Resource Sheet 2
Select Account of Melbourne
Comment by Bryan o’Loghlan, 1898 Australasian Federation Conference, Melbourne
The draft bill was undemocratic. The test was this—Did it establish in the constitution the rule of a minority or of a majority? The answer was that it provided for a minority, because it gave equal representation to all the states. (Hear, hear.) …They saw there 30 representatives of the smaller states outvoting the liberal proposals which came from the delegates for New South Wales and Victoria. In the Federal Senate, the 18 representatives of the smaller colonies, representing 600,000 people, would be able to outvote the representatives of 2,400,000 people…
The Argus, 21 April 1898.
Proposed representation in a new federal parliament
The House of Representatives
Number of representatives per colony
The Senate
Number of representatives per colony
Population data for each colony in 1899
| Colony | NSW | VIC | Qld | SA | TAS | WA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population in 1899 | 1,348,400 | 1,162,900 | 482,400 | 370,700 | 182,300 | 171,030 |
Souvenir of the Inauguration of the Australian Commonwealth, 1901, State Library of New South Wales.