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Set in (sand)stone:
Saved by the Privy Council |
1932 signalled a pivotal event for the Legislative Council: the UK Privy Council, then the highest court of appeal for Australia, ruled against Premier Jack Lang’s attempt to abolish it!
In 1925 the Lang Labor government came to power with a program of social and economic reforms. Faced with a House hostile to his vision, Premier Lang set about attempting to abolish the Council by ‘swamping’ it with Labor Party members who would vote in favour of its abolition.
In response to Premier Lang’s attempts, and with the example of Queensland Labor’s 1922 abolition of their Legislative Council fresh in its mind, in 1928 a newly-elected conservative government acted to safeguard the existence of the Council by amending the Constitution Act 1902.
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Image: Legislative Council in session, 1930, Government Printing Office d1_22125, Digital print from glass plate negative, Image |
The amendment inserted a new section 7A, still in force today, which entrenched the Council by requiring that no bill to abolish it, or alter its constitutional powers, could receive royal assent unless it was passed by both Houses and approved at a referendum by a majority of the electors. Section 7A was then itself entrenched, so that it could not be altered or repealed except by referendum.
Following his re-election, Premier Lang again set out to abolish the Council. In late 1930 two bills were introduced into the Council: one to repeal section 7A, and the other to abolish the Council. On the advice of President Peden that a referendum was necessary to abolish the Council under the requirements of section 7A, the Council allowed both bills to pass, with the intention of challenging them in the courts. A court injunction was then secured to prevent the bills being assented to as they had not met the requirements of section 7A. The Full Bench of the NSW Supreme Court, the High Court of Australia and ultimately the Privy Council in London subsequently held section 7A to be valid and that a referendum was necessary for its repeal. The bills therefore could not be assented to. The Council was saved!
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