Section 41 of the Australian Constitution is a provision of the

Constitution of Australia The Constitution of Australia (or Australian Constitution) is a written constitution, constitutional document that is Constitution, supreme law in Australia. It establishes Australia as a Federation of Australia, federation under a constitutio ...

which states:

Right of electors of States 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.

Women's suffrage

At the time that the Australian Constitution was drafted, South Australia was the only state which allowed women to vote. The drafters feared that if the Constitution did not allow South Australian women to vote in federal elections, they would vote against

federalism Federalism is a combined or compound mode of government that combines a general government (the central or "federal" government) with regional governments (Province, provincial, State (sub-national), state, Canton (administrative division), can ...

. Section 41 therefore would allow South Australian women to vote in federal elections, without conferring the vote on women who were not yet allowed to vote in the other states.

Related High Court decisions

King v Jones ''King 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 ...

: 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 Sipka ''R v Pearson; Ex parte Sipka'',. was a landmark 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 ...

: The section is only provisional; rights acquired after the passage of the

Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 The ''Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902'' was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which defined a uniform national criteria of who was entitled to vote in Australian federal elections. The Act established, in time for the 1903 Australian feder ...

are not protected. In essence, there is no constitutional right to vote in Commonwealth elections.

References

Australian constitutional law Election law in Australia {{Australia-law-stub