Author: Nicholas Aroney

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

Republican change in Australia necessarily involves issues of constitutional alteration. Accordingly, the prospects of Australian republicanism turn on the availability of means of constitutional alteration necessary in order to achieve such a change. There is, however, argument over two things: what kind of republic, and what mechanisms are available to achieve the changes necessary to implement the kind of republic preferred. Most of the debate over a republic concerns substantive changes to the main body of the Constitution in order to remove the Queen from the Australian system of government. However, republicanism in Australia is also a highly symbolic thing, and there are republicans who would like to see the references to the British Parliament and the Queen contained in the Preamble and Covering Clauses of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 also removed. This latter idea raises, however, questions about the location of power to alter the Preamble and Covering Clauses. Since the British Parliament abdicated power to legislate for Australia there is no explicit provision which unambiguously includes the power to alter the Preamble and Covering Clauses. This article considers the three possible sources of the power to amend the Preamble and Covering Clauses and, noting that none of them is without its limitations and doubts, argues that the safest and most legitimate approach is to adopt a process which involves a direct referendum (following s 128 of the Constitution) in which a majority of the people in each of the Australian States affirm the proposed change (following 51(xxxviii) of the Constitution and s 15 of the Australia Acts 1986). Such an approach takes into consideration not only the formal mechanisms laid down in the Constitution and Australia Acts, but also gives due weight to the unanimous agreement of the people of the Australian States as the formative basis of the Constitution.