I cannot too fervently impress upon
my co-representatives from all parts of Australia the necessity of
keeping in view the one object of the better government of Australia,
the whole Australian people.
By my second condition I seek to define what seems to me an absolutely
necessary condition of anything like perfect federation, that is, that
Australia, as Australia, shall be free--free on the borders, free
everywhere, in its trade and intercourse between its own people; and
that there shall be no impediment of any kind--that there shall be no
barrier of any kind between one section of the Australian people and
another; but, that the trade and general communication of these people
shall flow on from one end of the continent to the other, with no one to
stay its progress or to call it to account; in other words, if this is
carried, it must necessarily take with it the shifting of the power of
legislation on all fiscal questions from the local or provincial
parliaments, to the great National Parliament sought to be created.
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