Social Welfare in Australia: The Constitutional Framework

Abstract

In an examination of the Commonwealth Government's power to enact social welfare legislation, Professor Sackville explores the tendency toward federal control of this field since 1901 and the judicial reaction to it. His conclusion is that although certain of the restrictions imposed upon Commonwealth freedom of action by the High Court have been removed by constitutional amendment, the trend towards a wider concept of Commonwealth involvement in community welfare schemes may well exceed the present limits upon Commonwealth legislative competence; and he looks to the Constitutional Convention now in progress as the possible prelude to an era in which extension of these limits might more readily take place.