A D. 1900. Commissioners' appointment, tenure, and remuneration Saving of certain rates. Taking over public debts of States. CHAP. V. THE STATES. Saving of Saving of Power of State Parliaments. Saving of State laws. Inconsistency of laws. Provisions referring to Governor. States may surrender territory. States may levy charges for inspection laws. unjust to any State; due regard being had to the financial responsibilities incurred by any State in connexion with the construction and maintenance of its railways. But no preference or discrimination shall, within the meaning of this section, be taken to be undue and unreasonable, or unjust to any State, unless so adjudged by the Inter-State Commission. 103. The members of the Inter-State Commission (i.) Shall be appointed by the Governor General in Council : (ii.) Shall hold office for seven years, but may be removed within that time by the Governor-General in Council, on an address from both Houses of the Parliament in the same session praying for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity: (iii.) Shall receive such remuneration as the Parliament may fix; but such remuneration shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. 104. Nothing in this Constitution shall render unlawful any rate for the carriage of goods upon a railway, the property of a State, if the rate is deemed by the Inter State Commission to be necessary for the development of the territory of the State, and if the rate applies equally to goods within the State and to goods passing into the State from other States. 105. The Parliament may take over from the States their public debts as existing at the establishment of the Commonwealth, or a proportion thereof according to the respective numbers of their people as shown by the latest statistics of the Commonwealth, and may convert, renew, or consolidate such debts, or any part thereof; and the States shall indemnify the Commonwealth in respect of the debts taken over, and thereafter the interest payable in respect of the debts shall be deducted and retained from the portions of the surplus revenue of the Commonwealth payable to the several States, or if such surplus is insufficient, or if there is no surplus, then the deficiency or the whole amount shall be paid by the several States. CHAPTER V. 106. The Constitution of each State of the Commonwealth shall, subject to this Constitution, continue as at the establishment of the Commonwealth, or as at the admission or establishment of the State, as the case may be, until altered in accordance with the Constitution of the State. 107. Every power of the Parliament of a Colony which has become or becomes a State, shall, unless it is by this Constitution exclusively vested in the Parliament of the Commonwealth or withdrawn from the Parliament of the State, continue as at the establishment of the Commonwealth, or as at the admission or establishment of the State, as the case may be. 108. Every law in force in a Colony which has become or becomes a State, and relating to any matter within the powers of the Parliament of the Commonwealth, shall, subject to this Constitution, continue in force in the State; and, until provision is made in that behalf by the Parliament of the Commonwealth, the Parliament of the State shall have such powers of alteration and of repeal in respect of any such law as the Parliament of the Colony had until the Colony became a State. 109. When a law of a State is inconsistent with a law of the Commonwealth, the latter shall prevail, and the former shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be invalid. 110. The provisions of this Constitution relating to the Governor of a State extend and apply to the Governor for the time being of the State, or other chief executive officer or administrator of the government of the State. 111. The Parliament of a State may surrender any part of the State to the Commonwealth ; and upon such surrender, and the acceptance thereof by the Commonwealth, such part of the State shall become subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Commonwealth. 112. After uniform duties of customs have been imposed, a State may levy on imports or exports, or on goods passing into or out of the State, such charges as may be necessary for executing the inspection laws of the State; but the net produce of all charges so levied shall be for the use of the Commonwealth; and any such inspection laws may be annulled by the Parliament of the Commonwealth. A.D. 1900. 113. All fermented, distilled, or other intoxicating liquids passing into any State or Intoxicating remaining therein for use, consumption, sale, or storage, shall be subject to the laws of liquids. the State as if such liquids had been produced in the State. raise forces. Taxation of 114. A State shall not, without the consent of the Parliament of the Commonwealth, States may not raise or maintain any naval or military force, or impose any tax on property of any kind belonging to the Commonwealth, nor shall the Commonwealth impose any tax on property of any kind belonging to a State. property of Commonwealth or State. 115. A State shall not coin money, nor make anything but gold and silver coin a States not to legal tender in payment of debts. coin money. 116. The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or Commonwealth for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, not to legislate in respect of and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth. religion. 117. A subject of the Queen, resident in any State, shall not be subject in any other Rights of State to any disability or discrimination which would not be equally applicable to him residents in if he were a subject of the Queen resident in such other State. States. 118. Full faith and credit shall be given, throughout the Commonwealth, to the Recognition of laws, the public Acts and records, and the judicial proceedings of every State. laws, &c. of States. 119. The Commonwealth shall protect every State against invasion and, on the Protection of application of the Executive Government of the State, against domestic violence. States from invasion and violence. 120. Every State shall make provision for the detention in its prisons of persons Custody of accused or convicted of offences against the laws of the Commonwealth, and for the offenders against punishment of persons convicted of such offences, and the Parliament of the Common- laws of the wealth may make laws to give effect to this provision. CHAPTER VI. Commonwealth. CHAP. VI. NEW STATES. 