Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/20084

Title

'Odious and outmoded'? Race and Section 25 of the Constitution

Author(s)

Costar, Brian

Abstract

This chapter is concerned only indirectly with the scope of the Commonwealth franchise in the early years of the twentieth century. Rather it focuses on the obscure, puzzling, contested but largely neglected Section 25 of the constitution which mandates not who should have the vote but how many House Representatives’ divisions each state shall be entitled. Both the academic literature and the proceedings of the Constitutional Conventions of the 1890s throw only limited light on the motives for its inclusion in the constitution and its political effects (if any). Many of the standard texts on Australian constitutional politics cope with S25 by ignoring it altogether.

Publication type

Book chapter

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences. Institute for Social Research

Source

Selective democracy : race, gender and the Australian vote / J. Chesterman and D. Philips (eds.)

Publication year

2003

Keyword(s)

Australia;  Constitution;  History;  Indigenous Australians;  Minority groups;  Political rights;  Suffrage;  Voting

Publisher

Melbourne Publishing Group

ISBN

9780958093811

Publisher URL

http://www.sisr.net/cag/publications.htm

Peer reviewed