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

amar. 1] THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 801 The constitution has furnished the Commonwealth with paramount power in regard to such matters, power wider in its scope than that vested in any individual state, and with corresponding responsibility ; the sphere of action possessed by the Commonwealth Executive extends over the whole area of that power and responsibility, and if the legislative or other machinery provided by the Commonwealth Parlia- ment, or by the States Legislatures, for the discharge of that responsibility is inadequate or defective, it is their duty to see that a remedy is provided, either by inviting the State Governments and Legislatures to do so, or by federal action. The constitution has, in fact, placed the Commonwealth as an intermediary between the Imperial Government and the states in regard to the matters assigned to it, and if His Majesty’s Government were to correspond direct with the states in regard to such matters, it would be tantamount to ignoring the obvious intention of the Act to fix the final responsibility for them on the Commonwealth. Unless the Federal Government is made the channel of communication for all federal matters, it will obviously be impossible for it to judge whether the existing arrangements are suitable and sufficient, or whether any special provision is required for dealing with them. The further argument that ‘from the practical side of affairs the channel of communication with the Imperial Government must be one in which some power relative to the subject of communication actually flows, especially where the subject may require action for the protection of [Imperial interests ’, appears to me to be based on the assump- tion that the power of the Commonwealth and its responsi- bilities are limited by the actual powers conferred for the time being on the Commonwealth Executive. The illustration cited by your ministers in the third paragraph of their Memorandum shows, however, that they are aware that in a state of a federal or quasi-federal nature, like the British Empire, the responsibilities of the Executive are not bounded by the powers with which it is for the time being armed. It is the Imperial Government that is imme- diately and ultimately responsible to a foreign power if a state officer in Australia, a Dominion or provincial officer in Canada, or an officer in any self-governing Colony violates, or acts in contravention of an Imperial obligation. But in the grant of self-government to the Colonies, the power to call upon such an officer for explanation of his conduct or to punish him has been placed by Parliament in the hands of 1979°2

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