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House of Representatives                                Ch 1                                                 p 27

Constitution alteration bills not submitted to referendum

In some cases constitution alteration bills have not been submitted to the people, despite having satisfied the requirements of the ‘parliamentary stages’ of the necessary process. The history of the seven constitution alteration bills of 1915 is outlined above. These were passed by both Houses, and submitted to the Governor-General and writs issued. When it was decided not to proceed with the proposals, a bill was introduced and passed to provide for the withdrawal of the writs and for other necessary actions. ¹ In 1965 two constitution alteration proposals, having been passed by both Houses, were deferred, but on this occasion writs had not been issued. When a question was raised as to whether the Government was not ‘flouting . . . the mandatory provisions of the Constitution’ the Prime Minister stated, inter alia, ‘. . . the advice of our own legal authorities was to the effect that it was within the competence of the Government to refrain from the issue of the writ’. ² In 1983 five constitution alteration bills were passed by both Houses, but the proposals were not proceeded with. ³ Section 7 of the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984 now provides that whenever a proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution is to be submitted to the electors, the Governor-General may issue a writ for the submission of the proposed law.

Referendum (Constitution Alteration) (No. 2) Act 1915 (Act No. 51 of 1915). During its passage through the House the bill was incorrectly identified in the Votes and Proceedings as the Referendum (Withdrawal of Writs) Bill, VP 1914-17/408, 420. The reason for this is unknown. It was correctly identified in the Senate.

H.R. Deb. (9.3.66) 51.

S. Deb. (15.12.83) 3920-1.