tating the reasons and in accordance with the guarantees provided by the law.
Perhaps another thing people felt they needed to be protected from was a Government that was spying on their citizens.
Australia’s Constitution doesn’t include much of this kind of thing. Ours was created over a period of nearly a decade and was a peaceful way of unifying six British Colonies. Some say this is one reason why we don’t have many constitutional protections. So while the home is not inviolable in Australia, and there is a Parliamentary power to acquire property, it can only be on just terms (section 51(xxxi)).
Surely the Australian Senate is safe and no one would want to abolish it? Constitutional expert Professor George Williams and Harry Hobbs from UNSW write about our Senate:
Until 1979 the Labor Party had included a section in its national platform advocating its abolition, and in 1921 the Queensland Labor government successfully abolished its Upper House.
The Queensland Upper House was an appointed Legislative Council. In order to abolish it the State Labor Government had to stack the Council full of new appointed members, who ultimately voted to abolish themselves. Those appointed Legislative Councillors were called the suicide squad. There was no referendum needed for this Queensland Constitutional amendment.
But what about the Federal Senate? Nearly every week on social media, our CCF articles receive some comments from people who would like to get rid of the Senate. However, perhaps this highlights how much more people need to know about the role of the Senate and the separation of powers.
For an Australian referendum to pass, first the legislation must be passed by an absolute majority of each House of Parliament. This means more than half of the total number of MP’s and Senators (not just those present) need to vote for the legislation. If one House rejects the legislation for the referendum, there is a provision for the Governor-General to go ahead with the referendum (remember – the Governor-General acts on the advice of the Prime Minister). Then the electors of Australia are asked to vote upon the legislation. It only passes if a majority of voters overall and in at least four states vote yes.
There isn’t a way to really amend our Constitution without going to the people.
Now, just to confuse you all, there are parts of our Constitution that don’t apply anymore. They still sit there as we haven’t asked the parliament and then the people to remove them, but they are no longer in use. What caused the parts of our Constitution to become redundant was the implementation of two Acts. These being the Statute of Westminster, which we adopted in 1942 and then the Australia Act which was implemented in 1986.
Both of these Acts changed the role of the Queen in our democracy. If you want to read a bit more about this, click here, as we have written an article about the Queen’s powers.
Now the Parliament can’t just enact any old Act and then parts of the Constitution don’t apply. These two pieces of legislation had to become law in the UK and in regards to the Australia Act, our States had to pass it too.
Changing the Italian Constitution
The Italian Constitution has been altered 15 times since it came into force on 1 January 1948, mostly through being passed by the two-thirds majority of both Houses of Parliament. Here’s the text:
Laws amending the Constitution and other constitutional laws shall be adopted by each House after two successive debates at intervals of not less than three months, and shall be approved by an absolute majority of the members of each House in the second voting.
Said laws are submitted to a popular referendum when, within three months of their publication, such request is made by one-fifth of the members of a House or five hundred thousand voters or five Regional Councils. The law submitted to referendum shall not be promulgated if not approved by a majority of valid votes.
A referendum shall not be held if the law has been approved in the second voting by each of the Houses by a majority of two-thirds 