Samuel Griffith - Support For Federation

Support For Federation

Griffith was always a supporter of the Federation of Australia. At the intercolonial conference held at Sydney in November 1883 James Service, the Victorian premier, thought that Australia was ready for a real federal government, but Griffith, who was not prepared to go so far, moved and carried a resolution providing that a federal council should be formed to deal with the defence of Australasia, matters relating to the islands and Australia, quarantine, the prevention of the influx of criminals, and other matters of common interest to the various colonies.

In 1887 Griffith was one of the Queensland representatives at the colonial conference held in London, where he initiated the debate on the question of preferential trade and proved himself to be one of the outstanding men at the conference. He headed the Queensland delegation to the 1891 Sydney Constitutional Convention (where he was appointed vice-president), and his fine legal mind brought him a leading role in its deliberations. "It fell to my lot to draw the Constitution," he wrote, "after presiding for several days on a Committee, and endeavouring to ascertain the general consensus of opinion."

This first draft enshrined the basic principles of what eventually emerged as Australia's constitution: a federal system with specified powers ceded by the colonies to a national government, a bicameral legislature with an upper house in which all the colonies would have equal representation, and a federal judiciary.