Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Shadow Treasurer) | Link to this | Hansard source

On 9 May 1901, beneath the great dome of Melbourne's Exhibition Building, Australia's first Commonwealth parliament was opened. It was a moment of ceremony, confidence and national ambition. More than 12,000 people gathered to witness the Duke of Cornwall and York declare open the parliament of a new nation, a parliament created not by revolution but by consent, debate and democratic choice. Only months earlier, on 1 January 1901, the Australian Constitution had come into effect. Six colonies had become one Commonwealth. Edmund Barton had been commissioned as Australia's first prime minister, Lord Hopetoun had been sworn in as our first governor-general, and in March 1901 Australians went to the polls for the first federal election.

That election was itself an extraordinary undertaking. There were 75 seats in the House of Representatives and 36 seats in the Senate; 181 candidates contested the House, and 127 contested the Senate. Voting was not compulsory, electoral laws differed between the states, and party structures were still emerging, yet from that imperfect beginning came one of the world's most enduring democracies. The first parliament was asked to do nothing less than build the machinery of a nation: a high court, a national defence force, a federal public service, national electoral laws, industrial arbitration, trade and commerce arrangements and a future capital city. It had to turn Federation from an idea into a functioning Commonwealth.

Western Australia's role in that story was distinctive and significant. WA had only joined the federation after a fierce debate. It was geographically distant, economically different and still deeply conscious of its isolation from the eastern colonies, yet Western Australians sent five members to the first House of Representatives and six senators to the first Senate. Sir John Forrest, a great Western Australian explorer and former premier, was elected unopposed as the member for Swan and became a minister in Barton's first government. James Fowler represented Perth, John Kirwan represented Kalgoorlie, Hugh Mahon represented Coolgardie, and Elias Solomon represented Fremantle. In the Senate, Western Australia was represented by Hugh de Largie, Norman Ewing, Edward Harney, Alexander Matheson, George Pearce and Staniforth Smith. They carried with them the voices of a vast state still separated from the rest of the continent by distance, by sea and by desert.

For Western Australian parliamentarians, Federation came with a sacrifice. Before the Trans-Australian Railway was completed in 1917, members and senators from Western Australia travelled to Melbourne by sea—a four-day voyage, often out of sight of land. Sir John Forrest put it plainly in 1907, when debating the Trans-Australian Railway. He said:

My home over there is deserted and almost desolate. I visit it and see my old friends but once a year. The other honorable members from Western Australia are in very much the same position. There is no going back home on Saturday and returning to Melbourne on Tuesday for us. We have to live in lodgings in this city all the session. The object of Federation is to try to do good to every one in Australia, to build up a common feeling for the country, to create an Australian sentiment. But there can be no such feeling whilst Western Australia is separated and isolated from the rest of the Continent as she is to-day.

The tyranny of distance shaped Western Australia's federal experience from the very beginning. It reminded the new parliament that national unity could not simply be declared; it had to be built—through transport, communications, fairness and respect for every state, especially those furthest from the temporary capital.

The Senate was central to that compact. Each original state was given equal representation, ensuring Western Australia retained a strong voice despite its smaller population. It was Federation in practice: the people represented in the House and the states represented in the Senate.

The first Commonwealth parliament sat in Melbourne because the Constitution required parliament to meet there until a permanent capital was chosen. Of course, it would not move to Canberra until 1927, but the foundations laid in Melbourne were profound.

Sue Lines (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

We're still living in lodgings when we're over here! Senator Smith, you'll be in continuation.