Commonwealth Hansard, Quarantine Proclamation,

Section 69 Commonwealth Constitution.

 

 

The required proclamation as found in section 69 failed to be created at any time after Federation.

 

 

 

 

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA CONSTITUTION ACT - SECT 69

Transfer of certain departments

                   On a date or dates to be proclaimed by the Governor-General after the establishment of the Commonwealth the following departments of the public service in each State shall become transferred to the Commonwealth:

               posts, telegraphs, and telephones;

             naval and military defence;

                lighthouses, lightships, beacons, and buoys

                quarantine.

                  But the departments of customs and of excise in each State shall become transferred to the Commonwealth on its establishment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Senate
10 March 1904

2nd Parliament · 1st Session

QUESTION

DEPARTMENT OF QUARANTINE

Senator WALKER:
NEW SOUTH WALES

asked the VicePresident of the Executive Council,  upon notice -

When does the Government propose to take over the Department of Quarantine?

Senator PLAYFORD:
Vice-President of the Executive Council · SOUTH AUSTRALIA · Protectionist

– The matter has not been decided by the Cabinet.

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1904

QUESTION

FEDERAL QUARANTINE

Mr McCOLL:

asked the Prime Minister,  upon notice -

Whether it is the intention of the Government, pending the introduction of a Bill dealing with quarantine, to take control of quarantine in the several States, by Proclamation ?

Mr WATSON:
ALP

– This matter is at present under the consideration of the Government at the instance of the Minister of Trade and Customs- It is only right that I should state that the whole position is rather complicated so far as taking over control of the Department by proclamation is concerned, by the fact that in none of the States, so far as I am aware, is there a distinct Department of Quarantine. In all cases matters relating to quarantine are administered by the Health Departments cf the States, and therefore a complication would be introduced if it were considered desirable to take control by proclamation. There is no distinct Department of Quarantine, as there was a Post-office or Military Department, that could be taken over in going order by the Commonwealth. I do not say that the difficulties are insuperable. It may be possible to make some arrangement by which certain officers can be recognized as quarantine officials, and in that way any obstacles may be removed. In any case, the matter is under the consideration of the Government, and we hope to arrive at a speedy conclusion so far as our recommendation to the House is concerned.

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HUMAN QUARANTINE. THE AUSTRALIAN APPROACH TO A WORLD PROBLEM

This article has been contributed by the Commonwealth Department of Community Services and Health.

Quarantine in Australia began with the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and has since remained a major public health pre-occupation.

However it was not until 1909 that a federal quarantine service was created as a unit of the Department of Trade and Customs.

The federal Constitution had provided for quarantine as the only specific health power of the new Commonwealth Parliament but it was not until 1921 that federal Cabinet approved the creation of a Ministry of Health. The Director of Quarantine became the Director-General of Health and the quarantine services were transferred from the control of the Minister for Trade and Customs to the Minister for Health.

Administration of the Quarantine Act also involved responsibility for quarantine with respect to animals and plants moving into Australia. However in 1984 the functions relating to animal and plant quarantine were transferred to the Commonwealth Department of Primary Industry, the responsibility for human quarantine remaining with the Department of Health.

Early problems

When the First Fleet arrived, Sydney Cove was regarded as a healthy place. But the convicts and soldiers were not free from the epidemic scourges common in the more civilised parts of the world. Diseases recorded in the struggling days of the first settlement included cholera, dysentery, smallpox, typhoid fever and venereal diseases.

In 1789, one year after the arrival of the First Fleet, there was an outbreak of smallpox amongst the Aboriginals, causing deaths over a wide region. However, Governor Phillip did not believe that the epidemic was linked with the arrival of the First Fleet as the first cases of the disease were observed some 15 months after the arrival of the Europeans. It was doubted that the smallpox virus was capable of sustaining over such a long period of time.

To combat smallpox, supplies of vaccine were sought from England and by 1806, 1,000 of the population of 7,000 had been vaccinated.

The first line of defence against the importation of disease was also established in this period. In 1804, vessels from New York were ordered into quarantine for fourteen days on arrival at Port Jackson because of an 'infectious distemper" ⁽¹⁾ raging in their home-port. In the following year the ship Richard and Mary was quarantined 'till further orders' in Sydney Harbour as the crew was 'infected with a dangerous fever'.⁽²⁾

As the Australian colonies developed, each used quarantine as a primary safeguard of the community's health. Medicine was just beginning to establish the basis of a scientific approach while public health techniques were generally confined to establishing and maintaining clean water supply and sewerage systems, and enforcing standards for food handling and quarantine. The practice of separating travellers suspected of being disease carriers was well established, dating back to Venice in the fourteenth century.

