The Australia Acts (Request) Act 1985 records and gives legal effect to requests from the Parliament and Government of the State of Western Australia to the Commonwealth and to the United Kingdom to enact particular statutes that change the constitutional relationship between the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and the States. It does this by: (a) asking the Commonwealth Parliament to enact a text set out in the First Schedule (the Australia Act 1986 in substantially the same terms) (s 3 and First Schedule); (b) asking and consenting to the United Kingdom Parliament enacting a text set out in the Schedule to the Act contained in the Second Schedule (s 4); and (c) requesting and consenting to the Commonwealth Parliament enacting the text in the Second Schedule (s 5 and Second Schedule).
The substantive text requested in those Schedules (the operative content of the Australia Act 1986 and the Australia (Request and Consent) Act 1985 as reproduced in the Schedules) does the following, among other things:
terminates the power of the UK Parliament to legislate so that no UK Act passed after commencement will extend to the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory as part of their law (First Schedule, cl 1 / Second Schedule, cl 1);
declares that State parliaments have full power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the State with extra‑territorial operation and includes powers formerly exercisable by the UK Parliament for State government (First Schedule, cl 2 / Second Schedule, cl 2);
The Australia Acts (Request) Act 1985 (WA) is the legislative mechanism by which the State of Western Australia formally requested and consented to the enactment of two pivotal Commonwealth Acts and one United Kingdom Act that together severed the remaining constitutional links between Australia and the United Kingdom. The Act does not itself alter any law; rather, it provides the constitutional trigger required by section 51(xxxviii) of the Commonwealth Constitution, under which the Commonwealth Parliament may legislate at the request of all state parliaments. Section 3 of the Act requests the Commonwealth to enact an Act in the terms set out in the First Schedule, which is the Australia Act 1986. Section 4 requests and consents to the United Kingdom Parliament enacting an Act in the terms set out in the Schedule to the Act contained in the Second Schedule, which is the text of the UK Australia Act 1986. Section 5 requests and consents to the Commonwealth enacting an Act in the terms of the Second Schedule, which is the Australia (Request and Consent) Act 1985, a statute that itself requests and consents to the UK legislation. The practical effect is that Western Australia joined all other states in providing the requisite request that allowed the Commonwealth and the UK to pass the Australia Act 1986. That Act, which came into operation on 3 March 1986 at 5:00 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time, achieved several fundamental constitutional changes: it terminated the power of the UK Parliament to legislate for Australia (section 1), confirmed the full extraterritorial legislative competence of state parliaments (section 2), repealed the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865 (section 3), removed restrictions on state laws repugnant to UK law (section 3(2)), terminated Privy Council appeals from Australian courts (section 11), repealed parts of the Statute of Westminster 1931 (section 12), and ended the responsibility of the UK Government for state government (section 10). The Act also amended the Constitution Act 1889 of Western Australia and the equivalent Queensland Act to remove references to UK seals, signets, and instructions (sections 13 and 14 of the Australia Act 1986). The Western Australian request Act thus served as the constitutional foundation for the final step in Australia’s legal independence from the United Kingdom.
Current sections
Direct links to the current provisions in Australia Acts (Request) Act 1985.
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Authorised Version
The authorised version of this legislation is published by the jurisdiction's legislation service. Follow the link below to read or download it from the official source.
Sourced from the Western Australian Legislation website (legislation.wa.gov.au). Not the authorised version.
removes the application of the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865 to State laws made after commencement and provides that State laws will not be void for being repugnant to English law or UK Acts (First Schedule, cl 3 / Second Schedule, cl 3);
ends the ability of the UK government to disallow or suspend State Acts and the power to require governors to withhold assent or reserve Bills (First Schedule, cls 8–9 / Second Schedule, cls 8–9);
terminates the UK Government’s responsibility for the government of any State (First Schedule, cl 10 / Second Schedule, cl 10);
limits or abolishes appeals to Her Majesty in Council (Privy Council) from Australian courts after commencement, subject to limited transitional exceptions (First Schedule, cl 11 / Second Schedule, cl 11);
preserves the Commonwealth Constitution and the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act from being overridden by State Acts and limits State capacity to engage in foreign relations beyond what they had immediately before commencement (First Schedule, cl 5 / Second Schedule, cl 5);
requires any repeal or amendment of this Act or relevant parts of the Statute of Westminster to be made by the Commonwealth Parliament only at the request or with the concurrence of all State Parliaments (First Schedule, cl 15 / Second Schedule, cl 15).
