You have been told that your Australian Constitution was drafted by “Elites” and imposed on you. This is entirely false. Again it was a claim made by our enemies.
Our Founding Fathers were all chosen directly by Colonial Individuals who at times placed them under great pressure to do so. This was because initially those representatives served for long periods without financial compensation whatsoever.
Yes, the original Parliamentarians during Colonial times worked long hours for free, because it was an Honour to Serve their Colonies.
Many complained they could not afford to take time off work to devote themselves to representing their Colonies in the Parliaments as Parliamentarians.
In Australia, both the Federation and the Constitution debates relating to the Australian Constitution encouraged the press and public to attend. This was not done in America during the drafting of the American Constitution.
In Australia, the public and press were invited to come to witness the debates. Invited press were encouraged to widely report the proceedings.
Again, let us reflect on 6th June 1891 when Founding Father Mr. Barton during the Constitution Debates stated:
“I hope that I am at any rate acting in the spirit in which we all labour together, and that the result of our labour will be to found a state of high and august aims, working by the eternal principles of justice and not to the music of bullets, and affording an example of freedom, political morality, and just action to the individual, the state and the nation which will one day be the envy of the world.”
The debates attracted a great deal of attention throughout the decade. By the time Australians were asked to vote for or against the Constitution, most Colonial Australians had a far superior knowledge of it than most all Australians do today.
The process invited transparency and actively encouraged public engagement and the representatives taking part in the debates on behalf of their Colonies wished to demonstrate their accountability.
Before we dive into why Australia should indeed be the envy of the World, let me explain what Australia is not. Some Australians are not aware of the significant differences between us and the United States of America or the United Kingdom.
Part 17 – Brilliant scholars and hard working ordinary Australians drafted it
Our favourite most well known Founding Father was Henry Parkes. He had directly experienced the horror of living under the Monarchy as a child.
His Parents were both illiterate tenant farmers on the farm of a “minor royal” ( Lord Leigh’s Estate) in Coventry, England.
During the Industrial Revolution Henry’s illiterate hard working parents were replaced by ploughs in the fields.
The Parkes Family lost their small farm. They became destitute when he was a child. Due to his parents’ poor physical shape from their years of hard labour they found themselves unemployable.
Such adults were slower than the child labourers in England who were in plentiful supply.
Young children competed to survive as cheap labour workers in the workhouses and factories of the slums of England.
Before he was nine (9) years of age, Henry Parkes secured work with other poor children who were lucky enough to be able to provide for their destitute Parents and themselves.
It must be remembered there was no such thing as social security.
People did starve to death for want of work.
Henry worked first doing hard labour in a brick factory, later building roads and at a heavy industry rope factory in the slums of England.
He would suffer the physical pains of his harsh “childhood” for the rest of his life.
As a young man, Henry Parkes immigrated to Australia with his beloved Wife Clarinda in 1839. He worked as a labourer. He dedicated himself in his spare time to educating himself, reading and developing the education that his Parents had never had.
Henry Parkes wanted to create the Heaven on Earth in this new land, full of hope, potential and something unlike the horrors that had been created by Dishonourable Men, the wars, the greed, the poverty and the suffering that was rife in England and America, and it seemed everywhere else in the World. He became a much-respected orator.
The high level of respect he held in his community led him to be called upon as a representative of the people.
As a poet, he became the voice of the “hopes and wishes” of all Colonial Australians for their future, and those of their children and of all future Australians of “generations yet born”.
Henry died with many public accolades for his dedicated years of Service to Australia, but he was at no stage a wealthy man. He died in near poverty.