CIR Australia aims to have citizens’ initiative and referendum at all levels of government: national, state and municipal. These measures would be comparatively easy to implement at the state and municipal levels as there are no substantial legal or constitutional impediments to surmount.  There are however constitutional considerations in respect of the Commonwealth of Australia.

CIR is a process or procedure for the enactment of legislation and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia states that:

‘The legislative powerof the Commonwealth shall be vested in a Federal Parliament, which shall consist of the Queen, a Senate, and a House of Representatives…..’  

And further, Section 51 reads, ‘The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws…’

The Constitution does not explicitly say that the Federal Parliament, as defined, has the exclusive right to enact legislation but this certainly is an arguable position. On the other hand, perhaps the Parliament could, under Section 51(xxxix) enact legislation enabling CIR.

This Section confers upon the Parliament the power to make laws with respect to:

‘Matters incidental to the execution of any power vested by this Constitution in the Parliament….’

Whether the Constitution would need to be amended or not is an issue to be determined. If an amendment were required, Section 128 of the Constitution would apply. This section, we are delighted to note, stipulates that no amendment may be made unless it has been passed at a referendum.

We wouldn’t have it any other way.