The Constitution Act Further Amendment Act 1881, No. 236 of 1881, long title "An Act to further amend "The Constitution Act"", was an act of the government of South Australia to amend the Constitution of South Australia. [1] Its purpose was to amend the terms of the Constitution Act 1856 in order to increase the size of the Legislative Council of South Australia from 18 to 24 members, and also to divide the province into four electoral districts each to elect six of the members.
The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or Her Majesty’s Government is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. The Government of South Australia, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, was formed in 1856 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended from time to time. Since the Federation of Australia in 1901, South Australia has been a state of the Commonwealth of Australia, and the Constitution of Australia regulates its relationship with the Commonwealth. Under the Australian Constitution, South Australia ceded legislative and judicial supremacy to the Commonwealth, but retained powers in all matters not in conflict with the Commonwealth.
The principles of the current Constitution of South Australia, also known as the South Australian Constitution, which includes the rules and procedures for the government of the State of South Australia, are set out in the Constitution Act 1934.
It also introduced a process for resolving deadlock between the two houses of parliament. It repealed section 8 of the Constitution Act and section 3 of the Electoral Districts Act 1872 (Act no 27 of 1872) which had required the Legislative Council to be elected from one electoral district.
The Electoral Districts Act 1872 was an act of the Government of South Australia. It increased the size of the House of Assembly to 46 members and defined the boundaries of the districts which elected them. It repealed sections 3 and 4 of the Electoral Act 1861. The Legislative Council continued to be elected by a single electoral district over the entire Province of South Australia. It was to take effect only from the next time the House of Assembly was dissolved or expired.
The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the House of Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.
An immediate consequence of the new act was a special election in 1882 for the whole Province of South Australia to elect six new members to increase the size of the Council from 18 to 24 members. The transition arrangements were that at the expiration of three, six and nine years, the eight longest-serving members elected by the whole Province would retire, and each new district would elect two members to replace them; if any vacancy arose such as due to death or resignation, one district in rotation would elect the replacement. Members were elected for nine years, with two from each district to retire every three years. Quorum was set at nine members.
A special election was held on 29 May 1882 in South Australia to increase the size of the Legislative Council from 18 to 24 members. The change in size of the council was a consequence of the Constitution Act Further Amendment Act 1881 which had been passed the previous year.
The history of South Australia includes the history of the Australian state of South Australia since Federation in 1901, and the area's preceding Indigenous and British colonial societies. Aboriginal Australians of various nations or tribes have lived in South Australia for at least thirty thousand years, while British colonists arrived in the 19th century to establish a free colony. The South Australia Act, 1834 created the Province of South Australia, built according to the principles of systematic colonisation, with no convict settlers; after the colony nearly went bankrupt, the South Australia Act 1842 gave the British Government full control of South Australia as a Crown Colony. After some amendments to the form of government in the intervening years, South Australia became a self-governing colony in 1857 with the ratification of the Constitution Act 1856, and the Parliament of South Australia was formed.
It was superseded by the Constitution Act Amendment Act 1901 , when Australia became a federation of states, which reduced the size of the legislative council from 24 back to 18 members.
The Constitution Act Amendment Act 1901, No. 779 of 1901, long title "An Act to amend the Constitution", was an act which amended the Constitution of South Australia. Its effect was to reduce the size of the Parliament of South Australia following the Federation of Australia.
