Australia reads like a variation on the Canadian theme: a federation of former British colonies, a written constitution, Westminster-style responsible government under the Crown, and a single final court at the top. The likeness is no accident — the framers of 1901 studied both the American and Canadian models closely.
The great difference is what Australia left out. Its constitution contains no general bill of rights. Rights protection rests on the common law, on ordinary statutes, and on a handful of freedoms the High Court has implied from the constitution's democratic structure.
The House of Representatives determines government, Westminster-style. The Senate — twelve senators per state, directly elected — is far more powerful than Canada's appointed chamber and routinely blocks or reshapes legislation. Voting in federal elections is compulsory.
The King is head of state, represented by the Governor-General, who acts on ministerial advice by convention. The reserve powers are real, and were famously used in 1975 to dismiss a government that could not pass supply.
The constitution lists federal subjects in section 51 and leaves the remainder to the states — the mirror image of Canada, where the residue is federal. Where laws conflict, section 109 makes the federal law prevail.
Each state keeps its own constitution, parliament and court system. The two mainland territories self-govern under federal statute — closer to Canada's territories than to its provinces.
Final court for every kind of case, state or federal, and the arbiter of the constitution. Appeals require special leave, granted sparingly. Its judges must retire at 70 — a limit added by referendum in 1977.
No national bill of rights exists, and referendums to add one have failed. The High Court has implied a freedom of political communication from the constitution's guarantee of representative government, and Victoria, Queensland and the ACT have enacted statutory human-rights acts — ordinary laws, not entrenched ones.
Unlike the United States, there are no separate state common laws: the High Court has held there is a single Australian common law, which it alone finally declares. State parliaments can still legislate differently on top of it.
High Court decisions bind every Australian court. The Court will reconsider its own precedents, but treats departure as exceptional.
Judges are appointed by governments from the senior profession, hold office to a retirement age, and are removable only for proved misbehaviour — the standard Westminster settlement, without elections or confirmation hearings.
The constitution guarantees jury trial for federal indictable offences (s 80), and the states use juries for serious crime. Civil juries survive mainly in defamation.
The comparator Canadian lawyers reach for first. Both countries federated the Westminster system, both kept Privy Council appeals long after independence, and their courts cite each other constantly — with the Charter the main point of divergence since 1982.