Why the instrument says it was done
The preamble states the purpose: the Prime Minister and State Premiers agreed to take measures “to bring constitutional arrangements affecting the Commonwealth and the States into conformity with the status of the Commonwealth of Australia as a sovereign, independent and federal nation.” The Act implements that purpose by formally requesting the Commonwealth and United Kingdom Parliaments to enact the specified texts (Preamble; ss 3–5).
Testing that purpose against mechanics, costs and incentives (source‑grounded)
Who decides: the Act is a mechanism by which a State Parliament (here, Western Australia) requests action by the Commonwealth Parliament and the UK Parliament (ss 3–5; First and Second Schedules). After enactment, key decisions about appointment and removal of Governors remain with the Crown (s 7(3) preserves appointment/termination), while the State Premier is specified to tender advice to the Crown in relation to State matters (s 7(5)).
Who pays / who bears costs: the text contains no new taxes or fees. The concrete, foreseeable costs are administrative and legal: State and Commonwealth governments must implement changed procedures (for example, stopping reservation/disallowance mechanisms (ss 8–9)), and litigants and governments will adapt to removal of an external appellate route (s 11). The Act itself does not appropriate funds; any fiscal effects will be borne from existing budgets.
Compliance burden and discretion: the Act imposes procedural requirements on States for certain laws. A law of a State that changes the constitution, powers or procedure of a State Parliament has no effect unless it is made in the manner and form required by that State’s own law (s 6). That keeps procedural discretion with each State but conditions effectiveness on compliance with internal rules. The Act also constrains unilateral alteration of the Act’s text or the Statute of Westminster by requiring Commonwealth legislation to carry requests or concurrence of all States for repeal/amendment (s 15).
Effects on private choice, enterprise and contracts (mechanisms, not judgments): the Act changes primarily public constitutional arrangements. It can affect private parties indirectly by:
Removing the Privy Council as an appellate route for Australian court decisions after commencement (s 11). That alters the available remedies for parties engaged in litigation and may change legal strategy and costs for businesses and individuals who would otherwise have sought that appeal route.
Allowing States greater legislative scope, including extra‑territorial laws and laws not void for repugnancy to UK law (ss 2 and 3). This could, as a mechanical consequence, enable greater divergence between State law regimes that regulate business activity, contracts or property within each State. The Act explicitly preserves the Commonwealth Constitution and limits State foreign relations capacity (s 5( b ) and s 2(2)).
Trade‑offs and implementation risk: the instrument centralises final constitutional authority within Australian institutions rather than the UK. That reduces reliance on external UK legal instruments (e.g. Colonial Laws Validity Act and specific UK statutes listed) but requires domestic institutions to fill any governance or appellate gaps (ss 3, 11, 12). Transitional exceptions for appeals instituted before commencement are expressly preserved (s 11(4)).
Concentrated benefits / diffuse costs and capture risk: the Act benefits State Parliaments and the Commonwealth by expanding domestic legislative autonomy (ss 2–3, 8–10). Any broader distributional effects (for example, administrative burdens across multiple States or changes in litigation costs for private parties) are not quantified in the text; the Act contains mechanisms (s 15) that make later amendment harder, concentrating durability of these legal changes.
Bottom line (mechanical summary)
The Act formalises Western Australia’s request and consent for Commonwealth and UK legislation that removes UK legislative and appellate authority over Australia and expands State legislative autonomy, while preserving the Commonwealth Constitution and placing a high threshold on future amendments. The immediate legal effects created by the Schedules are removal of certain UK legal backstops (Colonial Laws Validity Act application, Privy Council appeals, UK disallowance/reservation of State laws) and confirmation of State power to make extra‑territorial laws, subject to procedural and constitutional limits (see ss 1–17 of the Schedules and ss 3–5 of this Act).
