
In \J1850\j, the British parliament, inspired by the political visionary Secretary of State for Colonies Earl Grey, passed the Australian Colonies Government Act. This gave the different colonies permission to have their own elected governments and asked them to draw up their own constitutions, and also allowed some of them a little independence. Earl Grey thought this could be the first step towards federation, as this independence would give the colonies the confidence to meet as equals in the future.
Victoria was separated from New South Wales immediately. Queensland was given permission to break away when it submitted a petition requesting this. It was established as a separate state in 1859.
\BDescription:\b Rider on horse in Sydney \J1850\j \I(Mitchell Library)\i
#
"1851: Gold Inspired More Independence",6,"f\9\19smh.jpg","c","0"
The goldrushes, which started in \J1851\j when Edward Hargraves found gold near Bathurst, changed the face of Australian politics forever, because free settlers now poured into the colonies around the continent. Many of these new arrivals were sophisticated men and women of the world, who refused to be governed by a convict-style administration; they wanted a more democratic government, and they wanted the colonies they had chosen to live in to be free of Sydney and its New South Wales convict government.
\BDescription:\b The goldrush days \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
On 3 December, 1854 in Victoria, a group of international immigrants who had come to seek their fortune on the goldfields joined together to form a private army and built a stockade to defend their headquarters. They refused to pay exorbitant licence fees to an exploitative colonial government, and they wanted more representation in the government.
\JPeter Lalor\j led this band of Canadians, Italians, Americans, and Emancipists in a battle against the authorities, and although they lost the fight against the larger number of troopers who stormed the stockade, Lalor's men won their demand to reform the government. The Victorian Government became more democratic and other colonies were influenced by this in turn.
Lalor also introduced the idea of a new flag - the \JEureka\j Flag, made up of the stars of the Southern Cross, and this gave radicals a symbol for reform that remains to this day.
A select committee on Federation was formed in Sydney, to investigate the possibility of federating the colonies, which had just begun to achieve their own independence. The federation would recognise their new found self-government status.
In Victoria in \J1857\j, the political leader Gavan Duffy established a parliamentary committee to investigate federation from Victoria's point of view, and this committee reported favourably urging future federation. Now two colonies were in favour in principle - New South Wales and Victoria - the two most powerful colonies.
When the British government also approved a federation of colonies in Canada in \J1867\j, Australians were inspired to follow suit, as now there was a precedent; this Canadian model proved to be an inspiration for all the hard working committees struggling with the challenge of federating all the different colonies.
\BDescription:\b The committee for the drafting of the Constitution \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"From 1870: The Case Against Federation",9,"h\3\king0109.jpg","c","0"
Many political leaders opposed federation because they believed it would be too difficult to achieve for many reasons:
* the colonial governments would not want to give up their new found freedoms and powerful positions of leadership, which they had only just won after a long and hard fight;
* the smaller colonies were frightened the larger colonies like New South Wales would dominate them;
* the colonies were too geographically scattered and difficult to reach, let alone govern, from one central spot - the fastest way to get from Sydney to Melbourne was by ship, but that took one week;
* the new Labor movement was suspicious of federation, fearing that a conservative federal government's army might crush trade unions;
* different colonies wanted to protect their own trade, especially Victoria, which protected its industries with tariffs and duties payable at its border posts;
* the ten year drought, economic depression, and national trade union strikes crippled the economy in the \J1890\js, and undermined efforts to pull together towards one common cause;
* New South Wales did not lead the federal movement effectively and Sydney's lack of enthusiasm discouraged other colonies;
* Queensland wanted to keep importing Kanakas as slaves and did not want to give up this cheap labour source just to join the federation; and
ò concern over where the federal capital would be situated.
\BDescription:\b The case against Federation \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"From 1870: The Case For Federation",10,"h\3\king0108.jpg","c","0"
Some of the reasons for federation were:
* the threat of external aggression, especially following French colonial expansion into the Pacific, and German annexation of North East New Guinea, frightened some politicians into campaigning for a federal army;
* the development of the telegraph, railways, and faster shipping, improved communication between the colonies which suddenly seemed closer;
ò the desire to standardise railway gauges;
* in the \J1880\js, there was an upsurge in nationalism, with the creation of the first Australia-wide publication, the \IBulletin,\i which campaigned for federation; the Australian Natives' Association also began campaigning for federation;
* increased immigration to all the different colonies by Asian immigrants began to worry colonial parliaments who wanted a common federal policy to keep other races out of Australia; and
* colonial politicians also argued for a common national policy on defence, foreign policy, tariffs, water conservation, and river control.
So, the arguments for federation began to outweigh the arguments against - especially the need to protect Australia from outside aggression.
