ABSTRACT
A basic definition of federalism is that it is a system of government in which the Constitution of the nation-state allocates legislative authority to the national government and to regional governments, and in which any amendment of the Constitution in such a way as to alter that division cannot be effected by either the national or the regional governments acting on their own.1 Australia fits this definition because ss 51, 52, 90, 114 and 115 of the Commonwealth Constitution 1901 allocate certain legislative powers to the Commonwealth, by implication leaving all others to the States, and because amendment of the Constitution requires not only legislation by the federal Parliament, but also the approval of the voters both nationally, and in a majority of States considered as separate entities.