Main concepts
The core concept underlying the Australia Acts (Request) Act 1985 is the principle of sovereign, independent and federal nationhood. The preamble to the Act records that the Prime Minister and state Premiers at conferences in June 1982 and June 1984 agreed to take measures to bring constitutional arrangements into conformity with that status. The mechanism chosen was the request by each state parliament under section 51(xxxviii) of the Commonwealth Constitution, which empowers the Commonwealth to legislate on matters referred to it by state parliaments. The Act therefore embodies the concept of cooperative federalism: the Commonwealth could not unilaterally sever the remaining UK links because many of those links concerned the states directly - for example, the power of the UK Parliament to legislate for states, the operation of the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865, and the Crown’s prerogative powers over state governors. The concept of extraterritorial legislative power is central to the Australia Act 1986 as set out in the First Schedule: section 2(1) declares and enacts that state parliaments have full power to make laws with extraterritorial operation. This reversed the previous common law limitation that colonial legislatures could only legislate for their own territory. Another key concept is repugnancy: section 3(2) of the Australia Act provides that no state law made after commencement is void or inoperative because it is repugnant to the law of England or any UK Act. This abolished the doctrine that had constrained colonial legislatures since the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865. The Act also introduces the concept of manner and form requirements: despite the grant of full legislative power, section 6 of the Australia Act provides that any state law respecting the constitution, powers or procedure of its parliament is of no force or effect unless made in the manner and form required by a law of that parliament. This preserves state-level entrenchment provisions. The concept of the Governor as the Queen’s representative in each state is reinforced by section 7 of the Australia Act: all powers and functions of Her Majesty in respect of a state are exercisable only by the Governor, except the power to appoint or terminate the Governor. The Queen may exercise those powers when personally present in a state, but advice to Her Majesty on state matters is tendered by the Premier of that state, not by UK ministers. The termination of UK government responsibility for state matters (section 10) and the abolition of appeals to the Privy Council (section 11) complete the concept of full legal independence for the states as well as the Commonwealth.
Who it affects
The Australia Acts (Request) Act 1985 directly affects the constitutional relationship between the State of Western Australia, the Commonwealth of Australia, and the United Kingdom. Its most immediate effect was on the Commonwealth Parliament, which was requested to enact the Australia Act 1986. The Commonwealth did so: the Australia Act 1986 (Cth) No. 142 of 1985 received assent on 4 December 1985 and commenced on 3 March 1986. The Act also affected the UK Parliament, which was requested and consented to pass its own Australia Act 1986 (UK) 1986 Chapter 2, which received assent on 17 February 1986 and commenced on the same date. The effect on the states is profound: every state parliament now has full extraterritorial legislative competence (section 2), and no state law is void for repugnancy to UK law (section 3). The state governors are no longer subject to instructions from the UK government, and no bill requires reservation for the Queen’s pleasure (sections 8 and 9). The Australian judiciary is affected: section 11 of the Australia Act terminates all appeals to Her Majesty in Council from Australian courts, with limited savings for appeals instituted before commencement or leave granted before commencement. The High Court is not defined as an Australian court for the purposes of that section (section 16(1), definition of “Australian court” excludes the High Court), but the effect is that the High Court remains a potential avenue of appeal within Australia. All litigants who might have sought to appeal to the Privy Council are affected - after 3 March 1986, no such appeal lies. The merchant shipping sector is affected: sections 735 and 736 of the UK Merchant Shipping Act 1894 are repealed insofar as they are part of state law (section 4). The Queensland and Western Australian constitutions are specifically amended by the Australia Act (sections 13 and 14) to remove references to the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, the Signet, and the requirement for the Governor to conform to UK instructions. The Act also affects the Commonwealth Parliament’s future legislative power: section 15 of the Australia Act provides that the Australia Act 1986 and the Statute of Westminster 1931 may only be repealed or amended by a Commonwealth Act passed at the request or with the concurrence of all state parliaments, subject to any alteration to the Constitution under section 128. This means future Commonwealth governments must obtain state consent before altering these foundational independence documents.
