Australian Constitution

The Australian Constitution came into force in 1901 with the federation of the separate state colonies into the Commonwealth of Australia. With its introduction, the Constitution was heralded as ‘the most magnificent Constitution into which the chosen representatives of a free and enlightened people have ever breathed the life of popular sentiment and national hope’, by Charles Kingston (Irving 2001). The Australian Constitution has remained relatively untouched since it came into effect, from 44 referendum questions put to the Australian people to change various parts of the Constitution, only eight have been approved (Singleton et al. 2003:52).
There is a striking lack of knowledge amongst the Australian people regarding the nature and role of the Constitution in today’s society (Stone 2000:194). This fact leads us to question the appropriateness of the Australian Constitution in the Twenty First Century. As this points to the possibility that there is some inadequacies within...