Section 41 of the Australian Constitution
Encyclopedia
Section 41 of the Australian Constitution is a provision of the Constitution of Australia
which states that "no adult person who has or acquires a right to vote at elections for the more numerous House of the Parliament of a State shall, while the right continues, be prevented by any law of the Commonwealth from voting at elections for either House of the Parliament of the Commonwealth."
Constitution of Australia
The Constitution of Australia is the supreme law under which the Australian Commonwealth Government operates. It consists of several documents. The most important is the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia...
which states that "no adult person who has or acquires a right to vote at elections for the more numerous House of the Parliament of a State shall, while the right continues, be prevented by any law of the Commonwealth from voting at elections for either House of the Parliament of the Commonwealth."
Related High Court decisions
- King v JonesKing v JonesKing v Jones was an Australian court case decided in the High Court of Australia on 1 September 1972. It concerned section 41 of the Australian Constitution, and whether that section gave a person who had the right to vote in elections in South Australia the right to vote in elections at a federal...
: The words "adult person" are fixed with the same meaning they had when the Constitution came into effect, that is, they refer to persons over the age of 21, no matter the contemporary interpretation. - R v Pearson; Ex parte SipkaR v Pearson; Ex parte SipkaR v Pearson; Ex parte Sipka was an important Australian court case decided in the High Court of Australia on 24 February 1983. It concerned section 41 of the Australian Constitution, and the question of whether four people eligible to vote in New South Wales could be prevented from voting at the...
: The section is only provisional; rights acquired after the passage of the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902The Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which defined who was allowed to vote in Australian federal elections. The Act granted Australian women the right to vote at a national level, and to stand for election to the Parliament...
are not protected. In essence, there is no constitutional right to vote in Commonwealth elections