§ Mr. HENRY WALKERasked what are the issues which are being submitted to a referendum of the electors in the Commonwealth of Australia concurrently with the election of Members of the House of Representatives; and what are broadly the circumstances under which the issues are thus being submitted?
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§ Colonel SEELYThe issues submitted to a referendum of the electors of the Commonwealth of Australia (l) the Amendment of the Commonwealth Constitution so as to permit of the Commonwealth Parliament taking over from the States all their debts, or a proportion thereof, not merely the debts as they existed at the establishment of the Commonwealth; (2) the Amendment of the Constitution `so as to provide that the Commonwealth shall from 1st July, 1910, pay to each State in monthly instalments, or apply to the payment of interest on debts of the State taken over by the Commonwealth, an annual sum amounting to 25s. a head of the number of the people of the State, with a special payment of £250,000 to Western Australia, diminishing annually by £10,000. Half of the special payment was to be defrayed by the other States in proportion to their population, and the share payable by each State might be deducted from the sums payable to the State by the Commonwealth. Provision was also made for the appropriation of £600,000 by the Commonwealth Parliament for the year 1909–1910 in excess of the quarter of the net revenue from Customs and Excise which it is entitled to retain under the Constitution, and the provision of the Constitution, under which, for ten years, the Commonwealth cannot apply more than a quarter of the net revenue for its expenditure, was formally repealed.
The above Amendments were proposed in view of the near approach of the time when the restriction of the Commonwealth to a quarter of the Customs and Excise Revenue ceases to be binding. The Commonwealth will then be able to appropriate whatever part of that revenue it thinks fit annually to its own services, without reference to the requirements of the States. The settlement, which was the subject of the referendum, was the outcome of a conference between the Commonwealth Government and the State Governments in 1909, and it was intended to give the arrangement permanency by embodying it in the Constitution. At the same time it was proposed to enable the Commonwealth to take over all the State debts, not merely the debts existing at federation, and, in the event of the transfer taking place, the interest on the transferred debts would have been charged against the payments per capita due to the States.
§ Mr. HENRY WALKERalso asked with j reference to the Act, No. 16 of 1908, of the 2452W State of Queensland, providing for the submission of certain Bills to the electors, in the case of differences between the two Houses of Parliament, whether the Act was passed in consequence of such differences; if so, of what nature they had been; to what subjects they had applied; how long they had lasted; whether any and, if so, what steps were taken by the Second Chamber or Legislative Council to prevent the enactment of this law; and whether a referendum poll has yet been taken under the Act; and, if so, upon what Bill or Bills, and with what result?
§ Colonel SEELYAct No. 16, of 1908, of the State of Queensland was passed in consequence of differences which had arisen between the two Houses of the State Parliament. The specific matters which were in dispute were certain provisions in the Elections Acts Amendment Bill, and a Wages Boards Bill. The Upper House declined to accept the proposals of the Lower House for the abolition of the system of postal voting for women, and amended the Wages Boards Bill to exclude the farming and other agrarian industries from the scope of the Bill, and to make provision for a Court of Industrial Appeals against decisions of the Special Boards proposed to be set up under the Bill. The differences between the two Houses became acute in the Session of 1907, which was the first Session of a new Parliament. They led ultimately to the dissolution of that Parliament and the election of another at the beginning of 1908. No steps were taken by the Legislative Council, as such, to prevent the enactment of Act No. 16, though certain members of the Legislative Council opposed both the passing of the Act and the passing of a preliminary Act, No. 2, of 1908, which amended the Constitution so as to permit of the passing of Act No. 16 by a simple majority of the Upper House. In both cases the Acts were passed by a majority of the Legislative Council. No referendum poll has vet been taken under the Act.