Chapter XXV: Part V: Powers of the Parliament

51. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have
power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government
of the Commonwealth with respect to:—

(i.) Trade and commerce with other countries, and among the
States;

(ii.) Taxation; but so as not to discriminate between States
or parts of States:

(iii.) Bounties on the production or export of goods, but so
that such bounties shall be uniform throughout the
Commonwealth:

(iv.) Borrowing money on the public credit of the
Commonwealth:

(v.) Postal, telegraphic, telephonic, and other like services:

(vi.) The naval and military defence of the Commonwealth and
of the several States, and the control of the forces to
execute and maintain the laws of the Commonwealth:

(vii.) Lighthouses, lightships, beacons and buoys:

(viii.) Astronomical and meteorological observations:

(ix.) Quarantine:

(x.) Fisheries in Australian waters beyond territorial limits:

(xi.) Census and statistics:

(xii.) Currency, coinage, and legal tender:

(xiii.) Banking, other than State banking; also State banking
extending beyond the limits of the State concerned, the
incorporation of banks, and the issue of paper money:

(xiv.) Insurance, other than State insurance; also State
insurance extending beyond the limits of the State concerned:

(xv.) Weights and measures:

(xvi. ) Bills of exchange and promissory notes:

(xvii.) Bankruptcy and insolvency:

(xviii.) Copyrights, patents of inventions and designs, and
trade marks:

(xix.) Naturalization and aliens:

(xx.) Foreign corporations, and trading or financial
corporations formed within the limits of the Commonwealth:

(xxi.) Marriage:

(xxii.) Divorce and matrimonial causes; and in relation
thereto, parental rights, and the custody and guardianship of
infants:

(xxiii.) Invalid and old-age pensions:

(xxiv.) The service and execution throughout the Commonwealth
of the civil and criminal process and the judgments of the
courts of the States:

(xxv.) The recognition throughout the Commonwealth of the
laws, the public Acts and records, and the judicial
proceedings of the States:

(xxvi.) The people of any race, other than the aboriginal race
in any State, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special
laws:

(xxvii.) Immigration and emigration:

(xxviii.) The influx of criminals:

(xxix.) External affairs:

(xxx.) The relations of the Commonwealth with the islands of
the Pacific:

(xxxi.) The acquisition of property on just terms from any
State or person for any purpose in respect of which the
Parliament has power to make laws:

(xxxii.) The control of railways with respect to transport for
the naval and military purposes of the Commonwealth:

(xxxiii.) The acquisition, with the consent of a State, of any
railways of the State on terms arranged between the
Commonwealth and the State:

(xxxiv.) Railway construction and extension in any State with
the consent of that State:

(xxxv.) Conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and
settlement of industrial disputes extending beyond the limits
of any one State:

(xxxvi.) Matters in respect of which this Constitution makes
provision until the Parliament otherwise provides:

(xxxvii.) Matters referred to the Parliament of the
Commonwealth by the Parliament or Parliaments of any State or
States, but so that the law shall extend only to States by
whose Parliaments the matter is referred, or which afterwards
adopt the law:

(xxxviii.) The exercise within the Commonwealth, at the
request or with the concurrence of the Parliaments of all the
States directly concerned, of any power which can at the
establishment of this Constitution be exercised only by the
Parliament of the United Kingdom or by the Federal Council of
Australasia:

(xxxix.) Matters incidental to the execution of any power
vested by this Constitution in the Parliament or in either
House thereof, or in the Government of the Commonwealth, or in
the Federal Judicature, or in any department or officer of the
Commonwealth.

52. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have
exclusive power to make laws for the peace, order, and good
government of the Commonwealth with respect to—

(i.) The seat of government of the Commonwealth, and all
places acquired by the Commonwealth for public purposes:

(ii.) Matters relating to any department of the public service
the control of which is by this Constitution transferred to the
Executive Government of the Commonwealth:

(iii.) Other matters declared by this Constitution to be
within the exclusive power of the Parliament.

