Responsible government in the Dominions: Responsible government in the Dominions

Responsible government in the Dominions (Vol. 2)

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Multivolume work

Identifikator:: 1896933912

Document type:: Multivolume work

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Press

Year of publication:: 1912-

Collection:: Economics Books

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Volume

Identifikator:: 1896935052

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-238139

Document type:: Volume

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Volume count:: Vol. 2

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Pr.

Year of publication:: 1912

Scope:: XI Seiten, Seiten 570-1100

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part IV. The federations and the union // Chapter II. The commonwealth of Australia

Collection:: Economics Books

800 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV That appears to me the obvious meaning of s. 3 of the Act, which declares that on and after a day appointed by pro- clamation ‘ the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Common- wealth of Australia’, On that day Australia became one single entity, and no longer six separate states in the family of nations under the British Crown, and the external responsibility of Australia, except in regard to matters in respect to which a later date was fixed by the constitution, vested immediately in the Commonwealth, which was armed with the paramount power necessary to discharge it. The consequence is, that in respect of all matters declared by the Constitution Act to be matters of federal concern, the immediate responsibility to His Majesty’s Government rests upon the Federal Government. Whether the Federal Government and Parliament make special federal provision for the discharge of any part of that responsibility, or are content to leave it for the time to the state machinery already in existence, is entirely a matter of internal arrangement, and does not warrant His Majesty’s Government in ignoring the fact that in the creation of the Commonwealth Parliament has, in compliance with the will of the people of Australia, devolved the responsibility upon the federal authority. The sphere within which His Majesty’s Government should communicate with the Federal Government is co- extensive with the responsibility and power of the Common- wealth. There does not appear to be anything in the constitution which would justify them in limiting it, as contended by your ministers, to matters connected with departments actually transferred, or matters upon which the Commonwealth Parliament has power to make laws, and has made laws. Nor can I accept the view that in all matters not connected with departments transferred to the Commonwealth, or upon which the Commonwealth Parlia- ment has not legislated, the relations which existed between the States and the Imperial Government before federation have been preserved by the constitution. The powers of the states have, it is true, been preserved, but the immediate responsibility to His Majesty’s Govern- ment for their exercise in federal matters has been transferred to the Commonwealth.

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