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The term "external affairs" was used in section 51(xxix) rather than "foreign affairs" to make it clear that relations with the United Kingdom and other parts of the British Empire were intended to be included. When the Australian Constitution was created in 1901, the United Kingdom and its possessions were not conceived of as "foreign" to ...
Section 51(xxix) of the Australian Constitution, which simply states that the Parliament has power to make laws with respect to "external affairs" (a term which is left undefined), was put forward as an alternative source of authority for the Act. The Commonwealth in a submission argued that since the Act gave effect to Australia's ...
The incidental power (xxxix) allows the Commonwealth to act on matters 'incidental' any power of the constitution. Most notably this includes section 61 of the constitution, which vests the Australian Government with Executive Power. As a result, it is one of the most important sections in practice.
Polyukhovich v The Commonwealth [1991] HCA 32; (1991) 172 CLR 501, commonly referred to as the War Crimes Act Case, was a significant case decided in the High Court of Australia regarding the scope of the external affairs power in section 51(xxix) of the Constitution and the judicial power of the Commonwealth.
The principal argument of the Government of Australia is that the legislation is supported by Section 51(xx) of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1901, commonly known as "the corporations power", which gives the Parliament of Australia the power to make laws with respect to "foreign corporations, and trading or financial ...
Section 24: Constitution of House of Representatives in Australia; Section 25: Provision as to races disqualified from voting; Section 26: Representatives in first Parliament; Section 27: Alteration of number of members; Section 28: Duration of House of Representatives; Section 29: Electoral divisions; Section 30: Qualification of electors
Because of the wide scope of the external affairs power, section 51(xxx) has remained largely unused, though it was considered in Ruhani v Director of Police [2] (a case which dealt with the High Court of Australia's ability to hear appeals from the Supreme Court of Nauru) and was held obiter as being "conferred for reasons entirely unrelated to judicial power".
The division of powers between the Australian federal government and the individual state governments are defined mainly by section 51 of the Australian constitution. The federal government had taken a range of actions, which they claimed were authorised under specific subsections of section 51. The Tasmanian government disputed these claims.