Until the passing in Australia of the "Nationality Act 1920", Australia's nationality law, like that of other Commonwealth countries, was governed by the English common law concept of a British subject. (See also British nationality law.) The idea that there was such a thing as an Australian legal nationality, as distinct from a British one, was considered by the High Court of Australia in 1906 to be a "novel idea" to which it was "not disposed to give any countenance". That was as a matter of law, but in 1913 and 1930 Australian journalists considered that there were such things as Australian nationality and citizenship.