An original copy of the Act, returned to Australia in 1988, is displayed at the National Archives of Australia. A copy of the Act and the pen, inkstand and table used are presented to the delegates. However, Queen Victoria is uneasy with the term Commonwealth, mindful of its association with Oliver Cromwell’s republican government established after the English Civil Wars in the 17th century and the execution of her ancestor King Charles I in 1649. The choice of the name ‘Commonwealth of Australia’ isinfluenced by James Bryce’s The American Commonwealth, the ‘bible’ of the founding fathers. The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 is passed by the British Parliament on 5 July and Queen Victoria gives her Royal Assent to the Act on 9 July, proclaiming that the Commonwealth of Australia comprising all six colonies will come into existence on 1 January 1901. On 25 June Edmund Barton communicates to Sir William Lyne that Commonwealth of Australia bill read thrice House of Commons. However, the Commonwealth Franchise Act effectively excludes Indigenous Australian women (and men) until 1962, when the Menzies Liberal-Country Party coalition government grants the right to vote in national elections to all Aboriginal people. In 1902, after Federation of the colonies, women over the age of 21 years win the right to vote in Australia’s national elections, some 16 years before British women. Other Australian colonies follow suit - Western Australia in 1899, New South Wales in 1902, Tasmania in 1903, Queensland in 1905, and Victoria in 1908. Queen Victoria subsequently signs her Assent on 2 February 1895.
The Constitution (Female Suffrage) Act 1895 (SA) is passed by the South Australian parliament in 1894 but the Attorney-General advises Governor Kintore on 21 December 1894 that Royal Assent is required to enact the Bill. South Australian women also win the right to stand for election to parliament, a world first. South Australia becomes the first colony in Australia, and one of the first places in the world, to grant women the right to vote. The Australian Constitution is subsequently contained in the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Bill, which is endorsed by the voters of each Australian colony at referendums in 1898, 18, passed by the British Parliament and given Royal Assent on 9 July 1900. When the Australasian Federal Convention meets in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne in 1897 and early 1898, the delegates modify the draft produced in 1891. They are concerned with finding a draft constitution that they can take back to their legislatures for discussion and endorsement. The National Australasian Convention of 1891 meets in Sydney from 2 March to 9 April, but does not debate whether the colonies should federate but how. At the Australasian Federation Conference held in Melbourne from 6 to 14 February 1890, leading politicians from the six Australian colonies and New Zealand agree on the concept of ‘an early union under the crown’ and commit themselves to persuading their governments to send delegates to a convention that would ‘consider and report’ on a scheme for a federal constitution.
0 kommentar(er)
