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The now unified six states of
Australia weren’t always united as they are now today. New
South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania, South
Australia and Queensland weren’t states yet back then but
separate governing colonies. Each of them has their own
government, economic system and even their own little
armies.
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It wasn’t until the middle of
the 19th century when efforts to unify the colonies
into a federation began. Through the unrelenting
efforts of Sir Henry Parkes, New South Wales’
Premier, the movement for the Federation of
Australia eventually became a success.
The federation of Australia was a long and arduous
process before it materialized.
The first proposal
for a Federal Council body was presented as early as
1867 by Sir Henry Parkes, who was only a Colonial
Secretary back then. However, the Duke of Buckingham
that time, who also serves as the Secretary of the
State for the Colonies, didn’t entertain the
proposal.
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It wasn’t until 13 years
later, when he was already the Premier of New South
Wales, did Parkes brought the proposal again in the
1880 conference. Each of the colonies had their own
concerns and reservations regarding this federation.
Most of them were worried
about the distribution of power and their individual
revenues from trade and commerce. They are worried
that they might be putting themselves at the
disposal of larger and hence, more powerful, states.
The larger colonies, on the
other hand, are worried that they might be obliged
to financially support the struggling economies of
the smaller colonies, such as South Australia,
Western Australia and Tasmania. |
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Finalizing the Constitution and
choosing the form of government that the federation would
use also went through a lot of hurdles and faced many
opposing views. Several constitution models were considered
such as the Canadian Constitution, the Swiss Federal
Constitution, and the Constitution of the United States of
America. The first draft ever written of the Australian
Constitution was made by Andrew Inglis Clark in May 1890.
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Clark consulted with Moncure Conway
and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. about his draft, which was
based mainly on the British North America Act and the US
Constitution. He presented his final draft to Sir Henry
Parkes and the others in February 1891. The final Australian
Constitution that is used up to this day bears around 86
sections, which are undeniably taken from Clark’s draft.
After facing a lot of criticisms and oppositions all
throughout the second half of 19th century, the said
self-governing colonies were finally enforced to come
together as states of the Commonwealth of Australia,
effective on the 1st of January 1901 under the Constitution
of Australia. |
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