\BDescription:\b The case for Federation \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"From 1870: Federal Forces Gather Momentum",11,"h\3\1870syd.jpg","c","0"
During the second half of the nineteenth century, the forces for federation began to gather momentum. The \J1870\j Intercolonial Exhibition in Sydney brought the colonies closer together, as they saw what common interests they had. Then the last British troops left Australia, leaving the defence of the colonies to local militia which had to be formed in different colonies, creating a need for coordination.
Then in \J1879\j, the first intercolonial trade union congress in Sydney demonstrated that the Labor movement was working well together on a national basis. The \J1883\j completion of the rail link between Sydney and Melbourne also created feelings of national unity and the need to trade goods free of intercolonial duties.
The \J1888\j conference on immigration also demonstrated a need for common policies to stop unlimited numbers of Asians from pouring into Australia.
\BDescription:\b Intercolonial Exhibition, Alfred Park, Sydney, \J1870\j \I(Mitchell Library)\i
#
"1880: Bulletin Calls for Federation",12,"h\3\710010.jpg","c","0"
A developing national identity was strengthened when J.F. Archibald created the \IBulletin\i in \J1880\j; a weekly magazine that was national and which had a personality that was homegrown and Australian. It was anti-English and made Australians proud to be Australian. It featured writers like \JBanjo Paterson\j and \JHenry Lawson\j, who emphasised a new Australian personality with their poetry and stories. Paterson wrote \IClancy of the Overflow\i in \J1889\j and \IThe Man From Snowy River\i in \J1890\j, which gave Australians a sense of pride in who they were. Lawson wrote \ISong of the Republic\i in \J1888\j and \IWhile the Billy Boils\i in \J1881\j, giving Australians a pride in their bush character and motivation to break away from Britain.
\BDescription:\b \JBanjo Paterson\j was one of the writers to feature in the newly created \IBulletin\i magazine \I(Waltzing Matilda Enterprises)\i
#
"1881: Australia Counted As One",13,"h\3\7334.jpg","c","0"
When the first Australia-wide census was taken in \J1881\j, it made the authorities and the general public realise it made more sense to count the nation as a whole, rather than colony by colony. After all, the people spoke the same language of English, which the Aborigines used as well as their native tongue, and most of the migrants were white and of the same Caucasian race with a shared sense of identity and religion - be it Catholic or Church of England. The Irish and the English came from the same part of the world, and despite their differences, shared many things in common.
The union movement continued to unite elements in Australian society, with the Amalgamated Shearers' Union of Australia joining the National Maritime Union as a body that represented all workers in that industry in all colonies.
\BDescription:\b Woolloomooloo Bay \J1880\js \I(RAHS)\i
#
"Henry Parkes - The Father of Federation",14,"e\10\king0085.jpg","c","0"
In \J1880\j, the New South Wales political leader and premier from time to time, \JHenry Parkes\j, called for a Federal Council to deal with matters which might "be dealt with more effectively by some federal authority other than the colonies separately". He also called for the creation of a federal constitution.
In \J1883\j, the premiers met at an intercolonial conference and decided to create the Federal Council after a call from the Victorian Premier James Service.
In \J1885\j, an Imperial Act from the British Parliament set up this Council as a purely legislative body. It could draft new laws for the whole of Australia, but the different colonial parliaments had to agree on each proposed law. In \J1886\j, this Federal Council first met in Hobart, and each state except New South Wales sent a delegate - so the beginnings of a federal parliament had been achieved. New South Wales demanded a stronger Federal Council before it would join in, and although this Council lasted till \J1899\j, it never had the teeth the new federal parliament had from \J1901\j onwards.
The greatest incentive to federation was the fear of attack. Australian political leaders had been worried for some time about the French occupying New Hebrides, and the Germans occupying New Guinea, not to mention Russian ships cruising the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Then in \J1888\j, Australia's centennial year, Major-General Sir Bevan Edwards, a British Officer sent to examine Australia's forces, reported that the defences of Australian colonies were inadequate, and could not be put on a proper footing without a federation of the forces of the different colonies.
Suddenly, an outside defence expert was warning Australians to federate or else they could be attacked by the European powers now patrolling the region, or overrun by the very immigrants they were already frightened were taking over their young country.
Inspired by Major-General Edwards' report on the defence problems of the colonies, Sir \JHenry Parkes\j delivered a fiery speech at a meeting in the northern New South Wales town of Tenterfield on 24 October \J1889\j, in which he called for an urgent effort to be made by all colonies to create a federal structure for Australia before it was too late. He emphasised the danger to the colonies of not having one government. This fear of the enemy outside united all the colonies as never before.
It also increased the argument for a new stronger Federal Council in place of the weak body that New South Wales would not even join. Parkes suggested a prime minister should be created to have full control over Australia, with a cabinet supporting him.
