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Source 7.77. “Australia in the Empire” extract from The modern world emerges
(Lawrence et al., 1986, p. 332)
Although not overtly articulated, The modern world emerges (Lawrence et al., 1986), does
allude to the different perspectives held by Australians on whether Australia should pass
legislation that ensured its independence, or whether it should remain as a dominion.
Demonstrative of the conservatism of Australia-as-a-whole, perhaps owing to a lack of
cultural confidence, in severing ties with Great Britain, it took ten years after the British
parliament “…passed as law the policy of the Balfour Declaration…known as the Statue of
Westminster” (Lawrence et al., 1986, p. 332) for the legislation to be presented to the
Australian parliament, at which time it was passed. The different perspectives it alludes to
incorporate those who wanted to separate from Great Britain as expressed by the following
statements “…Scullin attempted to have the Statute of Westminster passed in parliament in
1931, but his government fell before this was achieved… [and]…a Labor government had it
passed in parliament in 1941”; vis-à-vis with the following statement: “The following Lyons
government was not interested in passing what it considered an unnecessary law. They felt
that rushing the bill through parliament was an insult to Britain” (Lawrence et al., 1986, p.
332). This emotional connection between Great Britain and Australia exists in contemporary
history too, with the failure of the 1999 Referendum to create an Australian Republic.
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