In Federal Politics
While he was working on A Story of a Hundred Years, Colebatch was asked by prime minister Stanley Bruce to sit on a royal commission into the Constitution of Australia. The commission travelled throughout Australia and held 198 sittings but its conclusions were of little or no consequence.
In 1928, Colebatch was elected as a federal senator. He took his seat on 1 July 1929, holding it until 20 March 1933, when he was again offered the position of agent-general for Western Australia in London. Colebatch's time as a senator was a frustrating period for him, as his advocacy of free trade as a means of international co-operation and peace was extremely unpopular at the time. His most important contribution was the establishment of the Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances, whose purpose is to vet government regulations made by executive action without reference to parliament, to ensure that they do not adversely affect the rights of citizens. Later, he became heavily involved in the Western Australian secession campaign and, after becoming agent-general for the second time, he was asked to lead a delegation which unsuccessfully petitioned the British parliament for secession.
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