Mr LIONEL BOWEN (Attorney-General)(3.30) —I move:

That the Bill be now read a second time.

This Bill proposes to strengthen three fundamental rights and freedoms already in the Constitution-trial by jury, fair compensation for acquisitions of property, and freedom of religion. The Bill extends the protection of these rights and freedoms in relation to actions taken by the States and Territories. This Bill gives real force and effect to the right to trial by jury. Section 80 of the Constitution currently requires trial by jury where the trial is on indictment for any offence against a law of the Commonwealth. However, as the Parliament is free to decide whether a particular offence must be tried on indictment, it may avoid the guarantee by establishing other forms of trial for particular offences.

The Bill requires trial by jury where the accused is liable to imprisonment for more than two years or any form of corporal punishment-which includes capital punishment. The Bill excludes trials for contempt of court and courts martial of members of the Defence Force under a law relating to the discipline of the Defence Force. The Bill extends the right to trial by jury to trials for offences against State and Territory laws. The Bill makes appropriate provision for the places where jury trials for Commonwealth offences must be held. The Bill also allows for laws permitting an accused to waive his or her right to a trial by jury. Commonwealth, State and Territory laws now provide in many cases for an accused person to consent to be tried before a magistrate, and usually in these cases a lesser maximum penalty applies. It is not, however, contemplated that waiver of the right to trial by jury would apply in the case of the most serious offences, such as murder or major drug offences. There is also a public interest in ensuring community participation in the processes of the criminal law through trial by jury which ought not to be waived by decision of the accused alone. These matters are best left for determination by the relevant legislatures-Commonwealth, State and Territory. There are already State and Territory laws relating to the size and composition of juries and providing for majority verdicts. The Bill therefore allows the relevant parliaments to make laws dealing with those matters and allows existing laws to continue in operation.

The second fundamental right guaranteed by this Bill is fair compensation for acquisitions of property under Commonwealth, State and Territory laws. Section 51 (31) of the Constitution currently provides that the Commonwealth Parliament may make laws for 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. However, there is at present no constitutional requirement for the State parliaments or Territorial legislatures to provide just terms for acquisitions of property under State or Territory law. The High Court of Australia has said that the States `may acquire property on any terms which they may choose to provide in a statute, even though the terms are unjust'. This will no longer be the case. The High Court has also held that the constitutional guarantee does not apply when the Commonwealth provides for the acquisition of property from a person in a Territory. The constitutional guarantee will now apply in this case also.

The third fundamental right guaranteed by this Bill is freedom of religion throughout the whole of Australia and its Territories. Section 116 of the Constitution currently prevents the Commonwealth from making any law for establishing any religion, imposing any religious observance or prohibiting the free exercise of any religion. It also forbids any religious test as a qualification for any office of public trust under the Commonwealth. Under this Bill the same safeguards will now apply to the States and Territories. If religious freedom warrants constitutional protection, the guarantee should apply uniformly to Commonwealth, State and Territory governments. The Bill also extends the protections in relation to any executive actions by governments. I commend the Bill to the House.

In conclusion, the four Bills that I have introduced do not involve any increase in Commonwealth power, at the expense of either the States or the people of Australia. As I have already said, they are about the rights of the people of Australia. When the Constitutional Commission was first established, it was always envisaged that 1988-the year of the Bicentenary-would provide a focus and impetus for the work of revising and improving the Australian Constitution. I believe that much has already been achieved towards that end. But it is vital that the impetus and momentum should be maintained. There is a reason of very profound national importance why this should be so. The Bicentenary itself has a purpose far beyond, and far more important and far more enduring than, the celebrations and the spectacles, the great projects and monuments throughout Australia. Its larger purpose goes to the heart of our sense of national identity, our national self-understanding and our national unity. It goes to the heart of our nationhood itself.

The Constitution under which this nation lives in surely an essential element in that process of nationhood-the keystone in the arch of the great institutions of parliament and the law which unite us as one of the world's strongest and truest democracies. I believe the work of the Commission is creating a new recognition of the importance of the Constitution and its basic strengths, as well as its flaws. Many of us-and not least, I freely acknowledge, on this side of the House-have tended to emphasise its defects. But the Commission's first report has offered us all the opportunity-and the challenge-to take a new look, from a new and broader perspective. We can now, I believe, approach the task of constitutional reform, not from the perspective of the partisan passions and prejudices of the past, but with a measured, informed and constructive desire to strengthen and improve the Constitution for the future-rationally, relevantly, realistically.

We are in the closing sittings of the last session of the Parliament to meet in this historic chamber. There is nothing we could do more fitting or more worthy as the people's representative than that our last major act in this place should be to give the people of Australia the opportunity to enhance the Constitution under which this Parliament exists and under which this nation lives. It is in that spirit, Mr Deputy Speaker, that I have commended the four Bills to the House.

Mr Reith —I move:

That the debate be adjourned.

I ask the Attorney-General to advise the House when it is proposed these referendums will actually be held.

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Leo McLeay) —There is no provision for making that announcement. The debate is adjourned. The question is that the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Question resolved in the affirmative.