AUSTRALIAN STATES CONSTITUTION BILL [H.L.] (Hansard, 26 February 1907)

§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (The Earl of ELGIN)

My Lords, this Bill is intended to deal with a great complication of legal difficulties, but I think I shall be able to make a short statement to your Lordships which will suffice to induce you to give it a Second Reading. The first Act which I have to mention is the Australian Constitution Act of 1842, which established a Legislative Council for New South Wales, and in that Act there were provisions with regard to the reservation of certain classes of Bills. Bills of three classes were to be reserved—first, those that altered and affected the electoral areas; secondly, those that altered the number of members; and, thirdly, those that altered the salary of the Governor.

In 1850 another Australian Constitution Act was passed which provided for Legislative Councils in four other Colonies—in Victoria, in Van Dieman's Land as it was then called, in South Australia, 1395 and in Western Australia. This Act adopted the provisions in regard to reservation which I have already given, and it also provided that other Bills should be reserved which concerned the election or qualification of Members, and also those which were for the establishment of Legislative Houses in place of the Legislative Councils provided for in the Bill. All the five Colonies that I have named have passed local Constitution Acts. In three cases—in the case of New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia—those Acts were confirmed by Imperial Acts, but in Tasmania and South Australia they were not confirmed. The sixth Australian State—Queensland—was dealt with in an Order in Council in 1859, but since then a local Act has been passed which, however, has not been confirmed by an Imperial Act.

Your Lordships will observe that there are great opportunities of differences of opinion arising out of this complication of legislation, and as a matter of fact questions have continually recurred raising the point of the application of these original provisions for reservation to Bills which have been subsequently passed by the present Legislature, and the difference has been marked between the Imperial Law Officers and the Colonial Law Officers, the Imperial Law Officers holding that this provision still applied and the Colonial Law Officers holding that Bills of a purely electoral character were free from this reservation.

The Bill which I ask your Lordships to read a second time to-day meets the Colonial view. It proposes to free from reservation, in the second sub-section of Clause 1, all purely Electoral Bills; but it maintains, in the first sub-section of that clause, the reservation of Bills which either alter the Constitution or affect the salary of the Governor. This subject, my Lords, has been discussed very elaborately indeed for four or five years. It has been referred to the Law Officers both of the late Government and of the present Government. It has also been examined by the Law Officers of all the six Australian Colonies, and it is satisfactory to me that I have to submit to your Lordships a Bill which has the assent of all the parties concerned.

1396 The last opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown in this country is that they concur in the Bill as it now stands. With regard to the feeling in Australia, I should like to read a telegram which I have received from the Governor of New South Wales, dated January 31st. He says— Referring to my telegram of 12th December, I am desired by Ministers to ask that, as the draft amended Bill endorsed in despatch has been accepted by Governments of States concerned, you will take steps for passing measure into law at early date. I do not think that I need say more to recommend the measure to your Lordships, and I ask that the Bill may be given a Second Reading and expedited in its progress.