In speaking of the sacredness or otherwise of the constitution and people daring to change it, one should look at some of the men (there were no women) involved in writing it. Women’s suffrage and temperance organisations had made a deal with the constitutional patriarchs to be given the federal franchise soon after the parliament first met in 1900, but many feared that a direct mention of it before the vote on the constitution would turn voters off.
First up, three colonial politicians had to be appointed as commissioners to negotiate the passage of the constitution through the British Houses of Parliament – that is one further interesting wrinkle: that our constitution needed to be an act of British parliament! These notable men were sent to London to midwife the Federation Act through the British Houses. One was Edmund Barton from New South Wales: a man besotted with cricket, a magnetic but lazy lawyer whose nickname, “Toby”, was – despite his brilliance – frequently combined with “Tosspot”. He was always in debt and needed the job as a commissioner. He was, as you see, a man admired but hardly the God of the Old Testament.