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53. Proposed laws appropriating revenue or moneys, or imposing
taxation, shall not originate in the Senate. But a proposed
law shall not be taken to appropriate revenue or moneys, or to
impose taxation, by reason only of its containing provisions for
the imposition or appropriation of fines or other pecuniary
penalties, or for the demand or payment or appropriation of
fees for licences, or fees for services under the proposed
law. The Senate may not amend proposed laws imposing taxation,
or proposed laws appropriating revenue or moneys for the
ordinary annual services of the Government. The Senate may not
amend any proposed law so as to increase any proposed charge
or burden on the people. The Senate may at any stage return to
the House of Representatives any proposed law which the Senate
may not amend, requesting, by message, the omission or
amendment of any items or provisions therein. And the House of
Representatives may, if it thinks fit, make any of such
omissions or amendments, with or without modifications. Except
as provided in this section, the Senate shall have equal power
with the House of Representatives in respect of all proposed
laws.

54. The proposed law which appropriates revenue or moneys for
the ordinary annual services of the Government shall deal only
with such appropriation.

55. Laws imposing taxation shall deal only with the imposition
of taxation, and any provision therein dealing with any other
matter shall be of no effect. Laws imposing taxation, except
laws imposing duties of customs or of excise, shall deal with
one subject of taxation only; but laws imposing duties of
customs shall deal with duties of customs only, and laws
imposing duties of excise shall deal with duties of excise
only.

56. A vote, resolution, or proposed law for the appropriation
of revenue or moneys shall not be passed unless the purpose of
the appropriation has in the same session been recommended by
message of the Governor-General to the House in which the
proposal originated.

57. If the House of Representatives passes any proposed law,
and the Senate rejects or fails to pass it, or passes it with
amendments to which the House of Representatives will not
agree, and if after an interval of three months the House of
Representatives, in the same or the next session, again passes
the proposed law with or without any amendments which have
been made, suggested, or agreed to by the Senate, and the
Senate rejects or fails to pass it, or passes it with
amendments to which the House of Representatives will not
agree, the Governor-General may dissolve the Senate and the
House of Representatives simultaneously. But such dissolution
shall not take place within six months before the date of the
expiry of the House of Representatives by effluxion of time.
If after such dissolution the House of Representatives again
passes the proposed law, with or without any amendments which
have been made, suggested, or agreed to by the Senate, and the
Senate rejects or fails to pass it, or passes it with
amendments to which the House of Representatives will not
agree, the Governor-General may convene a joint sitting of the
members of the Senate and of the House of Representatives. The
members present at the joint sitting may deliberate and shall
vote together upon the proposed law as last proposed by the
House of Representatives, and upon amendments, if any, which
have been made therein by one House and not agreed to by the
other, and any such amendments which are affirmed by an
absolute majority of the total number of the members of the
Senate and House of Representatives shall be taken to have
been carried, and if the proposed law, with the amendments, if
any, so carried is affirmed by an absolute majority of the
total number of the members of the Senate and House of
Representatives, it shall be taken to have been duly passed by
both Houses of the Parliament, and shall be presented to the
Governor-General for the Queen's assent.

58. When a proposed law passed by both Houses of the
Parliament is presented to the Governor-General for the
Queen's assent, he shall declare, according to his discretion,
but subject to this Constitution, that he assents in the
Queen's name, or that he withholds assent, or that he reserves
the law for the Queen's pleasure. The Governor-General may
return to the house in which it originated any proposed law so
presented to him, and may transmit therewith any amendments
which he may recommend, and the Houses may deal with the
recommendation.

59. The Queen may disallow any law within one year from the
Governor-General's assent, and such disallowance on being made
known by the Governor-General by speech or message to each of
the Houses of the Parliament, or by Proclamation, shall annul
the law from the day when the disallowance is so made known.

60. A proposed law reserved for the Queen's pleasure shall not
have any force unless and until within two years from the day
on which it was presented to the Governor-General for the
Queen's assent the Governor-General makes known, by speech or
message to each of the Houses of the Parliament, or by
Proclamation, that it has received the Queen's assent.