"The keystone of the federal arch, which would decide the orbit and boundary of every power; the competent tribunal which would protect the Constitution and oversee its agencies."
[A reference to the High Court of Australia - Galligan, B, 'The Power of Seven' Smith, M Legal Process, 6th ed. Sydney, LBC, 1994, 619.]
On the 18th of March 1902 one of the greatest speeches in the political history of Australia was made by the attorney general at the time, Alfread Deakin. Deakin expressed his intentions as a "fundamental proposition for a structural creation which is the necessary and essential complement of a federal Constitution." Hence the High Court of Australia.
Deakin went on to state that "there were three fundamental conditions of a federation: first, a supreme Constitution; next, a distribution of powers under that Constitution; and third, an authority reposed in a judiciary to interpret that supreme Constitution and to decide as to the precise distribution of powers." The Court, he said, would "define and determine the powers of the Commonwealth itself, the powers of the States ... and the validity of the legislation flowing from them."
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