"All great questions of magnitude affecting the welfare of the colonies" would be solved, Parkes said, if there was "a parliament of two houses - a House of Commons and a Senate". Because the movement then gathered momentum, Tenterfield is seen by many scholars as the birthplace of Federation.
But even as the movement towards federation gathered momentum, parochial colonial interests dug in their heels from both the economic self-interest point of view, and also from the working-class Labor point of view.
Those businesses enjoying profits from home-grown industries protected by trade barriers, tried to stop federation from happening, as it would damage their competitive advantage. At the same time, a strong anti-federation movement developed under the leadership of a radical group called Tocsin (the alarm bell). Tocsin argued that a federal structure would be anti-Labor, and that the conservatives in the future could create a situation where the proposed governor-general of a future federation could dismiss a Labor prime minister if he could not control both houses of parliament.
As it turned out, this did happen in \J1975\j when the Governor-General, Sir \JJohn Kerr\j, dismissed the Labor Government of \JGough Whitlam\j when Whitlam could not persuade the Upper House, the Senate, to pass his supply bill - which meant he lacked money to govern.
So Tocsin predicted the future in its opposition to federation.
\BDescription:\b A bird's eye view of Sydney in \J1888\j \I(Jonathan King)\i
At the same time, by the late \J1880\js and early \J1890\js, most of the obstacles holding up federation were being removed. The railway lines linked Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. The telegraph linked all states, and so it suddenly seemed possible to have the one central government that could control the whole of the vast nation.
\BDescription:\b Railroads linking NSW to Victoria \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
#
"1890: Federal Conference",19,"h\3\king0143.jpg","c","0"
The first Australasian Federal Conference met in Melbourne, at the suggestion of \JHenry Parkes\j, to discuss the ideas in his Tenterfield speech. All states attended and New Zealand even sent two representatives. The Conference agreed to call a Convention for the following years. All state representatives agreed to federate in principle.
Western Australia also achieved responsible government that year, paving the way for it to join the federation as an equal.
\BDescription:\b An early picture of \JHenry Parkes\j \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1890s: Age of Radical Change",20,"g\6\72028.jpg","c","0"
The time was now ripe for a radical change in Australian politics, as the mood of the nineties was for radical change.
The trade unions created the largest strikes on record - the \J1891\j and \J1894\j shearers' strikes which turned into battles between Labor and Capital, and the national maritime strikes that followed. Labor would never take orders from Capital again.
The unions had formed the first ever national Labor party - the world's first - and this new working-class force was set to change the course of Australian politics. Within years there would be Labor politicians in parliament and soon after, Labor governments in Queensland.
Capital collapsed overnight. The ten year drought ruined farmers and the landed class went into bankruptcy. A major depression then struck the capitalists in the cities. House prices and rents collapsed as industries ground to a halt and confidence vanished.
Nothing it seemed was sacred. Women had won the vote in South Australia, later in some other colonies. A women's movement developed, with women demanding more political rights - the stage was set for a change. Federation's time had come.
\BDescription:\b The \J1891\j shearers' strike \I(Waltzing Matilda Enterprises)\i
#
"1891: The First Federal Convention",21,"h\3\king0106.jpg","c","0"
In \J1891\j, the first Federal Convention met in Sydney to design the federal constitution. Chaired by Sir \JHenry Parkes\j, 46 delegates from all colonial parliaments and New Zealand began drafting the constitution in earnest.
The Queensland Premier Samuel Griffith led the meeting, providing the first draft of the constitution. The Griffith draft became the blueprint. Then the delegates took the draft back to their colonial parliaments for ratification or discussion.
Within months, Victoria and then South Australia ratified the draft and it looked as if real progress had been made, but then Parkes fell from power and he could not get New South Wales to support the draft. The political leader who forced Parkes out, Dibbs, opposed the draft, which meant the whole federal movement was put back.
\BDescription:\b First Federal Convention \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1893: Corowa Conference",22,"0","g","0"
To get the ball rolling again, the Australian Natives' Association organised a Federation Conference in the New South Wales/Victorian border town of Corowa, which demonstrated widespread support from the people. The meeting was supported by delegates from the federal leagues, Chambers of Commerce, Melbourne Chamber of Manufacturers' and Commercial Travellers' Associations. Local farmers supported federation as the border tariffs were undermining their incomes.
The meeting was dominated by legal expert Dr John Quick, who proposed two recommendations that were accepted, and helped the federal movement get going again:
* each colony had to pass an Enabling Act which would allow the people to elect delegates to meet at a convention to draft a constitution for Australia,
* when this constitution was drafted, people should be allowed to vote on it, and if it was accepted by three or more colonies, it should be sent to England for ratification.
#
"1893: New Leaders Help Parkes",23,"e\5\king0086.jpg","c","0"
Melbourne's political leader \JAlfred Deakin\j then developed an educational campaign to help the Australian Natives' Association to teach the people of Australia the value of federating.
