Skip to main content
Home Case law Statutes Constitutions
Esheria Esheria Australia Constitution
Share

Share this page

Send a link to this legal source.

Share to X Share to LinkedIn

Sign in
  1. Constitutions
  2. Australia
  3. Mode of altering the Constitution.

🇦🇺 AustraliaConstitution

Commonwealth of Australia Constitution

Mode of altering the Constitution.

Jurisdiction
Australia
Provision
128
Source language
English
Recorded status
in force
More details
Recorded status
in force

Provision text

Official source
This Constitution shall not be altered except in the following manner:— The proposed law for the alteration thereof must be passed by an absolute majority of each House of the Parliament, and not less than two nor more than six months after its passage through both Houses the proposed law shall be submitted in each State and Territory to the electors qualified to vote for the election of members of the House of Representatives. But if either House passes any such proposed law by an absolute majority, and the other House rejects or fails to pass it or passes it with any amendment to which the first-mentioned House will not agree, and if after an interval of three months the first-mentioned House in the same or the next session again passes the proposed law by an absolute majority with or without any amendment which has been made or agreed to by the other House, and such other House rejects or fails to pass it or passes it with any amendment to which the first-mentioned House will not agree, the Governor-General may submit the proposed law as last proposed by the first-mentioned House, and either with or without any amendments subsequently agreed to by both Houses, to the electors in each State and Territory qualified to vote for the election of the House of Representatives. When a proposed law is submitted to the electors the vote shall be taken in such manner as the Parliament prescribes. But until the qualification of electors of members of the House of Representatives becomes uniform throughout the Commonwealth, only one-half the electors voting for and against the proposed law shall be counted in any State in which adult suffrage prevails. Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (The Constitution) 51 Compilation No. 6 Compilation date: 29/7/77 Registered: 18/11/21 Rectified Authorised Version registered 13/05/2026 C2013Q00005 Chapter VIII. Alteration of the Constitution. Section 128. And if in a majority of the States a majority of the electors voting approve the proposed law, and if a majority of all the electors voting also approve the proposed law, it shall be presented to the Governor-General for the Queen’s assent. No alteration diminishing the proportionate representation of any State in either House of the Parliament, or the minimum number of representatives of a State in the House of Representatives, or increasing, diminishing, or otherwise altering the limits of the State, or in any manner affecting the provisions of the Constitution in relation thereto, shall become law unless the majority of the electors voting in that State approve the proposed law. In this section, “Territory” means any territory referred to in section one hundred and twenty-two of this Constitution in respect of which there is in force a law allowing its representation in the House of Representatives.

Source record

Source and verification

Commonwealth of Australia Constitution · legislation.gov.au · Retrieved 18 August 2026.

Check the upstream source for currency, amendments, and official formatting. The recorded status describes this source version.

Open upstream source

On this page

Provision textSource and verificationAll Australia provisions

Continue researching

Search this constitutionBrowse global constitutions

About this LexChat collection

Public constitutional materials with source attribution and rights-aware access. Verify the official wording before relying on a provision. Report corrections to hello@esheria.ai.

Back to Australia Constitution