Guide 3 to NSW State Archives relating to Responsible Government - OCR - Flipbook - Page 221
A Guide to New South Wales State Archives relating to Responsible Government
now be elected at each general election, further reducing the quota for election to about
4.5%. This immediately led to an increase in the number of "cross bench" members from
smaller parties and a further decrease in those from major parties, resulting in "a gender
and ethnic/cultural balance that is more representative of the people of NSW" in the
Upper House. Indeed, since 1988 in the smaller, proportionally elected Upper House,
neither the government nor the largest opposition party has usually had a majority, and
minority groups have generally controlled the balance of power."
In the 1980s the Imperial link with Britain was finally severed. In 1985 the New South
Wales Parliament passed the Australia Acts (Request) Act 1985 No.109. The purpose of
this Act was "to enable the constitutional arrangements affecting the Commonwealth and
the States to be brought into conformity with the status of the Commonwealth of
Australia as a sovereign, independent and federal nation". Each Australian State
Parliament passed a similar Act, to enable the Commonwealth and the United Kingdom
to pass the major legislation. The Australia Acts, as the Acts of the Federal Parliament
and the United Kingdom Parliament are known, implemented the agreement of all State
governments and the Commonwealth to remove the constitutional links with the United
Kingdom. The Australia'Acts ended all power that remained in the United Kingdom
Parliament to make laws affecting Australia. The New South Wales Parliament now has
full power to repeal or alter any United Kingdom statute that applied here in New South
Wales." In addition, as a consequence of the 1986 Australia Acts the Governor of New
South Wales has the power to assent to all Bills that have been passed by the New South
Wales Parliament in such "manner and form" as the New South Wales Constitution
requires.
At around the same time all Members of the Parliament finally received equal salaries,
New South Wales being the last State to introduce salary parity for its Parliamentarians.
It was not until 1985 that the Parliamentary Remuneration Tribunal determined that
there should be parity in the salaries of Members of the Legislative Council and the
Legislative Assembly. This meant that for the first time all Members of the Council were
able to devote their full time energies to parliamentary duties.
Constitutionally, New South Wales is still placed as it was at the beginning of the
twentieth century when the Constitution Act, 1902, was passed. The Parliament still has
the power to make laws on matters such as public health, education, local government,
property, contracts, wills, crime and law enforcement, traffic regulation, town and
country planning, companies, state marketing and numerous other matters.
However, successive Governments have complained that they have been hampered in
their ability to meet public requirements in many fields by a lack of money. The States
having surrendered the power to levy income tax to the Commonwealth during the
Second World War II, New South Wales Premiers have since claimed that they have
been unable, without recourse to other, State, taxation methods, to bring down
adequate budgets. By the 1980s the quality of educational facilities, public transport,
roads and other services calling for substantial public expenditure, was being severely
criticised. Questions of financial and other relationships between the three tiers of
government (especially between the Federal and State) were becoming, many years
after Federation, major forces in New South Wales politics.12 While the introduction of
the Federal Government's Goods and Services Tax (the GST) in 2000 was initially
welcomed by the States, it has not put an end to the long-running issue of inadequate
returns to the States from Commonwealth revenues.
10
Parliamentary Education and Community Relations Section, Parliament of New South Wales,
This is your Parliament: the Parliament of New South Wales its development and operation,
(Parliament of New South Wales, Sydney, 2nd edition, 1995), p.26
11 Ibid, p.35
12
Australian Encyclopaedia, op cit, Vol.7 p.180
218
State Records Authority of New South Wales