Sydney's legal expert \JEdmund Barton\j stepped into the breach replacing Parkes, who was now too old to lead the federal movement, and began campaigning through the federal leagues around New South Wales to win this reluctant state over.
New South Wales premier \JGeorge Reid,\j a vocal political leader known for his vacillation, and nicknamed "Mr Yes No", then committed his government and political faction to federation, and called on all premiers around Australia to get a move on.
"1895: Premiers Meet to Support Federation",24,"e\10\king0173.jpg","c","0"
All the premiers met in Hobart and agreed on Dr John Quick's plans for another convention. They authorised Enabling Acts to go through colonial parliaments, authorising popular election of delegates and machinery to consider and pass the draft constitution by referendum.
New South Wales took the lead and passed the Enabling Act that year under \JGeorge Reid\j's control. The senior state had at last given the lead to the other colonies.
In \J1896\j, South Australia and Victoria followed suit, passing the Enabling Act. But the Queensland government refused to pass the Act for a number of reasons, including the fact that they wished to stay independent, especially now that Labor dominated their parliament. They also wanted to keep their Kanakas as cheap labour and knew they would have to give them up if they federated.
Western Australia also refused to pass the Enabling Act, because it did not want to elect delegates to the Federal Conventions but wanted to send members of the Legislative Council instead. Western Australia was afraid it was too far away to get adequate attention.
An unofficial people's convention was held in Bathurst, which added the people's support to federation. The public meeting also came up with plans for distributing the surplus Commonwealth revenue once the states gave up their collection of customs duties.
It was now obvious that the people of Australia were not only equipped to serve on federal conventions if elected, but they had ideas of their own and could take initiatives - especially the people in the country who seemed to have the interest of the wider nation most at heart.
#
"1897: Second Federal Convention",26,"h\3\king0149.jpg","c","0"
The second Federal Convention, which met in Adelaide in March \J1897\j, was a real turning point, as the draft constitution was rewritten into a blueprint for the nation's constitution.
The good news was reported by lawyer, journalist and political actor \JAlfred Deakin\j, who said "After an all night sitting and under conditions of great nervous exhaustion and irritability we have practically completed the draft bill for the Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth". This draft was then submitted to the governments of each colony for debate.
The governments of Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania accepted it immediately, but New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland did not. New South Wales would only sign if the federal capital was inside its borders, as otherwise it was frightened of losing power. Western Australia did not want to join a federal union composed mainly of eastern states.
\BDescription:\b Second Federal Convention \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1897-98: Third and Fourth Final Conventions",27,"h\3\king0107.jpg","c","0"
The third Federal Convention was held in Sydney in September \J1897\j, where the delegates refined the draft constitution and added their support to the document.
The fourth Federal Convention was then held in Melbourne in January \J1898\j, where the draft constitution was basically agreed on by most of the delegates, who completed the final draft of the Constitution.
All states were represented at these conventions except Queensland. Most of the delegates were lawyers. The dominant leaders of the conventions were \JEdmund Barton\j, \JAlfred Deakin\j, and Charles Kingston of South Australia, who between them shaped the Constitution more than any other delegates.
\BDescription:\b Third Federal Convention in Sydney \I(Jonathan King)\i
The people of all Australian states except Queensland and Western Australia were then asked in a referendum if they wanted to accept the Constitution their Conventions had designed. The people of Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania passed it with a large majority. Although the people of New South Wales passed it, their majority was too small for the statutory requirement so it would have to be resubmitted.
Premier Reid then called for another Premiers' Conference, so the Constitution could be amended to make it more acceptable to New South Wales - without whom a federation could not be formed - even though three states had already agreed (which Dr John Quick had recommended as the basis for sending the proposal to England for ratification).
\BDescription:\b Premier Reid \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1899: Premiers' Conference Reaches Final Agreement",29,"h\3\king0174.jpg","c","0"
The Premiers' Conference, which met in Melbourne in January \J1899\j, called by Reid, amended the Constitution further, adopting five concessions to suit New South Wales and one to encourage Queensland to join it.
The premiers agreed to locate the federal capital site in New South Wales, but no closer to Sydney than 160 kilometres. They also agreed that Melbourne should provide the Federal Parliament until another one was built. The premiers also agreed to changes on the financial arrangements of the new federation, making these fairer for all states.
\BDescription:\b Premier Reid \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1899: Second Federal Referendum",30,"e\7\king0161.jpg","c","0"
The second referendum on the Constitution was held from April to September, \J1899\j. This time it was passed by all states except Western Australia which did not participate. All states were overwhelmingly in favour of the new federation except for New South Wales, which remained ambivalent although more in favour than against.
Western Australia would not join the federation because it feared it would be financially discriminated against, and it was so far away that it was not relevant anyway, especially as the eastern states would dominate.
