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The referendum of 13 April 1910 approved an amendment to the Australian constitution. Technically it was a vote on the Constitution Alteration (State Debts) Act, 1909, which after being approved in the referendum received the Royal Assent on 6 August. Upon the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia, the federal government was given the power to assume any pre-existing debts held by the state governments at that time. The Act altered Section 105 of the Constitution to extend this power so that the Commonwealth could take over any debts incurred by a state at any time. On the same day the referendum was held on the state debts amendment, a proposed surplus revenue amendment was also put to the electorate but was defeated. The referendums were held on the same day as the 1910 federal election, which Alfred Deakin's Commonwealth Liberal Party lost to Andrew Fisher's Labour Party, with Fisher being sworn in as Prime Minister on 29 April. ==Overview== Ensuring the future financial good health of the states was a matter of great importance to the writers of the constitution, and they worked hard to produce a workable Finance and Trade chapter (Chapter IV). Two important provisions of the chapter were Section 87, which required the return of surplus tariff funds to the states, and Section 105, which provided for the Commonwealth to take over State debts that existed at the time of Federation. By the end of the Commonwealth's first decade it was clear that Chapter IV had serious flaws, and in 1910 attempts were made to amend Sections 87 and 105. In mid-1909, Alfred Deakin succeeded Andrew Fisher as Prime Minister for what would be his third and final time. Impetus had built in recent years for changes to state-federal financial relations, and Deakin made several important administrative decisions on this matter. Negotiations between Deakin, Forrest and state premiers produced the financial agreement of 1909, which gave the states per capita grants of 25 shillings annually.〔Norris, R (1981). ''Alfred Deakin'' in ''Australian Dictionary of Biography''. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.〕 Deakin proposed two constitutional amendments at the 1910 ballot to ratify these administrative changes, though the second question was much more pressing than the first. It failed, but in practice the agreement determined Commonwealth-State financial arrangements until 1927. The first question on the state debts proposal dealt with a perceived need to expand the operation of Section 105 to allow the Commonwealth to take over state debts whenever they were incurred.〔Bennett, Scott (2003). ''(Research Paper no. 11 2002–03: The Politics of Constitutional Amendment )'' Australian Department of the Parliamentary Library, Canberra.〕 The state debts amendment was carried by a 'yes' vote of approximately 55 per cent, with only New South Wales in opposition. According to a historian of the Loan Council, this indicated that the nation had "decisively favoured a scheme on the basis of s. 105 to relieve the States of some of their financial burden".〔Gilbert, R (1973). ''The Australian Loan Council in Federal Fiscal Adjustments, 1890–1965''. ANU Press, Canberra. p.423〕 Despite the smooth passage of the amendment, it would be more than a decade before the specifically endowed powers would be used. However, the state debts amendment was important in giving greater potential flexibility to Chapter IV of the constitution, and became an important aspect of federal-state intergovernmental financial relations.〔Mathews, R. and Jay, W. (1972) ''Federal Finance. Intergovernmental financial relations in Australia since Federation''. Nelson, Melbourne, pp. 65–122.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Australian referendum, 1910 (State Debts)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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