Succession to the Crown: A National Initiative in Australia

On 26 March 2015, new succession laws came into effect across the Queen’s Realms to change the rules of succession to the throne, with retrospective application back to 2011. Males are no longer favoured over females, so that an older sister will become sovereign ahead of her younger brother. In further changes, a person will also not lose his or her right to succession to the throne for marrying a Catholic.

Changes Required in All the Queen's Realms

Agreement was reached by the prime ministers of the 16 Commonwealth realms during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in October 2011 in Perth, Western Australia concerning changes to the royal succession laws.

However, to update these laws is a much more onerous task across the 16 realms in which Queen Elizabeth II is still the head of state. Australia took the approach of consulting the states and co-operating with them to achieve a constitutionally effective change. It used a fairly obscure constitutional provision, which allows the Commonwealth to legislate, at the request of all the states directly concerned, to do something that only the UK Parliament could have done at federation (that is, change the rules of succession to the throne).

Over the past two years, each state has enacted its own legislation, requesting the Commonwealth to enact the law to implement these changes. Western Australia was the last state to pass its request Act earlier this year and the Commonwealth has now passed its law. All of these laws are being brought into effect simultaneously across the realms and this date of effect was 26 March 2015 at exactly 11am Australian Eastern Daylight Time.

Part of National Uniform Legislation Requirements

In Australia, these laws have been passed as part of national uniform legislation. National Uniform legislation is a type of legislation brought about by agreement between the Commonwealth and state and territory executive governments in intergovernmental agreements.

National Uniform legislation is composed of  three types of legislation:

1. National Applied laws (or template legislation) - legislation enacted in one jurisdiction and applied (as in force from time to time) by other participating jurisdictions as a law of those other jurisdictions; and
2. National Model Legislation - legislation that is drafted as model legislation and that is enacted in participating jurisdictions as a mirror act (with any local variations that are necessary to achieve the agreed uniform national policy when the legislation forms part of the local law); and
3. Legislation of the States referring legislative power to the Commonwealth.

In this case, the new Succession laws form part of the third aspect of national uniform legislation, where the States have referred part of their power to the Commonwealth to review and amend royal succession laws while also implementing the necessary laws at State level.

The Australian Succession Laws

In Australia, the Commonwealth has passed the Succession to the Crown Act 2015 (No. 23 of 2015). This Act changes the law relating to the effect of gender and marriage on Royal succession consistently with changes being made to that law in the United Kingdom. These changes ensure that the same person is the Sovereign of Australia and of the United Kingdom. The Act gives effect to Australia’s commitment to change the rules on succession to the Crown in accordance with the agreement of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth Realms of which Her Majesty the Queen is Head of State, on 28 October 2011.

This was followed by the States enacting the following laws in response:

• Succession to the Crown (Request) Act 2013 (No. 53 of 2013) (NSW);

• Succession to the Crown (Request) (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2013 (No. 30 of 2013) (NT);

• Succession to the Crown Act 2013 (No. 22 of 2013) (QLD);

• Succession to the Crown (Request) Act 2014 (No. 3 of 2014) (SA);

• Succession to the Crown (Request) Act 2013 (No. 33 of 2013) (TAS);

• Succession to the Crown (Request) Act 2013 (No. 60 of 2013) (VIC); and

• Succession to the Crown Act 2015 (No. 5 of 2015) (WA).

The Northern Territory government introduced their Act to request the Federal Parliament to change the law relating to royal succession in similar terms to the States. On second reading, it was explained that the Northern Territory’s request or consent to the Federal Parliament enactment was not constitutionally necessary but that the government of the Northern Territory considered it desirable that arrangements in the Northern Territory would mirror those between the Australian Commonwealth and its states. This is also the reason why no such Act exists for the Australian Capital Territory.

Western Australia was the last State to pass its Act earlier in 2015 which makes Australia the last realm to complete its legislation changes from the 2011 Perth Meeting.

TimeBase is an independent, privately owned Australian legal publisher specialising in the online delivery of accurate, comprehensive and innovative legislation research tools including LawOne and unique Point-in-Time Products.

The Conversation Article

Succession to the Crown Acts as reproduced in TimeBase LawOne but especially the Succession to the Crown Act 2015 (No. 23 of 2015) (Cth)