"1899: Off to Britain for Permission",31,"e\5\king0086.jpg","c","0"
Once the people of Australia had passed the Constitution Referendum, the leaders who had framed the document sailed to England to persuade the British Parliament to ratify the new federation - \JAlfred Deakin\j, \JEdmund Barton\j, and Charles Kingston led this important delegation.
The British Secretary for the Colonies, Joseph Chamberlain, tried to water the document down, but the Australian political leaders stood firm. The main concession the Australians made was to allow the British to have the final legal control through their powerful Privy Council in London, which Chamberlain said the Australian High Court would have to allow appeals to if necessary. Otherwise the document was accepted by Britain.
\BDescription:\b \JEdmund Barton\j sailed to England to persuade the British Parliament to ratify the new federation \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1900: Western Australia Joins at Last Minute",32,"h\3\king0004.jpg","c","0"
While the Constitutional delegation was in London, the people of Western Australia became disillusioned with their government not allowing them to take part as people in the federal process, let alone vote on it through referenda, so they organised a protest and forced their government to change its mind.
The protest was led by the gold diggers at Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie, who had come from all states of Australia and from all around the world. The Western Australian Government organised a referendum and the people voted overwhelmingly to join the federation. Of the gold diggers, 26,000 voted Yes, against 2,000 who voted No.
So, just in time, the Western Australian Government sent a telegram to the delegation in London asking to join in. The delegation had thoughtfully left a space, and so wrote in the name "Western Australia". All states of Australia joined up together.
\BDescription:\b The gold diggers voted in favour of Federation \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"1900: The Queen Approved",33,"g\5\r5520.jpg","c","0"
The British Parliament then passed the Constitution Bill, much to the pleasure of the waiting delegation of Australian lawyers who had spent so many years drafting this document.
Queen Victoria signed the Act to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia on 9 July, giving the Australian Federal Constitution royal assent. The official proclamation was made on 17 September \J1900\j. Now it was final and there was no going back. The Australians were lucky to get this famous signature as Queen Victoria died within the year.
The British Parliament appointed the Queen's Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Hopetoun, to be the first Governor-General and commissioned him to supervise the transfer of power from colonial governments to federal.
\BDescription:\b Queen Victoria \I(RAHS)\i
#
"1901: Proclamation of the Commonwealth of Australia",34,"h\3\28smh.jpg","c","0"
On 1 January \J1901\j at an official ceremony in Centennial Park, Sydney, the Governor-General read out the Proclamation for the Commonwealth of Australia, authorised by the new Federal Constitution. The Governor-General appointed \JEdmund Barton\j, who had worked long and hard on creating federation, to form the first government until the first election, which was to be held in March \J1901\j.
"1901: First Election Establishes Federal Government",35,"h\3\flags.jpg","c","0"
On 29 March \J1901\j, the first federal elections were held and \JEdmund Barton\j was elected Prime Minister, leading the largest political grouping - the Liberal Protectionists - who defeated Labor and the Free Traders.
And so the political world of federal politics was born. Even though the first parliament started operating in Melbourne on 9 May \J1901\j, and the political parties changed over the years, the scene is still the same as that today in \JCanberra\j, where the federal parliament moved to in \J1927\j as the capital for the Federal Government of Australia.
It had been a long hard fight, but the visionary founding-fathers had created a federal structure out of the different colonies, 120 years after the first prison ships had arrived at Sydney Cove.
\BDescription:\b September \J1901\j - Federal flag competition \I(Mitchell Library)\i
#
!,!,!,!,!
13#
13,0
"The Fight for Women in Politics",1,"h\3\rsmh47.jpg","c","0"
All women in nineteenth century Australia were excluded from political power because they were not allowed to vote or to stand for parliament. Until Federation, all states had separate legislation and women could only gain the vote at state level. Many women however joined together to form organisations to fight for the vote and other reforms in such areas as women's education and health. These organisations in different states were in contact with each other and with women's groups in the United States of America and Britain. Such organisations had become very active by the \J1870\js. Women thought that if they had the vote they would be better able to persuade governments to pass laws that would protect women and children. The Christian Women's Temperance Union, (formed in \J1886\j), for example, wanted the vote (they saw it as a "sword in moral reform"), to persuade politicians to ban alcohol (amongst other reforms.)
In South Australia Catherine Helen Spence, (\J1825\j-\J1910\j), an active feminist, writer and public speaker, as vice president of the South Australian Women's Suffrage League, worked with this group to gain the vote for all women in that state over twenty one. They succeeded in \J1894\j, the first women in Australia to receive the vote and the right to stand for parliament. Spence believed that this was only the beginning of the struggle for women's rights. In \J1895\j she helped found the Effective Voting League and helped organisations in other states to campaign for the vote and to form a National Council of Women.
