It is equally conventional to observe that there are notable differences
between‘Westminster in Australia’and‘Westminster at Westminster’.Of
these, the most prominent is the federal structure of Australian government
and its parliamentary manifestation, the Senate, the elected second chamber
of the Commonwealth parliament; whereas, at least until recently, the UK
was viewed as a unitary state, and its Upper House, the House of Lords, a
mainly appointed body.
It is the purpose of this chapter to explore this conventional wisdom more
broadly and precisely. It is based on a view that Australia is basically in the
Westminster mould, but not markedly British.
There is one important preliminary observation. That there are significant
differences in Westminster practice between the various jurisdictions is not
surprising; indeed, it would be surprising if it were otherwise. The UK polity
has evolved over more than a millennium and has a history which pre-dates
even the Norman Conquest. Canada, on the other hand, derives from French
and British settlements in North America dating from the sixteenth century; it
secured self-government in the middle decades of the nineteenth century, in
thefirst phase of such developments in the post-American British Empire. All
Australian colonies except Western Australia achieved self-government at that
time; the Australian Federation itself represents a later, indirect phase of
imperial development. Australia, of all the British settlements of this era, was
the most affected by convictism.
14.1 The Development and Alteration of Constitutions
The Constitution is the appropriate starting point for any examination of
Australian government. It was drafted in Australia at conventions initially
elected by several but not all of the colonial legislatures but, in later stages,
by the voters themselves. The text adopted at the second convention was later
approved at referendum by the colonies and taken to London where,
after some changes, it was embodied, as section 9, in the Commonwealth
of Australia Constitution Act 1900 of the UK parliament (63 & 64 Victoria,
ch. 12).
One especially significant provision was the last, section 128,‘Mode of
altering the Constitution’. It set out a wholly Australia-based procedure for
amending the Constitution, embracing two stages, a parliamentary stage
followed by submission to the voters. Initiative in the procedure was vested
in the parliament of the new Commonwealth and included the possibility
that one House alone could activate the procedure (this has occurred only
once, in 1974). For the change to proceed, it requires support of the majority
of those voting nationwide and majorities in a majority of the states.
Australia’s Distinctive Governance