Getting it Together

Alfred Deakin

…What we have to ask ourselves is whether we can afford indefinite delay. Do we lose nothing by a continuation of the separation between state and state? Do not every year and every month exact from us the toll of [being separate]? Do not we find ourselves hampered in commerce, restricted in influence, weakened in prestige…

Cited in JA La Nauze (ed), Alfred Deakin, The Federal Story: The Inner History of the Federal Cause 1880–1900, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1963.

…The Australian native knows that Federation under the 1898 Bill makes for the consolidation of Australia; that it takes away from him none of his present freedom, but, instead, grants the masses privileges unknown elsewhere. He knows the fundamental principle is right, that its franchise makes all men equal, and therefore that the last word lies with him.

Advance Australia, vol II, no 8, 7 September 1898.

George Turner, Premier of Victoria

There may for a time have to be a little extra taxation imposed, but the benefits that would accrue to this his native land he was prepared to make that slight sacrifice.

The Argus, 14 April 1898.

Robert Coutts, speech at Pyramid Hill

…I have heard a few farmers say they are opposed to The Commonwealth Bill, because they will lose the stock tax. Now, as a grazier of many years’ experience, I am vitally interested in the matter, and I must say I do not feel at all troubled on this point… Under free trade the grazier would also be able to buy a lot of sore wethers and fatten them off in the best half of the year.

Geelong Advertiser, 30 May 1898.

R.J. Alcock, President, Melbourne Chamber of Commerce

…with the union of the colonies a new era would open up to the trade and commerce of Australia, which was only too sadly hampered by the barriers which ignorant jealousy had erected between the colonies… [the] energy and ability of the merchants of Melbourne might then be relied upon to restore to the city the [dominance] in trade which its geographic position insures… under conditions of intercolonial freedom…

The Age, 29 April 1898.

R.F. Toutcher, President, Australian Natives Association

…the constitution was like all federal constitutions—a compound of compromises, based on the principles of equality, justice and fraternity… [The Constitution will] produce all the blessings and advantages that must necessarily flow from national life.

The Age, 16 March 1898.

Outtrim News

…the fate of this promising industry under the Constitution may, as the novelists say, “be better imagined than described”. One of the miners in a touch of irony has said that they would require no Coal Mines Regulation Bill under this Federation, because there would be no coal mines; and no reasonable man can doubt the grim truth of the remark.

Outtrim News, 21 May 1898.

Ben Tillett

Mr. Deakin and Dr. Quick were lawyers, and were prepared to sell their services to the “fat man.” (Laughter.) Lawyers were prepared to sell themselves to anybody who would bid high enough… Let the people beware of the lawyers—the Bartons, the Wises, the Deakins, and the Quicks, and the rest of them…

The Argus, 11 April 1898.

Robert Coutts, speech at Pyramid Hill

…I have heard a few farmers say they are opposed to The Commonwealth Bill, because they will lose the stock tax. Now, as a grazier of many years’ experience, I am vitally interested in the matter, and I must say I do not feel at all troubled on this point… Under free trade the grazier would also be able to buy a lot of sore wethers and fatten them off in the best half of the year.

Geelong Advertiser, 30 May 1898.

G. Graham, speech at Maffra

…the great sugar beet industry would not be strangled, but if the Bill became law, it would surely be strangled… make no mistake about it.

Maffra Spectator, 12 May 1898.

Henry Bournes Higgins, speech at Geelong, 18 April 1898

…I want to impress this point upon you, because I find some unthinking people saying: “Oh, let us federate; and if the arrangements do not work, we can put them right.” That is a mistake. You can not rectify an error in the federal constitution as you can rectify an error in the Factories’ Act, or in any other Victorian Act. Let me start with this proposition, in order to clear our ideas:–

Not a section, not a phrase, not a word in this constitution can be changed by the Federal Parliament, no matter how urgently the change may be required, and even though every member in each House of Parliament may vote for the change… To make a change in any single word of this constitution, there must not only be an absolute majority of both houses of the Federal Parliament; but the change has to be submitted to the electors in the several colonies; and unless there be a majority of the States in favour of the change, the change cannot be made… But I have not yet told you the worst. There are some provisions of this bill which cannot be altered at all… When you get a copy of the bill, look at the last clause of the last section, and weigh it well.

Henry Bournes Higgins, Essays and Addresses on The Australian Commonwealth Bill, Melbourne, 1900, pp 6–9.

Allan McLean

New South Wales and Victoria, with a population of 2,500,000, and contributing £1,200,000 to the revenue of the Commonwealth, will have 12 representatives in the Senate, whilst the three small colonies, with a population of 660,000, and contributing £350,000 to the revenue will have 18.

The Argus, 7 May 1898.