What it does
The Succession to the Crown (Request) Act 2013 (Vic) is a formal instrument by which the Parliament of Victoria requests the Commonwealth Parliament to legislate on royal succession and marriage under section 51(xxxviii) of the Australian Constitution. That head of power allows the Commonwealth to exercise a power that was within the capacity of the British Parliament prior to federation, provided all state parliaments request the legislation. This Act is therefore a necessary procedural step to give the Commonwealth the constitutional authority to change succession laws uniformly across Australia.
Mechanically, the Act does three things. First, section 5 formally requests the Commonwealth to enact an Act in the terms (or substantially in the terms) set out in Schedule 1. That schedule contains the full text of what became the Commonwealth Succession to the Crown Act 2013. Second, the Act makes consequential amendments to two Victorian statutes through Schedule 2: the Crimes Act 1958 and the Imperial Acts Application Act 1980. These remove references to gender and to disqualifications based on marrying a Roman Catholic, and repeal the surviving Victorian reception of the Royal Marriages Act 1772. Third, section 7 provides that any reference in Victorian law to the Bill of Rights or the Act of Settlement (on succession matters) must now be read as including references to this Act and the Commonwealth Act. That interpretive rule ensures that existing statutory references to the old succession rules are automatically updated without requiring individual amendment of every Victorian Act that mentions them.
The Act does not itself change succession to the Crown. That substantive change is effected by the Commonwealth Act once enacted. The Victorian Act merely creates the constitutional preconditions for that Commonwealth Act and aligns Victorian statute law with the new rules. It also includes section 4, which declares that the Act is not intended to affect the relationship between the Sovereign and the State as it existed immediately before enactment. This is a standard savings clause to avoid any implication that requesting succession changes somehow alters the Sovereign’s constitutional position in Victoria.