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Review of the Queensland Constitution - the History So Far

EARC: As noted on the State Constitutions page, the current process of review of the Queensland Constitution began when EARC (the Electoral and Administrative Review Commission) decided that it really had to conduct a review of the State Constitution before it could consider its job finished. The EARC Issues Paper and Report are not available electronically yet (I'm working on it), but the following reports of the various bodies that considered the matter are available on the Web.

Parliamentary Committee on Electoral and Administrative Reform ("PCEAR"): This briefly reviewed the EARC report on the Constitution before it too was wound up - see its Report (on EARC's Report on) Consolidation and Review of the Queensland Constitution (1994)

Legal Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee ("LCARC"): This was the more permanent replacement for "PCEAR", and continued the job. It produced an Interim report (1998) - which presented tentative conclusions but called for submissions from anyone who wanted to argue otherwise - and then a Final report (1999) into consolidation of the Queensland Constitution.

Queensland Constitutional Review Commission: Then, instead of acting on the LCARC Report the Premier decided to set up this Commission, and asked it to consider a wider range of issues than mere consolidation. It produced an Issues Paper (1999) and a Report (2000). As requested, it covers a broad range of constitutional issues, although again it recommended that consolidation be done quickly, and that the other issues be further considered once the State had a readable Constitution.

LCARC again: Then the matter went back to the LCARC. The Premier requested that LCARC quickly consider not only consolidation but also the matter of 4-year terms for the Parliament, so it produced a Position Paper on the QCRC's recommendations relating to consolidation, and a Background Paper on 4-year terms. After consideration, in 2000 it produced separate Reports on the QCRC's recommendations as to consolidation and 4-year terms. Any move towards 4-year terms has been postponed until a change can attract bi-partisan support (ie, indefinitely!), but the Constitution of Queensland 2001, almost identical to the one proposed in the "consolidation" report, was presented to Parliament and enacted in 2001, to commence on 6th June 2002.

For the next stage of the review, return to the State Constitutions page.

Written by John Pyke, with a little help from DiDa!. Posted 29th April 2002.