\BDescription:\b The key used by the Duke of York to open the door of Federal Parliament \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i
#
"Women in Politics Before Federation",2,"e\7\king0102.jpg","c","0"
After a long struggle, Western Australian women gained the vote in \J1899\j but could not stand for parliament until \J1920\j. In \J1921\j \JEdith Cowan\j (\J1861\j-\J1932\j) was the first Australian woman to enter parliament in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly. New South Wales women gained voting rights in \J1902\j but could not stand in state elections until \J1918\j.
\JLouisa Lawson\j (\J1848\j-\J1920\j) was a radical Sydney-based feminist, social worker and newspaper proprietor. A member of the Women's Suffrage League, she ran an all woman press which printed two feminist journals, \IThe Women's Voice\i from \J1884\j until \J1888\j, which was followed by \IThe Dawn,\i from \J1889\j to \J1906\j. This latter journal arose from a women's rights group, The Dawn Club, she formed in \J1888\j. She worked hard for reforms in women's health, dress, education and living and working conditions. She always took an active woman-centred self-help approach, rather than a reliance on legislative reform. She was also a keen Republican.
\JRose Scott\j (\J1847\j-\J1925\j), formed the Sydney-based Womanhood Suffrage Society in \J1891\j, believing that women must use the vote to fight for their own interests and not be distracted by party politics. After the vote was achieved in \J1902\j, she formed the League for Political Education. She worked hard for reform in many organisations including the Women's Peace Movement and the social purity movement. She was concerned for women's education, health, prison conditions and the welfare of young girls. She was friends with Catherine Spence, Kate Dwyer (\J1861\j-\J1949\j), a Labor Party activist, who formed the Women's Progressive Association in \J1891\j and worked for industrial reform and better women's working conditions, her sister Annie Golding (a teacher and dedicated worker for women's rights especially in the field of education, equal pay and working conditions), \JVida Goldstein\j, \JLouisa Lawson\j and other prominent women activists of the times.
"Women in Politics After Federation",3,"e\8\lady.jpg","c","0"
After Federation, in \J1902,\j many women found that they could vote and be candidates in Federal elections but have no part in state elections. Tasmania granted female suffrage in \J1903,\j (right to stand for state parliament in \J1921)\j, and Queensland in \J1905\j (right to stand in \J1923)\j. Victorian women did not get the vote until \J1908\j and could not enter state parliament until \J1923.\j
By \J1899,\j \JVida Goldstein\j \J(1869\j-\J1949)\j, feminist, radical, pacifist, and public speaker, was the leader of the Victorian women's suffrage movement. Vida was determined to educate women in the political process. Although unable to vote in state elections, she was the first woman to stand for parliament (Senate) in the December, \J1903\j Federal election. She was supported by the Women's Federal Political Association, and although she stood in four more elections between \J1910\j and \J1917,\j (twice for the Senate and twice for the House of Representatives), she was defeated as an independent, always refusing to join the Labor Party. She did however, poll quite well each time. Vida conducted an alternative Women's Parliament in Victoria between \J1904\j-5, and was a dedicated pacifist, in \J1919\j representing Australian women at the Women's Peace Conference in Zurich.
\JMiles Franklin\j \J(1879\j-\J1954)\j, writer and feminist, worked with \JVida Goldstein\j in Victoria when she joined the women's suffrage movement in \J1902.\j In \J1906\j she emigrated to The United States of America where she worked and wrote for the National Women's Trade Union League and the suffrage movement.
"Women in Politics After Federation - (2)",4,"h\3\king0056.jpg","c","0"
During the First World War, the Women's Peace Army campaigned against conscription, and many women were politicised for the first time by the conscription campaigns. The vote of women was seen as important and was targeted. By the \J1920\js women's organisations flourished. In \J1922\j, Ruth Fairfax (\J1878\j-\J1948\j), founded the Country Women's Association in Brisbane to guard the interests of women and children in country areas. As the State President she helped form branches throughout Australia. In \J1931\j she was the secretary of the NSW branch and in \J1934\j was Vice President of Associated Country Women of the World. She was awarded the O.B.E. in \J1935\j.
The economic depression of the early \J1930\js left many women and children in extreme poverty. Women were often sacked from their jobs and had no way of supporting themselves. Muriel Heageney (\J1885\j-\J1974\j), feminist and trade unionist, devoted herself to organising help for destitute women and to achieve justice for women in the workforce. She campaigned against the idea common during the depression, that women took men's jobs, (producing in \J1934\j an influential pamphlet, \IAre Women Taking Men's Jobs?).\i In \J1937\j as Hon. Secretary of the Federated Clerks' Union, she helped form the Council of Action for Equal Pay. She worked for this cause until her old age.