Key duties and rights
The Australia Acts (Request) Act 1985 itself creates only one legal duty: the duty of the Parliament and Government of Western Australia to formally request and consent to the enactment of the specified Acts by the Commonwealth and the UK. That duty is executed by the passage of the Act itself. However, the Australia Act 1986, whose text is set out in the First Schedule and whose operative provisions are the real substance, creates a range of key rights and duties. The most significant right is the right of each state parliament to legislate with extraterritorial effect: section 2(1) declares and enacts that the legislative powers of each state parliament include full power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of that state that have extraterritorial operation. This overturned the previous limitation derived from colonial status. Section 2(2) further declares that state parliaments have all legislative powers that the UK Parliament might have exercised for the peace, order and good government of that state, though this does not confer capacity to engage in foreign relations. The right of state parliaments to repeal or amend any UK Act, order, rule or regulation insofar as it is part of state law is granted by section 3(2). A corresponding duty is placed on state parliaments by section 6: any law respecting the constitution, powers or procedure of the state parliament must be made in the manner and form required by a law of that parliament. This means that entrenched provisions in state constitutions cannot be amended by simple majority - the prescribed manner and form must be followed. The Governor of each state has the right to exercise all powers and functions of Her Majesty in respect of the state, subject only to the power to appoint or terminate the Governor (section 7(2)-(3)). The Premier of the state has the duty to tender advice to Her Majesty on those matters (section 7(5)). No law or instrument may require the Governor to withhold assent from a bill or to reserve a bill for the signification of Her Majesty’s pleasure (section 9). Litigants have the right not to have their appeals to the Privy Council heard after commencement, except for those instituted or for which leave was granted before commencement (section 11). The Commonwealth Parliament has the right to repeal or amend the Australia Act or the Statute of Westminster, but only if it obtains the request or concurrence of all state parliaments (section 15(1)). A corresponding duty is that any Commonwealth Act repugnant to the Australia Act or the Statute of Westminster is deemed an Act to repeal or amend it (section 15(2)). The Queen may exercise powers personally when present in a state, but the advice to Her Majesty is tendered by the Premier (section 7(4)-(5)).
Penalties and enforcement
The Australia Acts (Request) Act 1985 does not contain any penalty provisions, fines, or criminal offences. It is a constitutional enabling statute that operates at the level of legislative request and consent. The Australia Act 1986, which it requested, similarly does not create criminal penalties. However, it establishes legal consequences that function as enforcement mechanisms. Section 1 of the Australia Act provides that no UK Act passed after commencement extends to the Commonwealth, a state, or a territory as part of Australian law. Any purported UK legislation purporting to apply to Australia after 3 March 1986 is automatically of no force or effect in Australian law. Section 3(1) provides that the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865 does not apply to any state law made after commencement. The practical enforcement is self-operating: a court would not give effect to a state law that was challenged on the ground of repugnancy to UK law - the state law will stand. Conversely, section 6 provides that any state law concerning the constitution, powers or procedure of the state parliament is of no force or effect unless made in the required manner and form. This is a direct invalidity sanction - a court must strike down such a law if it fails to comply with the applicable manner and form requirements. Section 9 similarly provides that any law or instrument purporting to require the withholding of assent or reservation of bills is of no force or effect. Section 11(1) states that no appeal to Her Majesty in Council lies or shall be brought from any decision of an Australian court after commencement, and section 11(2) repeals the relevant UK enactments. Enforcement is judicial: if a party attempts to appeal to the Privy Council, an Australian court or the Privy Council itself would refuse to hear the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. The savings in section 11(4) preserve appeals instituted before commencement or those for which leave was granted before commencement, but the burden of proof would lie on the party asserting that the appeal falls within those savings. Section 15 provides that a Commonwealth Act repugnant to the Australia Act or the Statute of Westminster is deemed an Act to repeal or amend those instruments to the extent of the repugnancy. This does not invalidate the Commonwealth Act but subjects it to the requirement of state request or concurrence. The overall enforcement regime is constitutional and judicial, not administrative or penal.