First quarantine measures ⁽³⁾

The fragmented nature of the Australian colonies and their differing quarantine measures in the days of sail were not then of great public concern. The time taken on the voyage from Europe, England or America ensured that any infectious disease incubating among passengers or crew would have broken out by the time the ship arrived at its Australian destination and could be detected and dealt with. Quarantine measures were generally able to prevent the diseases penetrating the port population.

With the increasing speed of sea transport in the latter half of the last century, the opening of the Suez Canal and the growing practice of ships calling at a number of Australian ports instead of the earlier practice of only one, the picture began to change. Ships using the Suez route were not only reaching Australia more quickly, but were touching at Middle Eastern and Asian ports where serious diseases were endemic.

In 1884 the Government of New South Wales convened a conference of representatives from each colonial government, known as 'The Australasian Sanitary Conference of Sydney, NSW, 1884'. It called for a co-ordinated scheme of quarantine for both Australia and the nearby Pacific Islands. The delegates were insistent that a co-ordinated quarantine system be accompanied by effective internal sanitation measures. Their report said:

Quarantine can be, and is, of value commensurate with its costs only to countries whose internal sanitation is good; it cannot be considered, therefore, except as a part of the general subject of State Medicine. ⁽⁴⁾

As part of an Australia-wide quarantine system the conference sought the establishment of two quarantine stations -- one at Albany in Western Australia and the other at Cooktown in Queensland, the two main shipping approaches to Australian ports. Nothing came of the recommendations, but the need to protect the people of Australia from imported disease was not lost sight of altogether. When the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia was finally established, quarantine measures were included in the legislative powers of the Commonwealth. Health measures as such, however, were to remain a province of the States.

The newly-formed Commonwealth Government found very early in its life that it had to become involved in a practical way with health measures when, one year after it came into being, it had to deal with the plague which had reached Australia in 1900. Though not the first time that the disease had appeared in Australian ports, it was the first time since the Commonwealth had assumed responsibility for quarantine measures. The outbreak lasted ten years in a sporadic pattern affecting all States except Tasmania. Although it did not reach alarming proportions the occurrence prompted co-ordinated action by the States.

Plague and national quarantine

It had been established by then that infected fleas from rats spread plague, and Commonwealth action to prevent the entry of the disease was sought. in 1904 health authorities from each State and the Commonwealth met and recommended the creation of a Federal Quarantine Service, to be controlled by the central government but operated by the Chief Health Officers in each State to whom authority would be delegated by the Commonwealth. Finally in 1906, the six State Premiers agreed to hand over quarantine administration to the Commonwealth, and on I July 1909 the Federal Quarantine Service began operations, within the Department of Trade and Customs.

However, this somewhat loose method of Commonwealth-State co-operation soon ran into difficulties. In 1910 Victoria withdrew from the system, with the State Government claiming that the performance of quarantine duties by its senior officer interfered with State health duties. The Commonwealth was urged to appoint its own staff and in August 1911 this was done with the appointment of a Chief Quarantine Officer for Victoria.

With the exception of Tasmania, all the States found problems which interfered with the smooth working of the original proposal and by 1916 a Commonwealth Medical Chief Quarantine Officer had been appointed to each of the mainland States. In Tasmania the original system continued until July 1929.

The main problems of this exercise in State-Commonwealth co-operation revolved around the Commonwealth being called upon to administer a public service with part-time staff. The States found difficulty in carrying out their ordinary health duties because of the arrangement. The situation was further complicated by the fact that the Commonwealth was legally responsible for a service which was administered by officers who were not responsible to the Commonwealth.

The powers of the Commonwealth were seen as complementary to those of the States and not dominant. The States, on the other hand, could prescribe measures but did not have the facilities to carry them out. The Quarantine Act was amended by the Commonwealth on a number of occasions in the next few years as new problems arose. The amendments expanded the Commonwealth's authority in quarantine matters to cover internal epidemics, as well as improving overall quarantine methods for diseases from outside the country.  https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/featurearticlesbytitle/F74D29E8BE724723CA2569DE0024ED5C?

 

Further Reading ~ https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/featurearticlesbytitle/F74D29E8BE724723CA2569DE0024ED5C?#