AHC/WI: WA secedes from Australia?

Historically Western Australia has always had a strong secessionist movement, dating back to even before Federation, when the colonial government lobbied Parliament for permission to become a separate colony from the rest of Australia. In 1933 a secession referendum received a majority of the vote, but as Australia was still technically a British colony, London refused to grant permission.

In recent years the mining boom of the 2000s has reignited the secessionist movement, and it has a large amount of support in WA. Basically, how can the secession of WA into a separate country happen, and what would the repercussions of that be for Australia and the wider world? Any time after Federation is acceptable, but bonus points are awarded if it can happen in the 2000s or later.
 
If they seceded they'd have to face up to the harsh fact of defending an enormous country with no industrial base and a tiny population. Similarly the lack of industrial base means that they'd have to import everything and probably pay tarriffs on these imports. I don't know how muc food WA grows buit my guess is that with virtually no 'temperate' climate they'dd lack agricultural diversity and would have to import a lot of niche food products like dairy and again pay tarrifs.

They make a lot of mining income by leveraging off the rest of the country, on their own they'd be screwed.
 

Das_Colonel

Banned
In recent years the mining boom of the 2000s has reignited the secessionist movement, and it has a large amount of support in WA.

Really? Where? This is news to me. I haven't ever heard it mentioned in conversation, which is what I would expect if it 'had a large amount of support'.

This is something that is driven by kooks and is feared by Eastern neighbours.
 
Theres also been a good half dozen times this or a related question has come up.

Im on my nook, now, which neither lets me use the search function here, nor cut and paste urls, so i cant link any atm.
 

Cook

Banned
Okay, let’s just run through a few things shall we:
Historically Western Australia has always had a strong secessionist movement, dating back to even before Federation, when the colonial government lobbied Parliament for permission to become a separate colony from the rest of Australia.
Prior to 1901 Western Australia was a separate colony, all of the colonies were; a secessionist movement prior to Federation is quite simply in impossible concept, you cannot seceded from what does not yet exist. And Western Australia was involved in Federation right from the beginning, joining the Federal Council of Australasia in 1885, the precursor to Federation; The Federal Council collapsed because New South Wales refused to join.

Discontent with the federal government in the West started in the early years of Federation and grew in the 1920s because it was strongly felt that Western Australia was being short changed by the East; the rest of the country benefited from the wests huge primary industry contributions, but the west received little in return. At the same time, the Commonwealth was dominated by Victoria and New South Wales, whose tariff policies aided the growth of industry in the East by made it hard for the west to export its primary produce to the world market. In 1925 the Federal government appointed a royal commissioner to investigate ways and means to improve the situation for the West. However, the commissioner, J. Entwistle, came to a rather surprising conclusion:

‘In my opinion Western Australia should never have entered the Federation, but having done so, there is, I feel convinced, only one complete and satisfactory remedy for her present disabilities, viz., Secession.’

Entwistle’s conclusion was not welcomed by the Commonwealth government, nor did it have popular support in Western Australia; a Secession League was established in 1926 but it did not gain popularity.

Things changed with the advent of the Great Depression when, as with everywhere else in the world, incumbent Australian governments found themselves being blamed for events far beyond their control and ‘radical solutions*’ were seriously considered for the first time.

In April 1933 things came to a head and a referendum was held in W.A. on the question of secession from the Commonwealth – with a turnout of 91 per cent of the electorate (voting was still non-compulsory), 68 per cent were in favour of Western Australia withdrawing from the Commonwealth. (Notably, the conservative state government at the time, which was in favour of secession, lost power to the anti-secession Labor Party the same year; this was the depression – voters weren’t voting for something, they were just angry.

Which brings us to this:
In 1933 a secession referendum received a majority of the vote, but as Australia was still technically a British colony, London refused to grant permission.
In fact the British government did nothing because Australia was no longer a colony; Australia had become a self-governing Dominion in 1901 at Federation. This had been upgraded further at the Imperial War Council in 1917 which recognised that the Dominions had full independence from Britain; Australia had its own representatives at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, joined the League of Nations as a founding member in 1920 and was its own signatory to international agreements. The British government refused to become involved in the debate because it recognised that it simply had no authority to do so; they could not act without the approval of the Australian Federal Government and to attempt to do so ‘would shake the empire to its very foundations.’

The Australian government refused to consider the secession issue because the preamble to the Australian Constitution clearly states: Have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth…'

So with a Federal government adamant that the Constitution did not allow for secession, and the British government unwilling to damage its relationship with Australia and the rest of the empire by making a decision it had no power to enforce anyway, there the dog died and was buried.

