2013

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF THE
NORTHERN TERRITORY

CHIEF MINISTER

SUCCESSION TO THE CROWN (REQUEST) (NATIONAL UNIFORM LEGISLATION) BILL 2013
SERIAL NO. 39

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

GENERAL OUTLINE

The Preamble to the Bill provides some historical background about the decision to alter the law of Royal succession in Australia.

The proposed changes are:

·	to provide that for all Royal births occurring after 28 October 20II Royal succession is not dependent on gender, so that a girl is no longer displaced from her place in the line of succession to the throne by a younger brother;

·	to remove the disqualification of a person who marries a Roman Catholic from becoming or remaining monarch; and 

·	to repeal the Royal Marriages Act 1772 of the United Kingdom which (with some exceptions) makes void the marriages of any descendants of King George II who marry without the Sovereign’s consent, and to instead provide that the first 6 people in the line of succession must obtain the consent of Her Majesty to marry failing which they and their descendants are disqualified from succeeding to the Crown.

All States and the Northern Territory have agreed to request that the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia enact legislation under section 51(xxxviii) of the Constitution of the Commonwealth to give effect to the changes to the law of Royal succession in Australia, consistently with changes made to that law in the United Kingdom, so that the Sovereign of Australia is the same person as the Sovereign of the United Kingdom.

NOTES ON CLAUSES

Clause 1.	Short Title

The clause provides that the Bill when enacted may be cited as the Succession to the Crown (Request) (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2013.

Clause 2.	Object of this Act

The clause establishes that the main object of the Act is to facilitate the law relating to the effect of gender and marriage on royal succession being changed uniformly across Australia and consistently with changes made to that law in the United Kingdom so that the Sovereign of Australia is the same person as the Sovereign of the United Kingdom.

Clause 3.	Relationship with Sovereign not affected

The clause provides that it is not the intention of the Act to affect the relationship between the Sovereign and the Northern Territory as existing immediately before its enactment or that the relationship be affected by the enactment of the proposed Commonwealth Act set out in the Schedule to the Bill.

Clause 4.	Request for Commonwealth legislation

The clause provides that the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory requests enactment by the Parliament of the Commonwealth of an Act in the terms, or substantially in the terms, set out in the Schedule to the Bill.

Schedule.	Requested Commonwealth legislation

The Schedule contains the text of the proposed Commonwealth Act that the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory is requesting the Commonwealth Parliament to enact.

The Schedule text has been agreed by all states, mainland territories and the Commonwealth.

Part 1 - Preliminary

Proposed Clause 1.	Short Title

Sets out that when enacted, the proposed Commonwealth Act may be cited as the Succession to the Crown Act 2013.

Proposed Clause 2.	Commencement

The clause provides for the proposed Commonwealth Act to commence on the date of Royal Assent apart from Parts 2, 3, 4 and Schedule 1.

Parts 2, 3, 4 and Schedule 1, which contain the provisions giving effect to the agreed changes to the law of Royal succession, commence on a time and day to be fixed by Proclamation.  The intention is for these provisions commence at the same time as the same provisions in the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 (UK) commence and that the changes are given effect simultaneously across the sixteen Realms.

Proposed Clause 3.	Object of This Act

The clause establishes that the main object of the proposed Commonwealth Act is to change the law relating to the effect of gender and marriage on royal succession, consistently with changes made to that law in the United Kingdom, so that the Sovereign of Australia is the same person as the Sovereign of the United Kingdom

Proposed Clause 4.	Relationship with Sovereign not affected

The clause clarifies that enactment of the proposed Commonwealth Act is not intended to affect the relationship between the Sovereign and the Commonwealth, the states and the territories as existing immediately before its enactment.  The Clause ensures that the current relationship between the Northern Territory and the Sovereign is not affected in any way by the proposed Commonwealth Act.

Proposed Clause 5.	Definition of Crown

The clause defines the Crown in the proposed Commonwealth Act to mean the Crown in all of its capacities.

Part 2 - Succession to the Crown not to depend on Gender

Proposed Clause 6.	Succession to the Crown not to depend on Gender

The Clause provides that in determining the succession to the Crown, the gender of a person born after 28 October 2011 (by United Kingdom time) does not give that person, or that person’s descendants, precedence over any other person (whenever born).

