Federal Features in The Australian Constitution
Whilst the presidential system of government and a comprehensive Bill of Rights in Australia were rejected, some of the federal features of the American system were used. These features include a high degree of autonomy for the government institutions of the federation and the states, a division of power between these organisations, and a judicial authority to determine whether either level of government had exceeded its powers.
Australia successfully adapted the American concept of state and federal governments possessing separate sovereignty within the framework of a constitutional monarchy by establishing the position of state governor to be appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the relevant state premier, the Commonwealth Government playing no role in these appointments. This gives each state a direct link with the Crown that completely bypasses Canberra, and can be contrasted with the Canadian system where provincial lieutenant-governors, appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the federal Prime Minister, were once seen as representatives of the Canadian federal government and not the Sovereign directly.
Other aspects of the Constitution of Australia are associated with the federal principle. Original states have equal representation in the senate. Although this is not an essential element of federation, it reflects the view that states (colonies) should be equal in status.
Read more about this topic: Federalism In Australia
Famous quotes containing the words federal, features, australian and/or constitution:
“Goodbye, boys; I’m under arrest. I may have to go to jail. I may not see you for a long time. Keep up the fight! Don’t surrender! Pay no attention to the injunction machine at Parkersburg. The Federal judge is a scab anyhow. While you starve he plays golf. While you serve humanity, he serves injunctions for the money powers.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)
“It is a tribute to the peculiar horror of contemporary life that it makes the worst features of earlier times—the stupefaction of the masses, the obsessed and driven lives of the bourgeoisie—seem attractive by comparison.”
—Christopher Lasch (b. 1932)
“The Australian mind, I can state with authority, is easily boggled.”
—Charles Osborne (b. 1927)
“I never did ask more, nor ever was willing to accept less, than for all the States, and the people thereof, to take and hold their places, and their rights, in the Union, under the Constitution of the United States. For this alone have I felt authorized to struggle; and I seek neither more nor less now.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)