Australian Federalism and the Debate Over a Bill of Rights

Successive Australian Labor governments have tried to nationalizestandards for the protection of rights either by means of astatutory bill binding on the states under the Commonwealth'smuch expanded external affairs power, or by further entrenchingspecific rights in the Constitution. All these attempts havefailed for a variety of political and constitutional reasonsincluding, importantly, the strength of Australia's establishedsystem of federalism and parliamentary responsible government.The article examines the constitutional issues underlying thedebate over a bill of rights for Australia, arguing that Labor'sattempts to implement a bill of rights have been inspired bya preference for more centralized government whereas the defeatof such initiatives indicates, the established strength of Australianfederalism.