How it interacts with other laws
The Australia Acts (Request) Act 1985 interacts with several other instruments at state, Commonwealth and UK level. The most significant interaction is with section 51(xxxviii) of the Commonwealth Constitution, which empowers the Commonwealth to make laws with respect to the exercise within the Commonwealth of any power which can at the commencement of the Constitution be exercised only by the UK Parliament, at the request or with the concurrence of all state parliaments. The Act is the mechanism by which Western Australia provided that request. The Act also interacts with the Statute of Westminster 1931, which had already granted legislative independence to the Commonwealth but had left certain restrictions on state parliaments in place. Section 12 of the Australia Act (in the First Schedule) repeals sections 4, 9(2) and (3) and 10(2) of the Statute of Westminster insofar as they are part of the law of the Commonwealth, a state or a territory. Section 5 of the Australia Act makes clear that sections 2 and 3(2) of the Australia Act are subject to the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act and the Constitution of the Commonwealth. This ensures that the grant of full state legislative power does not override the federal distribution of powers. The Act also interacts with the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865, which it renders inapplicable to state laws made after commencement (section 3(1) of the Australia Act). The Merchant Shipping Act 1894 is partially repealed by section 4 of the Australia Act. The Act directly amends the Constitution Act 1889 of Western Australia and the Constitution Act 1867-1978 of Queensland, removing references to the Great Seal of the United Kingdom and the Signet and omitting sections that required the Governor to conform to UK instructions (sections 13 and 14 of the Australia Act). The interpretation sections of the Australia Act (section 16) define key terms such as “Australian court” (excluding the High Court), “appeal to Her Majesty in Council”, and “State” (including a new state). The Act also provides in section 16(2) that the expression “a law made by that Parliament” in sections 6 and 9 includes, for Western Australia, the Constitution Act 1889. This means that the amendments made to the Constitution Act 1889 by section 14 are themselves part of the manner and form framework. The Act also interacts with the Australia (Request and Consent) Act 1985 (Cth) No. 143 of 1985, which is the Commonwealth Act that requested and consented to the UK Australia Act. That Act is set out in the Second Schedule to the Western Australian Act. Finally, the Act interacts with the UK Australia Act 1986, which was passed by the UK Parliament and is identical in substance to the Commonwealth Australia Act. The Western Australian Act ensures that both the Commonwealth and UK Acts were enacted with the lawful request of all states, making them constitutionally valid under UK as well as Australian law.
Amendment history
The Australia Acts (Request) Act 1985 has been amended only once since its enactment. The original Act was passed as No. 65 of 1985 and received Royal Assent on 6 November 1985, commencing on the same day. The amendment was made by the Standardisation of Formatting Act 2010 (No. 19 of 2010), which was assented to on 28 June 2010 and commenced on 11 September 2010. This amending Act made what appear to be formatting and stylistic changes, as indicated by the note in the preamble stating that the preamble was amended by section 50 of the 2010 Act, and headings to the First Schedule and Second Schedule were amended by section 4 of the 2010 Act. The specific changes are not detailed in the source text beyond the notation that the headings were amended and the preamble was amended. The Act has been reprinted twice: the first reprint was as at 12 July 2002, and the second reprint (the current one) is as at 15 January 2016, which includes the amendments made by the 2010 Act. The compilation table shows no other amendments. The Act is a short, single-purpose statute, so the limited amendment history is unsurprising. The primary substantive provisions - sections 1 to 5 - have remained unchanged since 1985. The schedules set out the full text of the requested Commonwealth Acts, which have their own amendment histories under Commonwealth law, but the Western Australian Act itself does not incorporate those amendments. The notes to the reprint also refer to the commencement dates of the Australia Act 1986 (Cth) and the Australia Act 1986 (UK). The Commonwealth Australia Act received assent on 4 December 1985 and commenced on 3 March 1986 at 5:00 a.m. GMT. The UK Australia Act received assent on 17 February 1986 and commenced on the same day and time, as fixed by the Australia Act 1986 (Commencement) Order 1986 (SI 1986/319). The Australia (Request and Consent) Act 1985 (Cth) received assent on 4 December 1985 and commenced on that day.
Litigation history
The source text does not refer to any specific litigation concerning the Australia Acts (Request) Act 1985 itself. As a purely enabling statute that performed a one-time act of request, it is unlikely to have been the subject of reported litigation. The Australia Act 1986, which the Act requested, has been the subject of significant constitutional litigation in the High Court of Australia, most notably in Sue v Hill (1999) 199 CLR 462, where the High Court held that Australia is a sovereign independent nation and that the UK is a foreign power for the purposes of section 44(i) of the Constitution. The Australia Act was central to that reasoning. However, the source text does not name any such case, and this deep dive is constrained to the source. The Act may have been cited in passing in cases concerning the validity of state legislation or the manner and form requirements under section 6 of the Australia Act, but no such cases are recorded in the text provided. The notes to the reprint include references to the gazettal dates and the Commencement Order for the UK Act, but no litigation references. Practitioners should be aware that the constitutional validity of the Australia Act 1986 itself has been affirmed by the High Court, and that the requesting Acts of the states, including this Western Australian Act, form part of the chain of validity. The question of whether the request satisfied section 51(xxxviii) has been examined by the High Court but no case is cited in the source. The absence of case references in the source does not mean the Act has no litigation history, but it means the source provides no such information. This deep dive must therefore note that the source contains no litigation history and that the Act is not itself litigated.
