1000 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART Iv
Act can indeed be altered by the Federal Parliament, but
only with the assent of the people of the Commonwealth,
and the provisions require that any proposed law for the
alteration of the Commonwealth must be passed by an
absolute majority of each House of Parliament and must be
submitted in each state to the electors not less than two nor
more than six months after its passage through both Houses.
If in a majority of states a majority of electors voting
approved the proposed law, and if a majority of all the
electors voting also approved the proposed law, it would then
be presented to the Governor-General for the royal assent.
Some laws, however, require still further approval than this.
No alteration diminishing the proportionate representation
of any state in either House of Parliament, or the minimum
number of representatives of a state in the House of Repre-
sentatives, nor any clause diminishing or altering the limits
of a state, or in any manner affecting the provisions of the
Constitution in relation to the state, shall be allowed, unless
the majority of the electors in the state voting under the
Act approve the proposed law.
In the case of a deadlock between the two Houses on
a proposed constitutional alteration, if the House! which
has passed the Bill passes it again after an interval of three
months in the same or the next session, and the other House
again rejects it, the Governor-General may submit the law
to the voters in the states, when the procedure is the same as
if the law had been passed bv both Houses with the requisite
majority.
The ordinary procedure has already been adopted in one
case in 1907,2 when by an Act other provision was made for
the date of election of senators ; on that occasion the requi-
site majorities were obtained in every state without difficulty.
But to carry any substantial alteration in this elaborate
procedure would probably be a matter of considerable
That either House can force a referendum with the Government's
consent is noteworthy. Deadlock provisions in ordinary legislation give
the power only to the Lower House.
* Commonwealth Act No. 1 of 1907.
