There is no shortage of comparative articles addressing the legal, political, social and economic similarities between Canada and Australia. This is hardly surprising. Apart from their common British colonial heritage, the two countries share a number of other features conducive to such comparative studies. For example: federal political systems; long standing, national economic affluence; and large, sparsely populated, national territories. Perhaps less common are articles primarily stressing differences between the two countries. This paper is in this latter category.

The thesis advanced is that the real political differences (in a federal structure sense) between Canada and Australia are striking and growing. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that the explanation for this lies, principally, in the significant social, economic, cultural and political variations in each country. In Part 2 of the article, there is a sketch of the extent of some of these underlying, fundamental differences. Part 3 reviews several perspectives on the Constitutions of Canada and Australia.

It could hardly be disputed that the fundamental issue in Australian constitutional law and theory is federalism. Federalism is the keystone of the Australian constitutional system, and is the battleground over which most of the great conflicts in Australian constitutional law have been fought. Nor could it plausibly be denied that the absolute basis of Australian federalism is the continued existence of the States. What makes Australia ‘federal’ is the presence of two separate spheres of government, each with its own organs, powers and functions, the Commonwealth and the States. Whatever other features of the Australian constitutional system might safely be dispensed with without endangering the title ‘federal’, there can be little doubt that the abolition of the States would involve the termination of federalism within Australia.

The present article, then, is concerned with an issue which goes to the heart of Australian federalism — the abolition of the States which collectively go to make up the federation itself.