The Constitution

The Constitution

The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1900 and took effect on 1 January 1901. Its ninth clause holds the Constitution: 128 sections in 8 chapters, and a schedule. Only the people can change it, by a referendum under section 128.

Words in the Constitution

11,661

Heads of power in s 51

40

Referendums carried

8 of 45

Compilations since 1901

7

Section by section

Each tile is a section, as wide as its word count. The covering clauses of the Act around it add 531 words: read them.

What the Parliament may make laws about

Section 51 lists the subjects on which the Commonwealth Parliament may make laws. Anything not listed here, or given to the Commonwealth elsewhere in the Constitution, stays with the States. The High Court decides how far each head of power reaches.

1. (i) Trade and commerce with other countries, and among the States
2. (ii) Taxation; but so as not to discriminate between States or parts of States
3. (iii) Bounties on the production or export of goods, but so that such bounties shall be uniform throughout the Commonwealth
4. (iv) Borrowing money on the public credit of the Commonwealth
5. (v) Postal, telegraphic, telephonic, and other like services
6. (vi) The naval and military defence of the Commonwealth and of the several States, and the control of the forces to execute and maintain the laws of the Commonwealth
7. (vii) Lighthouses, lightships, beacons and buoys
8. (viii) Astronomical and meteorological observations
9. (ix) Quarantine
10. (x) Fisheries in Australian waters beyond territorial limits
11. (xi) Census and statistics
12. (xii) Currency, coinage, and legal tender
13. (xiii) Banking, other than State banking; also State banking extending beyond the limits of the State concerned, the incorporation of banks, and the issue of paper money
14. (xiv) Insurance, other than State insurance; also State insurance extending beyond the limits of the State concerned
15. (xv) Weights and measures
16. (xvi) Bills of exchange and promissory notes
17. (xvii) Bankruptcy and insolvency
18. (xviii) Copyrights, patents of inventions and designs, and trade marks
19. (xix) Naturalization and aliens
20. (xx) Foreign corporations, and trading or financial corporations formed within the limits of the Commonwealth
21. (xxi) Marriage
22. (xxii) Divorce and matrimonial causes; and in relation thereto, parental rights, and the custody and guardianship of infants
23. (xxiii) Invalid and old-age pensions
24. (xxiiiA) The provision of maternity allowances, widows' pensions, child endowment, unemployment, pharmaceutical, sickness and hospital benefits, medical and dental services (but not so as to authorize any form of civil conscription), benefits to students and family allowances changed by the 1946 referendum
25. (xxiv) The service and execution throughout the Commonwealth of the civil and criminal process and the judgments of the courts of the States
26. (xxv) The recognition throughout the Commonwealth of the laws, the public Acts and records, and the judicial proceedings of the States
27. (xxvi) The people of any race for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws changed by the 1967 referendum
28. (xxvii) Immigration and emigration
29. (xxviii) The influx of criminals
30. (xxix) External affairs
31. (xxx) The relations of the Commonwealth with the islands of the Pacific
32. (xxxi) The acquisition of property on just terms from any State or person for any purpose in respect of which the Parliament has power to make laws
33. (xxxii) The control of railways with respect to transport for the naval and military purposes of the Commonwealth
34. (xxxiii) The acquisition, with the consent of a State, of any railways of the State on terms arranged between the Commonwealth and the State
35. (xxxiv) Railway construction and extension in any State with the consent of that State
36. (xxxv) Conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes extending beyond the limits of any one State
37. (xxxvi) Matters in respect of which this Constitution makes provision until the Parliament otherwise provides
38. (xxxvii) Matters referred to the Parliament of the Commonwealth by the Parliament or Parliaments of any State or States, but so that the law shall extend only to States by whose Parliaments the matter is referred, or which afterwards adopt the law
39. (xxxviii) The exercise within the Commonwealth, at the request or with the concurrence of the Parliaments of all the States directly concerned, of any power which can at the establishment of this Constitution be exercised only by the Parliament of the United Kingdom or by the Federal Council of Australasia
40. (xxxix) Matters incidental to the execution of any power vested by this Constitution in the Parliament or in either House thereof, or in the Government of the Commonwealth, or in the Federal Judicature, or in any department or officer of the Commonwealth

How the text has changed

The Register keeps a compilation of the Constitution for each period its text was in force. Each change came from a Constitution Alteration Act approved at a referendum.

See all 45 referendums, including the 37 that failed.