Australia is a federation consisting of nine jurisdictions: the national or Commonwealth Government,
six states and two mainland territories. The jurisdictions most relevant for this case study are Western
Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. The cross border region where the South
Australia - Northern Territory border meets the Western Ausralian border is generally referred to as
Central Australia and is typically an arid desert area with small populations.
In most respects, the territories function similarly to the states, but the Commonwealth Parliament can
override any legislation of their parliaments. By contrast, federal legislation overrides state legislation
only with respect to certain areas as set out in Section 51of the Constitution; all residual legislative
powers are retained by the state parliaments, including powers over hospitals, education, police, the
judiciary, roads, public transport and local government. Until 1967, the Constitution expressly
prevented the Commonwealth from being able to legislate for the benefit of Indigenous peoples, as
this was excluded from their heads of power under s.51 (xxvi) of the Constitution. However, on
27 May 1967, a referendum of the Australian people voted to remove that impediment to equal
treatment under the law.
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høndtag Australia's Indigenous Opal
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