Origins
Of the first Australian parliament

Declaration of the Commonwealth

We do hereby declare that on and after the first Day of January one thousand nine hundred and one, the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia shall be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Queen Victoria, Proclamation, 17 September 1900.

The Commonwealth of Australia was established on 1 January 1901, and the Australian Constitution came into effect on that date. A ceremony in Centennial Park, Sydney, formally marked the beginning of the new nation and established elements of the first Commonwealth government. The Governor-General, Lord Hopetoun, swore to faithfully serve the Queen and the Commonwealth, and proclaimed that he had taken office. He then, in the Queen's name, appointed the ministers of the first government and swore them in as members of the Executive Council.

A Cabinet of Kings

There was general agreement as to the scope of the new parliament’s legislative powers. The law-making powers defined for the federal parliament included those areas which had long been recognised as the logical responsibility of a central government—matters such as trade and commerce, defence, and immigration. Some powers were defined as exclusive powers of the federal parliament, and some were to be concurrent with the powers of the state parliaments. Many issues were decided provisionally, ‘until the parliament otherwise decides’.

Under section 87 of the Constitution, the ‘Braddon clause’, three-quarters of all revenue acquired by the Commonwealth through customs and excise was to be returned to the states, for a period of ten years after Federation. Some feared that this would result in the more populous states subsidising those with small populations.