Guide 3 to NSW State Archives relating to Responsible Government - OCR - Flipbook - Page 162
A Guide to New South Wales State Archives relating to Responsible Government
Bertram Stevens, was appointed as Premier and an election was called which Stevens
and his party won decisively.8
As well as arousing public concern about the role of the Governor, Lang's dismissal also
raised concerns about the Legislative Council's role in the State's political process. There
was general agreement that the Council should be reconstituted. In September 1932 the
Stevens Government introduced legislation to reform the constitution and powers of the
Legislative Council, based upon Bavin's 1929 reform bill. A Referendum was held on
13 May 1933 at which the electorate approved an elective Council based on the system
of proportional representation. The Legislative Council was now to be a House of 60
Members, elected by the Members of both Houses of Parliament. Members of the
Legislative Council were to be elected for a term of 12 years, with 15 Members (one
quarter) retiring every 3 years.
In spite of the reconstitution of the Legislative Council in 1933, attempts to reform or
abolish the Legislative Council continued. The first two occurred during the period in
which Labor, in the form of the McKell Government, was faced with a conservative Upper
House. The Constitution (Legislative Council Reform) Bill of 1943 sought to reform the
Council, potentially as a first step towards its abolition, which remained official ALP
policy. Under this Bill the House would have been directly elected, with the State divided
into 30 electorates each returning two Members. The Legislative Council Abolition Bill
1946 simply sought to abolish the Council. Both Bills were defeated.
In September 1939 Australia entered the Second World War. In the months prior to the
war, economic conditions had begun to worsen again in New South Wales after a period
of recovery from the 1930s Depression. Wartime production and prosperity soon began
to reverse this. The Government focussed on the war effort and put many State
programs on hold, but McKell argued that the war was primarily a Commonwealth
responsibility and that State services should be maintained. Nonetheless, war
precautions were made and essential State services continued.
By 1942 with the country facing an unprecedented war emergency, the Commonwealth
Government began assuming far greater powers, including the vital power of collecting
income tax, formerly collected by the States. With the transfer of income tax to the
Commonwealth Government, the State Parliaments effectively lost financial
independence. The Parliaments became increasingly dependent on the policy decisions of
the Commonwealth Government in allocating funding for State projects.
The War had delivered greatly increased powers to the Commonwealth Government. The
post-war Commonwealth Labor Government had attempted to use its wartime powers to
further increase Commonwealth leadership and expand socialist programs and
nationalisation. The Commonwealth which had taken responsibility for social services
along with income tax powers continued to use its financial domination to strongly
influence more and more State areas of responsibility, such as universities and
education, health and public works.
The period after the Second World War was distinguished by prosperity and full
employment, rising living standards, large scale migration, continued dependence on
agriculture but with a greatly expanded manufacturing industry, an explosion of
domestic consumer expenditure, some major public works, urban growth and large-scale
housing development.9
8
Ibid
9
see 1939 to 1965 - War and Post-War on
, the website of the
Parliament of New South Wales
160
State Records Authority of New South Wales