121. The Parliament may admit to the Commonwealth or establish new States, and New States may may upon such admission or establishment make or impose such terms and conditions, be admitted or including the extent of representation in either House of the Parliament, as it thinks fit. established. 122. The Parliament may make laws for the government of any territory surrendered Government of by any State to and accepted by the Commonwealth, or of any territory placed by the territories. Queen under the authority of and accepted by the Commonwealth, or otherwise acquired by the Commonwealth, and may allow the representation of such territory in either House of the Parliament to the extent and on the terms which it thinks fit. 123. The Parliament of the Commonwealth may, with the consent of the Parliament Alteration of of a State, and the approval of the majority of the electors of the State voting upon the limits of States. question, increase, diminish, or otherwise alter the limits of the State, upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed on, and may, with the like consent, make provision respecting the effect and operation of any increase or diminution or alteration of territory in relation to any State affected. 124. A new State may be formed by separation of territory from a State, but only Formation of with the consent of the Parliament thereof, and a new State may be formed by the new States. union of two or more States or parts of States, but only with the consent of the Parliaments of the States affected. CHAPTER VII. CHAP. VII. MISCELLANEOUS 125. The seat of Government of the Commonwealth shall be determined by the Seat of GovernParliament, and shall be within territory which shall have been granted to or acquired ment. by the Commonwealth, and shall be vested in and belong to the Commonwealth, and shall be in the State of New South Wales, and be distant not less than one hundred miles from Sydney. Such territory shall contain an area of not less than one hundred square miles, and such portion thereof as shall consist of Crown lands shall be granted to the Commonwealth without any payment therefor. The Parliament shall sit at Melbourne until it meet at the seat of Government. 126. The Queen may authorise the Governor-General to appoint any person, or any persons jointly or severally, to be his deputy or deputies within any part of the Commonwealth, and in that capacity to exercise during the pleasure of the GovernorGeneral such powers and functions of the Governor-General as he thinks fit to assign to such deputy or deputies, subject to any limitations expressed or directions given by the Queen; but the appointment of such deputy or deputies shall not affect the exercise by the Governor-General himself of any power or function. 127. In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted. CHAPTER VIII. Alteration of the Constitution. 128. This Constitution shall not be altered except in the following manner :The proposed law for the alteration thereof must be passed by an absolute majority of each House of the Parliament, and not less than two nor more than six months after its passage through both Houses the proposed law shall be submitted in each State to the electors qualified to vote for the election of members of the House of Representatives. But if either House passes any such proposed law by an absolute majority, and the other House rejects or fails to pass it or passes it with any amendment to which the first-mentioned House will not agree, and if after an interval of three months the firstmentioned House in the same or the next session again passes the proposed law by an absolute majority with or without any amendment which has been made or agreed to by the other House, and such other House rejects or fails to pass it or passes it with any amendment to which the first-mentioned House will not agree, the GovernorGeneral may submit the proposed law as last proposed by the first-mentioned House, and either with or without any amendments subsequently agreed to by both Houses, to the electors in each State qualified to vote for the election of the House of Representa tives. When a proposed law is submitted to the electors the vote shall be taken in such manner as the Parliament prescribes. But until the qualification of electors of members of the House of Representatives becomes uniform throughout the Commonwealth, only one half the electors voting for and against the proposed law shall be counted in any State in which adult suffrage prevails. And if in a majority of the States a majority of the electors voting approve the proposed law, and if a majority of all the electors voting also approve the proposed law, it shall be presented to the Governor-General for the Queen's assent. No alteration diminishing the proportionate representation of any State in either House of the Parliament, or the minimum number of representatives of a State in the House of Representatives, or increasing, diminishing, or otherwise altering the limits of the State, or in any manner affecting the provisions of the Constitution in relation thereto, shall become law unless the majority of the electors voting in that State approve the proposed law. SCHEDULE. OATH. I, A. B., do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Her heirs and successors according to law. So HELP ME GOD! AFFIRMATION. I, A. B., do solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Her heirs and successors according to law. (NOTE.-The name of the King or Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for the time being to be substituted from time to time.) NOTE. In these Commentaries, the text of each clause of the Act and each section of the Constitution is printed in large type. After the several clauses and sections are printed in small type the corresponding provisions of other Federal Constitutions. Then follows a Historical Note on each clause and section; after which come the notes, which are numbered consecutively (with the sign §) throughout the Act and Constitution. In the large-type text each word or phrase annotated is followed by an index number referring to the corresponding note. At the top inner corner of each left-hand page there is a reference to the clause or section under discussion; and at the top inner corner of each righthand page is a reference to the number of the note. |