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Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 1900
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General SummaryThis is the blueprint of the Commonwealth, setting out how the new federation would be established and the guidelines for the way Australians would shape their nation. The Constitution is also the blueprint for the lives of Australians, providing the authority for the powers by which our legislators make laws, our executive government implements them, and our courts operate.
The Act begins with nine clauses of the British Act; and the remainder is the 128 Sections of the original Australian Constitution. These Sections are divided into eight chapters – their headings show what is needed to create a new constitutional democracy as a federation, with a monarch as Head of State. The Constitution establishes three "arms" of government: the Parliament (Chapter I), the Executive (Chapter II), and the Judiciary (Chapter III). It covers financial and trade matters (Chapter IV); the federal relationship between the States and the Commonwealth including the formation of new States (Chapters V and VI); the arrangements for a Seat of Government (Chapter VII) and the process for any alteration of the Constitution (Chapter VIII).
This document is inseparable from the Royal Commission of Assent, with which it became law; the 100th birthday of the Australian Constitution is 9 July 2000, the date of the Assent.
The original Constitution has been amended eight times, in 1907 (S.13), 1910 (S.105), 1929 (S.105), 1946 (S.51), 1967 (S.51, S.127), and three amendments in 1977 (S.15, S.72, S.128).
Chapter II
The Executive Government
61. The executive power of the Commonwealth is vested in the Queen and is exercisable by the Governor-General as the Queen’s representative, and extends to the execution and maintenance of this Constitution, and of the laws of the Commonwealth.
62. There shall be a Federal Executive Council to advise the Governor- General in the government of the Commonwealth, and the members of the Council shall be chosen and summoned by the Governor-General and sworn as Executive Councillors, and shall hold office during his pleasure.
63. The provisions of this Constitution referring to the Governor-General in Council shall be construed as referring to the Governor-General acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council.
64. The Governor-General may appoint officers to administer such departments of State of the Commonwealth as the Governor-General in Council may establish.
Such officers shall hold office during he pleasure of the Governor-General. They shall be members of the Federal Executive Council, and shall be the Queen’s Ministers of State for the Commonwealth.
After the first general election no Minister of State shall hold office for a longer period than three months unless he is or becomes a senator or a member of the House of Representatives.
65. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the Ministers of the State shall not exceed seven in number, and shall hold such offices as the Parliament prescribes, or, in the absence of provision, as the Governor- General directs.
66. There shall be payable to the Queen, out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Commonwealth, for the salaries of the Ministers of State, an annual sum which, until the Parliament otherwise provides, shall not exceed twelve thousand pounds a year.
67. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the appointment and removal of all other officers of the Executive Government of the Commonwealth shall be vested in the Governor-General in Council, unless the appointment is delegated by the Governor-General in Council or by a law of the Commonwealth to some other authority.
68. The command in chief of the naval and military forces of the Commonwealth is vested in the Governor-General as the Queen’s representative.
69. On a date or dates to be proclaimed by the Governor-General after the establishment of the Commonwealth the following departments of the public service in each State shall become transferred to the Commonwealth:-
Posts, telegraphs, and telephones:
Naval and military defence:
Lighthouses, lightships, beacons, and buoys:
Quarantine.
But the departments of customs and of excise in each State shall become transferred to the Commonwealth on its establishment.
70. In respect of matters which, under this Constitution, pass to the Executive Government of the Commonwealth, all powers and functions which at the establishment of the Commonwealth are vested in the Governor of a Colony, or in the Governor of a Colony with the advice of his Executive Council, or in any authority of a Colony, shall vest in the Governor-General, or in the Governor-General in Council, or in the authority exercising similar powers under the Commonwealth, as the case requires.
Contents:
Chicago: Lenore Coltheart, ed., "Chapter II the Executive Government," Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 1900 in Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 1900 (Canberra, Australia: National Archives of Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, 2000), Original Sources, accessed April 20, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=QBLXZIV69UNU6VN.
MLA: . "Chapter II the Executive Government." Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 1900, edited by Lenore Coltheart, in Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 1900, Canberra, Australia, National Archives of Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, 2000, Original Sources. 20 Apr. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=QBLXZIV69UNU6VN.
Harvard: (ed.), 'Chapter II the Executive Government' in Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 1900. cited in 2000, Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 1900, National Archives of Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, Australia. Original Sources, retrieved 20 April 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=QBLXZIV69UNU6VN.
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