Chapter VIII of the Constitution of Australia

Chapter VIII of the Constitution of Australia provides the method for altering the Constitution. It contains only one section, section 128, which sets out the requirements for constitutional referendums by which the words of the Constitution may be altered.

Section 128 provides that the Constitution may only be amended by referendum, and specifies the procedures for referendums. The method involves several steps; firstly, a bill containing the proposed change must be passed by the Parliament of Australia (subject to an exception), secondly, the proposed change must be submitted to the Australian electors for approval.

The section first requires that any proposed change be passed by an absolute majority (a majority of the total number of members, not merely of the members present or of the members voting) of both houses of Parliament (the Australian House of Representatives and the Australian Senate). An exception is provided for the situation where one house passes the bill containing the proposed change, but the other house does not pass it, or passes it with amendments to which the first house will not agree. If after three months, the first house passes the bill again but the second house still will not pass it, then the Governor-General of Australia has the option of submitting the proposed change to the electors for a referendum anyway. In practice, the Prime Minister of Australia advises the Governor-General whether to do so or not, with the result that it is very difficult for a group or party that is not the Government to successfully put a proposed change to a referendum.

Once the bill has been passed, or once the exception has come into effect, the Governor-General must submit the proposed change to the electors for a referendum. The referendum must occur at least two months after the bill has been passed, but at most six months after. Section 128 allows the Parliament to make laws setting out the exact procedures for a referendum (this is currently done by the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984), although it does provide that all electors who are eligible to vote in elections for the House of Representatives are eligible to vote in referendums.

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