Jessie Street (\J1889\j-\J1970\j), was active in the women's movement from \J1911\j. She co-founded the United Associations of Women in \J1928\j, an organisation that worked in many spheres to improve women's lives. She worked with Muriel Heageney on the Council for Action for Equal Pay. She also worked with the League of Nations and in \J1945\j accompanied Dr \JH.V. Evatt\j to the United Nations where she lobbied for a women's rights charter, and founded the United Nations Committee on the Status of Women. Jessie Street stood for two Federal elections as a candidate for the Women for \JCanberra\j Movement, but was not successful. No woman had entered Federal parliament until Dame \JEnid Lyons\j (\J1897\j-\J1981\j), wife of the former Australian Prime Minister \JJoseph Lyons\j, stood for parliament after his death in \J1939\j. She entered Federal Parliament as the Liberal member for a Tasmanian seat in \J1943\j, the first woman to be elected to the House of Representatives. This was over forty years after women had the federal vote.
\BDescription:\b The opening of Australia's first Federal Parliament \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"First Women Parliamentarians to 1950",5,"e\10\king0175.jpg","c","0"
In \J1943\j, the same year Dame \JEnid Lyons\j became the first woman elected to the House of Representatives, Dorothy Tangney (\J1911\j-\J1985\j) from Western Australia became the first woman senator and the first labor woman MP to succeed in her own right. She was also the first woman to lead a Senate team for one of the major parties.
Few women, however, up to \J1950\j managed to achieve winnable seats with party support. Apart from Dame Enid in the Federal House of Representatives and Senator Dorothy Tangney in the Federal Senate, there were only Doris Blackburn (\J1889\j-\J1970\j), independent Labor candidate in the House of Representatives and Senators Dame Annabelle Rankin (\J1908\j-\J1986\j), Queensland Liberal Party, Agnes Robertson (\J1882\j-\J1986\j), Western Australian Country Party and Dame Ivy Wedgwood (\J1903\j-\J1975\j), Victorian Liberal Party in the Federal Senate and a handful of women in state politics.
The reasons for so few women being successful in political life in this period are seen as a combination of factors such as the difficulties of reconciling the roles of wife, mother and house-keeper with public, political life, and fears by the parties that the electorate would not generally accept women candidates. Also, an important factor was the already mentioned time lag between women winning the vote and the right to contest seats.
Thus, many of the parliamentary women of this period were middle-aged with grown-up children, not performing paid work, but sitting on many committees in the women's auxiliaries to the political parties and in voluntary organisations.
\BDescription:\b Dame \JEnid Lyons\j with her husband \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"Women in Parliaments: The New Era",6,"0","g","0"
During the \J1950\js and \J1960\js, women began rejecting the idea that they had separate and limited roles in politics. When Kay Brownbill (\J1914\j?-) was elected to the House of Representatives in \J1966\j she stated that she didn't want to be labelled a "woman MP" with duties restricted to women's interests.
In \J1962\j there were fifteen women MPs in Australia. Most of these women have given up paid work on marriage, but nevertheless took up the cause of the increasing numbers of married women in the paid workforce.
During the \J1960\js more married women were entering the workforce and participating in higher education and during the \J1970\js the women's liberation movement arrived with a new ideology which challenged traditional family roles. In \J1972\j \JGermaine Greer\j (\J1939\j-) wrote her book \IThe Female Eunich\i which was most influential at this time. Following this, in \J1975\j, Anne Summers (\J1945\j-) wrote \IDamned Whores and God's Police,\i a significant Australian women's history book.
There were no women Cabinet ministers in \J1962\j, although Dame Annabelle Rankin was Government Whip in the Senate, a position which she had held since \J1951\j, when she became the first woman to hold such a position in any Westminster parliament, and in \J1968\j Dame Ivy Wedgewood became the first woman chairman of a Senate Committee.
#
"Women's Electoral Lobby (WEL)",7,"0","g","0"
WEL was founded in \J1972\j and consisted of a group of well-educated women who created a new agenda for public policy and gave members the confidence needed for entry into politics and public life. Many of the current generation of women MPs from all political parties belonged to WEL at one time or another.
In the \J1980\js a significant number of women MPs had young children and were of a younger age than those of the \J1960\js. This was due largely to the women's liberation movement of the \J1970\js, which saw the shift away from the idea that women with young children should stay at home.
Dame Margaret Guilfoyle (\J1926\j- ) became the first woman MP to hold a major non-nurturing portfolio when she was appointed federal Minister for Finance in \J1980\j, and Rosemary Follett (\J1948\j- ), as chief minister of the ACT, became the first woman to attend a Premiers' Conference in \J1989\j. She was joined in \J1990\j by Dr \JCarmen Lawrence\j (\J1948\j- ) as premier of Western Australia and Joan Kirner (\J1938\j- ) as premier of Victoria.
