parliament of the united kingdom passed the act that contains the australian constitution.
parliament of the united kingdom passed the act that contains the australian constitution.
which parliament passed the act that contains the australian constitution?
parliament of the united kingdom
australian constitution (public record copy) act 1990









































the australian constitution (public record copy) act 1990 is an act of the parliament of the united kingdom, passed in 1990. the purpose of the act was to allow the commonwealth of australia to retain the original copy of the commonwealth of australia constitution act 1900 (imp), which the british government had loaned for the celebration in 1988 of the bicentenary of british settlement in australia.
australian constitution (public record copy) act 1990
in his 1969 entry on "clark, andrew inglis (1848–1907)" for the "australian dictionary of biography", henry reynolds offers a more nuanced view:before the national australasian convention in sydney in 1891 he [clark] circulated his own draft constitution bill. this was practically a transcript of relevant provisions from the british north american act, the united states constitution and the federal council act, arranged systematically, but it was to be of great use to the drafting committee at the convention. parkes received it with reservations, suggesting that 'the structure should be evolved bit by bit'. george higinbotham admitted the 'acknowledged defects & disadvantages' of responsible government, but criticized clark's plan to separate the executive and the legislature. clark's draft also differed from the adopted constitution in his proposal for 'a separate federal judiciary', with the new supreme court replacing the privy council as the highest court of appeal on all questions of law, which would be 'a wholesome innovation upon the american system'. he became a member of the constitutional committee and chairman of the judiciary committee. although he took little part in the debates he assisted (sir) samuel griffith, (sir) edmund barton and charles cameron kingston in revising griffith's original draft of the adopted constitution on the queensland government's steam yacht, "lucinda"; though he was too ill to be present when the main work was done, his own draft had been the basis for most of griffith's text. clark's supporters are quick to point out that 86 sections (out of a total of 128) of the final australian constitution are recognisable in clark's draft, and that "only eight of inglis clark’s ninety-six clauses failed to find their way into the final australian constitution"; but these are potentially misleading statistics. as professor john williams has pointed out:it is easy to point to the document and dismiss it as a mere ‘cut and paste’ from known provisions. while there is some validity in such observations it does tend to overlook the fact that there are very few variations to be added once the basic structure is agreed. so for instance, there was always going to be parts dealing with the executive, the parliament and the judiciary in any australian constitution. the fact that inglis clark modelled his on the american constitution is no surprise once that basic decision was made. issues of the respective legislative powers, the role of the states, the power of amendment and financial questions were the detail of the debate that the framers were about to address in 1891.as to who was responsible for the actual detailed drafting, as distinct from the broad structure and framework of the 1891 draft, professor williams (for one) is in no doubt:in terms of style there can be little argument that inglis clark’s constitution is not as crisp or clean as kingston’s 1891 draft constitution. this is not so much a reflection on inglis clark, but an acknowledgement of the talents of charles kingston and sir samuel griffith as drafters. they were direct and economical with words. the same cannot always be said of inglis clark.
federation of australia