The change means that there will no longer be any priority for male heirs over female heirs and it allows an older daughter to precede her younger brother in the line of succession for all royal births occurring after 28 October 2011 (the date of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Western Australia where the sixteen Realms of which Her Majesty is the Sovereign agreed to the change).

Part 3 - Marriage and succession to the Crown

Proposed Clause 7.	Removal of disqualification arising from marriage to a Roman Catholic

The clause removes the disqualification from succeeding to or possessing the Crown as a result of marrying a person of the Roman Catholic faith.  The removal of the disqualification also applies in relation to marriages occurring before the commencement of the provision if the person concerned is alive at that commencement.

Proposed Clause 8.	Disqualification arising from marriage

The clause disqualifies a person from succeeding to the Crown if they are disqualified by subsection 3(3) of the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 of the United Kingdom.

Subsection 3(3) of that Act provides that the effect of a failure by a person, who at the time of their marriage is one of the six persons next in the line of succession to the throne, to obtain the consent of Her Majesty before marrying as required by sub-section 3(1), is that the person and their descendants from the marriage are disqualified from succeeding to the Crown.

The combined effect of the clause, taken together with Part 2 of Schedule 2 of the proposed Commonwealth Act, which repeals the Royal Marriages Act 1772 of Great Britain, is that:

·	the Sovereign’s consent is now only required for the first six people in the line of Royal succession, rather than all descendants of George II (now thought to number in their hundreds); and

·	the consequence of a failure to obtain consent is changed from the marriage being void to disqualification from succession.

Proposed Clause 9.	Amendments and repeal relating to marriage and succession to the Crown

Proposed clause 9 confirms that each of the Acts of England or Great Britain specified in Schedule 1 to the proposed Commonwealth Act, so far as that Act is part of the law of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory, is amended or repealed as set out in Schedule 1, and that any other item in Schedule 1 has effect according to its terms.

Part 4—Other modifications of parts of the law of the Commonwealth, States and Territories

Proposed Section 10.	References to Bill of Rights and Act of Settlement

Proposed Clause 10 provides that references in any law of the Commonwealth or a Territory to provisions in the Bill of Rights or the Act of Settlement relating to the succession to, or possession of the Crown are to be read as including references to the proposed Commonwealth Act.

Proposed Clause 11.	Union legislation affected by this Act

The clause provides that certain specified articles concerned with succession to the Monarchy contained in various Acts of Union of Great Britain, England, Scotland and Ireland, in so far as they form part of the law of the Commonwealth, a State, or Territory are subject to the provisions of the proposed Commonwealth Act.

Part 5—Repeal or amendment of this Act

Proposed Clause 12.	Repeal or amendment of this Act

The clause provides that the proposed Commonwealth Act can only be repealed or amended by an Act passed at the request of, or with the concurrence of, the Parliaments of all the states.

A request by, or the concurrence of, the Northern Territory is not required for the purposes of section 51(xxxviii) of the Constitution.

Schedule 1 to the proposed Commonwealth Act — Further provisions relating to marriage and succession to the Crown 

Part 1—Amendments relating to marriage to a Roman Catholic

Items 1-6.

These items make consequential amendments to the Act of Settlement and the Bill of Rights to remove certain references, which provide that marriage to a “papist” (Roman Catholic) constitutes a bar on succession to the throne.

Item 7.

This item provides that the amendments to items 1 to 6 in this part apply to marriages occurring before the commencement of this Part if the person concerned is alive at the commencement of this part (as well as to marriages occurring after the commencement of this Part).

Part 2—Repeal of the Royal Marriages Act 1772 

Item 8. 

This item repeals the Royal Marriages Act 1772 of Great Britain.

Item 9.	Validation of some marriages voided by the Royal Marriages Act 1772

This item validates marriages that were voided by the Royal Marriages Act 1772, subject to certain specified conditions including: where neither party was one of the six persons next in the line of succession to the Crown at the time of the marriage; or where the consent or parliamentary notice processes under that Act have not been followed (i.e. the marriage has not been disapproved by the Monarch or been subject to a declaration of disapprobation by the UK Parliament); or where it was reasonable for the person not to have been aware at the time of the marriage that the Act applied to it; or where no person has acted on the basis that the marriage was void before this item commences.