Gotchas
Several provisions in the Australia Acts (Request) Act 1985 and the Australia Act 1986 (as set out in the schedules) contain traps for the unwary practitioner or legislator. First, section 6 of the Australia Act provides that a state law respecting the constitution, powers or procedure of the state parliament is of no force or effect unless made in the manner and form required by a law of that parliament, whether made before or after commencement. This means that even after the grant of full legislative power, states may not alter their own constitutional structures by ordinary legislation if the existing manner and form requirements (such as a referendum or special majority) are not followed. This is a critical limitation on the otherwise plenary power granted by sections 2 and 3(2). Second, section 5 of the Australia Act provides that sections 2 and 3(2) are subject to the Commonwealth Constitution and do not give effect to any state law that would repeal, amend or be repugnant to the Australia Act itself, the Commonwealth Constitution Act, the Constitution of the Commonwealth, or the Statute of Westminster. This means the Australia Act is paramount over state law, and any inconsistent state law will be invalid to the extent of the inconsistency - but note the special amendment procedure for the Australia Act itself (section 15) which requires all state parliaments’ request or concurrence. Third, the definition of “Australian court” in section 16(1) of the Australia Act expressly excludes the High Court of Australia. This means that section 11, which terminates appeals to Her Majesty in Council, does not apply to decisions of the High Court. But in practice, no appeal lies from the High Court to the Privy Council anyway, as the High Court is the final court of appeal under the Constitution. The exclusion is technical. Fourth, section 7(4) of the Australia Act preserves the Queen’s power to exercise her functions when personally present in a state. This means that the Governor’s exclusive exercise of powers under section 7(2) is not absolute - the Queen can override when present in person. This is a residual Crown prerogative that could theoretically be invoked. Fifth, section 15(3) of the Australia Act provides that the restriction on amendment without all states’ concurrence does not limit powers conferred by an alteration to the Constitution under section 128. This means that if the Commonwealth Constitution is amended by referendum to give the Commonwealth power to alter the Australia Act unilaterally, the procedure in section 15(1) can be bypassed. Sixth, the interpretation provisions for Western Australia in section 16(2) provide that “a law made by that Parliament” in sections 6 and 9 includes the Constitution Act 1889. This means that manner and form requirements under the Constitution Act 1889 are captured by section 6. The amendments made to that Act by section 14 of the Australia Act are thus integrated into the manner and form framework.
How to comply
Compliance with the Australia Acts (Request) Act 1985 itself is straightforward: the Act was a single event. Once enacted and assented to on 6 November 1985 and proclaimed, its request obligations were met. There is no ongoing compliance requirement for that statute. However, the Australia Act 1986, which the Act requested, imposes enduring compliance requirements on state parliaments, the Commonwealth Parliament, state governors, and legal practitioners. State parliaments must ensure that any legislation respecting the constitution, powers or procedure of the state parliament complies with any applicable manner and form requirements. For Western Australia, this includes the requirements of the Constitution Act 1889 as amended by section 14 of the Australia Act. A bill that purports to amend the state constitution or alter the powers of parliament must be passed in the manner and form prescribed by existing law - for example, if a referendum is required, it must be held. Failure to do so renders the law of no force or effect by operation of section 6 of the Australia Act. State governors must not withhold assent from bills on the basis of any UK law or instrument, nor reserve bills for the signification of Her Majesty’s pleasure, as such requirements are of no force or effect under section 9. Governors must also accept that no power of disallowance exists after commencement (section 8). The Governor is the Queen’s representative for all state matters, and advice to the Queen is tendered by the Premier, not by UK ministers (section 7). The Commonwealth Parliament must not pass any Act that purports to repeal or amend the Australia Act or the Statute of Westminster unless it has obtained the request or concurrence of all state parliaments (section 15). However, if the Commonwealth obtains an alteration to the Constitution under section 128 that confers additional power, that power can be exercised without state consent. Legal practitioners must ensure that no appeal to the Privy Council is instituted after 3 March 1986 from any decision of an Australian court (as defined - excluding the High Court), unless it falls within the savings in section 11(4) for appeals instituted before commencement or those for which leave was granted before commencement. Practitioners should also note that the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865 does not apply to state laws made after 3 March 1986, so arguments based on repugnancy to UK law are no longer available. State legislation with extraterritorial effect should be drafted on the assumption that section 2(1) provides full power, but subject to the Commonwealth Constitution. For merchant shipping, sections 735 and 736 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 are repealed as part of state law, so reliance on those provisions is misplaced.