#
"Women and the Australian Labor Party",8,"0","g","0"
In January \J1981\j, the first National Labor Women's Conference was held and was successful in achieving the establishment of the National Status of Women Policy Committee and developed guidelines for implementation of the National Committee of Inquiry recommendations on affirmative action (action to increase the number of women in Parliament.) Senator Susan Ryan (\J1942\j- ) was appointed to the committee, as well as being a shadow minister, and she was to play a crucial role in initiating research into women's voting and redirecting the party towards campaigning effectively for women's votes.
By \J1983\j all state branches of the ALP had affirmative action written into their rules, except for Victoria and South Australia, where voluntary programs had been adopted.
In \J1981\j the affirmative action quota was 30%, to rise to 33% in \J1985\j and later to 35%. The sixth National Labor Women's Conference, held in \J1991\j, endorsed the "Half by 2000" motto, with the aim of achieving equal representation of women in parliamentary Labor parties by the year 2000. However, there is still stiff opposition towards affirmative action within the Labor party, so how effective these quotas will be remains to be seen. Only a few women, such as Susan Ryan, Ros Kelly (\J1948\j- ) and \JCarmen Lawrence\j have as yet managed to hold ministerial positions in the party.
#
"Women and the Liberal Party",9,"0","g","0"
In the Liberal Party, in the \J1980\js and early \J1990\js, the feeling has been that research shows that women think in terms of family and so policy has been aimed at the traditional family. However, many in the party don't agree with this and work towards affirmative action policies. Ian McPhee (a Liberal front-bencher at the time), for example, has protested that "individuals can be suffocated by family structures." \I(The Age\i 27 September, \J1985\j.)
#
"Women and the National Party",10,"0","g","0"
The shift towards family policy has brought the Liberal Party closer to its Coalition partner, the National Party. Anti-feminist groups such as Women Who Want To Be Women have close links with the National Party, having been founded in \J1979\j by Babette Francis who ran as a National Party candidate in the \J1984\j federal election. Other high profile National members such as Flo \JBjelke-Petersen\j (\J1920\j- ) and Yvonne Chapman (\J1940\j- ) also strongly argued the traditional roles of wives, mothers and families.
#
"Women and the Australian Democrats",11,"0","g","0"
In \J1986\j, when Don Chipp retired from politics, Janine Haines (\J1945\j- ) became the first female leader of an Australian political party when she became the leader of the Australian Democrats. By \J1988\j she was the most popular Australian political leader (64% approval rating among women voters) despite some bitter attacks on her leadership from some men within her party. In \J1990\j when she resigned from Parliament, the leadership was taken over by Senator Janet Powell (\J1942\j- ) and later by Senator \JCheryl Kernot\j (\J1948\j- ). At one stage the Australian Democrats had five women out of eight senators in its parliamentary party.
As the Australian Democrats are a smaller party where pre-selection battles have not been as much a problem for women as they are in the larger parties, the Democrats have remained more accessible to women candidates than the other three major political parties and have become a source of political influence for many women.
#
"Women and Trade Unions",12,"0","g","0"
Another political area in which women have found it hard to gain major positions is in the trade union movement. However, in \J1995\j, Jennie George, a former president of the NSW Teachers' Federation, became the first woman to be elected leader of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, a position once held by \JBob Hawke\j who later became Prime Minister.
#
"Bibliography - Women in Politics",13,"0","g","0"
Allen, Judith, "\JRose Scott\j's Vision: feminism and masculinity" in B. Caine, E.A. Grosz and M.De Lepervanche (eds) \ICrossing Boundaries: Feminism and the Critique of Knowledge,\i Sydney, \J1988\j.
Arnold, John and Morris, Deirdre, (eds) \IMonash Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth Century Australia,\i Reed Reference Pub., Australia, \J1994\j.
Atkinson, Ann, (ed), \IThe Dictionary of Famous Australians,\i Allen and Unwin, Sydney, \J1992\j.
Bennett, Raymond, \IAustralian Society and Government,\i M.M. & B. Book Company Pty Ltd, Sydney, \J1986\j.
Castles, Francis G., \IAustralia Compared: people, policies and politics,\i Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd Sydney, \J1991\j.
Clarke, Jocelyn & White, Kate, \IWomen in Australian Politics,\i Fontana Books, Sydney, \J1983\j.
Elder Bruce (ed), \IThe A to Z of Who is Who in Australia's History,\i Childs and Associates, Sydney, \J1987\j.
Larkins, John, \IDictionary of Australian History,\i Rigby Publishers Limited, Adelaide, \J1980\j.
Mackenzie, Norman, \IWomen in Australia,\i F.W. Cheshire, Sydney,\J1962\j.
Mackenzie, Norman; Norman, Encel; Tebbut, Margaret; \IWomen and Society: An Australian Study,\i Cheshire, Melbourne, \J1974\j.