And it remained dead and buried for four decades…
In recent years the mining boom of the 2000s has reignited the secessionist movement, and it has a large amount of support in WA.
Actually it was reignited by Lang Hangcock in 1974. For those too young to know who Lang was, he was the Clive Palmer of the ‘70s and ‘80s – except lacking Palmer’s sense of subtly and good grace**. Not overly surprisingly, it wasn’t popular, never became an election issue and the corpse, having shown no signs of life, was once again dumped unceremoniously in a hole under the peach trees.

Apparently there was some attempt to dig up the dead dog one more time during the 1999 Republican Referendum. This time it was so unsuccessful that the only reference to it is a minor note regarding it on the government’s constitutional website, whose final remark concerning the issue sums it up best:

‘it is unlikely there will ever be a repeat of the majority support seen for it in 1933. The question remains whether that result was exceptional due to the unusual times, or whether it truly reflected a deep secessionist streak in the West Australian electorate.’

Basically, how can the secession of WA into a separate country happen, and what would the repercussions of that be for Australia and the wider world?
Basically it cannot happen; the referendum was a result of the Great Depression, which saw a third of the country unemployed and government’s tumble. That the same people who voted for secession also voted the conservative state government (pro-secession) out of office and voted in the Labour Party (opposed to secession) in the same year as the referendum shows just how unsustainable the idea was. For that fleeting moment when there was popular support for it, there was nothing that they could do about it anyway; the Australian Commonwealth government wasn’t about to dissolve the indissoluble, and the British no longer had a say in the matter.

Had the British government tried to interfere, it would have made relations with Australia, already badly damaged by the Bodyline Ashes tour of 1932- 33, even worse, probably permanently. Not only that, it would have damaged Britain’s relationship with the other dominions also; Canada, Newfoundland, South Africa and New Zealand would not have welcomed an attempt by Britain to wind back their independence. And all for something that they could either agree to follow the Australian federal government’s decision on, or else see themselves being completely ignored and shown to be impotent: it would be the bell tolling the passing of the British empire ten years before the fall of Singapore.

I don't know how muc food WA grows buit my guess is that with virtually no 'temperate' climate they'dd lack agricultural diversity and would have to import a lot of niche food products like dairy and again pay tarrifs.
Seriously? The Wheat Belt alone is almost the size of Victoria, while the South West and Great Southern regions are some of the most productive agricultural areas of Australia. And that’s without mentioning the Gascoyne and Kimberly cattle regions.




* 'Radical Solutions': Obviously stupid ideas that solve nothing and that in normal circumstances only an idiot would voice.

** Yep, think about it. And his daughter Gina’s a chip of the old iron ore pile.
 
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Seriously? The Wheat Belt alone is almost the size of Victoria, while the South West and Great Southern regions are some of the most productive agricultural areas of Australia. And that’s without mentioning the Gascoyne and Kimberly cattle regions.



I don't deny there are a lot of wheat and cattle which is great for steak sandwiches, but I was commenting on things like dairy, perhaps spuds and other colder climate things that Australians eat. Do they grow many spuds in WA and have many dairy farms?
 
I don't deny there are a lot of wheat and cattle which is great for steak sandwiches, but I was commenting on things like dairy, perhaps spuds and other colder climate things that Australians eat. Do they grow many spuds in WA and have many dairy farms?

While it's only about 30% as much as the East, yes, Western Australia does indeed grow a significant amount of potatos.
 

Cook

Banned
I don't deny there are a lot of wheat and cattle which is great for steak sandwiches, but I was commenting on things like dairy, perhaps spuds and other colder climate things that Australians eat. Do they grow many spuds in WA and have many dairy farms?
The West Australian region with a mediteranean climate is larger than the British Isles, so not a problem. Small reminder that we are the largest state by far.
 

Flubber

Banned
Okay, let’s just run through a few things shall we...


This site is never better than when some person with actual knowledge of a subject crams a piping hot Reality Sandwichtm down the collective gullet of the Usual Suspects. :)

Thank you for your post. Hopefully someone saves it for the next time this topic arises.
 
I have only one thing to add to Cook's excellent summary of events; the referendum for succession and the state election were held not in the same year, but on the very same day, April 8 1933.

Therefore, while voting in favour of leaving the Commonwealth, the Western Australians simultaneously voted in a government that was strenuously opposed to the very idea. The election wasn't even close; the Premier lost his own seat and the ruling Nationalists finished behind the Country Party, and would stay in third place until 1947.
 
I think my favourite TL idea, even beating the Confederate submarines helping the Japanese attack Pearl Harbour, is when Australia or WA goes Nazi, somehow. I'm pretty sure there are even a couple on this website
 
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